John Weaver, for years one of John McCain's closest friends and confidants, has been in exile since his resignation from McCain's presidential campaign last year. With the exception of an occasional interview, he has, by his own account, bit his tongue as McCain's campaign has adopted a strategy that Weaver believes "diminishes John McCain."
With the release today of a McCain television ad blasting Obama for celebrity preening while gas prices rise, and a memo that accuses Obama of putting his own aggrandizement before the country, Weaver said he's had "enough."
The ad's premise, he said, is "childish."
"John's been a celebrity ever since he was shot down," Weaver said. "Whatever that means. And I recall Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush going overseas and all those waving American flags."
Weaver remains in contact with senior McCain strategists and, for a while early this year, regularly talked to McCain.
The strategy of driving up Obama's negatives "reduces McCain on the stage," Weaver said.
"For McCain to win in such troubled times, he needs to begin telling the American people how he intends to lead us. That McCain exists. He can inspire the country to greatness."
He added: "There is legitimate mockery of a political campaign now, and it isn't at Obama's. For McCain's sake, this tomfoolery needs to stop."
On a conference call with reporters, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said the ad "addresses a unique facet in Barack Obama's campaign that is unlikenbsp; any other campaign we've seen in modern history: a campaign that is focused on the development of an enormous image of celebrity status." Davis and Weaver do not get along, and the campaign's operations chief, Steve Schmidt,was reportedly upset that Weaver told the New York Times that the campaign "lost" the week that Obama went overseas.
Obama, speaking to reporters outside a diner in Lebanon, MO, at first did not answer a question about the ad. Then he said,.
"You know, I don't pay attention to John McCain's ads, although I do notice he doesn't seem to have anything to say very positive about himself. He seems to only be talking about me. You need to ask John McCain what he's for and not just what he's against," he said.
| 
