The Candidate About Which We Know Least
August 17th, 2008, 7:36 PM EDT
His name is John McCain. And here are some nuggets from Frank Rich’s superb New York Times Sunday column:
- What is widely known is the skin-deep, out-of-date McCain image. As this fairy tale has it, the hero who survived the Hanoi Hilton has stood up as rebelliously in Washington as he did to his Vietnamese captors. He strenuously opposed the execution of the Iraq war; he slammed the president’s response to Katrina; he fought the “agents of intolerance” of the religious right; he crusaded against the G.O.P. House leader Tom DeLay, the criminal lobbyist Jack Abramoff and their coterie of influence-peddlers.With the exception of McCain’s imprisonment in Vietnam, every aspect of this profile in courage is inaccurate or defunct.
For Example:
- McCain never called for Donald Rumsfeld to be fired and didn’t start criticizing the war plan until late August 2003, nearly four months after “Mission Accomplished.”
- On the day Hurricane Katrina hit, McCain laughed it up with the oblivious president at a birthday photo-op in Arizona. McCain didn’t get to New Orleans for another six months and didn’t sharply express public criticism of the Bush response to the calamity until this April, when he traveled to the Gulf Coast in desperate search of election-year pageantry surrounding him with black extras.
- On Monday McCain is scheduled to appear at an Atlanta fund-raiser being promoted by Ralph Reed, who is not only the former aide de camp to one of the agents of intolerance McCain once vilified (Pat Robertson) but is also the former Abramoff acolyte showcased in McCain’s own Senate investigation of Indian casino lobbying.
- Though the McCain campaign announced a new no-lobbyists policy three months after The Washington Post’s February report that lobbyists were “essentially running” the whole operation, the fact remains that McCain’s top officials and fund-raisers have past financial ties to nearly every domestic and foreign flashpoint, from Fannie Mae to Blackwater to Ahmad Chalabi to the government of Georgia. No sooner does McCain flip-flop on oil drilling than a bevy of Hess Oil family members and executives, not to mention a lowly Hess office manager and his wife, each give a maximum $28,500 to the Republican Party.
McCain was in full “myth mode” at Rick Warren’s Saturday night event. It’s even questionable how much of the “McCain Myth” is being created as we speak. One thing is for sure: Republicans are banking on convincing Americans that we’re safer with the candidate we know than the one we don’t. The quesiton is: Which one do we really know best?
first
August 17th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
2ND! Well the [weak] one with NO experience in all matters government is Osama Obama.
Hilary says so! lol.
We KNOW that! BEST!
August 17th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Q. Does anyone know the difference between Katrina and the Floods in Illinois?
A. Nothing – both very devistating to the residents.
Why was Katrina such a big deal, and glorified by the Liberal Left media then?
Look at the demographics of the people who live in each area.
The “fightin Illini” never complained, never looked for gov’t help, never shot at rescue teams, no crime, e.g. rape/murder/robbery. They shut up and worked thier asses off, took advantage of the help that was offered and got thier lives back on track. These people are tough, smart and came together as a community. The people of N.O. should take note and take a lesson from these people.
You Libs are always looking to the Gov’t to bail you out. McCain and Bush should have never gone to N.O. Suck it up and tough it out. Quit your bitchen, Im tired of paying for you lazy ass slugs hangin on the porch waitin for your gov’t check.
August 17th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
McCain was NOT in the cone of silence for the 1st half hour of the Saddleback program. He BROKE THE RULES and arrived late! It makes you wonder. He pandered the whole time! Warren just let him go on with his stump speech, even though he warned Obama not to. I’m sick of his “my friends”, his goofy Bush smile and his lies!
August 17th, 2008 at 11:55 pm