Special Election Issue: 'The Winner Is ... '
Bush to McCain Before South Carolina Debate: 'Let's Not Let This Get Personal,
John. We've Got To Start Running A Better Campaign'
McCain's Response: 'Don't Give Me That S--t, and Take Your Hands Off of Me'
Stunned By A Smear Campaign, McCain Aides Convinced
Bush Camp Was Hiding Behind 'Plausible Deniability'
Cindy McCain Weeps After S.C. Loss, 'We Never Called His Wife A Weirdo'
NEW YORK, Nov. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- By the time the South Carolina primary
came around, the Republican candidates had launched nasty campaigns and
loathed each other. When the two men assembled for a group photo, Texas
Governor George W. Bush went over to Arizona Senator John McCain in his full
I-love-ya-man mode, seizing both of McCain's hands in his own, one source
tells Newsweek in the special election issue. "Let's not let this get
personal, John," he said. "We've got to start running a better campaign."
McCain looked at Bush. "Don't give me that s--t," he growled, "and take your
hands off of me," according to an exclusive report in Newsweek's special
election issue.
(/Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20001111/NYSU002
)
The November 20 issue (on newsstands Monday, November 13) includes an
exclusive behind-the-scenes account -- in the tradition of Theodore H. White's
"Making of the President" books -- of the entire presidential campaign
reported by a separate Newsweek Special Projects team that worked for more
than a year on the extraordinary campaign.
After Bush lost the New Hampshire primary to McCain, the campaign was
ready to go negative. At a Bush strategy session in Greenville, S.C., Bush,
returning from a jog, popped into the meeting. "We getting everything
straightened out?" he asked. "Y'all have done this before. Let's do it again."
The comment was a reference to his father's 1988 campaign. After barely
surviving New Hampshire, Bush senior was rescued by going negative and driving
hard right in South Carolina.
While both sides began negative campaigning, McCain suffered more for it.
Voters were told that McCain was a liar, a hypocrite, a philanderer and a
jerk. They were told he was not a hero at all but a Manchurian Candidate,
brainwashed or broken in captivity and sent home to betray his comrades in
arms. They were told he had had affairs, illegitimate children, that he
infected his wife with a venereal disease and that he had sex with hookers.
The Bush team protested that their hands were clean. The dirty tricks were
all locally generated, the Bush camp said, and if anything they tried to
discourage low-road attacks by independent groups. But McCain's advisers were
sure that Bush and his men were hiding behind "plausible deniability": they
may not have wanted to know exactly what the assassins did, or even who they
were, but they were satisfied with the outcome.
The negative attacks were also aimed at McCain's wife Cindy. Her
addiction to prescription painkillers years earlier had been dug up during the
campaign by dirty tricksters and the night before the South Carolina primary a
man appeared outside a McCain event with a stack of leaflets calling her a
drug addict and a "weirdo." When Cindy and her husband sat watching the exit
polls the next night, Cindy began weeping when it became evident McCain had
lost, her loud sobs breaking the silence in the room. McCain tried to stop
her tears, telling her it was part of the game. "Think of how the Bushes felt
two weeks ago in New Hampshire." Cindy turned to him sobbing. "We never
called his wife a weirdo."
While McCain eventually endorsed Bush, senior aides say McCain didn't want
to be in the same room as the Governor. At the Republican convention, McCain
was thrust on stage after Bush's speech to stand with him in front of the
cameras. The GOP nominee groped for McCain's left hand, going for what the
pros call the "money shot," the traditional arms-raised victory salute.
McCain headed off the maneuver, turning it into a simple handshake. "I can't
raise my arms," he whispered to Bush through a wide, taut smile. McCain's
arms had been badly damaged in Vietnam; Bush apparently forgot or had not been
briefed.
Newsweek's extensive behind-the-scenes account of the entire presidential
campaign marks the fifth presidential election that Newsweek has this
comprehensive report on the race. The 50,000-plus word inside story was
written by Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas and edited by Editor-at-Large
Kenneth Auchincloss, with a concluding chapter by Contributing Editor Peter
Goldman. The correspondents were Trent Gegax (Bush), Eleanor Clift (Gore),
Adam Rogers (Bradley and Gore) and Peter Goldman (McCain).
(The corresponding text for all the releases can be found in PR Newswire's
Press Room. Access the site at http://www.prnmedia.com. The free site is media-only,
password protected and requires a one-time registration. To receive an e-mail
of the 60-plus pages of text please call Jan Angilella 212-445-5638 or Rosanna
Maietta 212-445-4859.)
SOURCE Newsweek