What is wrong with John McCain?
No, I don't mean his physical ailments, partly brought on by age and partly by the vicissitudes of torture at the hands of his captors in Hanoi 40 years ago. And I don't mean his policies, although God knows he has some explaining to do there as well.
I am talking about his inability to carry the battle to his enemies - to look a man square in the eye and tell him, "You are wrong." He hasn't yet determined how to run a campaign aimed against Barack Obama's many flaws, and time is running out. Heck, even Joe Biden understands that McCain looks weak and ineffective on this score.
Biden, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, pointed to "all of the things they said about Barack Obama… on the TV, at their rallies, and now on YouTube, and everything else they're doing before the debate, all the things they're saying after the debate" and noted that "John McCain could not bring himself to look Barack Obama in the eye and say the same things to him."
But most pointedly of all, a McCain supporter at a rally in Waukesha, Wisconsin, on Thursday stood up and told McCain to his face what almost all of his supporters are feeling - take off your gloves and fight!
"I'm mad! I'm really mad!" said the unidentified man. "When you have Obama, [House speaker Nancy] Pelosi and the rest of the hooligans up there going to run the country, we have to have our head examined. It's time that you two represent the rest of us," he told McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, "So go get 'em!"
McCain, however, clearly didn't even "get" the man's message. "Yes, I'll do that," he said absent-mindedly, before tepidly sliding off into his usual brand of bipartisan malaise. "But I also, my friends, want to address the greatest financial challenge of our lifetime with a positive plan for action that Senator Obama and I have. We need to restore trust and confidence in America and have Americans know that our best days are ahead of us."
Huh? A plan that you and Obama have? Say what?
Sen. McCain, here's the problem. The people who support you for president don't trust Barack Obama, and if you DO trust him, then they don't trust you either. The last thing Republicans want is a plan endorsed by Sen. Obama. So how do you win an election that way?
Probably you don't.
Barring some unforeseen testosterone transfusion, McCain is destined to keep thinking his enemies are his "friends" and that his self-appointed role as the oxymoronic "maverick moderate" will somehow pay off in votes instead of snickers.
It had looked for a while like Pitbull Palin would pull McCain across the finish line, but now it seems safe to assume that McCain will put a muzzle on her and turn the final three weeks of the campaign into a race for last place.
Face it, the McCain campaign is not going to have any help from the national media. With probably a hundred stories or more circulating on the Internet and talk radio about Barack Obama's past associations and mistaken judgments, the only thing the celebrity reporters can focus on is "McCain's negative campaign."
Huh? Say what?
McCain has missed opportunity after opportunity to go after Barack Obama's tax policy, his education policy, his foreign policy and his fiscal policy, let alone his association with ACORN and its fraudulent voter registration campaigns, his 20 years of friendship with the radical Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his ties to the domestic terrorist and lifelong communist William Ayers.
The national media has already painted McCain as a negative campaigner, but the funny thing is, they do it without ever investigating whether the allegations against Obama are true. Doesn't the truth play some small role in whether a campaign is negative or not? I mean, if someone in Russia had called Josef Stalin a mass murderer, would that be considered negative campaigning? Yes, it's a negative statement, but in deciding your future, isn't the truth relevant?
Ugh. It's becoming almost ridiculously silly out there.
This time, I am afraid, America will get the government it deserves, and that - my friends - is a scary thought.
. Frank Miele is managing editor of the Daily Inter Lake and writes a weekly column. E-mail responses may be sent to edit@dailyinterlake.com
FutureResident
Nice to see some other liberals in my future residence speaking up. Most of us have been politely suffering the last 8 years watching Bush flush our future down the toilet. Unfortunately, after traveling around the world for the last 16 months, I've come to the conclusion that it won't really matter who wins. America is in for a serious wake up call. The end of the empire began several years ago and this financial disaster is the beginning. Sorry folks, it's true, unless we see some miracle happen. I'm typing this e-mail from China right now and you can see this dragon of a country gaining strength, power, wealth, confidence and technology at a ridiculous rate. Guess who just agreed to take on $200+ billion of the U.S. $700 billion rescue package? We are in for a world of hurt folks - Repubs and Demos will suffer together and probably continue to blame each other. Meanwhile, I'll probably be applying for a job in Dubai or Shanghai because the U.S. job market is frozen.....Sad, but I'm not "scared" of the world, so I'll get work where I can and continue to watch the mayhem.
OPPRESSOR
John McCain stuck up for truth at one of his rally's this week. He told one man that he should not be "scared" of Obama in the sense that he is a Muslim, terrorist, or as a man would would bring a terrorists malice to the country, (As some of the uber-far right wing would have you think) as well as telling a woman that Obama was NOT an Arab, AND HE WAS BOOED!! How sad for an American hero, who fought for truth as a soldier and a senator, only to fight the dirtiest campaign in history, on smears rather that the issues, to be BOOED because of the fire of lies had got out of control and you tried to control it. Sadly, the GOP wants to win at all cost and they'll be DAMNED if something insignificant like the TRUTH gets in their way. Now they are reaping what they are sowing.
OPPRESSOR
Frank is right, they are going to muzzle Palin. She was the GOP's only hope of winning this election. Once again, it wasn't about the issues on how the GOP was going to pick this country up by the boot straps and fix all that is broken, it was all about Obama's character. Remember something: Although a Pitbull is vicious, barks hard and bites harder, they only have a brain the size of a walnut, and it is going to take more brains than that to serve as the VP this country deserves. At last, we will get the government we deserve!
SukieTawdry
John McCain comes from a Navy tradition where there are codes of conduct and discipline and officers are expected to also be gentlemen. Barack Obama comes from a corrupt political machine where the only rule seems to be don't bring a knife to a gun fight. The sad truth is that the Chicago Way will get you farther in presidential politics. We knew what we were facing when John got the nomination (which is why so many of us groaned). His life is an open book and his character well known. The people who would elect Barack have no idea what they're getting. In his long march to the White House (one that began for all practical purposes at Harvard), he has worked assiduously to remain as much a cipher as possible, "a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views." I'm afraid for many people, President Barack Obama will be a rude, a very rude, awakening.
Rob123
I'm all for everything, so lets get back to work. Especially FutureResident!
oftenanonymous
Future Resident gets 'it'. As someone who lived overseas for three years (not in the military), and currently lives in a culturally diverse city, I feel lucky to have had experiences that helped me let-go of much of the fear that I read in Frank's pieces and some of these postings. Growing up in the valley was a privilege but if the culture there is defined by its suspicion of diversity and change then local kids will be at a disadvantage. McCain is an honorable man but hes a creature of the 20th Century and the Cold War. Palin sounds to be a hard-worker and committed to her family, but her experience in Alaska has little resonance to the reality in the rest of the country. Whoever wins will find himself with little money for programs as its all been sucked to the sands of Iraq or factories of China. Instead, to get through these next few years, were going to have find strength in our differences and the willingness to change some bad habits.
Bronco
Yes, dukas, when rationale and logic fail, attack the critic. Undermine his integrity to shore up your narrow pperspectives. Great minds discuss concepts; average minds events. Small minds talk about people.
alcohol
Republicans keep nominating "dottering" old men, because the power players decide it's time for the "democrat" to be in the winners circle. All smoke and mirrors courtesy of the Fortune 100/Bilderberg Group/Council on Foreign Relations/Lockheed, Boeing, etc. We made too much money for our labor folks. Now we must be brought down to the Chinese slaver model. Now make sure and give up your firearms to finalize the transition to indentured servitude. GO OBAMA (aka muslim dirtbag/master of deception/antichrist)
Rob123
Well, gosh darn there Bull, I told you playing football without a helmet would have consequences.
DavidS
Poor Frank is just unhappy that his chosen boy, McCain, is going to lose. America will be a better place as a result.
ric
McCain is in a war against the same insurgency that defeated the nation into humiliation in Viet Nam. Unless he comprehends this and fights it with a full frontal assault (a SURGE) he will have lost again. Obama is no Carter, but Carter was not a Marxist.
MontanaJim
The Navy has codes of conduct and discipline, but they were not followed by McCain. He was a partying womanizer who wrecked two of our own planes. When captured, he freely talked to his captors. As for Palin, she has her own state telling her she acted unethically in the firing of a state employee. Incredibly, many of the same things can be said of Bush and Cheney. McCain really is just another Bush.
mooseberryinn
Don't bother with all the arguments. ACORN has stolen the "election" anyway. The puppet masters have selected B.O. as the next president. why? maybe he'll be easier for them to control than McCain?
FutureResident
Thanks often anonymous (and Rob for your everlasting humor). I grew up in a small town much like Kalispell. The best thing I ever did was study abroad at 20 years old. It opened my eyes to other views of the world. It implanted a travel bug in me. It enabled me to learn to live on nothing and have fun doing it. It inspired me to travel to the former "evil" empire of the Soviet Union and the new "evil" axis of the middle east AND even the new scary Communist China... I love my country, but I recognize its faults. With the divisive nature of the last 8 years, the faults have grown. The world continues to change rapidly - but we are stuck in the mud. Why? It's simple. Even the worst situations in the U.S. are easy lives compared to many other people in the world. That breeds complacency and a strong resistance to change. All the fear I read in these posts is just an expression of resistance to change. No more taxes. No more government programs. No gun control. Keep using oil. Drill for more. Crush our enemies with force. Don't let immigrants in.
FutureResident
Build a bigger, badder wall. Fear, fear, fear. I don't play the fear game. If you have confidence in yourself and your skills, you don't need to be afraid of everything. I also don't need to be rich and have 4 housefuls of material goods. I would rather have less and elevate the poor of the world. That's why I'm still a liberal at heart. But, no worries my right winged friends, I've given up on that idea as I've seen the world and think humans on the whole are a lost cause. Back to my original concept - studying abroad 20 years ago was also the worst thing I could have ever done. Why - ignorance is bliss! Its proven over and over by some of these posts. If some of these people traveled like I have, I know they would sing a different tune. But alas - that will never happen because of FEAR. Keep on flaming the fuels Frank!!!!!
FutureResident
Enough rambling. Off to see the Terracotta Warriors of Xi'an - the newly crowned 8th wonder of the world. 2200 year old evidence of wealth, power, empire building and finally - empire falling. I wonder what evidence will be left behind of the great empire of America for future tourists???? Maybe all the supercomputers buried far beneath the earth used to spy on its own citizens? Maybe Frank's bomb/immigrant/terrorist shelter stocked with tuna, beans, water and guns?