Man-Crush Politics

I don't know if John McCain needs to "fire Mark McKinnon," the media adviser who's pledged to quit McCain's campaign if Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee because he admires Obama too much to have any part in attacking him. But on the evidence of this profile, I'm pretty sure McCain shouldn't be taking political advice from a guy who's crushing on Obama the same way he crushed on ... George W. Bush:

Having read Obama's first memoir, he was already drawn to the Illinois senator when they first met at a Washington dinner party in late 2006. "I think he has a history and hopefully a potential," said McKinnon. "That's what I like about him, that's what I liked about Bush."

"A history and hopefully a potential." What more do you need to know? Besides that he has really kind eyes - and really great web video:

As McCain's comeback picked up speed, McKinnon cast jealous glances toward Obama, who was the beneficiary of two unconventional, online videos that McKinnon considers the best work of the campaign: an early bootleg spoof of Apple's "1984" ad lampooning Hillary Clinton as "Big Brother" and a music video released in January by singer will.i.am featuring celebrities saying excerpts from an Obama speech.

McKinnon becomes visibly giddy when discussing the video, calling it "cool" and "really powerful stuff."

"I'm a music guy," said McKinnon. "You combine music and politics, I'm halfway there."

Pace Charlotte Allen, empty-headed swooning can be a guy thing, too.

Comments

Men get crushes on other men? Really?

Posted by Mike | March 2, 2008 2:54 PM

Except that in this mass media era and 8-minute attention span, smart candidates are seeking those with skills in producing or at least developing catchy tunes and photo ops. I'd rather have someone skilled at this but whose political views or attractions, in this case, were incompatible than a completely like-minded adviser who is incompetent in the art of selling the candidate.

It speaks volumes about our political system that people such as Mark Mackinnon are in high demand...

Posted by MD | March 2, 2008 3:50 PM

Hmm. You need to ask the King of Man-Crushes, Andrew Sullivan.

He's currently puffin' and heavin' about Obama the way he did about W, with judicious helpings of "I could be wrong - but isn't he just dreamy?"

Sullivan seems to come across the messiah at regular intervals. His last (though short) infatuation was with Ron Paul.

That's judgement for you...

Posted by Moose | March 2, 2008 4:33 PM

Of course, the obvious difference between a W mancrush in 2000 and an Obama one now is that, even in 2000, any half-way honest person could see that Bush was a lying idiot. (As I recall, Ross just figured it out this past summer. You can look it up.) Obama may go down as a mediocre president, but at least he'll go down thoughtfully and intelligently.

Posted by tgb1000 | March 2, 2008 6:21 PM

What you call 'man-crushes' are actually the normal course of human nature. It is natural for us to look to our leaders as we look to our fathers. Charismatic leadership has not been traditionally very popular in the Anglo-American world, but has been a staple of politics in other parts of the world, particulrly in the Latin countries.

In olden times, charisma was attached to the office that the man held- King or Bishop or whatever- not so much to the men themselves (usually). But now that we no longer have kings or bishops ruling nations, ever since the rise of modernity people have thirsted for charismatic leaders. Max Weber who invented the typology of the charismatic leader actually predicted that the twentieth century would be the century of charismatic leaders par excellence.

Posted by Hector | March 2, 2008 7:55 PM

haha to Mike -- I just clicked to leave the same comment, link and all.

even better that it's the first comment on the post.

Posted by dgj | March 2, 2008 9:41 PM

I wholeheartedly endorse Moose's comment. It's amazing that Sullivan seemingly never even stops to consider the idea that he might be going a bit overboard in his support for a particular candidate, whether it's George W. Bush, Ron Paul, or Barack Obama. Only after the fact does he apply his "conservatism of doubt" and begin properly scrutinizing his preferred candidates, usually after the particular candidate's shortcomings have become readily apparent.

Posted by Marc | March 3, 2008 12:09 AM

Ross talking about man crushes. Is the whole buckley thing on the boat a prelude for you outing the fay twinkle in the eye dandy Buckley ??

Posted by K Jin | March 3, 2008 2:31 AM

Ross, did you ever go skinny dipping with Alan Ginsburg? Did he smell like leather and aqua velva?

Posted by Reality Man | March 3, 2008 5:37 AM

So, tgb1000 - it's OK if Obama sucks, as long as he's well spoken?

Whew. There's a new selection criteria.

We've become so desperate for leadership that we'll go for the lure instead of the bait.

Posted by Moose | March 3, 2008 12:21 PM

C'mon, even a homophobe could forgive Ross for his Buckley man-crush: WFB was in a class by himself. I just saw the Charlie Rose retrospective, and for an hour, I was happy again. All the obits in the world could not do justice to this legend-- the world seems so much smaller without him in it.

Posted by MD | March 3, 2008 8:55 PM