The Big Whisper: What's Up With John McCain?

John McCain has been all over the map recently, especially when it comes to the economic crisis that's been hammering Wall Street. He also managed to make some interesting - or rather, bizarre - remarks about Spain on Wednesday. See more articles below on McCain's actions over the last few weeks.

McCain Remarks Appear To Reject Spain As Ally:

Late Wednesday night, news made its way from the other side of the Atlantic that John McCain, in an interview with a Spanish outlet, had made a series of bizarre responses to a question regarding that country's prime minister.

"Would you be willing to meet with the head of our government, Mr. Zapatero?" the questioner asked, in an exchange now being reported by several Spanish outlets.

McCain proceeded to launch into what appeared to be a boilerplate declaration about Mexico and Latin America -- but not Spain -- pressing the need to stand up to world leaders who want to harm America.

McCain Flip-Flops On AIG Bailout: Rejects It Tuesday, Says It's Okay Wednesday:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain, a day after flatly rejecting the idea of a taxpayer bailout for American International Group Inc., said Wednesday that the government had been "forced" into proposing an $85 billion loan to the nation's largest insurer.

McCain appeared to soften his opposition to the bailout proposed by the Federal Reserve, treating the plan as a necessary evil to protect ordinary Americans with finanical ties to AIG and asserting that such a financial collapse should not be allowed to happen again. He also called for an investigation to uncover any wrongdoing.

NY Times: McCain All Over The Place On The Economy:

On Monday morning, as the financial system absorbed one of its biggest shocks in generations, Senator John McCain said, as he had many times before, that he believed the fundamentals of the economy were "strong."

Hours later he backpedaled, explaining that he had meant that American workers, whom he described as the backbone of the economy, were productive and resilient. By Tuesday he was calling the economic situation "a total crisis" and denouncing "greed" on Wall Street and in Washington.

McCain Slams Wall Street "Fat Cats" Who Are His Biggest Donors:

John McCain struck a tough, quasi-populist pose this morning during his morning sweep of the television news shows. Speaking to NBC's Matt Lauer about the current crisis on Wall Street, the Republican nominee said executives have "treated it like a casino and need to be held accountable and stop walking away with these fat-cat packages."

Leave aside for the moment the fact that one of McCain's top economic advisers, former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, walked away with a $42 million "golden parachute" after being fired. Overall, the generic Wall Street "fat cat" is a tough character for McCain to cast as his nemesis, given his success in fundraising among their ranks. As Bloomberg reported Monday night, securities and investment companies have collectively donated millions to both McCain and Barack Obama.

Time's Joe Klein: "Increasing Numbers Of Otherwise Sober Observers... Are Calling John McCain A Liar":

Politics has always been lousy with blather and chicanery. But there are rules and traditions too. In the early weeks of the general-election campaign, a consensus has grown in the political community -- a consensus that ranges from practitioners like Karl Rove to commentators like, well, me -- that John McCain has allowed his campaign to slip the normal bounds of political propriety. The situation has gotten so intense that we in the media have slipped our normal rules as well. Usually when a candidate tells something less than the truth, we mince words. We use euphemisms like mendacity and inaccuracy ... or, as the Associated Press put it, "McCain's claims skirt facts." But increasing numbers of otherwise sober observers, even such august institutions as the New York Times editorial board, are calling John McCain a liar. You might well ask, What has McCain done to deserve this? What unwritten rules did he break? Are his transgressions of degree or of kind?

Comments

[w8aminute]

He's old, tired and grumpy...and he probably has surrounded himself with the same sort of infighting that killed Hillary's campaign.

[postman606]

John Boy has been exposed as a man with no solutions, so prepare yourselves for 44 days of some of the most outrageous negativity and lies. He's like an old baseball pitcther, lost his best stuff a long time ago, resorting to throwing junk.

[Indie2008]

And like those old baseball pitchers, there are always those, motivated by sentimentality, who will keep hiring them for their name.

[margardner]

It's simple!

It's called OLD AGE! It's natural, this is what it does to you.

It affects all of us differently. Just because his mother had the blessing of having great genes and is still beautiful and living at 93, doesn't mean that McCain will be as lucky. Evident by the signs of senility, blank moments, fatigue, memory lapse, etc. Republicans are in denial, It's a scary thing. I'm hoping again, they WILL put "Country First" and vote for the candidate who has demonstrated true leadership. We all can see and should admit, this is OBAMA!

[w8aminute]

Republicans will never admit it - I'm phonebanking for Obama in FL and you won't believe all the 70+ registered Dems I'm calling that say they're voting for McCain. Everyone thinks it's over - sorry, you're wrong. That's why they're so close in the polls. And everytime I hear Obama is injecting 'race' into it I ask : why? because he's black? Or is it something else you don't want to admit?

The older I get the more I realize Politics is just a sport, and sometimes the once great ones stick around too long past their prime. But they'll always have their supporters.

[philopatris]

Their supporters. Or their Depends.

[canobs]

What's up with Obama? People wake up and smell the coffee.

THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES!

[margardner]

I don't know, but have YOU seen the polls! McCain is down in all 10!

[narkz1]

Why do Honest Intelligent hardworking Americans stand for this blatant disregard for the truth, John McSame's Lies arent even subtle anymore there just pungent outright attacks on our mental capacity.Mcsame really is out of touch with the times,he has to know that all of his Lies and mistatements could be disproven by a 3rd grader with an Internet Connection. Let alone an Educated adult. Im a hardcore Right wing Republican and Im voting for Obama because the john McCain I knew in 2000, has done a houdini act. I thought I would never say this but plz help elect Obama/Biden 08 and stop all this madness.

[bob708]

So if we elect McCain:

Given the shortened life expectancy of former POWs, McCain’s current age and impaired mental status, Sarah Palin could be president well before she can command “appropriate deference” from potentially hostile foreign governments. It is disturbing that her own party doesn’t think that she can handle simple interviews with the American press. How can she be expected to handle the foreign press or negotiate with possibly hostile foreign leaders?

Also, since she doesn't appear to be finished building her family, we may well have a pregnant, middle aged, mother of five in this situation -- with her finger on the button.

[Willow712]

And what's worse? Then she goes into menopause. LOL. Now I am a woman and I had it pretty easy going through menopause, but I doubt anybody in my family would want me anywhere near a button like she could have.

[jerseymaiden]

The real problem is not menopause -- the real problem is, look at the way she and her friends in Alaska, and the McCain campaign, are dealing with the trooper investigation -- just giving it the finger! This is LITERALLY Bush & Cheney all over again.

The *last* thing I want is another president/VP who act like the law does not apply to them.

[rogerdoger]

Everybody posting on these blogs should get a reality check...where are you (we) going to be in our future? Please check out this web site to reprioritise things!!

http://www.spiritlessons.com/

[ShinjiIkari]

Yes, just what Washington needs: more fanatical thumpers like Reagan's Interior Secretary James Watt (remember him? Google him iof you don't, because THAT'S the future of a President Palin)

With any luck, the Bible thumpers will all get together and go to Iraq to wage war on the Quran-thumpers, and leave America to the normal, sensible Americans.

[deliriousgod]

pssst ... don't eat the mush ... it's spoilt...

[jerseymaiden]

whaaa...?

[chronic5]

I don't think Senator McCain is well. Even the lump in his left jaw where he had the melanoma surgery seems to be getting bigger and bigger and these latest pictures really show that. His mind seems to be going too and he seems confused a lot. People who are voting for him really need to start thinking about what a Palin presidency would be like. Say it - President Palin. How does that make you feel? Don't forget Todd either because the first dude is all about power grabbing too.

[Shake-A-Spear]

Either he's a bit soft in the head these days or he's just an old and shopworn politico who no longer listens to what he himself is saying. I think it's a bit of both. And I won't bother giving the almost-obligatory homage to his former "heroism" as part of this comment.

[Friendofthecause]

I am going to try this again. As I was saying, John McCain probably has PTSD from combat. I saw him pace the stage at a rally at Sacred Heart University this spring, yelling, "I will never surrender to the enemy! I will never surrender to the enemy!" He's not giving up on the one-man war in his head, and every other war outside it is just going to be more of the same --that is, a reflection of the inner one.

His motto is: Never quit, never leave, never let go... Trouble is, it's another war many years later, John, and thousands of American lives have been lost and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis lives and more lives are at stake and it's an unjust, immoral mess and we just don't belong there.

[TheOldSchool]

I think the American people (along with those of every other country on the planet) have grown weary of presidents who aren't mentally competent to be president of the U.S..

Not a day goes by without another major McCain gaffe. He's not fit to lead a nursing home's bridge club, let alone a country.

I'm amazed that the republicans haven't found a way to discreetly have him bow out of the race for health reasons, etc., because, given the fact that there are still 47 or so days left before the election, McCain/Palin will have ample time to demonstrate their incompetence to even the dimmest of hard-core republicans.

The McCain/Palin ticket is a like circus bus filled with clowns and freaks being driven by a drunken, mentally ill sailor with a gun. I can't help but wonder why one of the clowns or bearded ladies doesn't swing into action and try to gain control of the wheel.

[ilpostino]

"McCain/Palin will have ample time to demonstrate their incompetence to even the dimmest of hard-core republicans."

Oh if that could turn out to be true...alas, those hard core republicans hear but do not listen, see but do not understand. Travel anywhere outside the USA and people everywhere wonder how such a person could be elected a candidate for such an important post.

What will it take for hard core republicans to see the emperor truly has no clothes?

[vonnegut lives]

http://myrealitytelevision.com/2008/09/john-mccain-rnc-speech-shows-no-real-direction/

[Friendofthecause]

predecessors -- GWB and Cheney! (again, to finish my thought).

[Friendofthecause]

I think John McCain does have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from his war experiences. When I saw him stalk the stage waving his fists, yelling, "I will never surrender to the enemy! I will never surrender to the enemy!" earlier this year at a rally held for him held at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, I was pretty frightened and sickened -- not at the elderly man making threats, but at the lone wolf who still viewed himself as commander of something or other fighting a lonely battle that he would never give up, no matter what -- on principle. But that principle is smithereens when it entails the moral life of a nation (ours) and the actual life of our "boys" (and women) that are in Iraq, and the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who may lose their lives in addition to the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who already have in this cruel, immoral, unjust and costly war.

McCain's principle is: Never let go of a battle. His motto: Win at all costs. It's not a rational principle, it is just the one he was taught and which he will apply indiscriminately if he does get into the White House. His motto has just lost him respect from all sides, because it's unveiled a maniacal, twisted mindset -- better attributed to a combination of PTSD and dementia than just sheer lack of morality impelled by greed.... which would make him -- good heavens! -- just like his