6 Other Things that Aren't "Change We Can Believe In"

By now, McCain's "green speech" has been widely praised as one of the funniest half-hours of television since Arrested Development was canceled. The speech aimed to turn Obama's "Change We Can Believe In" slogan into a surprise Mac Attack by inserting the words "That's Not" at the beginning of it. As if this wasn't exciting enough, McCain proceeded to deliver the speech with all the energy and eloquence of Frankenstein on barbiturates -- pausing awkwardly after each declaration to offer a snicker and yellowed smile, as if to ask the adoring crowd of several hundred, "wasn't that capital?" It was at once painful and delightful to behold. Painful, because we have to sit through five more months of his awkward cadence. Delightful, because it's already obvious just how badly McCain's efforts to brand himself as the "change" candidate are going to fail. That is, unless THESE are the kind of changes he's talking about:

1. Excruciating Hypocrisy - McCain delivered the green speech near New Orleans, and in it, he took the Bush administration to task for their failure to respond to Katrina. Do you know where John McCain was when Katrina made landfall? He was standing on a tarmac in Arizona, receiving a birthday cake from his friend George W. Bush. That's not change we can believe in.

2. Lack of Self-Control - Having a temper is one thing. But there's a difference between blowing your stack behind closed doors and McCain's tendency to say the wrong thing in front of the wrong people. Whether it's the childish "bomb Iran" Beach Boys cover, the "100 years is fine with me" gaffe, calling his wife a "c--t" in front of reporters, threatening other legislators with violence, or that infamous Chelsea Clinton joke he made at a GOP fundraiser -- McCain has a rare talent for putting his foot in his mouth near an open mic. That's definitely not change we can believe in.

3. Lack of Support for Our Troops - McCain knows firsthand the sacrifices made by our troops and their families, yet he won't he support the G.I. Bill -- which was co-sponsored by his Republican ally, John Warner, and which would dramatically expand educational benefits for our soldiers. And why doesn't he support it? Because the benefits are so good, the military is worried that too many soldiers will leave active duty to get their degrees. So there you have it -- John McCain's policy on supporting our men and women in uniform: "They deserve the very best, just as long as it's not TOO good -- and assuming we don't have to raise taxes to pay for it." That sure as hell ain't change we can believe in.

4. Coziness with Lobbyists - We all know that McCain likes to tout himself as a "maverick." But the truth is, McCain was forced to reinvent himself as a "maverick" because he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He was one of five Senators investigated for corruption in the Keating scandal of 1989, in which it was alleged that (in return for money and other favors) McCain sought to have the government ease off its investigation of savings and loan chairman Charles Keating. You'd think he would've learned from this political near-death experience, but as we saw in his snuggly friendship with lobbyist Vicki Iseman, and the recent purging of lobbyists from his campaign (there are still over 100 of them running it), he's learned nothing. Ladies and gentlemen, you're damn right that's not change we can believe in.

5. An Antiquated World View - It's not the age of McCain's body that troubles me -- it's the age of his ideas. Like George W. Bush, he operates from a belief that America is infallible, that might makes right, and that anyone who doesn't agree with us is not only wrong - but our enemy. Here at home, he believes in the same trickle down economic policies that have been failing the middle class and escalating our national debt since the early 1980's. That IS change we can believe in, but only if it's Opposites Day.

6. Cowardice - No one can ever take away the heroic truth that John McCain sat in a cell for five torturous years on behalf his country. He was a brave young man. But somewhere between Hanoi and Washington, that brave young man became an old pandering coward. For eight years, we've watched McCain suckle the teat of his political idol, George W. Bush. Especially sickening, given the fact that Bush is the same man who tried to destroy McCain's family in the 2000 primaries. The same man who went after his daughter. And yet, because it was politically convenient to do so, John McCain threw his arms around Bush and never let go. Threw his arms around a man he didn't even vote for. A man he secretly hated with a passion he scarcely knew he was capable of. To some, that merely makes John McCain a ruthless opportunist or a terrible father. In my eyes, it makes him a coward. How can a man who won't even stand up for his family stand up for our country? How can a man who was too afraid to stand his ground against a joke like Bush stand his ground against brutal dictators? My fellow Americans...

That's not change we can believe in.

Comments

[Thoros]

I'm so sick of the media's love affair with a one-term Senator will a weak resume whose only visible credit is that his nomination may put an end to affirmative action.

[Kenji]

I think the affair is just about over.

[SamThornton]

Just a note; driving airplanes doesn't make one an expert on war, defense, or foreign policy. It makes one an expert at driving airplanes. Getting spoon-fed briefings on wars, defense policy, or foreign policy in the Senate similarly doesn't make one an expert at any of it. It makes one an expert on getting spoon-fed information. In Sen. McCain's case, he's demonstrated publicly on many occasions that the spoon-feeding slopped over on his shirt.

If Sen. McCain continues claiming expertise in these areas, he should be forcefully challenged to explain exactly where and how he obtained his expertise.

[Tommygun264]

Grampy McSame couldn't even "drive" airplanes competently back when he was allowed to - the plane he crashed in Vietnam, which by the way is where he got the two broken arms and one broken leg he attributes to "his captors", was not the first aircraft he turned into a smoldering pile of taxpayer's dollars and he crashed those planes all by himself.

[Kenji]

It was his fourth crash, I believe.

[w8aminute]

I'm so sick of this entire 'military War Hero' excuse as to why Mccain is better than Obama. If the right wing whackos truly beleved that argument they would have voted for Gore or Kerry - those two men served in VietNam, but nope...they thought Bush and his whole Alabama AWOL experience made him the military choice. such hypocrits... Did you believe the Swiftboat LIES or was Kerry just too damn smart and patriotic to be your leader? Did you want some dumb shit born with a silver spoon in his mouth who proved beyond a reasonable doubt he couldn't run any business handed to him on name recognition alone and thought THAT would make a great President? The military experience didn't matter in 2000-2004, don't try to make it such a big issue now.

[stryker]

Yes, McCain did not jump ahead in the line of prisoners to be released, which was noble. However, if he had he would have been ostracized by all the POWs as chicken sh**. Being a POW doesn't make you a great politician. John Stockdale spent more time as a POW than McCain. He ran for VP with Ross Perot. Remember his famous line during a debate? "I don't even know what the hell I'm doing here!" I don't think McCain really does, either. I hope Obama does take him up on the debates-it would give the American voters 10x to see how McCain has nothing to offer.

[bojack]

5. People Like Obama who try to appease brutal dictators will find the dictators despising them in the long run ..... Adolf Hitler despise those who appease to them ..... Saddam Hussein despise Iran when they stop their 8 year war..... any sign of weakness is a victory for those in Islamic states.... that is why when a democratic former president makes appeasements with terroristic governments they win.....especially when he fail to get American out of Iran in a timely manner.... like one day before Reagan took office because they knew that he was going to play that role....

6. So I guess Obama is some type of Hero..... didn't even serve in the military..... there seems to be a trend here..... Bill, Hillary, Obama, never served in the military ..... Bush, Dole, Bush Sr., Reagan, McCain, all Republicans have served...... last democrat to serve was Jimmy Carter.....

[hippynanainblingland]

Bush served? Really? In what branch of the service? From what I understand, he's more of a deserter than a server.... and as for Reagan, he spent his time doing pictures, and being a TV show host.

[bojack]

After completing fourteen home-study Army Extension Courses, Reagan enlisted in the Army Enlisted Reserve[19] on April 29, 1937, as a private assigned to Troop B, 322nd Cavalry at Des Moines, Iowa.[20] He was appointed Second Lieutenant in the Officers Reserve Corps of the Cavalry on May 25, 1937, and on June 18 was assigned to the 323rd Cavalry.[21]

Reagan was ordered to active duty for the first time on April 18, 1942. Due to his nearsightedness, he was classified for limited service only, which excluded him from serving overseas.[22] His first assignment was at the San Francisco Port of Embarkation at Fort Mason, California, as a liaison officer of the Port and Transportation Office.[23] Upon the approval of the Army Air Force (AAF), he applied for a transfer from the Cavalry to the AAF on May 15, 1942, and was assigned to AAF Public Relations and subsequently to the 1st Motion Picture Unit in Culver City, California.[23] On January 14, 1943 he was promoted to First Lieutenant and was sent to the Provisional Task Force Show Unit of This Is The Army at Burbank, California.[23] He returned to the 1st Motion Picture Unit after completing this duty and was promoted to Captain on July 22, 1943.[20]

[bojack]

At the height of the Vietnam War, Bush was accepted into the Texas Air National Guard in May 1968, despite scoring the lowest acceptable passing grade on the pilot's written aptitude test.[22][23][24] This was at a time when more than ten thousand Air National Guard personnel, many fighter pilots, were called to active duty to serve in Vietnam.[25] After training, he was assigned to duty in Houston, flying Convair F-102s out of Ellington Air Force Base.[2

[THINKB4USPEAK]

Someone left the idiot box open again. Look up "appease" in the dictionary. Saying you will SPEAK with the "enemy" is far from "negotiation" or appeasement.

[gianardil]

Sir/Madam, what are you saying? There are three different definitions of appeasement,
1. the act or action of appeasing : PACIFICATION : CONCILIATION that we should accept wrong and call it right ... would be appeasement at its most cowardly
2. the state of being appeased : SATISFACTION an experience from which he derived little appeasement
3. a policy of appeasing a potential aggressor some defensible reasons for the appeasement which London and Paris practiced in the thirties

I have absolutely no clue what you are saying in this post. Talking to the leader of a country is NOT APPEASEMENT. You are a much stronger leader when you have the courage to speak to the leaders of countries that you do not like, rather than forcing them to submit to your demands prior to talking. What does this have to do with this man's piece?

[bojack]

Appeasement, literally: calming, reconciling, acquiring peace by way of concessions or gifts (the verb 'to pay' also goes back to the Latin 'pax' = peace). Most commonly, appeasement is used for the policy of accepting the imposed conditions of an aggressor in lieu of armed resistance. Usually it means giving in to demands of an aggressor in order to avoid war.

The Logan Act was passed in 1799 and makes it a felony for any United States citizen "wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both."

[bojack]

The State Department has publicly objected to Carter's meeting. National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley told ABC that "The position of the government is that Hamas is a terrorist organization and we don't negotiate with terrorists. We think that's a very important principle to maintain. The State Department made clear we think it's not useful for people to be running to Hamas at this point and having meetings." Carter says, however, the State Department had not contacted him directly, but the State Department says otherwise. Carter says that he has been meeting with Hamas for years. In other words, he has been violating American law and policy for years.

[trish74]

Is that you Kevin James ??

[bojack]

No Trish....

[barackobama4prez]

LMAO

He's an appeaser who likes appeasing ...his appeasement appeases the enemy...


BUT WHAT DID HE DO??

He's an appeaser who likes appeasing ...his appeasement appeases the enemy...

[Oridaman]

What?

http://www.bushflash.com/thanks.html

Go figure?

[bojack]

1. Where was Senator Obama? In Russia .... http://obama.senate.gov/press/050823-obama_to_visit/
What was McCain suppose to do? Go down there in the middle of the storm??? He went 3 days later..

2. Maybe Obama should have shown that when his preacher was loosing his temper.... instead of silently agreeing with him for over 20 years.....

3. So with retention levels down and Democratic Senators calling troops "stupid" (John Kerrry) I guess this is the democratic response. Education is free while in the military and benefits (GI & others should apply to all ...even those that stay in.... in which John McCain said)

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-03-29-gi-bill_N.htm

4. The Senate Ethics Committee concluded that Glenn and McCain's involvement in the scheme was minimal and dropped the charges against them. In August 1991, the committee ruled that the other three senators had acted improperly in interfering with the Federal Home Loan Banking Board's investigation. I GUESS YOU FORGOT TO MENTION THIS!!

[Kalifornika]

Bo, you sound like you don't know jack.

[SamThornton]

Nailed it.

[jwod]

I'm a veteran, of the Regular Army, not the National Guard. But whether someone served or not though is immaterial, as you yourself would argue in dissing Carter, Kerry, Gore etc. Bush 41 and McCain's service is to be lauded. But talk about appeasement - who was it who raged against Bush's policy on torture, and then made nice when it got down to the short hairs. He got no substantial change in that policy and ran away from it with his tail between his legs, as he ran from the scurrilous accusations made by the Bush 2000 campaign. There was a point when I thought he had cojones, but over the past year and a half he has lost me.
Strangely enough, McCain hasn't learned that we were foolish in attacking Iraq, and never took the administration to task for its poor planning and execution. We needed a surge in 2003, since Rumsfeld and Bush refused to listen to generals who disagreed with them. McCain could have taken up that cudgel then, but waited for 4000 lives and 20,000 wounded before he pushed for what should have been done four years earlier. He's the only one who was right (about that), and is right that we have to leave on our terms, not having been chased out. But he seems to support staying forever. He still thinks we should have attacked Iraq, but can't even seem to get our military up to snuff (in size and benefits).

[bojack]

I'm a veteran as well (24 years active duty retired in 2005).... we have been at war for over 5 years and we have substain minimal losses compare to other wars.... It does take time to pull out of Iraq.... I agree that mistakes have been made and criticizing a policy is easy to do..... my complaint is that those who criticize haven't said what their exit plan would be..... since the do nothing democrats have become the majority in the house and senate .... what have they done??? Nothing!!! ....

[appleknocker]

Re: "Cowardice": Apparently, ambition can be more emasculating than torture.

[QD]

zing!

[Mchris1947]

"Cowardice": Apparently, ambition can be more emasculating than torture. - Appleknocker

CLASSIC!!!

[Daniel8168]

"all the energy and eloquence of Frankenstein on barbiturates"

That is absolutely priceless, and so fitting. LMAO

Did anyone else notice at his town-hall meeting the other day that he practically begged Obama to have joint-town hall meetings with him? He's terrified of debating Obama. I guess he can't hear the ear-piece radio as well as Bush did in his debates with Kerry. It's kinda funny that the republican party keeps voting for candidates that are entirely out of touch with reality. We just need to make sure they don't steal the election this time - or that if they do there is hell to pay.

[hawkeye58]

"My friends" lord help us if this man ever gets near the White House..

[RhymesWithRight]

Let's see -- cowardice like Barack Obama never serving in any branch of the armed forces yet arguing he is better suited than a hero like McCain to be commander-in-chief.

That would be chutzpah we can't believe in.

[AuntSam]

Do you really believe that just because someone didn't serve in the military, he/she is a coward? That this automatically makes him/her 'not fit' to be President?
I honor McCain for his service and respect him, but that wouldn't be the reason I would vote or not vote for him. Being the President of US requires many things, not just one heroic time in anyone's life.

[Bladernr1001]

Well you continually bash Bush on this issue. Now all of sudden it is a non issue?

[TVI]

Gee, what a surprise...when the righties don't get it, don't want to get it, they change the subject.

Let's get back to the point of the article. The author was pointing out that McCain is a coward, not for his military service, but for his blind ambition which prevented him from doing the right thing, even though it would have been politically risky.

I used to respect McCain...until the day I watched him embrace W. That day came shortly after Bush and Rove's dispicible slanderous assault on McCain and his family during the South Carolina primary.

http://tinyurl.com/45g5a

Now, contrast that with Obama, who has demonstrated over and over that his principles come before political convenience: his public stance against the Iraq invasion (early on when it was very risky to do so), his bucking of the transparent pandering about the stupid "gasoline tax holiday" idea that McCain and Clinton were pushing, his thoughtful insightful speech on race relations when he was receiving unfair heat for something that he didn't even say, etc.

As far as your point about serving, I'd remind you that Bush proved to be a pathetic commander-in-chief, so military service apparently has no correlation with that. I'd argue that someone who has demonstrated the ability to be calm under pressure has a much better temperament to be commander-in-chief than someone who is known to have an explosive temper like McCain.

[Jazzbeau]

TVI, I fear your arguments are much too fact based and nuanced to be appreciated by RhymesWithRight and others of that ilk.

These hard right NeoCon apologists can mostly grasp sound bites, bumper sticker slogans and RNC talking points. Anything more complex or actually requiring thinking for ones self are pretty much out of reach for them.

[LiberTLover]

You could almost pick out when the 'applaud now' and 'boo now' signs went up for the audience. But the funniest part I swear, was that it looked like he was reading 'smile now'' signs during the speech and there was a time lag as he comprehended the words and then pasted up that sickly smile! My bf and I were in tears laughing!

[MrJoyboy]

If he's elected I can foresee McCain calling Putin a "c*nt", with his finger resting on the nuclear button. Ol' John might want to go out in style.

[shalopash]

Great article. Hit the nail right on the head.

[jeff]

old pandering coward,

Wow only on huffpost or kos.

never heard of Seth Grahame-Smith before but I am sure he is worthy to call John McCain a coward.

[CindyLB]

I think this is a great article. As a non American, the thing that strikes me about McCain, is his archaic language and his early 20th Century mental picture of reality. His notion of 'surrender' and 'liberation' of the Iraqi people ( inherited from Bush) and his belief that he can force democracy onto a country that was illegaly invaded by the US, is naive at best and arrogant to say the least. His whole campaign is about the past and reminding us of his military background, as if that alone makes you a good leader, or, I might add, a good commander ( but then who I am to comment being a woman and not an ex POW)
He is NOT the person to change the worlds view of the US..he will reinforce the US's bully image at at a time when it is seeking something different and a new identity on the world front.
As for the comments on Hilary Clinton (below) they are misplaced like much of her words, and do not warrant the space here ...simply because as one person say's its time to move on, its not about her anymore or her supporters (plenty more fish in the sea) its about ensuring the democrats obliterate ( a lovely Clinton term) the Republican machinary and its elected representative.
And finally, I personally, find Barack Obama THE most inspiring politician who has managed to motivate and excite this veteran apolitical 50 yr old woman!

[unfoxworthy]

Good response Cindy.
What many of the conservatives don't get apparently, is that if in fact Obama reaches out to antidemocratic regimes and tries to establish lines of communications with them, our allies (and potential allies) would be more apt to support us in our benevolence and also in our missions should we have to act militarily. McCain is looking more an more like he has big corporate america's hand up his ass making his mouth move. If McCain wants to emulate a Bush, he should listen to Bush 41, who lamented in his book on the shortcomings of invading Iraq.

Sergio Vieira De Mello, the late UN diplomat, was the poster child for trying to solve global issues by opening up lines of communication with reclusive, oppressive regimes. He understood that might only makes right when all other options drop off the table. We had Saddam totally isolated by the time we went in. There were many options still on the table. For McCain to legitimize this war is unconscionable.