For all you Saturday visitors, here's a rundown of my posts so far on the McCain-NYT saga, in chronological order:
http://clarioncallerblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/mccain-and-nyt.html
http://clarioncallerblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/mccain-v-nyt-update.html
http://clarioncallerblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/superfriends-and-nyt.html
There are two quick updates to this story: One, McCain has decided that he has said enough on this issue and has made it clear he will no longer address it, leaving the Times to face the music alone. Two, McCain's people are making some serious lemonade out of the skirmish. From the FoxNews.com political blog:
But after McCain and his advisers aggressively denounced the article Thursday as false and misleading, campaign aides say the story actually led to their most successful drive-by fundraising effort to date.
“There was a lot of outrage across the country on this story, and the campaign has raised a lot of money in the last 24 hours,” said Steve Schmidt, senior campaign adviser, declining to specify how much was raised.
Both the Republican National Committee and McCain used the article as a fundraising pitch Thursday. In an e-mail sent to donors, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis asked them “to counteract the liberal establishment and fight back against The New York Times.” Aides said it was the most lucrative e-mail of the campaign.
And that, friends, is how you manage a political crisis: Meet it head on, stare it down, will the life out of it and move on.
Of course, it doesn't hurt if the kid who caused the crisis on the bus happens to slam his finger in the window, unwittingly distracting everyone with all the blood everywhere.
