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This is Not the John McCain New Hampshire Once Loved
What happened to John McCain? What happened to the man so many of us in New Hampshire have admired and respected for so long? The fierce bipartisan warrior, the straight talker, the maverick whose ideas nearly everyone found some common ground with now seems missing in action. He seems to have betrayed the very attributes that originally commended him to us and earned our earlier trust and support.
We continue to stand in awe of his heroic service to his country during Vietnam, but now he shamelessly uses those experiences at every opportunity, as if it excuses him from having to answer any really tough questions about the economy or foreign policy. The answer to everything is not to mention his admittedly harrowing POW days. My experience interviewing heroes of war is that most prefer to deflect attention from themselves and let their record speak for itself. McCain seems to think that it buys him a permanent pass. But it is impossible to know how to fight the new wars if you are hopelessly lost in the old ones.
Surrounded and programmed by the lobbyists he once despised, the man who once effortlessly straddled the aisle and spoke from the heart now carefully hews to a prompter-read, soulless far-right agenda.
This is a man who once denounced and purposefully avoided the politics of personal destruction, having felt firsthand its painful consequences in 2000 in South Carolina, but who now wants to win at any cost. By ridiculing his opponent's commitment to public service, he has undermined the very reason we were drawn to McCain in the first place. By trying to steal the mantle of change from the Democrats, he demonstrates only the riskiness of his shoot-from-the-hip style. That may have worked in the Senate and on the campaign trail, but it is hardly presidential. In fact, it is frightening in the extreme and bespeaks an instability difficult to reconcile considering our complicated world and its myriad problems.
More to the point, he continues almost daily to demonstrate that instability and other judgmental and temperamental concerns, issues and complaints that originally brought a slew of challengers into the Republican primary contests. And in the most important decision of his candidacy, he cynically and irresponsibly chose the supremely unqualified Sarah Palin, cheapening the race as if it were some high school popularity contest or the latest "American Idol" competition.
Even the most ardent true-believers among us must be privately shaking in their boots contemplating a heart-beat-away Palin presidency during these difficult times. When Putin acts up, who do you want whispering in your President's ear: Joe Biden or Sarah Palin?
McCain is a man who once championed openness and fairness in government, who now wants to continue the failed policies of the current administration and who increasingly wants to make the crucial decisions of our democracy behind closed doors with the same cronies who got us into this mess in the first place. And he has shown a profound indifference to and often startling ignorance of economic affairs just as our country inches toward depression.
That threatens to make him the next Herbert Hoover if he should win. And his old strong suit, foreign policy, is slipping away too, as gaffe after gaffe displays his fundamental shortcomings. I want my President to know the difference between a Sunni and Shia. John McCain does not.
We in New Hampshire bear some responsibility, I suppose. Thinking we had the old McCain, we gave him a decisive victory in our primary that permitted him to vanquish those challengers. But he betrayed us. If you have to say you're a maverick in your ads, it's clear you're not. The real maverick turns out to be Barack Obama, who bucked his party's establishment and whose once-lonely positions have been adopted by nearly everyone including even the Bush administration. Nearly everyone, that is, except John McCain. So what happened to him?
That's what Granite State citizens have been asking the last few months. The answer is enough to turn us blue.
This article first appeared in the Manchester Union Leader.
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Wow - this says it all! Especially this sentance: "But it is impossible to know how to fight the new wars if you are hopelessly lost in the old ones."
Great article.
Thank you for a great column Mr. Burns,
You sum things up nicely in this one line,
"If you have to say you're a maverick in your ads, it's clear you're not."
Some things really are self evident, and don't have to be repeated constantly. Just because a TV network keeps repeating the claim of being "fair and balanced" doesn't mean it is. If that were the case, repeating the mantra wouldn't be necessary.
McCain has said on several occasions that military experience in itself doesn't necessarily qualify someone for the presidency, while at the same time constantly repeating the idea that his own experiences somehow do just that. Maybe the dichotomy wasn't so noticeable when it was only used at reelection time in Arizona. Mr. Straight talk doesn't exist anymore, and it's especially sad because he may be the last one to figure that out.
Yes it is the McCain New Hampshire loves still. Remember, both Presidential Candidates have lobbyists working for and on their campaigns. So don;t throw mud unless you are ready to own up to the fact that Obama has lobbyists and McCain as lobbyists. There is always a polictical candidate during election time saying they will come down on special interests when in fact they never really do. Lobbyists have been around for as long as I can remember, just they always will be. SO CAN THE SPECIAL INTEREST TALK PEOPLE.
Read "Make-Believe Maverick" Tim Dickinson's Rolling Stone article about John McCain that will really turn the heads of Ken Burns and New Hampshire citizens.
As Dickinson wrote: "This is the story of the real John McCain, the one who has been hiding in plain sight. It is the story of a man who has consistently put his own advancement above all else, a man willing to say and do anything to achieve his ultimate ambition: to become commander in chief, ascending to the one position that would finally enable him to outrank his four-star father and grandfather."
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/make_believe_maverick_the_real_john_mccain
Another great insight into just who John McCain REALLY is the Arizona New Times. This writer has been penning stories about McCain from an Arizonan's perspective and illustrates that John McCain is hardly a 'maverick', it's a very superficial veil. He tried to recreate himself after the Keating 5 but it was not a very thorough transition:
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2008-08-07/news/postmodern-mccain-the-john-mccain-some-arizonans-know-and-loathe/
In the days of the interwebs and all, you'd think some real reporters and documentarians for that matter would use the Google or Lexis Nexis to get to the truth instead of continually buy the politician's own spin as the truth. For instance politics of slime he's been orchestrating with Palin for the last few weeks IS HIS DOING, the man has a cruel streak in him a mile wide.
This is exactly what I have been thinking ever since the McCain campaign shifted in tone and message after the reckless, pandering Palin pick and the divisive, mean-spirited Republican convention. I used to respect him, and always admired his somewhat independent nature, but I don't even know who he is anymore. I no longer trust him and do not want him anywhere near the White House, and I certainly cannot fathom Gov. Palin waiting in the wings. This is from a middle aged, female voter who until this summer was a registered Republican.
We are at a critical crossroads with unprecedented volatility and complexity. This is a new age in need of new vision, new approach, new sensibility, and a new intellectually driven leadership team who understands where we have been, where we are, and where we need to go. That team is Sen. Obama and Sen. Biden.
The problem that a lot of McCain current supporters and former supporters have is not studying his record. While he said a few things that made it seem like he was outside the norm for a republican, in reality the record shows his votes stayed well within the party lines. Arlen Spector, John Warner, and Dick Luger have more bi-partisan vots than John McCain ever did. He cultivated the maverick logo to further his presidential asperations. He is not now, or ever was a maverick. It's a myth.
Country First? BS.
I think John McCain got lost when he drank some of the same Kool-Aid
he was trying to sell to the rest of us. Nothing more PATHETIC than watching
someone who actually starts to believe their own lies.
Once Upon a Time, (The start of Sooooooo Many Fairy Tales)
The maverick Story Line MIGHT have been true. Now it is shown to be just
another Fraud. It is truly sad to see when you imagine what John McCain
COULD have been, and what he could have done. Now he is just another
Zombie, capable only of spouting off about issues that are TOTALLY IRRELEVANT.
Add to all the negative comments the most serious error by Senator John McCain is the fact that knowing his health is a major factor in a Presidents schedule of 24/7under constant stress he would leave,if he is unable to function, to Sarah Palin, his choice for Vice President was not only plain stupid but a slap in the face to us but everything he fought for in his Naval career and as a legislator . Blinded by ambition and showing his lack of understanding of the economy in America, shows the mental stability of John McCain
I can't believe it took so long to figure McCain out. His erratic behavior atared when he rebelled aginst his admiralty, when he couldn't cut it at Annapolis, when he was a partying womanizer, when he dumped his first wife. when he called his wife C--t, when he yelled and screamed across the isle, when he .... etc etc. The public at large didn't hear these things because he got them out of the way early in his political career. But most of us never heard these thing until recently.
He got a pass largely because he was a POW and the news media very extremely guilty about their ability to avoid Vietnam. Pur and simple. To attack McCain, who is a hero ( no doubt about it), is to open up your own guilty wounds. I can't wait until all of us are dead and gone and don't have this albatross hanging over us..
McSame is no different than he's ever been. He's been a phony "maverick" all along. The reason he appears to be different is that his mask slipped and he hasn't yet noticed that it has.
John MccAIN IS WHO HE ALWAYS HAS BEEN. hE WAS He has been hiding it from the public. He thought he could continue to hide his true self, but it all comes out in the wash when you are loosing another electin for president.
Truth will out....especially when you desperate.
What happened to the Straight Talk Express?
I think the last straw was receiving those 'Obsession' DVD's in the Union Leader insert. All it did in New Hampshire was to scare the kids, but I don't think in will scare up any votes. Anyone who thinks that New Hampshire people would buy into that kind of bashing has another thing coming. I spoke to the editor of the paper after he read my email, and he said that he saw the anti-Islamic DVD, and ran it by his lawyers and so they sent it out. Great.
Well, they are a republican newspaper so what did I expect? I think the GOP was hoping for a different reaction, but you know us maverick independents now don't cha know, gee by golly Joe six pack. I don't know who Gov. Palin, is pandering to but NOT NH! Oh yeah, I saw the Straight Talk Express with a 'For Sale' sign on it. Maybe they should try EBay!
MAVERICK EQUALS................A LOST CALF...........
The cloak of deception has been pulled away showing McCain what he really is--a desperate little man who puts winning way above good governance and common sense for our Country. The GOP's female hate engine (aka, S. Palin) is getting more revolting every day. She may excite the right wing nut cases but she's turning away most the female vote in droves!!!
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