OK, I’ll say it: John McCain is ridiculous.
His campaign is in trouble, and he wants to stop and . . . what? Go back to the beginning? Start over and try a different strategy? He never had a serious chance to win this election in the first place. God bless him, he’s too moderate for the right-wingers who now control the Republican party. When the current president has screwed up as badly as George W. Bush, it goes without saying that the next president will not be from your party. McCain was the sacrificial lamb, an expendable candidate that the party didn’t really like anyway, so who cares if he loses? After they threw him to the wolves they decided to get a little fundamentalist mileage out of the campaign by throwing Sarah Palin into the mix. She’s somebody they can use later, maybe in the next election, once they’ve established her “credentials” as an actual player on the national stage.
But McCain is just doing crazy shit now. He’s like a guy in a board game who — realizing he’s too far behind to win — spends the rest of his time in the game making unpredictable suicide plays, screwing everything up for those who are still serious about the outcome. Picking Palin was crazy. He’d be doing much better now if he had a running mate who knew his ass from page eight about. . . well, anything. But he wanted to spoil Obama’s convention, and the Palin choice did do that.
Then he essentially canceled the first day of his own convention, saying in effect that you can’t do politics during a hurricane. A hurricane a thousand miles away. As if the Republican Party is somehow in charge of emergency preparedness for the Gulf Coast. WTF?
And now he has “suspended his campaign,” so he can rush to Washington to help solve the current economic crisis. And he wants to postpone the long-scheduled first debate. Never mind that he hasn’t found anything in the Senate important enough to warrant his presence since sometime in April, or that in a time of crisis the voters might actually want to hear what the candidates have to say about it, or that ranking members in both houses say they’re doing fine without introducing presidential politics into the wrangling, or that (as Obama has said) it is possible to do two things at once. Never mind that McCain has solidified his place as one of the nuttiest major presidential candidates in history.
I probably live in a liberal bubble here in California, and I watch MSNBC and listen to Air America, but I can’t believe Middle America is going to think this latest move is anything other than proof that John McCain is just too volatile — or kooky — to be president.
Yes. McCain really really blundered with his stated desire to cancel this debate. Especially because he does at least as well as Obama in spontaneous speaking, and especially especially because the topic (world affairs or defense or somesuch) is more up McCain’s alley than it is up Obama’s alley.
McCain speaks more forcefully, more simplistically, and with fewer hesitations, and in technical terms he would almost for sure “win” such a debate. This is not to say anyone’s mind would be changed about whom to vote for, but still, why give up a chance to show up Obama?
There’s a weirdness about this Palin-Cancel-the-Debate behavior that is sort of disturbing. It’s reminiscent of Gary Hart taunting the media to catch him with a girl, or whatever he did to blow his chances back in 1984. It’s a self-destructive thing, as if neither man really wanted to succeed, perhaps because the idea of being Pres is so fucking scary.
And dittos on the hurricane hesitation. Good point there, Larry!
Can you say “unserious?” Goood! I knew you could!
C.B. – Where have you been? Obama learned how to speak Campaign English like, two months ago. I think he would win a debate both on formal points and in perception. Obviously, McCrazypants knows this, too.
Wren – Unserious? How about “goofy”?
“McCrazyPants”! Wonderful turn of phrase, Larry!
I don’t know what this says about me, but I think I get where McCrazyPants is going with a lot of this stuff. NOT THAT I AGREE.
Palin: Hunters love her! Obama wants to take their guns! Fundies love her! Obama wants them to bow to Mecca! Women love her! Obama took away Hillary’s chance!
Hurricane: It would look Really Really Bad if the Republicans were throwing confetti while Katrina 2 destroyed the South. They would look Out of Touch.
Economic Crisis: McCrazypants is a man of action! He can clean up Wall Street!
Old John is so old I think he feels exempt from reality. His campaign has been one long and miserable Three Card Monty con job. Apparently there’s enough suckers to keep his goofiness seen as serious and real.
kStyle – I hurried past those supposed rationales, because, hey, he’s sold his soul to get the presidency, and we can no longer take his actions at face value. All he’s doing now is campaigning, albeit in a wacky, screwball, fighter-pilot-taking-flak kind of way.
Bill – The sad thing is, John McCain might have been a Republican we could work with, before the Atwater/Rove/Cheney scorched earth divide-and-conquer style of electioneering became the neocon norm.
Dang. Did my comment post?
Didn’t see a comment from you, Vikki.