Recently in McCain: Senior Moments Category
"There's guards at the on-ramps, armed to the teeth. And you may case the grounds from the cascades to Puget Sound but you are not permitted to leave." Well, it's not falling off the stage, I guess. But McCain's bizarre mix-up on the campaign trail today, an electoral coda for the "all-POW, all-the-time" candidacy if I ever saw one, clearly seems to signal a politician -- and campaign -- in serious decline. At this point, McCain's presidential bid is rapidly progressing from appalling to just plain sad.
(That's Obama, our next president, in the spotlight.) So, as a convenient appetizer to next's week convention in Denver, Sen. Barack Obama swung by nearby Oscar Smith High School -- my little sister's alma mater, not five minutes away from my current roost here in Chesapeake -- for a town hall meeting last night. And, not only did I manage to procure a ticket, but my mom and I, for whatever reason, had the requisite "look" to get gold-banded into the premium section, right behind the Senator. (For the full ninety minutes of us nodding along and clapping, the video of the event is here and below.)
As far as Sen. Obama's talk went, it was about what you'd expect, if you've been keeping up with the election so far. It focused heavily on the economy and bread-and-butter issues such as health insurance and education, gave the GOP a lot of guff for their usual idiocies and fear-mongering antics, and was also considerably more earthy and populist than much of his primary rhetoric. (But that's the general for you, and particularly when you're facing a candidate amazingly unable to count up his number of McMansions.) In any case, at the end of the proceedings, I was close enough to shake the Senator's hand on the rope line, and got to tell him "I'm looking forward to January." And, hey, aren't we all?
So, however my flitting around the convention hall turns out next week, I'm happy to say I got in a choice Obama sighting before even getting on the plane to Denver. (And now I feel much less bad about missing out on tix for the nomination speech next Thursday.)
Sure, Reagan did this all the time. Still, it takes either a man whose memory is too wracked by age to be president -- or an inveterate liar -- to simply make up this kind of story. (See also Reagan.) Apparently, John McCain's heartwarming tale of the Christian guard in Hanoi, which he related again over the weekend at the mutual kissing of Rick Warren's ring, was in fact lifted from Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago. (Apparently McCain, and/or his ghostwriters, are fans of the man.) Uh, Senator McCain, did you really feel you had to embellish your time in a Vietnamese prison camp? The situation should speak for itself.
For what it's worth, McCain is blaming the controversy on "the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd." Well, speaking as a member of the prObama World of Warcraft crowd (really, Senator, you're dating yourself -- again), I should note that the story actually originated with the Freepers several years ago, once the mythical maverick felt the need to start peddling false wares to the nation's conservative Christians. For shame, Senator.
Update: Forget Solzhenitsyn. According to scholars (via TPM), this tale isn't from The Gulag Archipelago at all, but rather seems to be a right-wing fairy tale emanating from the likes of Chuck Colson and Jesse Helms.
"We've seen this movie before,' Obama said at a town hall in Rapid City, S.D. 'A leader who pursues the wrong course, who is unwilling to change course, who ignores the evidence. Now, just like George Bush, John McCain is refusing to admit that he's made a mistake.'" One more from the past week: He already has trouble distinguishing Sunni from Shia. Now, it seems, GOP nominee John McCain is woefully unaware of our current troop levels overseas, and yet -- like a certain prez we could mention -- even refuses to admit he made a simple error. Uh, been there, done that.
Some amusing pilfered links: Via The Late Adopter, watch every opening Simpsons couch gag, in just under 5 minutes. And, by way of all over the place (see Ted, The Oak, Supercres, Web Goddess, PCJM, etc.) do you know what Velcro, slinkies, Alaska, and Scientology have in common...?
"Senator Clinton says that she and Senator McCain have passed a 'Commander in Chief test' – not because of the judgments they’ve made, but because of the years they’ve spent in Washington. She made a similar argument when she said her vote for war was based on her experience at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. But here is the stark reality: there is a security gap in this country – a gap between the rhetoric of those who claim to be tough on national security, and the reality of growing insecurity caused by their decisions. A gap between Washington experience, and the wisdom of Washington’s judgments. A gap between the rhetoric of those who tout their support for our troops, and the overburdened state of our military...We have a security gap when candidates say they will follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell, but refuse to follow him where he actually is."
On the fifth anniversary of the war, Sen. Obama delivers a speech on Iraq and national security in Fayetteville, NC, and takes time to poke McCain for his apparent and frightening misunderstanding of Mideast affairs. "Just yesterday, we heard Sen. McCain confuse Sunni and Shiite, Iran and Al Qaeda. Maybe that is why he voted to go to war with a country that had no Al Qaeda ties. Maybe that is why he completely fails to understand that the war in Iraq has done more to embolden America’s enemies than any strategic choice that we have made in decades." Really, McCain's oft-repeated error smacks of Dubya-level incompetence, and would be all over the news today if we were in general election mode, rather than collectively continuing to assuage Sen. Clinton's vanity, by assuming she still has a chance. For shame.
