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Oct
17
What happened to John McCain?
Filed Under Political Shitheadery | 1 Comment
I’ve put off asking that question for several weeks. I’ve let the question bounce around in my head and off my walls for a few weeks now. I’ve asked it out loud when I was alone, or thought I was.
“He’s an asshole and an angry old man,” I’d hear occasionally from another room in the house from my wife. She really gets emotional.
I’ve gotten emotional too. This campaign has affected me physically. I let it get to me.
I liked the John McCain of 2000, when he ran against the chimp. I liked the Straight Talk Express and the wise ass comments and late night talk show appearances. I think the late night talk shows liked him too. I think Jon Stewart and Letterman liked him.
I’ve just felt that he sold out. That he was being told what to do and that what he was being told was, “Don’t be yourself, no more straight talk John. We’ll tell you what they want to hear.”
He’s looked uncomfortable. With the exception of Thursday night with Letterman, where he had that, “Whataya want me to say Dave? I fucked up,” attitude that made me trust him. Or at least endeared him to me.
Mike Barnicle wrote an article for the Huffington Post yesterday. What ever you might think about Barnicle, he’s another straight talker, and his article lets me know I’m not alone in my feelings about McCain.
I didn’t agree with everything McCain said, but I appreciated the way he said it. At least I did eight years ago.
Oct
10
Holy shit, just like the diner episode I posted, FOX can’t handle reporting. Let’s see, reporting the news is like telling time. Someone asks you what time it is, you look at a clock, and you tell them what time it is, according to the clock. Not what you wish the time was.
Jon Stewart put together a collection. The last clip is a lot like the diner episode.
Oct
9
When people say, “Behind every great man, there is a great woman,” Roosevelt usually comes to mind. Not Teddy, the one who’s tied for first place with Reagan on McCain’s hero list, but Eleanor Roosevelt. The First Lady who broke away from the typically ceremonial role and reshaped it around her deep commitment to social reform.
Michelle Obama appeared twice yesterday, on both The Larry King Show and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Both clips are at the bottom of this post.
Again, I have to admit, I got that rare and elusive feeling of hope. It’s been so long since I’ve had a feeling even remotely close to hope that I’m not sure that’s what it was. Could be I’m just getting a cold.
After hearing and watching Palin’s snide, sarcastic remarks and lame, scripted interviews; folksy, spunky drivel at debates; and Cindy McCain’s $300,000 outfits for the past month, it was a switch to watch Michelle Obama answer questions thoughtfully, intelligently, and honestly.
I’m still undecided as to whether I was pulled into the interviews because of what she was saying and how she was saying it, or because they’re in such sharp contrast to the shrill rantings of the other garbage I’ve been listening to.
The argument I hear from women who like Palin, is that she’s a strong woman. She has five kids. She’s a working mom. Okay, she lies through her teeth and can shoot a rifle too.
Michelle Obama, like her husband is a thoughtful, intelligent, capable woman. Before I get accused of making statements that are contradictory to a previous post, let me qualify this one.
I’m not waging this Michelle Obama love fest as an attack on Palin. Palin’s ineptitude stands on it’s own and is reason enough to dismiss her.
Michelle Obama tipped the scale for a couple of reasons.
With the exception of Cheney, VPs have really never done much of anything except wait for a death. On the other hand, First Ladies who actually participate in political and social causes have made remarkable differences because they have no political constraints. Eleanor Roosevelt is a perfect example.
More importantly, and this might be misconstrued as a sexist remark - and by all means construe away - Any guy can pick a brain dead bimbo for a wife. McCain did it, Bush did it, hell that brain dead bimbo Todd did it. They’d have to be brain dead to have married those dicks (oh, I forgot Cheney). It takes a real man to marry a woman who’s going to call you on your shit. Especially when there’s a chance she’ll call you on your shit.
You learn a lot about a person when you meet the person they married and the person who chose to marry them. Michelle Obama doesn’t strike me as a person who makes rash decisions. She also doesn’t strike me as a woman who would sit back and let her husband commit idiotic, unethical, and immoral acts, but I can list plenty of spouses over the last eight years who have.
Here are the interviews:
Larry King Interview
The Daily Show
Oct
7
.
Sooner or later people are going to figure out that if all you run is negative attack ads you don’t have much of a vision for the future, or you’re not ready to articulate it.
You know who said that? John McCain said that. He said that in 2000 when he was running against Bush and being accused of having fathered illegitimate black children, among other things. Now, I guess it’s all water under the bridge. A bridge too nowhere.
Now he’s calling his opponent a terrorist and letting people yell “kill” at his rallies? He’s running ads that call Obama dangerous and dishonorable? He’s selling out … God damn it!
I liked the McCain 2000 model. I didn’t like all of what it said and stood for, but I liked the way it said it. I liked the Straight Talk Express, that he called a kid a “little punk,” that he made witty and sarcastic remarks on Letterman and Jon Stewart. That he seemed (an important distinction) like a reasonable guy with a decent sense of humor.
The McCain 2008 is morally bankrupt and vicious. He’s lost the respect he had for the American people. I do believe that he once thought of the people of this country as able to think for themselves and see through the garbage that he himself is now tossing our way. It’s sad to see a man who once had a vision and passion resort to the underhanded tricks we’ve come to expect. It’s sad we weren’t wrong in expecting them.
I had hoped, when it came down to these two, that we’d finally see real conversation. Somehow I was naive enough to believe that there was a chance that we’d be offered plans that could stand on their own; hear debates that covered topics we cared about; and finally have questions answered honestly and directly. Not bullshit that we’d have to wait days until someone deciphered what was really meant and who was telling the truth.
They’re both capable of clean honest campaigns. They’re both experienced, articulate, intelligent guys who obviously made it far enough to be able to do something unbelievable.That we’re being inundated with smears, lies, and blatant attacks laced with slander is causing me physical pain.
I had bigger hopes for this election.
Oct
1
We’re taking the day off
Filed Under Political Shitheadery | Leave a Comment
On Monday …. Oh my God, we’re going down the shitter! The economy is collapsing and every day we wait we get closer to disaster, ruin, and babies dieing. We need to figure this out now and can’t waste any time. Oh,and by the way we’re taking tomorrow off.
Did Hollywood and Wall Street close too?
Jon Stewart says it better than I ever could without sounding like a biggot (the whole thing is good, but what I’m referring to starts around 6:00 on the slider) …
