The train-wreck that is the McCain campaign
Sometimes finding snafus in the John McCain campaign is like shooting fish in a barrel. He contradicts his own statements, makes outrageous accusations, and continues to misspeak about a lot of different things.
On Wednesday October 8th, John McCain referred to Americans as “My Fellow Prisoners.”
Among certain circles of my friends, this is something that we what we would refer to as a “flashback.”
During an interview with the Des Moines Register editorial board (Tuesday, September 30), John McCain admitted with a completely straight face that he aspired to be a dictator. (0:36 seconds)
There’s also the issue of John McCain’s mental health to consider. In discussing Sarah Palin‘s performance in the debate last week, Frank Rich made some interesting points about John McCain’s performance in his column for the New York Times:
Now McCain is looking increasingly shaky, whether he’s repeating his “Miss Congeniality” joke twice in the same debate or speaking from notecards even when reciting a line for (literally) the 17th time (“The fundamentals of our economy are strong”) or repeatedly confusing proper nouns that begin with S (Sunni, Shia, Sudan, Somalia, Spain). McCain’s “dismaying temperament,” as George Will labeled it, only thickens the concerns. His kamikaze mission into Washington during the bailout crisis seemed crazed. His seething, hostile debate countenance – a replay of Al Gore’s sarcastic sighing in 2000 – didn’t make the deferential Obama look weak (as many Democrats feared) but elevated him into looking like the sole presidential grown-up.
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Though CNN and MSNBC wouldn’t run a political ad with doctors questioning McCain’s medical status, (Sanjay) Gupta revisited the issue in an interview published last Tuesday by The Huffington Post. While maintaining a pretty upbeat take on the candidate’s health, the doctor-journalist told the reporter Sam Stein that he couldn’t vouch “by any means” for the completeness of the records the campaign showed him four months ago. “The pages weren’t numbered,” Gupta said, “so I had no way of knowing what was missing.” At least in Watergate we knew that the gap on Rose Mary Woods’s tape ran 18 and a half minutes.
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It’s against this backdrop that Palin’s public pronouncements, culminating with her debate performance, have been so striking. The standard take has it that she’s either speaking utter ignorant gibberish (as to Couric) or reciting highly polished, campaign-written sound bites that she’s memorized (as at the convention and the debate). But there’s a steady unnerving undertone to Palin’s utterances, a consistent message of hubristic self-confidence and hyper-ambition. She wants to be president, she thinks she can be president, she thinks she will be president. And perhaps soon. She often sounds like someone who sees herself as half-a-heartbeat away from the presidency. Or who is seen that way by her own camp, the hard-right G.O.P. base that never liked McCain anyway and views him as, at best, a White House place holder.
After Tuesday’s debate, someone by the name of “brook” created their own eCard that summarized what a lot of us felt about John McCain.
The last video clip I’d like to share in this blog posting really has nothing to with John McCain losing his mind or any reasons why you should or shouldn’t vote for John McCain.
For entertainment purposes only, YouTuber saveourskyline (aka Kevin) created a fun little edit to reveal John McCain’s inner “Penguin,” recycling the spirit of the late Burgess Meredith.
Batman was not available for comment.
enjoy!
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