Just how mentally fit is John McCain?
This week Christopher Hitchens, no-holds-barred writer and unapologetic supporter of the invasion of Iraq, endorsed Barack Obama. As his headline blares in Slate, "McCain lacks the character and temperament to be president. And Palin is just a disgrace."
Referring to the town hall debate, he observed that McCain seemed to be "someone suffering from an increasingly obvious and embarrassing deficit, both cognitive and physical. And the only public events that have so far featured his absurd choice of running mate have shown her to be a deceiving and unscrupulous woman utterly unversed in any of the needful political discourses...
Hitchens continues, "McCain occasionally remembers to stress matters like honor and to disown innuendos and slanders, but this only makes him look both more senile and more cynical, since it cannot (can it?) be other than his wish and design that he has engaged a deputy who does the innuendos and slanders for him."
In this same town hall debate, McCain called Obama "that one" and today in Waterloo, Iowa on "Meet the Press" with Tom Brokaw he was unable to remember the name of his endorser George Schultz who he finally had to refer to as "one other."
It was a jumpy, forced-jovial, even rude McCain facing Brokaw as he dismissed the endorsement of Obama on last week's "Meet the Press" by GOP Secretary of State Colin Powell.
McCain countered by listing his own five former secretaries of state who endorsed him.... "Jim Baker, Henry Kissinger, Larry Eagleburger, and Al Haig".... and then, ".....uh," and he started listing them over again. When he couldn't come up with the name of the 5th, the said "and one other."
Then, as Brokaw started to move on to another subject, McCain burst out "George Schultz!"
McCain "dismissed the sour poll numbers that show him trailing in his White House race against Democrat Barack Obama and said his campaign is 'doing fine.' " (WaPo)
He rejected the widespread consensus.... even among a host of influential conservatives.... that Sarah Palin is not qualified for the job and is hurting his campaign.... " 'I don't defend her. I praise her. She is exactly what Washington needs,' he said, and was equally dismissive of criticism about the Republican Party spending $150,000 on her wardrobe at high-end retailers.
But, as Judith Warner points out today about Palin and the status of women in politics in "No Ordinary Woman," (NYTimes) "...women will truly have arrived when the most mediocre among us will be able to do just as well as the most mediocre of men."
Based on that sad observation, it seems McCain-Palin are a matched set.
Vote! It matters!
Showing posts with label Colin Powell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Colin Powell. Show all posts
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
McSame Blasts Bush
At this point in the arm-wrestle for the White House where brute exaggeration is too often employed, it is prudent to take only the words of the candidates themselves.
That is why John McCain's long litany aboard his Straight Talk Air last Wednesday is so revealing as "McCain Lambastes Bush Years.... "We Just Let Things Get Completely Out of Hand.' " (Washington Times)
And, this isn't just the slant of McCain's scorned "liberal media." As they say, "thanks to the miracle of technology" McCain's frustrated outburst was caught on tape by the Washington Times reporter.
Here's what McCain.... trying to distance himself from the eight-year reign of his party's President Bush.... had to say:
"Spending, the conduct of the war in Iraq for years, growth in the size of government, larger than any time since the Great Society, laying a $10 trillion debt on future generations of America, owing $500 billion to China, obviously, failure to both enforce and modernize the [financial] regulatory agencies that were designed for the 1930s and certainly not for the 21st century, failure to address the issue of climate change seriously.
"Those are just some of them.... We just let things get completely out of hand."
McCain also noted how the Bush administration is failing to pay for expanding Medicare and abusing executive powers. In short, McCain lashed out at The Decider for dragging the Republican Party to the brink of a massive electoral defeat while leaving the country in a shambles.
So Bush did this all by himself? Where was Senator McSame during those eight disastrous years?
According to boasts by McCain during the 2008 campaign.... when he needed the GOP base and parroted the GOP "trickle down" mantra that the "fundamentals of our economy are strong" .... McCain opined that President Bush did "a great job in leading the country," and that he had "voted with the president 90 percent of the time." McCain strongly affirmed that on "transcendent" issues, "the most important issues of our day," that he was "totally in agreement and support of President Bush." (YouTube)
But now, with the country teetering on the edge of financial collapse, McSame is trying to distance himself from The Decider's deeds.
His attempts to avoid blame are being trampled by the stampede of GOP faithfuls distancing themselves from McCain with endorsement of Barack Obama for president.... Christopher Buckley, son of conservative-movement icon WFB, and a now former-columnist for the National Review; Colin Powell, GOP Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Bush's first Secretary of State; and the latest Bush insider to do a mea culpa for his role in the administration, former White House press secretary Scott McClellan.
Now it's the electorate's turn to speak. For an angry, misled and lied-to country, an accounting is coming.
November 4. Vote. It matters!
That is why John McCain's long litany aboard his Straight Talk Air last Wednesday is so revealing as "McCain Lambastes Bush Years.... "We Just Let Things Get Completely Out of Hand.' " (Washington Times)
And, this isn't just the slant of McCain's scorned "liberal media." As they say, "thanks to the miracle of technology" McCain's frustrated outburst was caught on tape by the Washington Times reporter.
Here's what McCain.... trying to distance himself from the eight-year reign of his party's President Bush.... had to say:
"Spending, the conduct of the war in Iraq for years, growth in the size of government, larger than any time since the Great Society, laying a $10 trillion debt on future generations of America, owing $500 billion to China, obviously, failure to both enforce and modernize the [financial] regulatory agencies that were designed for the 1930s and certainly not for the 21st century, failure to address the issue of climate change seriously.
"Those are just some of them.... We just let things get completely out of hand."
McCain also noted how the Bush administration is failing to pay for expanding Medicare and abusing executive powers. In short, McCain lashed out at The Decider for dragging the Republican Party to the brink of a massive electoral defeat while leaving the country in a shambles.
So Bush did this all by himself? Where was Senator McSame during those eight disastrous years?
According to boasts by McCain during the 2008 campaign.... when he needed the GOP base and parroted the GOP "trickle down" mantra that the "fundamentals of our economy are strong" .... McCain opined that President Bush did "a great job in leading the country," and that he had "voted with the president 90 percent of the time." McCain strongly affirmed that on "transcendent" issues, "the most important issues of our day," that he was "totally in agreement and support of President Bush." (YouTube)
But now, with the country teetering on the edge of financial collapse, McSame is trying to distance himself from The Decider's deeds.
His attempts to avoid blame are being trampled by the stampede of GOP faithfuls distancing themselves from McCain with endorsement of Barack Obama for president.... Christopher Buckley, son of conservative-movement icon WFB, and a now former-columnist for the National Review; Colin Powell, GOP Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Bush's first Secretary of State; and the latest Bush insider to do a mea culpa for his role in the administration, former White House press secretary Scott McClellan.
Now it's the electorate's turn to speak. For an angry, misled and lied-to country, an accounting is coming.
November 4. Vote. It matters!
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Al-Qaeda, McSame and Trophy Vice
It's tempting to dish about the latest Straight Talk hypocrisy.... Sarah "Hockey Mom" Palin was Barbied-up for her "everywoman" appearances on the trail by the National Republican Committee to the tune of.... are you ready for this working moms.... $150,000 for clothes, hair and makeup. And, at Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus, no less. Has the hockey rink gone all "bling" on us?
We'll also resist the impulse to wonder why Clothes-horse Sarah doesn't understand the job description for the high office to which she aspires.... it's in the Constitution, Sarah. The vice president is to become president should the need arise, and can cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate. That's it.
But, for the fourth time, Palin gave the same answer when asked about what she thinks the job of vice president is about. Here is her latest answer: ..."They're in charge of the U.S. Senate so if they want to they can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes..." Evidently it's hard to deprogram pageant-patter.
No, the news that should grab our attention today is about endorsements. Not the ringing endorsement of Barack Obama by The Decider's first Secretary of State, Colin Powell. No, this is about an endorsement of John McCain, and a celebration of our financial crisis... by al-Qaeda.
As reported today in the Washington Post, "Al-Qaeda is watching the U.S. stock market's downward slide with something akin to jubilation, with its leaders hailing the financial crisis as a vindication of its strategy of crippling America's economy through endless, costly foreign wars against Islamist insurgents.
"And at least some of its supporters think Sen. John McCain is the presidential candidate best suited to continue that trend.
" 'Al-Qaeda will have to support McCain in the coming election,' said a commentary posted Monday on the extremist Web site al-Hesbah, which is closely linked to the terrorist group. It said the Arizona Republican would continue the 'failing march of his predecessor,' President Bush.
"The Web commentary was one of several posted by Taliban or al-Qaeda-allied groups in recent days that trumpeted the global financial crisis and predicted further decline for the United States and other Western powers.
"In language that was by turns mocking and ominous, the newest posting credited al-Qaeda with having lured Washington into a trap that had 'exhausted its resources and bankrupted its economy.' It further suggested that a terrorist strike might swing the election to McCain and guarantee an expansion of U.S. military commitments in the Islamic world."
They're right. Bush's misbegotten war in Iraq has been a recruiting dream for al-Qaeda and the Taliban. And, McSame would trumpet a terrorist attack before the election as a reason to continue Bush's foreign adventures by electing him commander-in-chief.
Just as the Iraq war has depleted our military and financial resources, the Bush administration's other corporations-first-middle-class-last policies have resulted in the gutting of the economy.... transferring wealth to the already wealthy then going to already hard-pressed taxpayers to bail out the reckless raiders..... over $1 trillion in corporate welfare. This is in addition to the exploding national debt and trade deficit.
Oh, yes.... the terrorists out there are pulling for McSame and his trophy vice, Palin.
November 4. Vote. It matters!
We'll also resist the impulse to wonder why Clothes-horse Sarah doesn't understand the job description for the high office to which she aspires.... it's in the Constitution, Sarah. The vice president is to become president should the need arise, and can cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate. That's it.
But, for the fourth time, Palin gave the same answer when asked about what she thinks the job of vice president is about. Here is her latest answer: ..."They're in charge of the U.S. Senate so if they want to they can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes..." Evidently it's hard to deprogram pageant-patter.
No, the news that should grab our attention today is about endorsements. Not the ringing endorsement of Barack Obama by The Decider's first Secretary of State, Colin Powell. No, this is about an endorsement of John McCain, and a celebration of our financial crisis... by al-Qaeda.
As reported today in the Washington Post, "Al-Qaeda is watching the U.S. stock market's downward slide with something akin to jubilation, with its leaders hailing the financial crisis as a vindication of its strategy of crippling America's economy through endless, costly foreign wars against Islamist insurgents.
"And at least some of its supporters think Sen. John McCain is the presidential candidate best suited to continue that trend.
" 'Al-Qaeda will have to support McCain in the coming election,' said a commentary posted Monday on the extremist Web site al-Hesbah, which is closely linked to the terrorist group. It said the Arizona Republican would continue the 'failing march of his predecessor,' President Bush.
"The Web commentary was one of several posted by Taliban or al-Qaeda-allied groups in recent days that trumpeted the global financial crisis and predicted further decline for the United States and other Western powers.
"In language that was by turns mocking and ominous, the newest posting credited al-Qaeda with having lured Washington into a trap that had 'exhausted its resources and bankrupted its economy.' It further suggested that a terrorist strike might swing the election to McCain and guarantee an expansion of U.S. military commitments in the Islamic world."
They're right. Bush's misbegotten war in Iraq has been a recruiting dream for al-Qaeda and the Taliban. And, McSame would trumpet a terrorist attack before the election as a reason to continue Bush's foreign adventures by electing him commander-in-chief.
Just as the Iraq war has depleted our military and financial resources, the Bush administration's other corporations-first-middle-class-last policies have resulted in the gutting of the economy.... transferring wealth to the already wealthy then going to already hard-pressed taxpayers to bail out the reckless raiders..... over $1 trillion in corporate welfare. This is in addition to the exploding national debt and trade deficit.
Oh, yes.... the terrorists out there are pulling for McSame and his trophy vice, Palin.
November 4. Vote. It matters!
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
1964-2008: End of an Error
Today Richard Cohen takes us for a ride. Not exactly a carnival ride, but having the feel of the roller coaster Rise and Fall of Rome. The rise and fall Cohen traces is of the G.O.P.... once known as the Grand Old Party. Now reviled as the Grand Oil Party, the Grumpy Old PooBahs and even the Greedy Oligarch Pirates.
The Republican party is stuck in reverse, so they "Party Like It's 1964." (WaPo) Cohen explains, "It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Bush and now John McCain have constructed a mean, grumpy, exclusive, narrow-minded and altogether retrograde Republican Party. It has the sharp scent of the old Barry Goldwater GOP -- the angry one of 1964 and not the one perfumed by nostalgia -- that is home, by design or mere dumb luck, to those who think that Obama is 'The Madrassian Candidate.' Karl Rove, take a bow.
"It is also that the GOP, under Rove and his disciples in the McCain campaign, has not only driven out ethnic and racial minorities but a vast bloc of voters who, quite bluntly, want nothing to do with Sarah Palin. For moderates everywhere, she remains the single best reason to vote against McCain."
And beyond Rove and Palin, the G.O.P.'s "flattering of the ignorant on matters of undisputed scientific consensus -- evolution, for instance -- and, from the mouth of Palin, its celebration of drab provincialism, have sharpened the division between red and blue. Red is the color of yesterday."
From the hard-edged anti-New Deal Goldwater campaign of 1964, to the broken promise of The Decider in 2000 to be a "compassionate conservative" who would bring people together, the G.O.P. has now come full circle.... back to an angry McNasty.
Before he died, Goldwater softened his views as he saw the G.O.P going badly off course. He became dismayed by the hijacking of the party by the religious right.... vocally opposing their crusades against abortion and gay rights.
Goldwater must have foreseen that this holy-roller coaster could only end at the bottom where party-riders of principle.... from the most conservative like Christopher Buckley to moderates like Colin Powell.... would have to depart in all conscience.
McSame's Republican party now wanders in the campaign-wilderness of McCarthyistic witch-hunts for anti-Americans.... trying to tar Barack Obama as someone who "pals around with terrorists," and mining for votes by casting only small towns as the real America.
The Republican party is stuck in reverse, so they "Party Like It's 1964." (WaPo) Cohen explains, "It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Bush and now John McCain have constructed a mean, grumpy, exclusive, narrow-minded and altogether retrograde Republican Party. It has the sharp scent of the old Barry Goldwater GOP -- the angry one of 1964 and not the one perfumed by nostalgia -- that is home, by design or mere dumb luck, to those who think that Obama is 'The Madrassian Candidate.' Karl Rove, take a bow.
"It is also that the GOP, under Rove and his disciples in the McCain campaign, has not only driven out ethnic and racial minorities but a vast bloc of voters who, quite bluntly, want nothing to do with Sarah Palin. For moderates everywhere, she remains the single best reason to vote against McCain."
And beyond Rove and Palin, the G.O.P.'s "flattering of the ignorant on matters of undisputed scientific consensus -- evolution, for instance -- and, from the mouth of Palin, its celebration of drab provincialism, have sharpened the division between red and blue. Red is the color of yesterday."
From the hard-edged anti-New Deal Goldwater campaign of 1964, to the broken promise of The Decider in 2000 to be a "compassionate conservative" who would bring people together, the G.O.P. has now come full circle.... back to an angry McNasty.
Before he died, Goldwater softened his views as he saw the G.O.P going badly off course. He became dismayed by the hijacking of the party by the religious right.... vocally opposing their crusades against abortion and gay rights.
Goldwater must have foreseen that this holy-roller coaster could only end at the bottom where party-riders of principle.... from the most conservative like Christopher Buckley to moderates like Colin Powell.... would have to depart in all conscience.
McSame's Republican party now wanders in the campaign-wilderness of McCarthyistic witch-hunts for anti-Americans.... trying to tar Barack Obama as someone who "pals around with terrorists," and mining for votes by casting only small towns as the real America.
For our tattered and bruised nation it has been a dangerous and costly ride.
November 4. Vote. It matters!
Sunday, October 19, 2008
A Spooky Transition....
The winner of the presidential contest will face a scary Herculean task on November 5.
An "Arduous Transition Awaits Next President" (WaPo) spells out the steep climb facing the incumbent.
Thanks to the Bush administration's radical-ideology agenda buttressed with monstrously failed policies.
McCain promises to "reach across the aisle" and "new blood" in his administration (why not in his campaign tactics and campaign staff now?). The narrow agenda of McCain's campaign is designed to strengthen the GOP's far-right base. It's a matter of record that McSame voted with the Bush far-right corporate-favoring administration 90 percent of the time.
Obama also has promises to keep, and miles to go.... But, Obama already has in place an extensive transition team to enable him to hit the ground running. For all of his big talk, McCain admittedly hasn't been able to strongly focus on the transition as he searches for a winning gimmick.... like his "you betacha" VP choice.... like Joe the Plumber.... and deploys his divisive Ayers-smear Swiftboating tactics in the home stretch.
As Republican Colin Powell, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the first Gulf War and a former Secretary of State for the current administration, said so succinctly this morning on NBC's Meet the Press with his endorsement of Obama... "after watching Sarah Palin for seven weeks I don't think she's ready to be president of the United States, which is the job of the Vice President."
A no-where-close-to-ready Sarah Palin was 72-year-old McCain's first big "presidential" decision. Why should we believe his judgment starting November 5 would be any better?
November 4. Vote. It matters!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)