New Flash:

"We aren't the only people taking notice that John McCain is breaking campaign finance law by blowing past public finance spending limits.

We've gathered over 22,000 signatures on out complaint to the Federal Election Commission, and on Wednesday CNN picked up the story.

Check out the CNN video and let your friends know about our efforts to keep the John McCain's campaign within the limits of the law.

http://action.firedoglake.com/page/pt/mccainfec/

With this momentum on our side we've moved our mass-signature delivery to early next week and set an aggressive goal of gathering 30,000 signatures before we drop of them off to the FEC.

Please take a moment to pass the news along to your friends and ask them to sign the letter to the FEC.

http://action.firedoglake.com/page/pt/mccainfec/"

What makes the fact that this was a recycled speech all the more frightening in the context of McCain the potential President is his incompetence at reading it. It was bad enough when he might have had the excuse that it was a newly written speech that he had not had time to learn without stumbling; that even gave it a patina of versimilitude; the reluctant leader, taking on the challenge because no one else is capable of the task but longing to return to the homestead before planting time. Now we learn that it is a speech he has had the opportunity to practice for years. Is this just his attempt to channel Ronnie? Will he say to Hillarack "There you go again?"

In a perfect world, Hillary and Barack would sit down and agree to one someone that either of them would have in their cabinet; Vice President would be the best, but I'm not that naive. Perhaps Al Gore would agree to serve as Energy Secretary. The point is that with an agreed choice for a critical post, they would have someone who could go out and promote the party rather than a candidate, thus allowing this wonderful spectacle that has not been equalled since Jesse Ventura ran for office to continue without continuing to put the victory in jeapordy by falsely equating the contest with the competence of the contestants....

"Only a fool or a fraud sentimentalizes the merciless reality of war."

Sound like Bush all right.

The brilliant military strategist thinks that Shia Iran is responsible for Sunni al Qaeda activities.
If Sen. McCain can't even keep Shia and Sunni straight, what hope does he have for making any sense whatsoever in our foreign policy affairs? It scares the hell out of me.

missing here is mccain's quoting of Osama Bin Laden, that Iraq will be the place from which they will achieve their goals (something like that anyway). What's funny is that he accepts bin laden's words as truthful while presumably (from their behavior) rejecting other prophecies from him, such as we will financially cripple you in afghanistan as we did the soviets. I think the Marx Brothers could do a better job running things, and we could have at least had a laugh or two, an intentional laugh or two that is.

All that foreign affairs experience and a missed opportunity. He could have simply repurposed something that the Governor of Massachusetts said in a speech?

You should probably stick with pitching him as too old to be President.

Look when your 72 it's difficult to remember things, like who's fighting who in Iraq, and what to write down for a speech, so he went to his file cabinet and pulled out one of those oldies but goodies.
I heard if he wins he's ordering that phonographs be brought back into the WH because when asked if he used a blackberry he said yes every morning on my toast!

At 70 years old, you better believe McCain's got a deep rustle bag. Not a lot of new ideas in there on Irag or the economy. This type of tired presentation really reflects poorly on his staff and shows a stubbornness that can easily be exposed in a change election. He needs new counsel and fresh input. Even if he only talks to lobbyists, it's got to be better advice than what he is getting from his secretary of defense-in-waiting Lieberman and his valet Lindsey Graham.

Saint John the somnabulist, ready to preen in the sun and cast his righteous shadow on the
caskets of the young.

They still call him the Straight Talk Express, unbelievable.

HuffPost's Pick

Well, war IS a miserable business. Always has been, always will be, and he and and his family know this because of firsthand experience. Do you think he should have changed his viewpoint on this in the last few years? Here's another excerpt from today's speech:

"When I was five years old, a car pulled up in front of our house in New London, Connecticut, and a Navy officer rolled down the window, and shouted at my father that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. My father immediately left for the submarine base where he was stationed. I rarely saw him again for four years. My grandfather, who commanded the fast carrier task force under Admiral Halsey, came home from the war exhausted from the burdens he had borne, and died the next day. In Vietnam, where I formed the closest friendships of my life, some of those friends never came home to the country they loved so well. I detest war. It might not be the worst thing to befall human beings, but it is wretched beyond all description."

* will the real john McCain please stand up
Sen. John McCain - October 19, 1993

The criteria should be to bring them home as rapidly and safely as possible, an evolution which I think could be completed in a matter of weeks.
Our continued military presence in Somalia allows another situation to arise which could then lead to the wounding, killing or capture of American fighting men and women. We should do all in our power to avoid that.
I listened carefully to the President's remarks In fact, his remarks have persuaded me more profoundly that we should leave and leave soon.
What is the criteria and what should be the criteria is our immediate, orderly withdrawal from Somalia. And if we do not do that and other Americans die, other Americans are wounded, other Americans are captured because we stay too long--longer than necessary--then I would say that the responsibilities for that lie with the Congress of the United States who did not exercise their authority under the Constitution of the United States and mandate that they be brought home quickly and safely as possible. . .

I can tell you what will erode our prestige. I can tell you what will hurt our viability as the world's superpower, and that is if we enmesh ourselves in a drawn-out situation which entails the loss of American lives,

McCain? Is he still alive?

Yes and if this old man is elected we will hear and see the same old lies, and flip flopping for the next 4 years while the country falls deeper and deeper into disrepair while McCain gets closer to stepping on that banana peal.

I wonder if the ghost of George Washington is sitting somewhere sobbing.

The way the Democrats are imploding - if the Democrats are not careful - McCain will be able to take the rest of the year off - still win - and be the next President.

If they would stop trying to convince people that their opinion may be right or wrong about the war, and focus on the war itself, and a strategic exit that doesn't leave us vulnerable, we would really be going somewhere. It's almost like he's telling us, "How dare you question how I plan to spend billions of your tax dollars?"

Doubly recycled:

http://www.command-post.org/2004/2_archives/2004_08.html

McCain RNC speech, 2004

"War is an awful business. The lives of a nation"s finest patriots are sacrificed. Innocent people suffer. Commerce is disrupted, economies are damaged. Strategic interests shielded by years of statecraft are endangered as the demands of war and diplomacy conflict.
However just the cause, we should shed a tear for all that is lost when war claims its wages from us. But there is no avoiding this war. We tried that, and our reluctance cost us dearly. And while this
war has many components, we can"t make victory on the battlefield harder to achieve so that our diplomacy is easier to conduct."

It is simply PATHETIC that McCain is a nominee for president. The Republican Party is more than desperate. WHEN is our media going to give this candidate a review equal to those of his opponents?

I can't believe anyone under the age of 75 would vote for this played out worn out flip flopper.

You are accusing him of consistency?

He has speeches you can Xerox.

Mr. McCain, just how long are we to stay in Iraq to keep the ethnic factions from killing each other while they dither and refuse to take any significant steps toward political reconciliation? Even General Petraeus concedes there is no military solution to this conflict. You and your pal George told us the purpose of the surge was to give the Iraqis breathing room while they take control of their government. Our soldiers gave them that opportunity, and the Iraqis squandered it. The only durable political alliance that has been formed during that time is not among Sunnis, Kurds and Shia, but between the Maleki government and Iran. (Holy unintended consequences, Batman!) We have done all we are morally obligated to do. Any civil blood-letting that follows our withdrawal is a stain on Iraq, not on the U.S.

He probably was spouting this mantra while he was entertaining Vicki Iseman

He's a retread.

Americans are scared shitless of the left, but war mongering, treasury looting, torturing , bible thumping rapturists are so comforting, no wonder we are fucked.