The John McCain Campaign is One Hundred Percent Bullshit

[McCamy Taylor]

I. Bill Clinton Ate My Homework

We know who wrote the Enron Loophole. Phil Gramm, McCain’s good buddy and economic adviser who has been hiding in a back room somewhere, ever since he called us a “nation of whiners”. Gramm had to quit politics back in 2002, because everyone knew that he knew about Enron’s dirty dealings, since his wife Wendy worked for the company. But that has not stopped McCain from hiring the would-have-been-indicted-if-anyone-but-Bush-was-president ex-Senator.

Gramm is also responsible for the current mortgage and lending crisis. Basically, everything financial that Gramm touches turns to liquid shit. That is why McCain wants him to be his Secretary of the Treasury. Because shit is attracted to shit.

When confronted about having the author of “the Enron loophole” as part of his team, John McCain did what he always does. He attacked blindly, wildly, with no regard for logic or even the truth.

The McCain quickly fired back by noting that the Enron Loophole was supported by many Democrats, including ex-President Bill Clinton, and that McCain had long spoken out against it -- and had voted in 2003 to close the loophole.
Snip

There's a problem with the McCain campaign's response, however. If they are going to attack Bill Clinton for signing the Enron loophole into law, it's only fair to point out that John McCain himself supported its passage in the first place.

Snip

The larger problem for McCain, who has at times supported efforts to close the Enron loophole, is that nobody is more responsible for the loophole becoming law than his national campaign co-chairman and economic adviser, former Texas Senator Phil Gramm.

Obama is pushing for the closure of the so-called "Enron loophole" as part of his plan to lower gas prices. The loophole permits unregulated energy futures trading in electronic markets and is likely a contributing factor in the high price of oil.

http://www.jedreport.com/2008/06/mcbush-supporte.html

Note to John McCain. Real men do not blame all their troubles on the Clenis.

II. Train Derailment on the Straight Talk Express

Who is going to call the shots if John McCain is elected president? Presumably some combination of the one hundred plus lobbyists who surround him. Because, John McCain’s word is not the final word of the John McCain campaign.

About statements McCain has made on taxes and the economy, from Douglas Holtz-Eakin, McCain’s chief economic adviser:

“He (John McCain) has certainly I’m sure said things in town halls that don’t jibe perfectly with his written plan. But that doesn’t mean it’s official."

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/25/holtz-eakin-mccain-may-not-speak-for-the-mccain-campaign-on-the-economy/

If John McCain is not in charge, then who is? Nobody for President?


III. The Real Thing

John Dean has some interesting things to say about Barry Goldwater and his opinion of John McCain. Dean and Barry Goldwater Jr. have just finished a book based upon a journal kept by Goldwater Sr.

http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20080502.html

McCain, we learn from Welch's book, has wanted to be president since returning from Vietnam, while Goldwater was drafted to be the GOP standard-bearer. Stated a bit differently, McCain's oversized ego provides him strength, while Goldwater curtained his natural strengths by always acting with great humility.

snip

Goldwater loved America and its people; McCain loves power, and what it can do for McCain.

Snip

McCain was fortunate that Goldwater never publicly exposed him, but Goldwater was too good a Republican to do that and he thought too highly of McCain's father to sink his successor in the Senate.

Had Goldwater publicized what I believe to be his true feelings about John McCain, I doubt McCain would be the presumptive nominee of the GOP in 2008. Goldwater's political perceptions of others have proven extraordinarily prescient, so his reaction toward McCain is telling.

Barry Goldwater is the darling of the American conservative movement, but his opinion does not carry a lot of weight among Democrats. However, please keep in mind that in his later life, his philosophy moved towards the libertarian wing of the Republican Party. He became much more tolerant on a lot of issues, such as gay rights, abortion, legalized marijuana and he once said “Every good Christian ought to kick Falwell in the ass.”

And then imagine what he would have thought about John McCain kissing Hagee’s ass or trotting around after a VP candidate who attends an evangelical Church where they preach that God has appointed Bush to bring about the End of Days.

IV. Issues? Issues? We Don’t Need No Stinking Issues?

How can you tell a bullshitter? His actions do not match his words.

John McCain said that he would wage a high minded, lofty general election campaign in which he would concentrate on the issues.

John McCain then turned around and hired the same dirty tricksters who slurred him in South Carolina in 2000. He approved an ad in which he accused his opponent of calling his running mate a “pig”---and then a week later, McCain admitted that his opponent did not call his running mate a pig. He approved an ad in which two famous monuments were used to simulate his opponent’s penis becoming erect as beautiful women walk by—the first use of pornography in an official presidential ad that I can remember. He denounced a program designed to teach schoolchildren how to protect themselves against pedophiles, because his opponent supported it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/09/mccain-ad-obamas-lone-edu_n_125205.html

In battle, these would be called “diversionary tactics”. In politics, I just call them bullshit . Throw enough of this crap around, and you stink up the contest so badly that voters get disgusted, and they tune out the election. Low turnout favors Republicans.

That is how the bullshit strategy is supposed to work. The economy had other ideas. People care when their stock portfolios suddenly lose a big percentage of their value. They care when their jobs and pensions are in danger. Companies care when the feds start talking about how this latest bailout may be the last we can afford.

V. Helter Skelter

Sir Thomas More: I think that when statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties, they lead their country by a short route to chaos.
A Man For All Seasons

Last March, John McCain stood for deregulation. Forty-eight hours ago, the stock market plunged 500 points, two more major lenders failed, and John McCain announced that he had always been for regulation.

John McCain called Jerry Falwell “an agent of intolerance” in 2000. This election, John McCain is the agent of intolerance.


In 1999, John McCain said “I would not support repeal of Roe vs. Wade, which would then force women in America to illegal and dangerous operations.”

http://www.ontheissues.org/Senate/John_McCain_Abortion.htm

That was then. In an article written this year for Slate Dalia Lithwick describes how McCain seeks to court the Republican base with this position:

In the religion forum last weekend at Saddleback Church in California, McCain announced that life begins "at the moment of conception" and promised, "I will be a pro-life president, and this presidency will have pro-life policies." In April he told Chris Matthews that "the rights of the unborn is one of my most important values." He has bragged about his consistent zero rating from NARAL. He has explicitly said that his Supreme Court choices will be animated by his desire to overturn Roe. t

It gets worse.

In addition to flip-flopping, McCain has tried to keep his anti-choice views under wraps, so that the public will believe that he is still the “old John McCain” of 1999---meaning that he attempts to be both for Roe v. Wade and against Roe v. Wade at the same time.

http://www.slate.com/id/2198320/


Vote for McCain and you are playing Russian Roulette. Which McCain is the real one? Is there even a man behind the varied masks? Or is he a composite put together by the hundred plus lobbyists, a computer simulated presidential candidate like the TV personality Max Headroom from the 1980s?

I think John McCain chose the wrong profession. He would have been happier in show business, where he could have used his abilities as a bullshitter to win the love of fans. That is what he really wants, to be loved, not to lead. That is why it is so hard to figure out just who John McCain is or what he stands for, because if you ask, he will reply What do you want me to stand for? What do I have to do to close this deal?

[Ganja Ninja]

1. What do you expect?

It's not like they can run on the record of the last 8 years. If they don't lie their asses off they got nothing.

[Zenlitened]

2. Even people who once liked McCain are stunned by how low he's sunk.

They just shake their heads in disgust and disbelief when you ask if they're going to vote for him in November.

I doubt they'll all be flocking to Sen. Obama in droves. But I expect a lot of them will be re-discovering their Libertarian roots when they step into the voting booth in November.

If they even bother going to the polls at all.

[Blue_In_AK]

15. You may not believe this,

but people who once liked Sarah Palin (myself among them) are just shaking their heads in disgust and disbelief, as well. Which is the real Sarah? She seems so different now than she did when she was governor. I hardly even recognize her. Odd how this quest for power has turned these two formerly likable people into such caricatures of themselves. The Republican party is poison.

[autorank]

3. There's no there there k*4

"For a short time, he went against the grain of right wing madness. In his Norfolk, Virginia speech announcing his 2000 candidacy for president, he took on the worst elements of U.S. politics.

"McCain also pulled off one of the great pieces of modern street theater, also in the 2000 primaries. He stood before the Russian embassy and castigated the New York Republican Party for taking his name off the primary ballot on a technicality. He was quickly restored to the ballot."

BUT

That was 2000. This is now. His need to supersede the two admirals in the family tree has
lead to his ruin. History will not be kind, at all.

[Imagevision]

4. McCain may surprise you at the debates? - then again it may snow in Miami...

[Pete2069]

5. Now McCain brings in the Clinton BS.

This makes him a full right wing republican a.. hole..  
Clinton is their backup propaganda when every thing else
fails..

[spelldmilk]

6. DingDingDingDing! RopeADope. Excellent post.

[Willo]

7. That is on dead-on accurately titled OP.

How the heck can you ask people to make you a leader when you take no responsibility for what you've done, have no plans for the future and no clue what the heck is going on around you.

The rules of their game is take everything McCain says at face value. Question nothing we tell you because every question is an unpatriotic, out-of-bounds, low blow, undeserving of an answer.

Incredible that anyone finds this acceptable.

[McCamy Taylor]

8. Douglas Holtz-Eakin is the same guy who claims McCain invented the Blackberry.

Is laying an obvious turd also a McCain strategy? Say something so lamebrain that it will distract the press from the issues for a day or two? In this case, it is not working. The MSM is talking about the "McCain invented the Blackberry" and "It's the economy, stupid" at the same time.

[FrenchieCat]

9. unadulterated bullshit.....

even the Freepers know it. Must be hard on them. :rofl:

[yardwork]

10. Great, well-documented rant! k&r

[crazy_vanilla]

11. Amen to that!!!

[notaboutus]

12. Agree

Your "diversionary tactics" was spot on. The sad part is if you look at all the post about the V.P. all over the internet it was working. She is a smoke screen.

[Blue_In_AK]

16. She may be a smokescreen

but she's not doing him any favors. The selection of Sarah Palin just demonstrates what poor judgment he has.

[MetaTrope]

13. I'd still like to know where McCain's leadership was

when al-Qaeda picked Arizona to first set up shop in the U.S., and then started taking their flying lessons there.

[biglefthander]

14. Top Notch! Top Notch!

"Are you doing anything Saturday? How would you like to mow my lawn?" -Judge Smails

(Sorry, I just saw Caddyshack)

Great friggin post.