Clearly stung by the fall out from his inability to remember how many houses he had, the McCain campaign reminded everyone that John McCain was a P.O.W.
McCain campaign spokesman:
“This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years — in prison,” referring to the prisoner of war camp that McCain was in during the Vietnam War.
I think the McCain campaign may have just jumped the shark playing up the P.O.W. angle in response to McCain’s housing gaffe. This is, of course, a retread of the line McCain used against charges that he was a carpetbagger who moved to Arizona to get elected when he carpetbagged to Arizona to get elected. He goes back to this well time after time. In his first run for office a quarter century ago:
He dismissed accusations that he was a carpetbagger with a well-timed ad lib: “The place I lived the longest in my life was Hanoi.”
In this context, however, bringing up the P.O.W. angle seems forced. Certainly there is no evidence of his mythical reluctance to talk about being a prisoner. Going out of the way to remind everyone that McCain was a P.O.W. in this out of context kind of way reminds me of the jock doing the report in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure who gets flustered and blurts out “SAN DIMAS HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL RULES!”
Also, channeling Dr. Evil, the McCain camp whined that Obama lives in a “frickin’ mansion.” Presumably the adjective “frickin'” was added to distract from the qualifier “a” which is considerably less than “seven.” I’ll bet Obama won’t even have to have his staff get back with anyone to confirm that his number of houses is “one.” (Craig is going to get me for my excessive use of scare quotes.)
Oh, and now the McCain campaign declares that it will feel free to talk about Tony Rezko. Until now, McCain partisans have been awfully reluctant to mention Rezko.
You know, I’m seeing the polls close tighter for no explainable reason and all I can do is shudder in horror. I’m starting to feel EXACTLY like I did in 2000 when we were presented with George Bush and we all thought that the frat boy was too stupid and too out of touch to win. Yet he did. (depending upon your definition of win.)
Then he did it again, against all odds, in 2004. And you think now that it was all a fluke and that Americans couldn’t REALLY be that stupid, could they? And yet we see the polls getting closer when Obama should be kicking his ass. What gives?
This is really starting to feel like the same old nightmare all over again. Not only is McCain and his campaign just as bad as Bush, the voters are being snowed over again in EXACTLY THE SAME WAY, and they don’t seem to notice.
I’ll hold off further freak outs until after the conventions are over, but seriously, I’m about done with this whole political process. We’re too stupid to survive.
I’m guessing the number is more than seven. His property in $edona (the “cabin”) has about six houses on it alone. Then there are the two luxury condos in Phoenix that they bought and combined. So we’re already up to, like, seven or eight, just in Arizona.
Wasn’t it AFTER he attained sainthood in Hanoi that he left his disabled wife in order to marry a young, loaded hottie capable of buying private jet and a dozen or so houses? It’s apparent that he wants his POW status to be an Easy Button. But we are still talking about 5 1/2 years in the life of a 72 year old man, right? He’s lived a whole life since then, and a pretty uninspiring one. How many more mentions of Hanoi before someone openly laughs about it on camera?
Funny- I say the same thing about the elections, Dave. Sort of. It goes more like, “we couldn’t be as stupid as to elect McCain or Obama, (Bush, Kerry; Bush, Gore; Clinton, Dole; &c.) could we?”
I do agree with your conclusion- we’re surviving despite ourselves. What’s truly going to do us in is our deficit spending, our borrowing from other nations, and our growing inflation. Neither Obama nor McCain are willing to truly address this. We’ll focus instead on what country Obama was educated in, or how many houses McCain has. Policy? Never heard of it.
Policy is hard, boring, doesn’t sell ad time, and doesn’t seem to matter to a significant number of voters.
The McCains are so rich that they probably do have frickin’ sharks with frickin’ laser beams on their heads.
Anyone notice that Republicans always expect to win on both sides of every argument and often do?
Republicans are rich due to hard work and wise investment and they don’t rely on gov’t help (depends on how we define ‘gov’t help’ I’d add) and , they should be left alone and shouldn’t be taxed,but Democrats who are rich are elite and out of touch and don’t deserve it.( like Obama)
Interesting to note that such hard work as McCain has done is not the source of his wealth. He was born the son of military royalty and performed bravely enough but with indifferent to poor competence until he was shot down and captured. He endured his captivity and, afterward, seems to have shown some fair competence in his work for a couple of years until he bailed on the military.
This hard work did not leave him wealthy.
He got rich by leaving his wife and marrying a woman who was inheriting money. Her money and connections gave him the opportunity to get elected and has formed the foundation of his political career.
If his dad and grandfather hadn’t been who they were and had Cindy McCain’s family not earned a lot of money for her, there is no indication at all that their work and skills would have led to any notable sort of prosperity.
I’m usually just a reader and not a commenter of this blog, but I must say that reading a political comparison to the Bill & Ted’s football guy was an unexpected pleasure.
I know you referred to this Mike, but it stands repeating… does anyone think we will hear anything about real issues from either candidate? I am completely fed up with eliteism, who is richer, who married whom… it is so very sad that no one is calling them on this crap. I cry to think this stuff *is* what is important to the American people. Sigh.
Brenda, we’re going to get nothing but crap. It’s what The People want, as Doug points out. Look at ratings or even blog traffic for proof. Those who stick to policy are ignored. Those who talk about the very pointless garbage (spouses, elite status, # of houses, places of education, etc.) get fatter ratings and higher traffic.
But, it’s why we get what we get. It’s why many think McCain or Obama are actually good choices. It’s hard not to have great contempt.
Open the debates in ’08. Anyone with ballot access in enough states to potentially win an electoral college victory should be able to participate. Even if you don’t agree with them, a debate including Baldwin, Barr, McKinney, and Nader is going to be much more interesting than the scripted events we can expect this year.