It's A McCain Thing, You Wouldn't Understand, But Then, Neither Does He

Arizona senator and former Republican presidential candidate told Newsweek recently "I never considered myself a maverick".
What McCain appparently considered considering himself was a Jeep, so he could appropriate "It's a McCain thing, you wouldn't understand", until an aide told him Jeep was a registered trademark of the Daimler-Chrysler Corporation.
"What I really meant to say," the mentally faltering politican stated, "was that I'm a 1969 Dodge Dart Swinger. Vroom!"
Aside from the missing McCain maverick meme, also conspicuous in it's absence was one-time Republican political operative Joe "Remember Me?" The Plumber Wurzelbacher who doesn't want anything to do with Sen. McCain. "He messed up my life," Wurzelbacher claimed, "Made me record a shitty country music album, ghost wrote my book then told people not to buy it, told me not to pay $1,182 in taxes to the state of Ohio, and cock blocked me when I was trying to nail Sarah Palin." So much for personal responsibility.
Of course, being a maverick means that sometimes you vote with the opposition, and in these days of super-mega-hyper-polarized politics, that doesn't fly. So, at the risk of looking more ridiculous than he looked two years ago, McCain has once again lost himself in his quest for office.

Post Debate Thoughts

What happens after the election? One of the two major party candidates will go on to the White House, while the other will return to the Senate. This was what I started thinking about last night while I was watching the debate (and liveblogging over at The Guys From Area 51). After being puzzled by the whole Joe The Plumber incident, I began to wonder, who would be most productive in the Senate should they lose the election?
Barack Obama, I believe would lose as gracefully as he has run his campaign, and go back to the Senate where he will continue on.
McCain, however, will not be as gracious in defeat. McCain has already blamed Obama for the negativity of his own campaign, repeating the charge again last night at the debate. And while the GOP keeps making racist attacks on Obama, again and again, last night McCain claimed his feelings were hurt by some statements made about him at Obama rallies by Obamaniacs. Suddenly, Sen. McCain has become sensitive.
Or the biggest baby in the world.

Don't Cry For Her, She's A Pitbull. With Lipstick.

The McCain campaign has been an abject lesson in judgment. Bad judgment. Years from now, the McCain campaign will still be used as a punchline to a myriad of jokes about bad judgment.
The idea to send Sarah Palin to a Philadelphia Flyers game to drop the first puck was merely the latest in a string of judgment calls that have failed the McCain campaign. In a town where Philly fans threw snowballs at Santa Claus and booed Beyonce, did they really think this would go over?
Another example of the bad judgment would be the selection of Palin as a running mate. They couldn't have vetted her too closely, other wise that whole "Troopergate" thing would have popped up. And now Palin ( a 72 year old heartbeat away from the presidency should McCain get elected) has shown that she too can exercise bad judgment by engag(ing) in repeated inappropriate contact with Walt Monegan and other high-ranking officials at the Department of Public Safety, even after Monegan and his peers constantly warned these Palin disciples that the contact was inappropriate and probably unlawful.
The McCain campaign also decided to grandstand on the financial bailout mess, "suspending" it's campaign for no other reason to call Joe Lieberman so McCain could claim he was reaching across the aisle to solve this problem, which, in another exercise of bad judgment, they blamed on "earmarks".
But perhaps the one judgment call that has sealed their fate has been the one to play up a non-existent link between William Ayers and Barack Obama as one where Obama is "palling around with terrorists". While this has played well with inbred Bible Thumping non-readers, even conservatives admit McCain is running a stupid campaign. And using Palin as their attack dog?

John McCain Pals Aound With War Criminal

Following a 2,100 word article in the New York Times (which total discredit any claims to the contrary), Sarah Palin accused Sen. Obama of "palling around with terrorists". Two can play that game.
Conservatives decry the use of politically correct language, how would they feel if they knew that the invasion of Iraq was a war crime. As well as using torture. That would make George W. Bush a war criminal. And who's that in the above picture, embracing a war criminal? None other than Palin's running mate, John McCain.

Right now,the US is using the MeK to strike inside Iran. The Mek is a terrorist organization. Since George W Bush is commander-in-chief, he has authorized the use of terrorism by the MeK. That makes George Bush a terrorist leader.
John McCain asked last spring “How can you countenance someone who was engaged in bombings that could have or did kill innocent people?”
How, indeed, Sen. McCain?

Closing Up Shop

Taking another step towards total irrelevancy, John McCain has abandoned Michigan.

McCain will go off TV in Michigan, stop dropping mail there and send most of his staff to more competitive states, including Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida.

I say good. I hated having to explain to my kids how a "war hero" like McCain could outright lie in his ads and still claim to be an honorable person. The McCain campaign is getting ready to implode, what with him terminating interviews, as well as yelling at reporters, but to give up a state like Michigan, well, he might as well throw in the towel.
There is talk that McCain might be able to take Michigan,having beat George Bush there in the primaries in 2000, but I think he won that election because some people were voting against Bush rather than for McCain. And while people here might not be too fond of Gov. Granholm, they disdain George Bush more. To , the election's over, and Obama won!

Weathervane McCain Can't Catch A Breeze

Okay America, and you Democrats in the House, ( you know, the ones who are to blame, but not really, except deep down on the same level as Dick Cheney's undisclosed location), John McCain is mad. he forgets sometimes why he is mad, or what he is mad about, but, he's steaming. He may actually suspend his campaign again!. Funny how he always does that right before a debate, this one being the Palin/Biden VP debate which Palin has spent all day today cramming for.
But don't accuse McCain of grandstanding. Just because he didn't contribute anything to last Thursday's meeting with the president, doesn't mean he won't take credit for a bailout, even when it doesn't pass. I guess McCain is the only one in Washington who thinks he's leading his party on it.
All in all, it's hard to say whether John McCain is fast tracking the Straight Talk Express into irrelevancy, or just trying to make it into the Guinness Book Of World Records for saying "Country First" the most times in a week.

McCain's Tax Plan Rejected By His Economic Guru

John McCain on Alan Greenspan:

"Get ol' Alan Greenspan -- whether he's alive or dead. And um if he's dead, we'll put dark glasses on him and prop him up like they did at 'Weekend at Bernie's.'"

winkandanod at Washington Monthly:John McCain, of all people, should not reference "Weekend at Bernie's."

The potential karmic/ironic blowback is just too strong.
Perhaps this is why Greenspan rejected McCain's tax plan
(Cross-posted at The American Insurgency)

Maverick Thinking Or Pretzeled Logic?

WALLACE: ....... You've run an ad charging, perhaps accurately, that he got help buying his home from a convicted felon.

What happened to your pledge to run a respectful campaign?

MCCAIN: Oh, I think it's respectful. But first of all, I also at that time asked Senator Obama to go to town hall meetings with me. We could appear in front of the American people the way Barry Goldwater and Jack Kennedy had pledged to do.

I'll tell you, that changes the tenor of a campaign, I know because I've done them in the past. And unfortunately Senator Obama refused to go to town hall meetings with me and appear before the American people so we can both answer their questions and comments.

There's a bruise on my sternum from when my jaw dropped following John McCain making this statement that, in effect, McCain has a right to go negative because Obama refused to do townhall meetings (which McCain prefers, and does well at)with McCain. Is this over reaction? Well how about John McCain canceling a scheduled appearance on Larry King Live because a journalist on CNN insist Tucker Bounds answer a question concerning Sarah Palin's lack of experience versus Barack Obama's, which McCain felt "crossed a line". Yeah, the line between propaganda and actual journalism. You would think being a maverick, McCain wouldn't recognize any line to be crossed, but when you're a Republican you live and die by your double standards.
Consider these inflammatory remarks by Sarah Palin's pastor:

We are in a time and a season of war, and we need to think like that. We need to develop that instinct. We need to develop as believers the instinct that we are at war, and that war is contending for your faith. ... Jesus called us to die.

No wonder the website with his speeches and sermons has been shut down.

The Party's Over Before It Even Begins

The McCain-Palin ticket plays out like one bad sitcom: He's the gruff but hotheaded senior senator from Arizona, she's his impossibly hot but shrewish(running)mate, can they learn to get along? Wackiness ensues!
In the meantime, the opening ceremonies for the Republican convention have been canceled due to Hurricane Gustav heading towards New Orleans. I guess one mass of hot air threatening the country was enough! Maybe no one will notice all the missing Senate Republicans, avoiding being branded by the brand the Bush administration completely destroyed, in part due to their police state tactics.

From The People Who Brought You Ketchup As A Vegetable, Pt. 2

A couple posts back, I ran a lampoon of John McCain's proposed health care policy based on statements he made about sunscreen. Well, that lampoon made more sense than the latest health care proposal put out by the McCain campaign. The McCain proposal would require the Bureau of Census to reclassify everybody by how they would pay their hospital bills. Since emergency rooms by law cannot turn a patient away, the McCain camp reasons that everybody is covered with some form of health insurance, therefore, there are no uninsured Americans. No, I am not making this up.
So, just like the Reagan administration had ketchup reclassified as a vegetable to fill federal requirements for school lunches, McCain wants to reclassify those without health insurance as insured based on a law that is for emergency use only. That's not going to drive up health care costs at all, what with every ER in the country filled with people who need treatment for non-emergency injuries and illnesses forced to wait with those in dire need of medical attention. This isn't a plan, it's pure and utter contempt for middle and working class people from somebody whose health care is provided by taxpayers, the very people of whom McCain displays contempt.
I guess John McCain feels we should all marry a wealthy heiress who's family fortune was based on her father's connections to organized crime. And perhaps, McCain has forgotten that for five and a half years, his health care needs were provided to him.

McCain's Health Care Policy Is Nothing But Sunscreen

(Tip o' the cap to the wonderful folk at The Carpetbagger Report)
In a speech last week, Sen. John McCain outlined his health care proposal:

He urged "all Americans to wear sunscreen, particularly this summer, to stay out of the sun as much as possible

Now McCain has a position that’s frankly ludicrous. He suggested if we all wore sunscreen, hat we would solve the problem. Think about it. You ought to take that clip. I think that clip is far more devastating than today because it’s loony toons. What is he thinking?
Sure, wearing sunscreen may prevent burns that may lead to melanoma, but does nothing to help the nearly 47 million Americans with out health insurance coverage, nor does it do anything to stop the rising cost of health care for all Americans. In fact his whole policy is just one big handout to Big Pharma. Americans need solutions for existing problems, not ones that may occur down the road. It's as if suggesting keeping our tires inflated will solve all energy problems.
(Cross posted at The American Insurgency)

In The Seventies

The thing about John McCain is not only is he in his 70's, he's also helplessly mired in the 70's decade. First, he likens Barack Obama to Jimmy Carter, now, even worse, we find out McCain is also a big Abba fan. I don't expect him to be a fan of hip-hop, or My Chemical Romance, but if you're going to get all retro, why choose the campest, kitschiest band of the seventies? The fact that he is using this as a way to woo disaffected Clinton supporters says a lot about how out of it they are.
McCain, on his way to wrapping up the GOP nomination, started playing ABBA's Take A Chance On Me at his rallies, and that's what we'd be doing, taking a chance that he won't continue the detrimental failed policies of the Bush administration. Except he will, because he has said he will.
Let's hope that in November, McCain meets his Waterloo