McCain campaign still not vetting names on press releases

Posted July 9th, 2008 at 12:51 PM in Journalism, Politics

John McCain’s presidential campaign has been embarassed several times for associating itself — ususally in tangential ways — with individuals who end up, in one way or another, embarassing the Arizona senator. Usually it’s something petty, like an anti-semitic pastor, a former lobbyist for state sponsors of terrorism, etc.

This week, it’s 300 economists, whom McCain got to sign on to his economic plan. But to get the signatures, he had to leave some of the more politically important pieces of his plan out. And it turns out not all of the signatories are even supporters of his. Politico got the story:

The endorsement could hardly have been stronger. On Monday, John McCain’s campaign released a statement signed by 300 economists who “enthusiastically support” his “Jobs for America” economic plan, providing a heavyweight testimonial to the presumptive Republican nominee’s “broad and powerful economic agenda.”

There’s just one problem. Upon closer inspection, it seems a good many of those economists don’t actually support the whole of McCain’s economic agenda. And at least one doesn’t even support McCain for president.

Read the rest here.

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