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I talked about this subject in a comment section at another blog, but I realized that I ought to put those thoughts up on here.

As I’m sure most of you know, McCain and Romney got into it in the last GOP debate. To be fair, the moderator of the debate was purposefully trying to stir things up, as he flat out said, right before he started asking this line of questions. The moderator was trying to cause Romney to confront McCain by saying, “You’ve been saying XYZ about McCain - do you stand behind that now?” If Mitt had backed off, he would have looked like a panderer and a flip-flopper. If he stood by what he said, then he would look like he was trying to engage McCain into a fight. It was a no-win situation, and Mitt did what he should have: He stood his ground, and said what he didn’t like about McCain’s policies. (In the interview after the debate, Mitt called McCain a great American, and said that he was a hero. He has never personally attacked McCain - quite the opposite.)

McCain’s response? An attack below the belt on a personal level, instead of a defense of the bills that bear his name. Later, he made a joke on a blogging conference call that, “Maybe I should wait a couple of weeks and see if [Romney's position on the immigration bill] changes because it’s changed in less than a year from his position before. And maybe his solution will be to get out his small-varmint gun and drive those Guatemalans off his lawn.”

This is bull on multiple levels: Mitt has always been firm on his stance of the immigration issue - he was the one who told his police officers that they needed to help round up illegal immigrants and patrol the border! He was strong on the immigration issue the entire time he was governor, and McCain’s allegation that he wasn’t is simply a lie, no way around it. Then the “Guatemalan” swipe is in reference to a non-story that came out last year: Mitt had illegal aliens working on his lawn and gardens. Which looks bads at a glance, until you realize that he hired a lawn care service (run by a legal immigrant) and that legal immigrant was the one who hired the illegal aliens. Even if he had wanted to check the green card status of each worker (which there would have been absolutely no reason to) but even if he had wanted to, he wouldn’t have been able to. It would have caused major problems for him and he most likely would have been sued for discrimination. It isn’t his job to make sure that the company uses legal immigrants - it’s the company’s job, and he can literally be in trouble for trying to find out himself. So yeah, non-issue.

But that has always been McCain’s mode of operations, and he’s going to continue it. That habit of “you talk about policies, I attack on personal issues” is McCain to a T. It is distasteful and makes him look like a jerk with a hot temper (which not surprisingly, that’s exactly how I look at him.)

So what did Mitt do? Instead of getting indignant about this (as I probably would have) and arguing against the complete lies in this statement (as I know I would have) Mitt has instead stepped back and laughed it off. I’m very proud of Mitt that he wouldn’t allow himself to be dragged further into this. There is a rule out there: Never stoop to the level of the person you’re arguing with - it puts you within reaching distance and makes it easier for them to rub that mud they’re wallowing in all over you too.

Bravo to Mitt.

Hava

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