See No Evil?

Michelle Malkin emphasizes an overlooked point about John McCain's condemnation of the NC GOP's Jeremiah Wright ad:

He didn’t bother to watch the 41-second video before his campaign leaned on the NC GOP to withdraw it.
He doesn’t want to see it, lest he sully his delicate eyes.

I'm glad that McCain-bashing is back in vogue with conservatives. For a few weeks after Crazy Cousin John cinched the nomination, it looked like people were going to bite their tongues and play the old "Rally 'Round the Republican" game. This week, however, I heard Rush Limbaugh hammering away at McCain and running a parody ad for "Citizen McCain," so maybe there's hope yet.

Malkin suggests the formulaic thinking behind the sight-unseen condemnation of the NC GOP ad:

McCain Math is the same as MSM Math: Southern + Republican + video featuring radical leftists who happen to be black = RACIST RACIST RACIST RACIST DANGER WILL ROBINSON!

And that's probably a fair appraisal of the situation. The MSM will find a way to tar the Republican presidential candidate as a "racist" no matter what he says or does. It's happened to every GOP nominee since Goldwater. If McCain thinks he can pre-empt that smear by taking photo-op trips to Selma -- or by lashing out blindly at fellow Republicans -- he's deluded.

The liberal Republican who defends himself by dumping on fellow Republicans is hardly a new phenomenon. But it's actually a lousy defense tactic. Just ask Lincoln Chafee and Mike DeWine -- once a Republican repudiates conservatism, it's only a matter of time before the Democrats beat him. If the voters want to elect a liberal, why should they vote Republican?