Source: The American Prospect
by Rick Perlstein
“Going into the 2000 presidential election, the Republican establishment tapped Texas Gov. George W. Bush to beat Al Gore. But the 54-year-old scion’s first electoral test, in the New Hampshire primary, threatened to inscribe him in the annals of history as an obscure loser, when Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) upset him by 18 points. The stakes for the next contest, in South Carolina, couldn’t have been higher. Eight years later, during McCain’s next presidential campaign, a Vanity Fair reporter named Richard Gooding traveled the Palmetto State to learn how that primary had gone down. He told the locals that he was there to learn about dirty politics. ‘Over and over, that provoked pride: ‘You’ve come to the right place!”” (11/05/24)
https://prospect.org/politics/2024-11-05-garbagegate-with-a-twist-trump-media/