Tag: John McCain

According to MSNBC, McCain has erased Obama’s ten point lead over him.  If the senator from Illinois doesn’t start running like a Democrat, and stop acting like a fucking Republican, he’s going to find himself making one hell of a concession speech come November.  And that shall be bad in far more ways than one.

If Obama really wanted to win this thing, he could have distinguished himself by running to the left of Hillary Clinton — not to the right of her.  His failure to seal the deal, combined with his Republican-style attacks (not that Mrs. Clinton is innocent of following suit) and condescending dismissals of the challenges faced by minorities, indicates that he is fully prepared to blow it come November.  Consider this: Recent polls show that Ralph Nader may actually get up to five percent of the vote in November, and that a sizable number of Clinton supporters are likely to vote for McCain — twenty-eight percent, in fact.

That is how things stand at this point.  Can you imagine what shall happen if a bruised and battered Obama comes out of the Democratic National Convention, having alienated upwards of 33% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters, and with the media attacking him at every turn having smelled blood in the water?  Imagine that pathetic creature going up against McCain.  We cannot allow overconfidence to cost us this time.  There really is far too much at stake.

UPDATED @ 9:34 PM EDT

I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. So I ran over and said “Stop! don’t do it!”

“Why shouldn’t I?” he said.

I said: Well, there’s so much to live for!

He said: Like what?

I said: The Bush era is almost over! Are you a Democrat or a Republican?

He said: Democrat.

I said: Me too! Are you a liberal, a moderate, or a conservative?

He said: Liberal.

I said: Me too! Would you like a president like John McCain, who will talk about global warming, but offer only a weak industry friendly approach to dealing with it, or do you agree with the Democratic candidates that we need to reduce emissions by 80% by 2050?

He said: Reduce emissions by 80%!

I said: Me too! Would you like John McCain, who wouldn’t mind if the Iraq War lasted another 10,000 years, or would you prefer the approach of the Democratic candidates, who vow to start pulling us out next year??

He said: Out of Iraq!

Greg Mitchell of Editor & Publisher recalls a time when General David Petraeus was still capable of honesty. Referring to a New York Times Op-Ed by Boston University professor of history and international relations Andrew J. Bacevich, Mitchell writes:

What will end up being the most famous quote of the Iraq war? Remember, President Bush did not actually say “Mission Accomplished.” Perhaps Vice President Cheney’s “final throes” will take the prize. But increasingly, as the significance of Gen. David Petraeus grows (seemingly by the minute), it seems possible that it might up being his once-obscure 2003 remark to a well-known newspaper reporter: “Tell me how this ends.”

The quote was cited by Bacevich, who wrote:

The United States today finds itself with too much war for too few warriors. With the “surge” now giving way to a “pause,” the Iraq war has become an open-ended enterprise. American combat operations in Iraq could easily drag on for 10 more years, and a large-scale military presence might be required for decades, which may well break the Army while bankrupting the country. The pretense that there is a near-term solution to Iraq has become a pretext for ignoring the long-term disparity between military commitments and military capacity.

Bacevich wants an answer to Petraeus’s question. And no one else seems to be even asking it. Bacevich would also like Petraeus to explain approximately when the war ends, and how long our exhausted troops can continue to meet the demands being made of them, and how their strain will be alleviated.

But back to that old Petraeus quote, Mitchell writes:

cross post from the GOS

Just got done listening Rachel Maddow [humorously] tear into John McCain for his apparent inability to distinguish between Shiite and Sunni, Baathists, criminal gangs and the ever nebulous ‘Al-Qaeda in Iraq’. McCain’s continued need to ensure Iranians are somehow implicated in every action – even if it’s Baathists or common criminals committing them is yet another part of the narrative, echoed by Petraeus and Crocker today in Senate testimony.

Even with public prompting from Lieberman aside, these ‘errors’ being made by McCain are being buried by the traditional media in the US at every turn. The links to show ‘Iranian influence’ are tenuous at best, but yet continue to be offered for everything that has gone wrong in Iraq.

McCain [and the Bush administration] need the traditional media to keep burying these supposed “gaffes”. I say supposed, because I think McCain and these administration shills are doing these ridiculous conflations quite on purpose.

Now granted, over the past few weeks, things at Chez Clammy have been far from “normal”.  Tax season, wife about to give birth, new baby, lack of sleep, frequent trips to the store for stuff I didn’t even know existed a few days ago and a number of other things turned upside down make me think about what “approaching normal” would be here.  Maybe not ordering take out as much, maybe having the baby sleep through the night, maybe a regular work schedule….

So I did some double checking when I read about the latest McCain Moment when he said that things in Iraq over the past year brought a glimmer of “something approaching normal”, just to make sure that I haven’t been so far out of the loop.

 Let’s do the disclaimer first:  

I support Obama and want him to get the nomination over Hillary, and win the general election over McCain.

There.

That being said, I was mostly excoriated by the orange Obamabots when I posted this diary, back in February, to wit:  It Begins:  What Will Obama Do?.  They have a very “shoot the messenger” attitude over there, if it’s not blowing kisses at Obama.  I can’t abide such things.

At any rate, that now being “of record”, let’s turn to today’s Talking Points Memo and an article found there entitled:  Conservatives Planning New Attack Group for Election.  A’yup — it’s all about what’s already sort of started, but which hasn’t begun to really get going, yet:  an assault on Sen. Hopey Hope the likes of which will make mere Swiftboating look like a deluge of love letters.

The very first comment under the TPM article is the best one, too:

The issue is this…

                    Will the Democrats collectively wet their pants

                    at the sight of these attacks or will they

                    counter-attack?

                    JimboF

                   

And, no, I’m not “JimboF”.  

The answer to the question is, well, I don’t know.  When Ed Shultz called McCain a “warmonger” a couple of days ago, the Obama campaign attained light-speed in its rush to denounce Shultz.  So, I’m not sure what’s going to happen when the gloves really come off.  And the people at orange think that Hillary’s all diabolical and nasty.  She’s a piker compared to what the GOP’s going to do to Obama.  Brace yourselves . . .

Mu . . .

 Well, I’m disappointed in Obama.  Alas.  Cajones?  What Cajones?  Not that Hillary would be any better, mind you.

There’s a minor flap (which I wish would become a major one) over Ed Shultz calling McCain a “warmonger” at a Democratic Party fundraiser in Grand Forks, ND, which the Obama campaign  scrambled to repudiate, certainly out of a knee-knocking fear that Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh would say mean things about Obama –  horrors! (and as opposed to the nice things they say about Obama, and, for that matter, Hillary, now).

Gad.

Original article by John V. Walsh via Counterpunch.com:

If you’re anti-war, are you considering Ralph for President?  McCain’s not anti-war, and HRC and BO have both voted to fund the Iraq Occupation.  Is Ralph the choice?

Elizabeth Edwards knows who the real enemy is and what is at stake in this election.  While there are differences betweeen Obama’s and Clinton’s health care plan, both are far, far better than what John McCain has in store for us.

Last weekend, Elizabeth Edwards took on McCain:

Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of former Democratic presidential contender John Edwards, said she and John McCain have one thing in common: “Neither one of us would be covered by his health policy.”

LA Times

McCain’s chief advisor attacked, and today Elizabeth smacked them both down at Think Progress

More, after the fold.  

(also in orange: http://www.dailykos.com/story/…