Is John McCain Stupid? July 31, 2008 Is John McCain losing it? On Sunday, he said on national television that to solve Social Security "everything's on the table," which of course means raising payroll taxes. On July 7 in Denver he said: "Senator Obama will raise your taxes. I won't." This isn't a flip-flop. It's a sex-change operation. He got back to the subject Tuesday in Reno, Nev. Reporters asked about the Sunday tax comments. Mr. McCain replied, "The worst thing you could do is raise people's payroll taxes, my God!" Then he was asked about working with Democrats to fix Social Security, and he repeated, "everything has to be on the table." But how can . . .? Oh never mind. Yesterday he was in Aurora, Colo., to wit: "On Social Security, he [Sen. Obama] wants to raise Social Security taxes. I am opposed to raising taxes on Social Security. I want to fix the system without raising taxes." What I'm asking is, does John McCain have the mental focus, the intellectual discipline, to avoid being out-slicked by Barack Obama, if he isn't abandoned by his own voters? It's not just taxes. Recently the subject came up of Al Gore's assertion that the U.S. could get its energy solely from renewables in 10 years. Sen. McCain said: "If the vice president says it's doable, I believe it's doable." What!!?? In a later interview, Mr. McCain said he hadn't read "all the specifics" of the Gore plan and now, "I don't think it's doable without nuclear power." It just sounds loopy. Then this week in San Francisco, in an interview with the Chronicle, Sen. McCain called Nancy Pelosi an "inspiration to millions of Americans." Notwithstanding his promises to "work with the other side," this is a politically obtuse thing to say in the middle of a campaign. Would Bill Clinton, running for president in 1996 after losing control of the House, have called Newt Gingrich an "inspiration"? House Minority Leader John Boehner, facing a 10-to-20 seat loss in November, must be gagging. The one thing -- arguably the only thing -- the McCain candidacy has going for it is a sense among voters that they don't know what Barack Obama stands for or believes. Why then would Mr. McCain give voters reason to wonder the same thing about himself? You're supposed to sow doubt about the other guy, not do it to yourself. Yes, Sen. McCain must somehow appeal to independents and blue-collar Hillary Democrats. A degree of pandering to the center is inevitable. But this stuff isn't pandering; it's simply stupid. Al Gore's own climate allies separated themselves from his preposterous free-of-oil-in-10-years whopper. Sen. McCain saying off-handedly that it's "doable" is, in a word, thoughtless. Speaker Pelosi heads a House with a 9% approval. To let her off the hook before the election reflects similar loss of thought. The forces arrayed against Sen. McCain's candidacy are formidable: an unpopular president, the near impossibility of extending Republican White House rule for three terms, the GOP trailing in races at every level, a listless fundraising base, doubtful sentiments about the war, a flailing economy. The generic Democratic presidential candidate should win handily. Barack Obama, though vulnerable at the margin, is a very strong candidate. This will be a turnout election. To win, Mr. McCain needs every Republican vote he can hold. Why make it harder than it has to be? Given such statements on Social Security taxes, Al Gore and the "inspirational" Speaker Pelosi, is there a reason why Rush Limbaugh should not spend August teeing off on Mr. McCain? Why as well shouldn't the Obama camp exploit all of this? If Sen. Obama's "inexperience" is Mr. McCain's ace in the hole, why not trump that by asking, "Does Sen. McCain know his own mind?" * * * In this sports-crazed country, everyone has learned a lot about what it takes to win. They've heard and seen it proven repeatedly that to achieve greatness, to win the big one, an athlete has to be ready to "put in the work." John McCain isn't doing that, yet. He's competing as if he expects the other side to lose it for him. Sen. McCain is a famously undisciplined politician. Someone in the McCain circle had better do some straight talking to the candidate. He's not some 19-year-old tennis player who's going to win the U.S. presidential Open on raw talent and the other guy's errors. He's not that good. There is a reason the American people the past 100 years elevated only two sitting senators into the White House -- JFK and Warren Harding. It's because they believe most senators, adept at compulsive compromise, have no political compass and will sell them out. Now voters have to do what they prefer not to. Yes, Sen. McCain has honor and country. Another month of illogical, impolitic remarks and Sen. McCain will erase even that. Absent a coherent message for voters, he will be one-on-one with Barack Obama in the fall. He will lose. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121745962594698731.html?mod=todays_columnists
This guy is funnier than that iraqi war minister guy. At least the latter knew he was all over the place. I seriously have no idea what the hell mccain is running for at all. Feel free to enlighten me folks. Of course, I must insist that any "boilerplated" stances ripped from his website be compared with his actual statements as of late. Obama seems, at a minimum, to at least know his own positions - although he obviously is willing to compromise them. McCain just doodles along.
Wow! That was some kind of article and it puts together some of my sentiments about McCain. If Obama went negative, he could decapitate McCain right now. I'm moving closer and closer to not being able to take McCain seriously. He has been a huge disappointment the last 90 days and is getting worse.
Thank God Barack is a better person than that. He doesn't have to resort to John McCain slim tactics. He will win on the merits of who he is and what he stands for. It's been a long time since we've had a president like that.
I've always liked McCain -- I understand some pandering is necessary for the yokels, but his campaign so far is just ridiculous.
The presidential race right now is just absolutely laughable. I feel like someone is trying to punk the entire country, and it seems about half of us are falling for it. You have someone who is an old right winger, who seemingly can't make up his mind on anything. I mean, the guy spills garbage out his mouth on a whim anytime someone is listening, and then later backtracks and retracts every statement he's made. He seems incompetent and just flat out silly. He represents the same old thing we've been seeing in the last 8 years. Then, on the other hand, you've got a brilliant (education credentials), charismatic, young politician who promises a change this country has not seen since JFK. The young politician has every sound bit ,and newsaper clip, and anything in between, that he needs to just utterly annihilate the old Republican. He's just too noble to do it. Somewhere, I just feel like someone from the Obama campaign is compiling every misleading, misguided, and simply dumb thing McCain's ever said (this would be hundreds of pages, no doubt...assuming we're just talking about the year's presidential race), and then Ashton Kutcher will pop out on election day telling us all we've been punk'd. Seriously, if McCain is elected, the whole idea and basis for this country has failed.
It is rather mind boggling when you see polls and McCain is even in the same ballpark. That's why I think things really change during the debates. A lot of people don't really pay attention, they see the sound bytes and such but in the debates the public will see them there together and the difference couldn't be any more stark. I just can't see how Obama doesn't obliterate McCain in November. The racial stuff and the Muslim innuendo are obviously strikes against Obama but even with that he should win by 10 points. I could just see in 50 years, historians looking at our elections. Bush beats Gore and McCain beats Obama. What the (&*#@ was the country thinking?
