Fish in a Barrel: The McCain Slagging Isles

[Jeff]

You know, in 2000, I actually voted for McCain in the Tennessee presidential primary. It wasn't that I had any intention of ever voting Republican, it was just that, given the way McCain came across at the time, he seemed a much more palatable option than Dubya, so I wanted to do what little I could to try and get a Gore vs. McCain election.

But Jesus, you want to talk about selling out... there's hardly a commendable or interesting thing that McCain has ever said that he hasn't found some way to contradict or nullify over the past 5 or 6 years. He's still doing it now, still trampling what small moments of value he manages to create.

For instance, in January, McCain told Michigan voters that it "wasn't government's job to protect buggy factories and haberdashers when cars replaced carriages and men stopped wearing hats.'' He didn't want to raise "false hopes that somehow we can bring back lost jobs.''

Now he's been in Michigan again, but he cheerfully told them "new jobs are coming."

Dick.

I know, I know: McCain is a douchebag... file under, "DUH."

[Jeff]

In which he discusses "President Putin of Germany":
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/jfealLrWLIY" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/jfealLrWLIY</a>

[Doctor Rock]

Gee, Dumbyua isn't that popular these days!  Why would he want to follow in his steps? 

[matthew]

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/05/07/john-mccains-top-10-out-of-touch-moments/

[Jeff]

McCain's new strategy? Paint Obama as a "flip-flopper."

In related news, I will now base my attacks on enemies around the claim that they are "fat hyperactive crackers who drink too much beer."

[Doctor Rock]

A Candidate's Lucky Charms
John McCain Is Hoping Superstition Will See Him Through

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/_ul7X5js1vE" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/_ul7X5js1vE</a>

[matthew]

Yeah,

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN0832180920080709




http://www.reuters.com//news/video?videoId=86139&src=vidAd1

Added Condoleezza Rice, "Whatever you do, please do not interpret this display by Iran as an attempt at deterring US aggression, which is surely what this is."


(and she is at the doveish extreme of the current administration)

[matthew]

Not that this necceassarily reflects on McCain or McCain voters in general, I figured this would be as good a place as any for this.

I have frequented several political message boards and I have gotten to know a good number of characters over the last six or so years, though not as well as I have the Crappiteers as several of these people I loathe and there are several hundred of them in total, but I do know them more intimately than I care to.

So, there is this woman in her late thirties (well, 38) who is a hardcore Republican voter, though I could not tell you why. She is a former teacher in the NYC area and claims to be half Jewish (I contested both these claims when she repeatedly used the term "Semantic" instead of "Semitic" in a debate over Palestinians) and was formerly infatuated with Rudy Giuliani and loves George W. Bush. She is pro-choice and is fiercely secular atheist...though her she manages to gum up those conversations as well. Her stupidity and inanity is almost unmatched despite the hundreds of contestants, leading me to believe at times that she may be a fraud troll. However I doubt that a troll would be satisfied with such an unrecognizable niche to parody: the average idiot voter entirely bamboozled and mental blocked by the pleasing media images of politicians.

Anywho, this is some of the drivel she posted tonight:

I met John McCain last evening...    
out 150 people there, so each person had about 2 minutes to speak with him, after he addressed the group. I thanked him for his service to our country and wished him good luck in the race. He was extremely warm (his eyes were so kind - not to sound corny, but they were almost angelic-like, to me, yet there was also a hint of having suffered, as we all know he has). We chatted for about a minute, and then he signed a picture for me.

HE IS SO MUCH MORE CHARISMATIC IN PERSON THAN ON TV!!! He was very clear and came across as extremely down-to-earth and a staight-shooter when he addressed the crowd. Then, there was a brief Q & A, and he gave great and funny answers. So if you get a chance to go to any of these events or townhall meetings, I'd really recommend it for EITHER candidate. You get so much better of an idea about their character, etc., rather than just watching them on TV in interviews/debates.

[Just Some Girl]

Wow.

Even more charismatic than on TV?

Wow.

[matthew]

More from this woman:

INSANE Obama Healthcare Plan

An article on pg 29 of the NY Post (7/21) shocked and disturbed me, although I had heard rumblings of it before. Put aside whether you are pro-Universal Healthcare for US citizens or not, for a moment (of course, in theory, it's a great idea, but unfortunately, I think that gov't would manage to further screw-up our already declining healthcare system).

But back to Universal Healthcare - Obama wants to cover the MILLIONS and MILLIONS of illegal immigrants, giving them federally paid coverage equal to that of what US Senators get. WHAT?!? Call me crazy, but come on, this is Common Sense 101 (even a 6-yr-old understands that one pie can't feed everyone in the world). It makes no sense - none. In a perfect world, we would have unlimited resources, but we don't. We can certainly feel for all human beings in need, and engage in charity work such as "Doctors Without Borders" (a wonderful organization) but seriously, if we were to cover all illegal immigrants, we'd go broke! (They already receive free care in our hospitals' ERs and we all know how "well" that is working, right?) So seriously, can anyone come close to even justifying this plan of his?!?

[matthew]

Later on in the same thread someone asked her "Don't you work in social services yourself?"

Her response:

I'm a school psychologist.

[Jeff]

I read an article recently in which a group of sociologists studying empathy found out that respondents rated with low empathy for their fellow human beings were overwhelmingly Republican. In fact, it seemed by their findings to be a core aspect of being a Republican--the ability to ignore and/or rationalize the problems of other people as either a) not solable, so therefore not worth worrying about or b) of their own doing, and thus, what they deserve.

[matthew]

This isn't really slagging McCain...


Obama and McCain square off before church audience
US presidential contenders grilled separately on taxes, abortion and how to fight 'evil'

Barack Obama and John McCain appeared on the same stage yesterday for the first time since becoming presumptive presidential nominees, answering questions from one of America's foremost pastors in front of an audience of evangelical Christians.

The candidates met briefly on stage at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church, shaking hands and exchanging "good to see ya" remarks. They did not debate each other, but answered a near identical set of questions, giving a glimpse of two very different approaches and a hint of an intense campaign to come.

Where Obama was thoughtful and cautious, McCain was abrupt - so abrupt in fact that his short responses meant he got to answer more questions in his hour than his rival.

Obama went first, assured by Warren that his rival would not overhear the questions. While Obama tended to engage with the questions in a sometimes cerebral way, McCain exhibited a tendency to lapse into his campaign stump speech. At one point he showed up Warren's deficiencies as an interviewer to "take 30 seconds" to preach his foreign policy doctrine of catching Osama bin Laden.

Responding to a question about whether evil exists and "if it exists, should we negotiate with it, contain it or defeat it", McCain had a Dr Strangelove moment, almost shouting: "Defeat it! If I am president of the United States, my friends, I will follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell and I will get him."

Slogans poured out of the candidate: "We've got to drill now and we've got to drill here!" McCain declared when he got a chance to talk about energy policy. "Choice and competition," he said when the subject turned to education.

Obama's answers were typified by a response to the question: "At what point does a baby get human rights?" "Well," he responded, "I think that whether you are looking at it from a theological position or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity is above my pay grade."

Where Obama waffled, McCain interrupted the question before it was finished. "At the moment of conception," he declared to applause. "As president I will be a pro-life president and this presidency will have pro-life policies."

For the flock outside the church leaving the event, such exchanges were manna from heaven. "John McCain did a very good job, very straight-forward," said Jill Frick, who has attended the church for eight years. "I think Barack Obama is very likeable and emotional, but he skirted the issues. The evening definitely cemented my views."

Ken Mills agreed: "Barack Obama was just like a regular politician, he didn't answer the questions. I think John McCain blew him out of the ballpark."

The two candidates differed most, perhaps, in their answers to the question of wealth and tax: "Define rich". Obama softened it with a dig at his host, who not only hosts a mega-church but is a megamillion-selling author of self-help books.

"If you've got book sales of 25m then you qualify," Obama told Warren, before adding: "If you are making $150,000 or less as a family then you are middle class, or you're poor. If you're making more than $250,000, you're doing well."

McCain's position was more nuanced: "Some of the richest people I've known in my life are the most unhappy," he said. His wife applauded from the audience.

"I don't want to take any money from the rich, I want everybody to get rich," said the man who has professed that economics is not his strongest suit. "If you're just talking about income, how about $5m? It doesn't matter because I don't want to raise anyone's taxes."

[matthew]

What was that Onion thing, "Poll: 47 percent of Americans would vote for whichever candidate will kill Satan" (it was a "stinger" on a video clip of theirs)

[matthew]

By Andrew Gray

BURBANK, California (Reuters) - John McCain, who often invokes his ordeal as a Vietnam war prisoner to show his devotion to his country as he runs for U.S. president, drew on the experience again on Monday -- this time to deflect sniping over the number of houses he owns.

McCain's Democratic rival Barack Obama last week accused the Republican senator of being out of touch with ordinary people after he was unable to say in an interview how many houses were owned by him and his wife Cindy, a wealthy heiress to a beer distributorship.

In an appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, McCain, 71, said his priority was to keep Americans in their homes in tough economic times.

Then he recalled his Vietnam experience.

"I spent 5 1/2 years in a prison cell without -- I didn't have a house. I didn't have a kitchen table. I didn't have a table. I didn't have a chair," he said.

"I spent those 5 1/2 years ... not because I wanted to get a house when I got out."

U.S. HOUSING WOES

Rising energy prices and the faltering economy have become central issues in the race for the White House. The next president will inherit problems including a mortgage crisis that has cost many Americans their homes.

McCain said he was prepared to deal with that and sought to play down the controversy over his family's assets.

"I'm proud of my record of service to this country and it has nothing to do with houses. What it has to do with (is) putting Americans in houses and keeping them in their homes. And that's what I know how to do," he said to loud cheers from the studio audience.

On the show the Arizona senator listed four homes he and his wife have -- one in the Washington area, two in Arizona and one in California. Media reports and Democrats have said the couple have at least seven properties when investments are included.

McCain said he was proud of the way his wife's father had built up a large business after fighting in World War Two.

With the Democrats engaged in their convention in Denver this week that will formally nominate Obama and the Republicans due to meet next week, polls show the two candidates locked in a dead heat in the popular vote. McCain predicted a tight finish in the November 4 election

Obama's house in the affluent Chicago neighborhood of Hyde Park is worth more than $1.5 million, and he has made millions from the publication of two autobiographical books.