John McCain's Late-Night Booty Call to America
I'll make this quick and to the point.
A friend of mine once joked that in order to pull off a successful booty call, there are two things you absolutely can't do: 1) wait until the very last minute -- say, four in the morning -- and 2) actually come right out and admit your intentions in no uncertain terms to the person you're calling. (This conversation stemmed from the fact that his roommate had, the previous night, come home drunk from a club, called an ex and, when she picked up, shouted, "Hey, this is a booty call!" into the phone.)
I bring this up because apparently no one ever told John McCain these essential rules.
With less than a month to go before the election, the McCain camp -- having struck out with voters like, well, the old guy at the club -- has chosen to resort to going hyper-negative, making grossly unethical, unsubstantiated claims against Barack Obama in the hope of somehow changing its very bad luck. It's the political equivalent of making a booty call at 4AM. But here's the thing: McCain's people, in keeping with the laughably inept way that they've run their campaign almost from the start, have publicly announced their decision to begin slinging mud. Their surrogates admitted to the press that the only option left is to try to deflect attention away from the issues, like the economy, through scare tactics aimed at painting Obama as a shady outsider who consorts with terrorists and, if elected, will immediately grow a moustache that he can twirl while laughing at America's demise.
It's, needless to say, crap of the highest order.
And it won't work because even the densest among the undecided electorate can see that they're basically getting a drunken late-night phone call from a guy who wasn't able to close the deal any other way. They know this because McCain told them so.
The only smart thing to do, of course?
Hang up.
Otherwise, you'll wake up the morning after election day wondering what the hell happened and feeling really ashamed of yourself.
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Great analogy. But it makes me think of Old Man McCain saying, "I can't wait to introduce her (Palin) to Warshington," during his acceptance speech, immediately followed by his creepy smile and "heh."
I would like to ask both candiates how do they plan on doing anything better since they both will have the same Congressional staff (democrats) which have caused all the problems for the past 8 years. They both need to pass a law that allows Senators and House Representative to be able to serve only 8 years in the a position .so the most they can ever be in Washington DC wourld be less than 30 years. What a great thing for the American people.
Libs have trouble with facts...
http://tinyurl.com/438qgx
please go away.
HHHEHHH ??!?!
EHHHHHHHHHHHHHH???? HOWZAT??? EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH????
It's been said before, and I hate to say it again, but it is true:
Never underestimate the stupidity of some people. McCain's not.
I have passed the point of wondering how McCain can be so stupid.
I'm almost beyond even thinking there must be some "Evil Genius" plan behind any of it.
I think they're just completely LOST IT!!!
I also thought it was weird that the McCain campaign announced that they were about to commence the mudslinging. Pretty stupid strategy since it put the Obama campaign on the alert, and also indicated to the American people that the mudslinging should not be taken seriously, since the McCain camp as much as said that they we were going negative to garner votes. Perhaps someday in the history books the McCain campaign will be studied as a way NOT to get elected.
This is exactly what the Hillary campaign did, too. They announced they were going to throw the "kitchen sink" at Obama and then they did. And look where it got them.
As Obama says, "not this time, not this year." Voters want to know what the candidates are going to do to protect their financial, health and job security in these God-awful times. Only one campaign is addressing that, and as in the primaries, this campaign will be the winner.
In addition, in keeping with the "people in glass houses" cliche, McCain is far more vulnerable on policy substance. Despite what he says, McCain didn't learn a thing from the Keating Five scandal. He saw first-hand how deregulation and getting cozy with industry lobbyists caused the S&L crisis. Then, he continued to back deregulation and continued to stay cozy with industry lobbyists (see Rick Davis & Freddie Mac), and brought us a financial catastrophe that makes the S&L crisis look like a walk in the park.
I understand your analogy, but the mental image of the phone ringing and it actually happening makes my breakfast turn over in my stomach. If there were ever a time to screen calls, this would be it.
great article! very well said.
http://grantlingel.blogspot.com
I think the booty call analogy is pretty good based on the VP pick.
Going down in flames, all guns blazing, no stone left unturned, doing the damndest, in first with the worst, on and on, the essential American rah-rah frontier, from Arizona to Alaska, anachronism of the nineteenth century rugged uncivilised individualism appealing to exactly what mainstream? Anglo-Saxon superiority marching across everyone in the world, same old same old, vestiges having their last gasp.
It was equally stupid to announce, as they did a couple of weeks ago, that the campaign they're running isn't about issues but about personalities. It's so stupid you have to think there must be some ulterior motive in telegraphing this. Someone online pointed out that the announcement they were pulling out of Michigan may be a head-fake, to put Obama off his guard, and that their intention is to come back in -- on the airwaves -- at the last minute when he's not paying attention. That seems plausible at least. But since there doesn't seem to have been any ulterior motive for saying the campaign would not be about issues, maybe they really are just stupid.
Not to worry -- over at Obama Central, they've got their eye squarely on the ball, especially in a crucial state like Michigan, not to mention Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, New Mexico, Colorado, etc.
Meanwhile, McCain better watch his flank. Obama has opened up a front in North Carolina, for example, which looks very promising and will require McCain to focus precious time and resources of which there are less and less moving forward over the next four weeks.
McCain is losing across the chess board, and he knows it. That's the reason for the last ditch "game changers" (in their own minds) and extremely negative campaigning. It won't work.
that is one call I will ignore...lol
"No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public."
---H.L. Mencken
BTW, the new article in Rolling Stone is amazingly revealing. This is seriously the most inept republican campaign since Bob Dole. McCain/Palin, that scares the living crap out of me. I am going to donate to obama to cleanse myself of these awful thoughts!
And McCains is Carrying around Bob Doles pen to seal the deal
Good call! We all need to support Obama in this last big push.
That Rolling Stone article is well-researched, with people actually being quoted for the record. It is a "sobering" account of someone, like George W. Bush, born on third base thinking they hit a triple.
The GOP ticket is a mockery of our democracy and a gross insult to the American people, but like a rabid dog can do great harm before it is put down. We need to be less scared and more prepared.
And in my mind, the GOP campaign this year is infinitely worse than Dole's. At least you knew that either Bob Dole or Jack Kemp could have functioned reasonably well as president. It is very hard to say that about McCain-Palin, not only because they are dangerous, but the world today is a far more dangerous place and the U.S. is in a far worse position than it was in 1996.
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