FRANK RICH: The first presidential candidate in our history to risk wrecking the country

[PolNewf]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/opinion/28rich.html?ref=opinion

NYT Sunday Opinion page is on a mission, Kristof is a good read as well.

[jwirr]

1. He is wrong. McSame is the second candidate - *ss was the first. nt

[Melinda]

3. "... in our history to risk wrecking the country even before being voted into the Oval Office."

The OP obviously lacked room in the subject line. Here's the referenced sentence in its entirety:

"He may be the first presidential candidate in our history to risk wrecking the country even before being voted into the Oval Office.."

Rich's piece is scathing - SCATHING.

WHAT we learned last week is that the man who always puts his “country first” will take the country down with him if that’s what it takes to get to the White House.

For all the focus on Friday night’s deadlocked debate, it still can’t obscure what preceded it: When John McCain gratuitously parachuted into Washington on Thursday, he didn’t care if his grandstanding might precipitate an even deeper economic collapse. All he cared about was whether he might save his campaign. George Bush put more deliberation into invading Iraq than McCain did into his own reckless invasion of the delicate Congressional negotiations on the bailout plan.

By the time he arrived, there already was a bipartisan agreement in principle. It collapsed hours later at the meeting convened by the president in the Cabinet Room. Rather than help try to resuscitate Wall Street’s bloodied bulls, McCain was determined to be the bull in Washington’s legislative china shop, running around town and playing both sides of his divided party against Congress’s middle. Once others eventually forged a path out of the wreckage, he’d inflate, if not outright fictionalize, his own role in cleaning up the mess his mischief helped make. Or so he hoped, until his ignominious retreat.

The question is why would a man who forever advertises his own honor toy so selfishly with our national interest at a time of crisis. I’ll leave any physiological explanations to gerontologists — if they can get hold of his complete medical records — and any armchair psychoanalysis to the sundry McCain press acolytes who have sorrowfully tried to rationalize his erratic behavior this year. The other answers, all putting politics first, can be found by examining the 24 hours before he decided to “suspend” campaigning and swoop down on the Capitol to save America from the Sunnis or the Shia, or whoever perpetrated all those credit-default swaps.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/opinion/28rich.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin

[jwirr]

4. Obviously I did not read the whole OP sorry. It is a mystery why a

man who claims to love this nation would be willing to destroy it in order to get elected. I really doubt it has anything to do with being old. I think he has bad advisor's and has let this whole thing go to his head. Many of our repub presidents have isolated themselves to the point that they have only yes men/women around them and they buy into the 'everyone loves you' bull. That may be happening to McShame.

[FightingIrish]

2. One crazy week in a brilliant nut shell

[JBoy]

5. A great article. The last week has been a disaster for McCain.

[senseandsensibility]

6. Please keep this kicked!

I hope everyone reads this. It is necessary to see all the facts about last week put forth in one place, as Rich does here, to understand the horror of last week. And underneath it all, his actions were meant to hide his lobbyists' role in Fannie and Freddie and Palin's disastrous appearance with Couric. People need to understand this. I hope Keith and Rachel have Rich on their shows, because the corporate media is still covering for this guy.

[chill_wind]

7. It's clear that John McCain would rather lose his integrity than lose an election.

(Team Obama, Sept 12)

K & R

[Rabrrrrrr]

8. Sweet!

There's no logical reason on God's green earth for anyone, at this point, to continue supporting McCain.