McCain Derangement Syndrome
Scanning various blogs today, I'm amazed at the seething outrage at the McCain campaign's plethora of dishonest tactics, from Sarah Palin's lie about rejecting the Bridge to Nowhere to the ad charging Obama with promoting sex. Josh Marshall, who normally reads political events pretty coolly, has joined Andrew Sullivan in all-out high-dudgeon mode:
[McCain and Palin have] both embraced a level of dishonesty that disqualifies them for high office. Democrats owe it to the country to make clear who these people are. No apologies or excuses. If Democrats can say at the end of this campaign that they made clear exactly how and why these two are unfit for high office they can be satisfied they served their country.
Rather, I'm amazed not at the outrage itself so much as the fact that it seems to have obliterated all sense of proportion. Call it McCain-Palin Derangement Syndrome. Step back a moment: McCain is running for president. Both his place in history and the future of the country are on the line. In the words of George H.W. Bush, he's going to do "what it takes" to become president. John McCain may have once had a reputation as a straight-talking, unconventional politician, and maybe that McCain could have made a go of it -- we'll never know. But now, for obviously well-thought-out strategic reasons, we've got a different McCain.
Certainly, McCain has made moral compromises here, will doubtless make more, and that will undermine if not destroy his stated quest to heal the divisions in Washington. This augers poorly for a McCain presidency, especially following on eight years of George W. Bush.
But do dishonest-but-effective campaign tactics really render McCain "unfit to lead"? No. Voters obviously don't think it disqualifies him either, at least not in great numbers. Maybe they see the lies, but they also see the aggression. This is a guy who really, really wants to win -- and that counts for a lot in a presidential campaign. If McCain wins, most people will quickly forget the campaign's lies, distortions and negative ads, and his fitness will ultimately be tested by what he does in office.
Meanwhile, the howls over McCain's lost "honor" and the appeals to America's sense of fair play are, frankly, ridiculous. The man fights dirty. If you don't like it, find a way fight back.
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BEST BLOG OF THE DAY!
Lets see........can we list the historic leaders who have won by aggression, rather than high moral ethical standards...............
And their accomplishments for mankind?
How about Hitler, Moussilini, Mao, Napolian, Stalin, ......add to the list.
or how about we aspire to something better?
If he is willing to 'fight dirty' to get the job, what will he do when he has the job. We've had 8 years of lying, double-dealing, secret, closed-door meetings and it's made a real mess. We're in debt, we're bogged down in a war most Americans don't want, people are dying, losing their homes, losing their savings, fearful of being able to pay for health-care, for prescriptions, for gas to go to work, for heating this winter PLUS our planet is getting dirtier and hotter which affects the polar bears in Alaska and causes the storms in the south to be stronger and more frequent.
McCain offers only more of the same - so he wants only to talk about lipstick on pigs and fish???? It's nuts - luckily we have the internet and this site to form a community for truth.
I get your point here, but I've got to disagree for a couple reasons. First, part of the reason I support Obama is that he seems to make every effort to rise above the lies and deceit that the McCain campaign is using. Of course, I believe there was a line drawn way above the other lines, and that McCain ad about 'sex ed' for kindergartners crossed it. Second, this mentality of fighting dirty tactics with dirty tactics is the big reason I think politicians are so despised. I am just not comfortable with the thought of a liar of McCain's caliber being president, and Palin would be far worse.
There's not one good reason to support politics as usual, and arguing that it should be OK because no one will care later is really low, not to mention asking for trouble. I mean, isn't this country in the mess it's in because Bush lied and deceived his way into office, then into a war, then about his abusive policies and staff, then etc., etc.? That tells me that lies and deception regarding public policy are a pretty good indicator that a person is unfit to lead.
(for what it's worth, I didn't care when Bill Clinton lied about personal matters, and I would not have/don't care if Palin lies about her family...I'm concerned about politically relevant stuff)
Let's be honest folks, Barrack Obama isn't qualified to be the next President.. That's where the discussion begins and ends.....
There have been some very good articles about the 'experience' argument. Check out the one from Time magazine from March 10th. "Time on the job does not translate into superior performance."
"Experience never exists in isolation; it is always a factor that coexists with temperament, training, background, spiritual outlook, and a host of other factors. Character is your magic word it seems to me..." -- Presidential historian Richard Norton Smith
Some of our greatest presidents did not have much 'experience' in terms of elected office.
Lincoln -- 8 years of state legislature, 2 years in the U.S. House
Teddy Roosevelt -- 2 years as Governor, half a year as V.P.
Franklin Roosevelt -- 2 years as state Senator, 4 years as Governor
Obama -- 8 years as state Senator, 3 years as U.S. Senator
Obama's experience is closest to Lincoln's. Read the following article to see what historians have to say about Obama as President.
http://hnn.us/articles/44958.html
Yep, and some of our most experienced presidents have been terrible.
It really comes down to being a person who understands how to listen. A person who understands the problem, without believing they, and only they, know the answer to the problem.
Obama still has the same staff he started with, because they are a team with a common goal. Obama didn't make a cynical political choice for VP. He chose the person with the experience he can count on, and who'll challenge his points of view.
That's a sign of both great confidence, and great humility. You can't ask for better qualities in a leader.
Oh, Obama is more than qualified, my friend. And, as the previous poster suggested, McCain's campaign needs to aspire to something better.....just like Obama's campaign has done. Gutter politics? That's what got George W. Bush elected. And we have only ourselves to blame. ENOUGH! No more dishonorable Presidents - John McCain would surely be one!
"But do dishonest-but-effective campaign tactics really render McCain "unfit to lead"? No."
What in the.....
YES - IT MAKES HIM UNFIT TO LEAD.
HE CAN'T BE TRUSTED.
HE LIES.
"I'M JOHN MCCAIN, AND I APPROVED THIS MESSAGE"
WHAT PART OF LYING SACK OF EXCREMENT DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?
He isn't fit to clean my Marine's toilets.
Fighting dirty and telling bold-faced lies are two completely different things.
Wanting to win is not what should count - wanting to help the American people get out of this quagmire should and I know Obama is definitely more fit for the job than McCain. McCain is so wrong on the issues that he and his running mate have resorted to spewing lies and mistruths. That is not change we can believe in!!
Obama/Biden '08
I would have to flip this posting back at you John,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barry-yourgrau/john-mccain-man-of-dishon_b_125402.html
Okay tough guy, we can't even discuss, on these pages, the best way to fight it. There are vast areas of the nation that you can't even hear a progressive voice. We can't jump up and buy media outlets.
So what alternatives do we have to be heard by those in the quarantine areas.
Just how do you have a "fair" fight when one party owns the media?
go around and register voters and talk to them about the election,
Wear a baseball cap, Ray Charles-type sunglasses, and something plaid. Add a creepy smile. People eat that stuff up!
It does have an effect, McCain's lack of honor and fair play.
One of my very young cousins was not going to vote this year in the first presidential election that she is eligible to vote in--until she saw Obama's ad in which McCain very clearly says, "I voted with Bush 90% of the time..." She was so outraged that he was trying to lie to her now with his hijacked "Change" campaign that nothing can stop her from voting against him. Maybe it doesn't make her a staunch Obama supporter, but we are both (she and I) registered independent, ethnic minority voters in a swing state. We're going to make a difference.
McCain is so close to having offended enough of us, that he may just as well concede now.
Please remember a simple yet important fact.
When your house is on fire, you NEVER use fire to fight it.
:-)
We need to drench the fire of the Pharisees' with the water of truth.
"They tie up heavy burdens, and lay them on people's shoulders, and will not lift a finger to move them.......Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You traverse land and sea to make one convert, and when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves... And you say "IF ONE SWEARS BY THE TEMPLE IT MEANS NOTHING. BUT IF ONE SWEARS BY THE GOLD IN THE TEMPLE, ONE IS OBLIGATED" ........Blind guides who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel..........You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of every kind of filth..."
Bobrobert: This is the fire to fight fire.
Obama/Biden '08
roflmao
Obama has everything under control folks.
Relax.
Obama / Biden 08
Maybe you're right. Didn't look that way today, but perhaps you have some inside information the rest of us don't.
When politicians lie us into war, loot the treasury, steal our pensions, bankrupt our country, send our jobs overseas and throw our neighbors out of work, send death squads to other countries, when our citizens are allowed to die on the street because they cannot afford healthcare, when the schools and bridges and collapse, when all of our politicians solicit and accept bribes -- when the entire society is drowning in sewage, then someone will always come along and say "Oh, what's a little crap?"
The problem with McCain is much more fundamental. This isn't just throwing elbows at Filenes Basement. Read The Portrait of Dorian Gray, Faust. McCain has sold his soul for personal ambition.
"Dorian cries out, wishing that the portrait Basil has painted of him would age rather than himself. Dorian's wish is fulfilled, subsequently plunging him into a series of debauched acts. The portrait serves as a reminder of the effect each act has upon his soul, with each sin being displayed as a disfigurement of his form, or through a sign of aging."
Sound like anyone you know?
John this was a very good article to read, I would like to direct you and your readers, along with the Huffington Post news staff to check out the following link, in reference to our "honorable veteran"?? Please take a close look at this information, it tells us all exactly what John McCain is all about.
We should all pay attention.
http://www.aiipowmia.com//testimony/hrdlicka1.html
This stuff needs further publicity if it is defensible. The whole POW image may need correction. As well as the mental awareness issue, esp. considering our fine Repub. VP candidate.
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