This is becoming more and more frequent. Via ThinkProgress:
At a townhall event yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) implied that the U.S. went to war in Iraq over oil, saying that if America had energy independence that would “prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East. Later, on his campaign plane, McCain tried to clarify his remarks, claiming that he was talking about the “the first Gulf War.” Pressed by a reporter, McCain stumbled when asked if he was actually “thinking about the first Gulf War” when he made the statement:
But then when specifically asked by an Associated Press reporter if, when he made the statement, he was “thinking about the first Gulf War,” he said no.
“No, I was thinking about- it’s not hard to- we will not,” McCain stumbled. “By eliminating our dependency on foreign oil, we will not have to have our national security threatened by a cut off of that oil. Because we will be dependent, because we won’t be dependent, we will no longer be dependent on foreign oil. That’s what my remarks were."
That sounds like some real straight talkin' to me.
Some folks have wondered why we don't blog too much about the Democratic primary. The reason is that it's basically been over since early March, when Hillary Clinton failed to make a dent in Obama's massive pledged delegate lead. Her last best chance was Ohio and Texas, and she blew it.
Hillary is still "in it to win it," and she has a loyal base that includes TV pundits and Rush Limbaugh, but she has no chance of winning. Ron Paul knows it, John McCain knows it (why else would his campaign attack Obama but leave her alone), and most of the folks in the press know it. But Hillary was the anointed, inevitable candidate for so many years that it's hard for folks to realize that no, she's not gonna be the nominee. So we are still stuck in this awkward in-between phase, sort of like the moment where Wile E. Coyote runs off a cliff but has yet to fall only because he doesn't know the ground is missing beneath his feet.
Clinton will be falling soon enough. Hopefully after Tuesday, but more likely around June 4th when the superdelegates start migrating to Obama. One way or another, Obama will win this nomination. So we here at Old Man McCain don't see much reason to dwell on something that's a done deal. We have nothing against Hillary Clinton, and in fact we love Bill Clinton (despite how he's gone kamikaze on Obama), and we welcome Clinton supporters to this blog. But it's only a matter of time until she has to concede.
It's Obama vs. McCain. That's our story and we're sticking to it.
I'm sorry to say but you slow down in your 70s. You start confusing things, forgetting things. Just because the media thinks he's a nice man doesn't mean old age isn't kicking in. This isn't the first time he's confused an issue recently. He's getting old.
I've been thinking about this. McCain is constantly flip-flopping on issues, getting confused about what he believes, mixing up Sunnis and Shiites, and straight-up lying about things he once said or did. Yet the press rarely if ever calls him on it.
Now why would the press do this? After all, McCain is running for the most important job on each. You'd expect a vigorous press to ensure that he is honest, intelligent, and mentally stable. The guy is 71 years old, so they should also make sure that he's not going senile. (And if you think I'm being unfair here, go watch some video clips of McCain on the campaign trail in 2000 and compare that to clips of him today. He's not the same guy.)
There are a few explanations. The first is that the press fell in love with McCain sometime during the 1990s, and St. McCain can do no wrong. So no matter what he says or does, it doesn't matter because he is an honorable, experienced straight talking maverick war hero. Anything that conflicts with that image must be a mistake, or a momentary lapse, or a misunderstanding. I've read plenty of op-eds by columnists explaining that McCain's total cave-ins on torture, taxes, and the deficit are mere political posturing. He doesn't really mean it.
It may also be that McCain is a Republican, and the press loves them some Republicans. A Democrat can't get away with anything, even something fabricated out of thin air by political opponents (think Gore 2000 and Kerry 2004). But a Republican is Strong and Wise and Must Be Respected because they are Men of the People. Anyone who has followed politics for the past 20 years knows what I'm talking about. Liberal bloggers even have a saying -- It's Okay If You're A Republican (IOKIYAR). This explains why GOP congressman Darrell Issa could call 9/11 a mere "plane crash" and receive almost no flak for it. And let's not forget GOP Rep. Jean Schmidt calling war veteran John Murtha a coward. Somehow she's still in office today. There are countless other examples.
But I think one of the most acute reasons is this: for the past eight years, the press has made it their job to cover up for President George W. Bush's moronic mistatements, lies, Bushisms, incoherent ramblings, and total ignorance of policy. Here we have one of the dumbest people on Earth as president, and the press has made it their job to make him sound smarter and stronger and more honest than he really is. If Bush says something that sounds wrong, ill-informed, or just plain stupid, the press will mercifully report what he "meant" to say. That's why Fahrenheit 9/11 was such a shock to so many people -- they got to see Bush unfiltered, and it was disturbing. So when the press covers Bush's heir apparent, John Sidney McCain III, they continue their habit of covering up his lack of intelligence and truthfulness. It's just the way they've been doing things for the past eight years, why should they change now?
I guess you could call it the "soft bigotry of low expectations". But whatever it is, it's not good for the country. In a just world McCain wouldn't get more than 30% of the vote. He is mentally and physically unfit for the job.
Yesterday a Baptist minister asked McCain one of the many questions we'd love to hear him answer. Did he really call his wife a "cunt"?
As you can tell from the gasps in the room, it would upset McCain's base to no end if this story were true. Unfortunately we don't have any videotape of the incident, so the press will pretend it never happened. We also don't have audiotape of the cruel joke he told about Chelsea Clinton back in 1998.
McCain is a real piece of work. And by that we mean asshole. He doesn't answer the question, which is clear enough evidence that the incident reported in Cliff Schecter's book is true. Maybe when the press stops salivating over that Chicago minister who isn't running for office, they can concentrate on the Arizona fat cat who is.
[UPDATE]
Via Balloon Juice, I've seen that the minister in question, Marty Parrish has spoken about the incident to HuffPo. Sounds like an alright guy to me.
Marty Parrish was aware of John McCain's alleged history as an adulterer and that he had left the wife who had raised his children while McCain was held captive in Vietnam for a rich, young trophy wife.
But last week, when Parrish -- a business owner in Des Moines -- read a HuffingtonPost article by Adam McKay, "Vetting the Candidates," that related how McCain had verbally abused Cindy McCain in front of reporters and staff, Parrish became both angry and concerned.
"A guy who would call his wife a trollop and a c--t just because she had ruffled his hair in front of five guys is not only a jerk, but a dangerous hothead if he ever gets his finger on the button," Parrish said Thursday evening.
"And since the mainstream media has decided to give McCain a free pass, I decided to stand up and, if they gave me an open mike, ask the question that the press refuses to touch," he explained. "Our country is in a serious crisis after nearly eight years of Bush, and America appears to be oblivious to the danger this guy (McCain) poses to our country," said Parrish....
Since his first choice for president didn't work out, Parrish has transferred his allegiance to Sen. Barack Obama and plans to volunteer for him in the general election should the Illinois Senator win the nomination.
"The Secret Service agent made me promise not to show up at any McCain campaign events in the future," said Parrish. "I told him that wouldn't be a problem - I'd forgotten how boring Republican events are," he added. "McCain had about 300 really old people today. When Obama campaigns here in the fall, there'll probably be 15,000 people of all ages and backgrounds, cheering him on."
We've been asking this ever since McCain wrapped up the nomination. But where are his medical records? And we don't just mean a review of his blood pressure and current skin cancer status, although those two factors are mighty important.
Really, the juicy stuff will be in his psychological review.
What? Presidential candidates don't undergo psychoanalytic tests, you say? If true, that's insane. Perhaps with an IQ test, combined with a test of leadership skills and megalomania tendencies, we've might have avoided the terrible Bush years.
But I still don't get it. NFL teams regularly perform psychological reviews of college athletes before drafting them. Why can't we do the same with potential Presidents? I'd like to know if Hillary is really an uptight sociopath who puts loyalty and power above all else. I'd like to know if Barack really thinks he is better than everyone else (and if so, whether his IQ backs up his assertion).
And most of all, I'd like to know if McCain's infamous temper and pre-stage Alzheimer's might be a liability for the most powerful job on Earth. We've already witnessed the dangers of frat-boy idiocy on the world stage.
With our reputation in tatters, I'm not sure having a hot-headed, forgetful asshole like McCain is the best remedy. So maybe the old coot should submit to a psychological profile and let us know the real scoop.
Some readers have written in to ask about my profile pic, which shows Old Man McCain scowling with one-eyed squinted like Popeye.
Most wonder if the picture is photoshopped or otherwise altered. Sadly, the answer is no. According to my crack internet research, this actually comes from a photo taken in 2000, when McCain was debating George W. Bush in South Carolina. Here in the full version of the shot you can see the back of Bush's head:
It was a brutal campaign, with the Bush squad questioning McCain's war service, sliming his wife for her pill-popping habits, and making racial slurs about his adopted daughter (and they think "100 years" is below the belt? Gimme a break).
But the point is that yes, McCain really made this face. And in fact, if you watch him speak at events these days, you'll notice that he does have a tendency to squint his eyes, sort of like a tic. I don't know if it has anything to do with the heavy cancer scars he has on the left side of the face, or maybe it's just cause he's approaching 100 years old. But the bottom line is that John McCain is just a plain ol' scary-looking dude.
I don't want to see this face on TV for the next four years. Sorry if that sounds shallow, but I just don't.
Even conservatives can see the writing on the wall. The Wright mess was in full force this week. Obama had to cut the guy loose. This should be McCain's peak, and...well he's not really peaking that much. Real Clear Politics has the Obama-McCain matchup as a tie.
Obama still has bumps ahead, including expected losses in Kentucky and West Virginia, but ultimately he's gonna win this primary. And this Wright stuff will be old news by the fall.
A few thoughts on the good Rev. Wright. First, what fun this is. Nothing like a candidate's crank associate going off on an egocentric rant in front of the media to spice up a political campaign. Though I'm not sure it will be as ultimately bad for Obama as it now appears since he got the excuse he needed to finally throw the toxic Rev. Wright under the bus. Obama was sloppy about it and late, but he now has the right political answer to Wright: I'm finished with him. And while GOP hearts were undoubtedly warmed by the whole fiasco, the odds are that Rev. Wright is now an issue in decline; some damage done but little chance he'll be the big factor in October among swing voters who will decide the election.
How meaningful is Obama’s slump? Not very. After all, who would expect Obama’s ratings to be rising at a time when most of the media’s attention has been on Wright and the acrimonious race between Obama and Clinton? He would have to be superhumanly popular to withstand all of that without losing support.
The political environment that exists now, however, is nothing like the one that will exist in the summer, let alone November, when the Democrats will be fighting McCain instead of each other and the media glare will be upon the Arizonan as well as Obama. The present circumstances are — as several commentators, including me, have pointed out — the best that McCain is likely to enjoy for the rest of the season. I suspect present conditions are also nearly rock-bottom for Obama, though it’s a mistake ever to underestimate how much slime a Clinton can excrete. Nevertheless, barring new skeletons spilling out of Obama’s closest, the race is going to get better for him and worse for McCain.
I haven't studied Hagee enough to make sense of his ramblings or kooky theories. But if McCain thinks Wright is fair game, maybe we should take a closer look at McCain's crazy religious friends.
And let's remember that Barack Obama has divorced himself from Wright for his silly comments about Farrakhan and AIDS. McCain still stands by Hagee despite his smears against the Catholic church, against Jews, and now against Jesus himself.
He is basically saying that Jesus was a false prophet. You'd think this would cause some heads to explode on Fox News and in evangelical circles. But wait, I forgot, Rev. Hagee is white so he can say whatever he wants.
A new poll suggests that George W. Bush is the most unpopular president in modern American history.
A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Thursday indicates that 71 percent of the American public disapprove of how Bush his handling his job as president.
"No president has ever had a higher disapproval rating in any CNN or Gallup poll; in fact, this is the first time that any president's disapproval rating has cracked the 70 percent mark," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.
"Bush's approval rating, which stands at 28 percent in our new poll, remains better than the all-time lows set by Harry Truman and Richard Nixon (22 percent and 24 percent, respectively) but even those two presidents never got a disapproval rating in the 70s," Holland added. "The previous all-time record in CNN or Gallup polling was set by Truman, 66 percent disapproval in January 1952."
CNN Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider adds, "He is more unpopular than Richard Nixon was just before he resigned from the presidency in August 1974." President Nixon's disapproval rating in August 1974 stood at 67 percent.
3,924 American troops have been killed in Iraq since May 1st, 2003, when Bush told us the war was over and the mission was accomplished. One of them was a friend of mine, shot down by a sniper in Fallujah at the age of 25.
276 Coalition soldiers have also been killed since the war ended.
I don't know how Bush, or the people who supported him in his 2004 reelection, can live with themselves. While troops were dying, while the war was still in a critical and dire phase, our Commander-in-Chief was out there strutting in costumes and calling it a day.
This man is the ultimate coward. Not only did he avoid combat service in Vietnam by using his father's connections to join the National Guard (leapfrogging more qualified candidates), but he went AWOL from the Air National Guard for the last two years of his service. During his presidential runs his cronies helped him lie about his military record, they bamboozled Dan Rather with fake documents to cover it up, and they proceeded to tar real war hero John Kerry with ads like this:
John McCain, the so-called straight-talker, stood by Bush and supported him even as Karl Rove and the Republicans used these despicable tactics. John Kerry had the class to stick up for McCain in 2000, when McCain's war record was being questioned by the same right wing scumbags, but McCain barely showed any concern over these Swift Boat ads. It shouldn't surprise you. Even today McCain has signed onto repulsive smear campaigns against Barack Obama, calling him an the candidate of Hamas, an elitist, a terrorist sympathizer, and someone who is unpatriotic-by-association.
At the 2004 Republican National Convention, Bush's followers mocked John Kerry and all of our veterans by wearing Purple Heart band-aids. McCain spoke at that convention, giving Bush his full-throated endorsement despite this ongoing smear campaign against an American war hero.
After his 2004 reelection, not only did Bush keep an incompetent like Donald Rumseld at the helm, not only did he cut benefits for veterans, they also ignored shameful conditions at Walter Reed Medical Center until the press made them take notice.
Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan's room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses.
This is the world of Building 18, not the kind of place where Duncan expected to recover when he was evacuated to Walter Reed Army Medical Center from Iraq last February with a broken neck and a shredded left ear, nearly dead from blood loss. But the old lodge, just outside the gates of the hospital and five miles up the road from the White House, has housed hundreds of maimed soldiers recuperating from injuries suffered in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And just this month, George W. Bush and his good buddy John McCain have opposed a new G.I. Bill that would provide returning veterans with college scholarships.
Soldiers are still paying the price for Bush's epic blunder. It's been five years, with no end in sight. John McCain thinks another 100 years would be fine with him. And still our soldiers suffer, and die, and come home to inadequate care and inadequate compensation for their sacrifices. This war has been going on longer than the Civil War or World War II, and it has cost us more than Vietnam.
More than any other factor, this election is about ending this war and ending the occupation of Iraq. John McCain will follow in Bush's footsteps and keep troops in Iraq throughout his presidency. Barack Obama will bring the troops home. In coming months I expect McCain to make shady promises about his secret plan to end the war, achieve "victory," and bring our troops home. He cannot be elected if he doesn't tell this lie to the American people, just as Bush did, just as Lieberman did, just as Nixon did in 1968. But you mustn't believe him.
Bush, McCain and the entire Republican machine are liars who have sent our brothers and sisters to die for a false cause. For this country to right itself, we have to turn the page on George W. Bush and everything he stands for.
Today marks 122 days until John McCain turns 72 years old.
Today Gallup released a poll conducted about the three major presidential candidates. Let's look at the top associations that voters made with each person:
McCain:
Too old 12 Good man/Like him 12 More of the same/Another George W. Bush 10 Good military background 8 Don't like him 8 Conservative 6 Experienced 5 Honorable 4 He's okay/all right 4 Warhawk/warmonger/100 years in Iraq 4
Obama:
Young/Inexperienced 15 Fresh face with new ideas/Good change 13 Like him 9 Dislike him 9 Charismatic/Dynamic/Energetic 7 Dishonest 5 Radical 4 Intelligent/Smart 3 Articulate/Well spoken 3 Liberal/Progressive 2
So if this election is about Old vs. Young, More of the same vs. New ideas, and Conservative vs. Charismatic, how exactly is McCain gonna win again?
Oh yeah, because McCain will win on Experienced vs. Unexperienced. But if McCain's "experience" made him support this disastrous Iraq war and these terrible Bush economic policies, then Americans will be fed up with that kind of experience.
If you are curious, here are Hillary's numbers:
Dishonest/don't trust 15 Past baggage associated with Bill 13 Qualified/Capable 10 Dislike her 9 Strong 8 Experienced 7 Would be first woman president 4 Not electable 4 Power hungry/pushy 4 Would not be good for the country 3 Like her 3
Overall, the top-of-mind responses for the candidates break down to this:
John McCain Positive: 49 Negative: 42
(I counted "Conservative" as a positive trait, even if my gut tells me it should count against him in today's anti-Bush climate)
Republican National Committee Chairman Robert M. Duncan called today on CNN and MSNBC to pull a new Democratic National Committee ad criticizing John McCain's support for the Iraq war, saying it was coordinated with the Democratic candidates' campaigns. The RNC also asserted that the spot misrepresents McCain's comment about troop occupation in Iraq for 100 years.
"Clearly, this ad is just another attempt by the DNC to mischaracterize and distort Senator McCain’s positions and statements," Duncan said in a statement. "It is unquestionable that the DNC is deliberately misleading the American people about what Senator McCain actually said. I hope that any network would consider their responsibility to protect the American people from deliberately false and misleading content."
I think it is hilarious that Republicans are whining about McCain being taken out of context.
Here is the full quote:
Voter: President Bush has talked about us staying in Iraq for fifty years--
McCain: Maybe a 100. We've been in South Korea...we've been in Japan for 60 years, we've been in South Korea for 50 years or so. That'd be fine with me, so long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed. Then it's fine with me, I hope it would be fine with you.
In the full context, John McCain clearly states that he is happy being in Iraq for 100 years. He tosses in a qualifier about casualty rates, but clearly he is happy with a long term presence in Iraq. The ad truthfully presents McCain's cavalier approach to staying in Iraq for 100 years.
Sorry John, but being in Iraq for 100 years is not fine with us no matter how many people are getting killed. This ad is 100% accurate, which explains why the RNC is going out of its way to threaten lawsuits and intimidate the media. The more people see this, the more McCain's support will crater.
Howard Dean responded quite well:
"We simply don't believe the American people want to stay in Iraq for 100 years whether it's as a peacekeeping force or at war," [Dean] said. "... Sen. McCain said what he said he said -- we should be in Iraq for 100 years. I think that was a very foolish position to take."
As for the RNC's threats to sue, Dean said, "Let them do it. I understand the RNC thinks it's illegal to criticize John McCain."
This was McCain's "macaca" moment, this was his "I voted for it before I voted against it", this was his "There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe." And Dems are gonna remind voters of that until election day. And by the way, even Fox News will be running this ad.
TalkingPointsMemo puts together a good montage of McCain's ever-changing position on how long he wants us to be in Iraq. Basically his time frame is somewhere between 20 years and 10,000 years.
Of course, since McCain contradicts himself constantly and uses all sorts of caveats and qualifiers, you can't really pin him down to a specific number of years. Here at Old Man McCain we say split the difference and assume that McCain is cool with 5,000 years in Iraq as long as nobody is dying.
Of course, what happens if we are there peacefully for, say, 35 years, and then a homicidal Iraqi kills one of our troops in 2043? Would McCain want us to immediately withdraw because of another American casualty? Is just one death good enough to push us out of there?
And if so, why don't we just pull out right now? We've lost over 40 troops this month alone. Perhaps the press should ask McCain how long he wants us to stay in Iraq if troops keep getting killed and wounded?
We like the Democrat's approach much better. If you pull our troops out of Iraq, then our troops will stop getting killed in Iraq. Seems to have a much higher chance of success than this century-long boondoggle proposed by Grandpa McCain.
As much and McCain and the RNC would love to have this comment go away, Democrats are gonna make sure it is tied around his neck for the rest of the campaign.
There is really no good way for McCain to spin this. Americans don't want to be in Iraq for another five years, much less another 100 years. Because even if nobody is dying (according to McCain's fantasy spin), it will still be draining lots of $$$ from our treasury.
Polls this far out don't mean much, but McCain generally appears to be underperforming Bush when pitted against Obama. Since Bush squeaked by in 2004, that doesn't bode well for Old Man McCain.
I'm sorry, but this whole idea of a gas tax "holiday" is f'ing ridiculous. Chopping 18 cents off my $4 gallon of gas doesn't mean squat and probably wouldn't amount to more than $30 over the course of the summer. And that's IF the gas stations don't decide to just increase the price and add another few billion dollars to their bottom line. You think they are gonna go outside the day after this law passes and lower their prices? Hell, they'll just leave the same prices up there and pocket the 18 cents for themselves.
Trust me, I lived through the bogus 2001 energy "crisis" where Enron and their pals ripped off California for about $15 billion. These corrupt energy execs would be happy to jack the prices up 18 cents the day after this so-called holiday is passed into law. You wouldn't save a single penny, but your roads will start having a lot more potholes.
And I'd love to see how the politicians deal with the end of the gas tax holiday on Labor Day. With gas prices already sitting at $4, I'm sure Americans would love to see prices jump 18 cents just two months before an election. You'd see the gas tax "holiday" become a permanent holiday, and Exxon Mobil would laugh all the way to the bank. Those 18 cents are the only part of the gas price that actually goes to something useful. The rest goes to oil execs, OPEC, and terrorists. If anything we should rename it the "Iraq War Tax" and pop it up to $1 per gallon. I'd love to see all those patriotic war-loving Republicans rush to the pump to do their part in this epic struggle for freedom.
It's no surprise that McCain and Hillary would sign onto this stupid gas tax holiday idea. Props to Obama for calling it a dumb gimmick.
I'd use more forceful language, but then again I'm not a politician.
Today marks 123 days until John McCain turns 72 years old.
He has still not released his medical records. In addition, he has not released his wife's tax returns. Since she is providing his campaign with free jet travel, and is the real moneybags in the family, it is crucial for voters to know exactly how rich McCain really is.
David Brock of MediaMatters has set up a great new McCain Fact-Check site -- McCain Source.
It's a great resource. For example, did you know that McCain recently used free prison labor to set up one of his fundraisers last week?
Republican presidential candidate John McCain got a deal when his campaign rented gathering space from the city of Homewood for a private fundraiser earlier this week.
His campaign was given a discount of about 80 percent off the standard booking rate for Rosewood Hall. In September, Jefferson County Democrats rented the same facility and were charged the full rate.
The McCain campaign was charged $250 to use two rooms in the hall, which normally would book for $1,200 on a weeknight. The campaign also was given free labor from Homewood City Jail inmates to set up tables and chairs for the event, avoiding a $100 set-up fee, but did pay a standard $50 cleaning fee.
So on the one hand McCain thinks American union workers are too lazy to pick lettuce for $100,000 per year. On the other hand he loves using free prison labor to pad his bottom line. Sounds like a typical fat cat Republican.
Did you know that McCain opposes Fair Pay for Women?
John McCain has been visiting the poor lately. Appalachia, New Orleans, Rust Belt factory towns. This is a good thing, and we applaud his efforts to show compassion and interest in people for whom his actual policies are of no use whatsoever.
McCain's special It's Time for Action Tour was in the impoverished Kentucky town of Inez on Wednesday, so he was unable to make it to Washington to vote on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. This is the bill that would restore workers' ability to go to court in cases of pay discrimination.
But McCain was not ducking the issue. After all, this is a man who told the folks in Youngstown, Ohio - where most of the working single mothers cannot make it above the poverty line - that the answer to their problems is larger tax deductions. He is fearless when it comes to delivering unpleasant news to people who are probably not going to vote for him anyway.
So McCain made it clear that if he had been in Washington, he would have voted no because the bill "opens us up for lawsuits, for all kinds of problems and difficulties."
McCain's heiress wife doesn't have to worry about "equal pay", and who cares about the rest of America? Let them eat cake.
Or how about heartwarming campaign stories like this:
Today at a campaign event, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) toured Miami Children’s Hospital and met with some of the facility’s young patients. As The New York Times reported, McCain heard the story of Jake, a 9 year-old child with a cleft palate. Cleft palates can be fixed with a simple operation, but as Jake’s father told McCain today, his family has been struggling to get their insurance company to cover the operation Jake needs.
While Jake’s father related his story, McCain “nodded intently” –- but failed to tell him that Jake would not get coverage under his health care plan.
I voted on a whole heap of those MoveOn.org "Obama in 30 Seconds" ads. I only liked two of them, out of a few hundred that I watched.
Unfortunately, they don't let you search and find ads, so unless you capture the URL for an ad before voting for it then there is no way to retrieve it. I captured the url for one of my favorite ads, not with the other one.
Anyway, here it is:
It's a very simple ad. No issues, no quotes, no attacks, no pictures of Obama. Just some kids and a butterfly. But I think it speaks directly, at a subconscious level, to the great desire for change we are seeing in this country. Some may find the ad too cheesy, or too vague, not hard-hitting enough. I understand that.
But the sheer simplicity and originality of this ad is what makes it memorable. Major corporations produce ads like this all the time, pushing how their products make you "feel" instead of their tech specs. It's a powerful advertising device and I thinks works great in this ad.
Of course, it might not win. Chances are it won't even make the finals (there were over 1000 ads submitted). But I think it is fantastic.
If you think more wars is a good idea, this is your guy:
If you like the Bush economic policies, guess what, he's also right up your alley:
Even right winger Pat Buchanan can see what McCain's agenda is.
So you want the guy who supports Bush's terrible policies, or you want the guy who opposes Bush's policies but once knew someone who said some dumb things?
That's the choice this year. It shouldn't even be close, but we'll see.
When you look at McCain's fiscal proposals and his foreign policy vision, one begins to sense he actually doesn't have a firm idea of where to go from here. It is three-quarters trying to give every faction in the GOP something to appease it and one-quarter winging it. Leadership? Nowhere I can see. And fellow journalists who have interviewed him recently report that he seems alternately confused, defensive and cranky. Even on the Wright stuff he seems to be on every side of the issue. I like the man, but I wonder if he isn't running eight years' too late. In a debate with Obama, he might come undone.
Make no mistake. Old Man McCain has no business running for president right now, much less winning. And this is not merely about his age, it's about the fact that McCain represents nearly all of the bad ideas that have brought the United States to this low point in history. He has no new ideas, he gets mad when you confront him about that, and his only response is to lash out. Maybe he'll preface it by saying "my friends", maybe he won't. But you know for damn sure that McCain hasn't a clue how to fix this country or get us back on track.
If you asked me who we need right now as president, I'd start by saying that nobody who has been a Republican during the past 8 years is qualified. Those who voted for Bush, especially in 2004, have zero credibility when it comes to politics and leadership. I know plenty of folks, dear friends, who voted for Bush both times. That is their cross to bear for the rest of their lives. If I told you in 2000 about the multiple disasters that would unfold over the next 8 years, you wouldn't have believed me. Nobody would have believed me. Well, strike that, The Onion would have believed me.
But McCain is more than just a supporter of Bush. He is one of Bush's absolute top supporters and friends. He spoke for Bush at both conventions, he was a cheerleader for the disastrous war in Iraq, he supported Bush's right wing Supreme Court picks, he has voted with Bush 89% of the time, and he thinks that these tax cuts for the rich should be expanded and made permanent. McCain is trying to have it both ways, criticizing Bush while advocating Bush's policies, and it's not gonna work.
Right now there is a heated primary going on between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Democrats are divided, feelings are hurt, the news is filled with an ongoing series of phony scandals and smears. But make no mistake -- when the dust settles and Obama takes the podium on August 31st in Denver, McCain is going to be lucky to break 45% in the polls. After the debates in September and October, Old Man McCain will be lucky to break 40%.
Maybe this is wishful thinking. Maybe the Republican smear ads about who damned America and who Obama once met at a party will show more resiliency than they have so far. It's easy to be disillusioned given the horrible campaign coverage offered by the media. But there is no getting away from the hard facts of this election. McCain is an old, grumpy man connected at the hip to Bush's worst policies, while Obama is a handsome, eloquent change agent who presents us with a better path.
The choice will be stark. And I see no way that McCain pulls this off. If Hillary couldn't beat Obama despite having more money, more endorsements, more name recognition, and a 20 point leads in the polls, how is a horrible candidate like McCain gonna do it?
The meme is slowly starting to spread. It will become even more apparent once Hillary concedes the race (whenever that is) and Obama unifies the Democratic party.
It boils down to this: John McCain is an incredibly weak candidate. The media isn't profiling his weaknesses, his out-of-touch policies, his love affair with George W. Bush and an endless war in Iraq. Yet Old Man McCain is still basically tied with both Democrats in the polls. And remember, there are a substantial number of Democratic voters, especially on Hillary's side, who are telling pollsters that they would vote for McCain rather than the other Democratic candidate. Most of these voters will eventually migrate back to the left side of the aisle, so McCain's numbers are currently inflated.
I not only wrote about this on March 31st, but I also blogged it at DailyKos on March 19th, just after the Wright story broke.
Here's what I wrote back then:
McCain has had his nomination wrapped up for over a month, his party has consolidated behind him, the President has endorsed him, he hasn't been criticized from the right since Romney dropped out on Feb. 7th, the Democrats are too busy fighting each other, and he has received glowing coverage from his buddies in the media.
Obama, meanwhile, has been attacked from all sides. His primary opponent Hillary Clinton has claimed that McCain would be a better Commander-in-Chief, Saturday Night Live is making him out to be dumber and duller than Bush, viral spam emails are smearing him right and left, and the media has spent the past week endlessly playing incendiary comments from his former pastor.
Given these circumstances, wouldn't you expect McCain to have a 10-15 point lead on Obama right now?
Instead, McCain and Obama are still essentially tied. And this is before, mind you, Obama's great speech has seeped into the electorate. Clearly McCain is a much weaker candidate than anyone has expected, and Barack Obama is much stronger.
Since I wrote that, Obama's polling numbers have actually improved, and McCain's have fallen. And others, like conservative blogger Ross Douthat, are starting to notice:
But by all rights, this ought to be a peak time for McCain's numbers - not the peak, necessarily, but certainly a high point. His right-wing critics are making nice with him, his favorable ratings are sky-high, and his opponents are too busy driving each other's negative ratings upward to spend any time (or money, more importantly) putting a dent in his halo. Moreoever, the Democrats' intra-party tensions are bound to diminish once the party picks a nominee: At least some of the Hillary supporters who tell pollsters that they'd vote for McCain over Obama may actually follow through on that pledge, but a lot of today's McCainocrats will come home to the Democratic fold when all is said and done.
Yet even with all this going for him, McCain's poll numbers are bumping up against the same 45 percent ceiling that they've been hitting since December. If the election were held today - a pretty good day for McCain, all things considered - he'd probably lose to Obama, and might lose to Clinton as well. That doesn't mean he will lose, by any stretch, but it certainly doesn't bode well for November.
Frank Rich at the NY Times has also pegged McCain's weakness:
On the way to the finish line, the prolonged primary race, far from destroying the Democratic candidates, may do more insidious damage to the Republican nominee, lulling his campaign into an unjustified complacency. The Democrats should “take their time — don’t rush,” the McCain aide Mark Salter joked last week. Yet his candidate, as the conservative blogger Ross Douthat pointed out, keeps bumping up against a 45 percent ceiling in the polls even now, when the Democrats are ostensibly in ruins.
Mr. McCain is not only burdened with the most despised president in his own 71-year lifetime, but he’s getting none of the seasoning that he, no less than the Democrats, needs to compete in the fall. Age is as much an issue as race and gender in this campaign. Mr. McCain will have to prove not merely that he can keep to the physical rigors of his schedule and fend off investigations of his ties to lobbyists and developers. He also must show he can think and speak fluently about the domestic issues that are gripping the country. Picture him debating either Democrat about health care, the mortgage crisis, stagnant middle-class wages, rice rationing at Costco. It’s not pretty.
Obama was clearly dinged a bit by the Wright sound bites and the viral smears about his patriotism. But I'm guessing that McCain's association with George W. Bush and the disaster of the last 8 years is going to be a much bigger hindrance than any of this side show stuff. The polls are already showing it. Eventually the rest of the media will catch on.
John McCain, his Republican pals, and the media are still trying to pretend that McCain didn't actually say this, or that he didn't mean it. But as I wrote in a previous post, there is no way you can interpret McCain's remarks in a positive light. Not unless you are a fool who thinks that A.) Iraq is the same as Germany or Japan OR B.) That it's a good idea to occupy Iraq for 100 years.
Sorry McCain, but ads like this will be hounding you until election day.
