Miller's blast may not endear swing voters, McCain warns
Los Angeles Times
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NEW YORK - Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has pushed for civility in this year's presidential race, is warning that the biting attack on Sen. John Kerry by a fellow Democrat at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night might harm President Bush's efforts to woo swing voters.
McCain said the keynote address by Sen. Zell Miller, D-Ga., could prove as controversial as a speech by Patrick J. Buchanan at the 1992 GOP convention in Houston.
"I think it backfires," McCain said of Miller's rhetorical assault on Kerry. He added that it "makes Buchanan's speech ... look milquetoast."
McCain made his comments to reporters at a party he hosted after the convention's Wednesday session ended.
Buchanan's speech — in which he declared a "culture war" was under way in America — was thought by many Republicans to have hurt the re-election bid of Bush's father, then-President George H.W. Bush. The elder Bush lost to Democrat Bill Clinton.
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