Dubya's return to SC...a reminder of them good ol' days of McCain's "illegitimate black baby" [View all]

[Miles Archer]

Thanks for the Memories, South Carolina



The arrival of George W to campaign there on Jeb!'s behalf surely smacks of deep desperation. And it makes us wonder just how long we will all be trapped inside the Bush Dysfunctional Family Follies. But it also takes us back to W's own campaign there in 2000.

Sixteen years ago, South Carolina was the place W's campaign for the White House took off. John McCain had won the New Hampshire primary with an unexpectedly strong showing and the Bush people needed to win in South Carolina to stop McCain's momentum. They did so by circulating some of the vilest smears and innuendos since, well come to think of it, Bush Pѐre's Willie Horton ads in 1988.

Bush supporters handed out leaflets suggesting that McCain's wife was a drug addict. Voters also got robocalls insinuating that McCain had fathered an illegitimate child with a black woman. This daughter was not actually a product of the dreaded miscegenation, but had been adopted by the McCains from Bangladesh. Nonetheless, the rumors fired up the substantial bigot bloc in South Carolina. Bush cruised to victory and the campaign never looked back.

Bush denied authorizing the sleaze-fest, but most political insiders remain convinced that the whole thing was orchestrated by his consiglieri Karl Rove. Bush distanced himself from it all but he never denounced or disavowed the lies. The South Carolina GOP primary in 2000 taught you everything you needed to know about the content of George W's character.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-conn/thanks-for-the-memories-s_b_9271844.html