September 24, 2008

McCain: Running for President

The most astute label I've seen in the political news today is that of "running mate" for Sarah Palin.


A hurricane hits the gulf coast.  Pretty bad disaster.  McCain cancels half the Republican convention.  (How much do you want to bet that if it was an earthquake in Hollywood, the Republican convention would have gone on as planned, possibly even adding a few parties?)

A financial crisis hits the country.  Pretty bad disaster.  McCain calls for a cancellation of his debate with Obama to solve the crisis.  

I recently heard someone say McCain "kicks ass."  More like hauls ass.  Every time there's a crisis, he cancels everything that he's committed to.  How can a guy who's always running away run a country?  Certainly there are times to cancel things.  An entire American city destroyed by flooding?  Yeah, probably canceling your vacation would be a good idea.  Two buildings destroyed in terrorist attacks?  Yeah, maybe cancel your reading to an elementary school class.

A financial crisis that many experts had predicted for years?  Holy crap!  What a surprise!  A real shock!  We didn't see this coming!  But... but... but... even though we helped create it, and we didn't see it coming, we can fix it if we just... cancel the debate!

McCain is running, all right.  Running from the issues.  Running from discussion.  Running from Obama.  His only desperate hope of winning is to keep the American people afraid and ignorant.

Reagan was a true kick-ass Republican at a time when kicking ass could still accomplish something.  Bush and his inner circle were truly adept at misinformation and fearmongering.  McCain wants to be kick-ass but it comes off phony, and besides kick-ass is not what the country needs right now.  And he's a lousy liar, to boot.  He's a clumsy and less believable version of George W. Bush.  He's like John Kerry, only older, and he voted against Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

The one thing the electorate wants to see is a debate between the candidates.  Finally see them side by side, answering the same questions, going head to head.  (OK, we also want to see a Biden-Palin debate.  I think it'll be a lot like if Jim Lehrer was a house guest on Big Brother.  I wonder if they could have the debate in the hot tub?  That would probably favor Palin.)

By the way, a $700 billion bailout sounds like a lot of money, doesn't it?  But we've spent nearly that on destroying and then failing to rebuild Iraq.  I'm just sayin', is all.

13 comments:

Sarah Laurenson said...

Well said!

Stacy said...

Amen.

pacatrue said...

You're just trying to get blogless troll excited.

JaneyV said...

Good on ya Pete!

November is so close and there is so much ground that needs to be covered. It is time to get serious.

And your last comment on the cost of screwing up in Iraq did not go unappreciated either.

Blogless Troll said...

Plus, he couldn't even beat George Bush in the primaries back when the media loved him. And he was part of that lovable congressional a cappella quintet, the Keating Five.

That's a great point about Iraq. There are other similarities too: There is an attempt to rush Congress to authorize it by inducing fear. The stated goals have little chance for success, but are the stated goals really what's going on? It'll cost way more than the original price tag. It'll have far reaching consequences conveniently left out of the short short version being used to sell it to the American people...

Good post.

Anonymous said...

I'm linking you over at nocowardsoul - and I WISH you would stop posting stuff like this. It's just way too sexy, and I'm happily married!!

PJD said...

Sarah, Freddie, and Jane--thanks. Maybe soon I'll share an email I got from an "educated" McCain supporter and my response. I start to get scared sometimes.

Paca: True, true. But that's only half of it. I've discovered that soccer moms go gaga if you support Obama. An Obama sticker around here is like a babe magnet.

BT, thanks. I'm a little surprised you didn't call me out for the gratuitous slam about MLK Day. But I figured it's my soapbox, so I can throw in whatever irrelevant facts I want.

Aerin... um. OK, I'll start working on my very next post right now.

Precie said...

Preach on, brotha!

Anonymous said...

Has anyone heard what's actually going to happen with the debate Friday night? Is McCain playing chicken with Obama?

PJD said...

I'm guessing it will go on as planned since they apparently have reached an agreement. I guess McCain's rush back to Washington had the desired effect. What a leader!

Blogless Troll said...

Hey I don't call anyone out for stating fact.

By the way, I think the suspension of campaigning is a great idea. The platitude speeches, the commercials, get rid of them all I say. Obviously, McCain's doing it for purely political purposes, though I've already encountered those who choose to believe otherwise. But as for the general idea of less campaigning, I'm all for it.

Suspending or canceling the debate is a whole different matter. That reeks of something, I don't know what, fill in your own blank. In fact, if the run up to the election was nothing but debate after debate after debate, I think we'd learn a lot more about the candidates.

Precie said...

And the dance continues.

Are we laying bets on whether the debate will take place tonight? I agree...it's un-brave, at best, to suspend the debate. A few hours of debate to help the American public decide who should run the country for the next 4 years shouldn't be an undue burden or distraction for Presidential nominees.

Precie said...

The fun begins!