NYT: "Getting to Know You" by Bob Herbert

[ErinBerin84]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/opinion/26herbert.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

NYT: "Getting to Know You" by Bob Herbert

The conventional wisdom in this radically unconventional presidential race is that the voters have to get to know Barack Obama better.

snip


How much do voters really know about John McCain?


Senator McCain crossed a line that he shouldn’t have this week when he said that Mr. Obama “would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign.” It was a lousy comment, tantamount to calling Mr. Obama a traitor, and Senator McCain should apologize for it.But what we’ve learned over the years is that Mr. McCain is one of those guys who never has to pay much of a price for his missteps and foul-ups and bad behavior. Can you imagine the firestorm of outrage and criticism that would have descended on Senator Obama if he had made the kind of factual mistakes that John McCain has repeatedly made in this campaign?(Or if Senator Obama had the temerity to even remotely suggest that John McCain would consider being disloyal to his country for political reasons?)



We have a monumental double standard here. Mr. McCain has had trouble in his public comments distinguishing Sunnis from Shiites and had to be corrected in one stunningly embarrassing moment by his good friend Joe Lieberman. He has referred to a Iraq-Pakistan border when the two countries do not share a border. He declared on CBS that Iraq was the first major conflict after 9/11, apparently forgetting — at least for the moment — about the war in Afghanistan. In that same interview, he credited the so-called surge of U.S. forces in Iraq with bringing about the Anbar Awakening, a movement in which thousands of Sunnis turned on insurgents. He was wrong. The awakening preceded the surge.

More important than these endless gaffes are matters that give us glimpses of the fundamental makeup of the man. A celebrated warrior as a young man, he has always believed that the war in Iraq can (and must) be won. As the author Elizabeth Drew has written: “He didn’t seem to seriously consider the huge costs of the war: financial, personal, diplomatic and to the reputation of the United States around the world.”He also felt we could have, and should have, won the war in Vietnam. “We lost in Vietnam,” said Mr. McCain in 2003, “because we lost the will to fight, because we did not understand the nature of the war we were fighting and because we limited the tools at our disposal.”
The spirit of the warrior was on display in the famous incident in which Mr. McCain, with the insouciance of a veteran bomber pilot, sang “Bomb-bomb Iran” to the tune of “Barbara Ann” by the Beach Boys.

No big deal. Just John being John.But then, we are already bogged down in two wars. And John is running for president. It’s hardly crazy to wonder.Part of the makeup of the man — apparently a significant part, according to many close observers — is his outsized temper. Mr. McCain’s temperament has long been a subject of fascination in Washington, and for some a matter of concern. He can be a nasty piece of work. (Truly nasty. He once told an extremely cruel joke about Chelsea Clinton — too cruel to repeat here.)If the McCain gaffes seem endless, so do the tales about his angry, profanity-laced eruptions. Senator Thad Cochran, a Mississippi Republican, said of Mr. McCain: “The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine.”


snip



Barack Obama is not the only candidate the voters need to know more about.

[liberalla]

1. "How much do voters really know about John McCain?"

(the REAL John McCain)

...and do they know that what they think they know is all wrong?

[cloudythescribbler]

2. The column was really excellent -- and very cogent, suitable for distribution as a leaflet

I hope that Herbert's column gets more discussed here on DU -- the column as a whole really sums up the case against McCain MUCH better than the DU corps letter did.

[CatWoman]

3. K&R

:kick: