Rahm Emanuel: McCain Is In For A Thumpin'

Seth Colter Walls
The Huffington Post

House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel teased Sen. John McCain on a Friday conference call with reporters, saying the notion that the presumptive GOP nominee represents "Bush's third term" has clearly become a burr under McCain's saddle due to its essential truth.

Pivoting off today's news of McCain's apparent flip-flop on President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program, Emanuel painted a portrait of near-constant agreement between McCain and the president on the Iraq war, the economy, heath care and government spending.

Referring to the Arizona Republican's widely panned Tuesday night address in New Orleans, Emanuel said: "When I was watching that speech, I was reminded of what Shakespeare said, 'Thou protest too much.' When he sits there and says, 'I am not George Bush and I wish you'd stop saying these falsehoods,' it's clearly hit a nerve because of the [truth of it]. ... And I think with core constituencies [of women, Hispanics, and working class voters] that are going to matter...when you look at the electoral map, he is not where George Bush was in 2004. He has a much higher negative rating with those constituencies and is well on his way on performing where Republicans performed in 2006."

(Continued here.)