John McCain can kiss his "ambitions" for the presidency good-bye

[Blue_Roses]

watching him on "This Week" defend the obvious lies of this administration are going to come back to haunt him later. He needs to think about a new career doing cameo shots in movies.:eyes:

He's a pathetic senator who rides the fence.

[Pirate Smile]

1. He did the same thing on Hardball earlier this week. He won't even

speak up for the Intelligence Community. He is a complete sell out but then, we already knew that.

[Paradise]

the guy is, and has been the biggest disappointment;

never even stood up for himself... :thumbsdown:

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

8. Let's relive some of those golden Hardball moments, shall we?

THE soundbite...THE GRAND MOTHER OF ALL SOUNDBITES for the "McCain 2008" campaign...needs to be:

"I can't be President."

:toast:

[sam sarrha]

23. that photo is PATHETIC..!!!!

:puke:

[Pirate Smile]

24. Crooks and Liars has his pathetic exchange from Hardball up

John McCain waffles on Rove

McCain is thought to be as honest as they come. He doesn't tote the party line. He's an independent thinker and the extreme religious right hates him. John even railed President Bush for attacking his family during the 2000 South Carolina primary and told the Prez that he should be embarrassed. Last night on Hard Ball, he caved like a cheap suit on the issue of Rove-gate. He stuck to the Ken Mehlman defense.

Matthews asked the proper question and tried to get him to give a basic right or wrong opinion.

MATTHEWS: I want to know what your ethical standard would be here if it is shown that somebody in the White House, the vice president's staff or somebody on the president's staff, whoever they are, intentionally leaked an undercover agent's identity as a way of either just pushing them back or punishing them, whatever the motive. Do you think the standard should be, did they break a criminal act or not?

MCCAIN: I don't know, because it depends on?look, I can't be the president of the United States. I trust this president. I believe that he will do the right thing.

And, right now, the status of this situation is, is that Karl Rove still publicly denies that he did leak this name, OK. And I believe he has the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. And, again, as we said earlier in our conversation, he was trying to refute allegations that Ambassador Wilson made that turned out not to be true. And he knew they were not true. Well, I'm talking about Karl Rove knew they were not true.

Notice he didn't answer the question. Matthews wasn't asking about the President or the current status of the case. He asked him for an opinion. McCain brought it back to Wilson. The question is an easy one to answer. With McCain flopping around you have to figure that the entire GOP is worried about the direction and outcome of the investigation.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/07/22.html#a4090

[tsuki]

2. Keating Five was the kiss of death for him. Any run would expose

his involvement.

[whistle]

3. McCain has gone onto the portable intravenous pump of ....

...neo-con Koolaid.

[jrthin]

7. Sorry, but he's always been there. nt

[Glorfindel]

4. After the way Rove slimed him during the SC primary

in 2000 (illegitimate black daughter, etc.), how CAN he defend these monsters? He has NO self-respect at all. He's just a pathetic, sad old washout. I cannot wish him well.

[chieftain]

5. He is perpetuating lies told by people that smeared his wife,

child and himself. How pathetic for a man to be a slave to his ambitions to such a degree that he will abandon truth and leave his family defenseless. The irony is, of course, that he has no chance of getting the Republican nomination for president. The evangelicals and neo cons who dominate the party will never accept him.

[journalist3072]

13. You know, that always amazes me about Mc Cain....

That he would defend the very same slime bags who trashed his family. The very same slime bags who made calls to predominantly White Households in South Carolina and said "You know John McCain has a black baby."

And BTW, Bush personally approved that strategy.

[chieftain]

27. I was in SC during that primary.

I have been around politics for a lot of years but I never saw a more debased, vicious and scurrilous campaign. Not just the McCain slurs, but the overt appeal to the racist, anti Catholic supporters of Bob Jones University were disgusting and should have disqualified W in the eyes of the media as being capable of decency and moral leadership.Compassionate conservative, my ass.

[journalist3072]

30. You're absolutely right....And BTW.....

Here is an excerpt of a November 20, 2000 article from Time magazine. They had reporters following both the Bush and Gore camps, and in this snippet, they show what was going on with Bush's camp as they plotted their South Carolina strategy. Notice is says Bush "agreed to the battle plan."


Some advisers, watching the McCain surge, urged Bush to do as his old man had done 12 years before--hit the enemy hard on the airwaves during that last weekend before voting. But Bush refused. "Our object is to win a nomination that is worth having," said Rove. And so Bush pretty much phoned it in--and got run over. "What the hell happened?" Bush asked his aides, who had not seen it coming--nothing remotely this bad or this big.

And so the Bush team headed down to South Carolina for the next big contest, where the crown that was supposed to be all bought and paid for was suddenly up for grabs. Bush had been up 47 points in South Carolina at one time; the polls were now even. McCain's crowds were huge. Working a rope line in Sumpter, Bush was approached by a man who stretched out his hand and said, "I just want to shake the hand of the next Vice President." Bush's face darkened; his eyes turned to slits.

Bush called old friends that weekend and chewed the thing over, secretly asked for help from outside advisers, handed out his private fax line so the campaign wouldn't know. "Tell me what you're seeing out there," Bush implored, trapped in his own bubble. But he had not given up hope. New Hampshire loves mavericks who live free or die, but the G.O.P. hates them, and the G.O.P. owned South Carolina.

In a suite at the Greenville Grand Hyatt that afternoon, Bush's top aides came together to save the campaign, but they were really plotting a murder. It was the Bush high command, with its South Carolina auxiliary: Rove; spokeswoman Hughes, as well as Warren Tompkins, a longtime G.O.P. operative in the state; state attorney general Charlie Condon; Lieutenant Governor Bob Peeler; and former Governor David Beasley. As a participant put it later, this was the moment "we decided to take the gloves off."

The trick was to try to cast McCain as a phony, take a guy with a consistently conservative voting record and paint him as a dangerous liberal, suggest that the war hero was somehow un-American, or at least un-South Carolinian. Out came the antipersonnel weapons: "He's not one of us," and "He doesn't share our conservative values," and "He's outside the mainstream." On McCain's lack of "conservative values," Rove piped up to say, "We have to get in his face on that. He's vulnerable." Added Tompkins: "He's an insider. When I hear this populist stuff, it makes me wanna throw up."

But who could put out the message, given Bush's promise to be a uniter, not a divider? Several outside groups, including the National Right to Life Coalition, Americans for Tax Reform and the National Rifle Association, stepped right up. "Right to Life will do radio; A.T.R. will do TV ads," said one of Bush's South Carolina advisers. Even though coordinating with third-party groups is illegal, the discussion explicitly revolved around the idea that these groups could be counted on to do whatever it took--whether it was running ads, passing out literature or making phone calls--to destroy McCain and save Bush.

Briefed later that day in his hotel suite, Bush agreed to the battle plan. The next 18 days would be the ugliest of his political career. In the heart of the Confederacy, phone callers and leaflets attacked McCain's wife's drug addiction, made racial attacks on McCain's adopted Bangladeshi daughter and warned of "McCain's fag army." Bush won the state by 11 points.

[babsbunny]

6. I think all Republicans better

come to "The Light" and get on the side that is Pro-America or their careers will be hurt.

[niallmac]

9. Dear John. Goodbye. n/t

[Lecky]

10. I hope no DU'ers were planning on voting for that empty shell of a man

[journalist3072]

14. Not me.....I've never had much respect for him.

He's too self-serving.

[vi5]

11. I don't know how to break this to people on here....

But McCain's concessions to and air kisses to bush's ass don't elicit the same type of reaction among the general populus as it does to those of us here on DU. I know plenty of people who hate Bush and love McCain and when they see McCain doing shit like this, it makes them view him as a moderate voice, a mediator, and a reasonable man. In fact, the notion that Bush and his cronies royally fucked John McCain over and that he still will support him and defend him is, pathetically enough a POSITIVE trait to most people. To the average sheep, particulary independents and the dreaded "moderate democrats" this shows loyalty and they like that. We can deny it all they want but I would bet that if McCain ran for president, that he would trounce the democratic candidate.

Before you flame me, I think this is pathetic, I think it's stupid for people to view him that way, and I would never in a million years vote for him. But sometimes the disconnect between what I see in day to day real life talking to people and what I read on this board is just to disparate not to notice.

[sam sarrha]

25. general population of RepugNuts are grasping for straws, to somehow

prop up a failed political system, about 87% of all republican administrations had a recession, i can remember several bad ones back to Eisenhower myself.

[Pepperbelly]

12. McCain's biggest supporter is the media establishment.

They love Mr. Straight-Talker. Too bad they don't hold him to the standard of Mr. Straight-Walker.

[terrya]

15. A Bush shill through and through. Plus, he's too old.

I agree...any Preidential ambitions for McCain are over.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

16. I think McCain is being blackmailed. How else could he kiss the ass

of the person that slandered not only himself, but his wife and child?

[emulatorloo]

33. Personally I think they promised him he could have Rove in 2008

Not looking so good right now.

[sam sarrha]

17. when will they just give up and stop being puppets of that madman

and turn their backs on him to show everyone they dont support him anymore.. you can see they are annoyed at having to read the script already.

[Coexist]

18. what show was that?

[Eric J in MN]

35. "This Week with George Stephanopolous" nt

nt

[KG]

19. he's never ridden the fence.

he's always been a neo-con prick.

[sundancekid]

20. when he chooses not to fight for his family, why/how could I ever trust

him to fight for me and my rights???

He's completely washed up - jumped the shark at that first puppy hug.
WE WILL TAKE NO PRISONERS, not even the ones who imprison themselves.

[sam sarrha]

21. Blackmail..huntertompson killed himself right before the photos taken at

parties where the little children from Boys Town who were used as sex slaves, Jeff Gannon is apparently one of those that didn't come back.
it is said that there were over 80 thousand photos. the justice department only requested a few thousand and left the rest in hands of a friend of Thompson.. right about the time he killed himself

My computer crashed and i lost most of my folders.. i will check into it again.

[dogday]

22. his nose is so far up their asses

it makes me wonder if they have something on him or is he towing the line to get the republican support in 08?

[DanCa]

26. I was waitting for this thread

I seen him squirming on George S's show. He was differently sweatting thru his teeth and lying. Do you notice that both Mccain and Bush left side of thier mouth puff up when they lie?

[goforit]

28. He's pathetic!!!.......It is fascinating to watch them all fall at once.

[Toots]

29. Swift Boat Liars say McCain was the only POW to actually gain weight

That could be a true statement and McCain is doing what he has to to keep it quiet. :shrug: I can think of no other rational explanation.

[kentuck]

31. After he went down to 99 lbs....

he gained some weight. He almost died.

[DanCa]

32. There were only two reason i voted for mccain in the primariy

1) I hated the chimp. 2) I didn't like the smear campaign against him. Cmon mr intergrity they attacked your wife for chris sake. Dont protect rove your loyality is misplaced.

[oasis]

34. John McCain can kiss my ass. (eom)