The Other McCain

Sen. Kirk Watson had a surprising moment at last weekend's Travis County Democratic Party convention. "I looked up and there was this big red sign that said McCain," he said. "It nearly threw me off my speech."

Before anyone starts thinking that Rush Limbaugh's Operation Chaos, or Project Mayhem, or whatever he calls it has taken hold, calm down, it's not that McCain. The banner was for Watson's fellow Democrat Richard McCain, the Precinct 3 Constable who fought off a primary challenge from Richard Eller and now faces GOP candidate Mike Varela in November.

But big red sign saying McCain in this campaign season? Now, not to get too semiotics, "sign/signifier/signed" about this, especially since in the rest of the world red equals left wing, blue equals conservative, but it does seem an (ahem) unusual design choice for a Dem. Not to give the (Richard) McCain campaign any clues, but putting the candidate's first name in a bigger font may save a few shocked double-takes in this Democratic stronghold.