McCain’s Brother Urges Campaign to Open Up

Joe McCain sent an e-mail this week to members of his older brother’s presidential campaign urging them to allow John McCain to open up to the press and to focus on the positive aspects of his biography, reports The Baltimore Sun.

“Make ads that show John not as crank and curmudgeon but as a great leader for his time, a man who always, always fights for the average American as best he can, to even the ground and to make more things possible for all,” Joe McCain wrote in the e-mail, obtained by the newspaper.

He also wrote that McCain’s friends and family should make the case for McCain to the press, which has been kept away from the candidate.

“This policy of trying to so tightly ‘control the message’ by cutting off those who know him from the cacophony of national and local voices — the reporters and the editors — is counter-intuitive, counter-experiential, and counter-productive,” Joe McCain wrote.

He added that the tight-lipped strategy has “bled away all the good will” McCain had from the press, “for he alone among politicians would talk to them openly, without finesse, without guile.”

The e-mail ends with Joe McCain’s idea for a television ad. Instead of a spot attacking Barack Obama, Joe McCain calls for an ad focused on McCain’s service as a fighter pilot and his readiness to handle a “3 a.m.” phone call.