Are the neo-cons and John McCain blind, or crazy, or stupid, or what?
by Charlie Leck
Andrew Sullivan on his blog, The Daily Dish, (9 April 2008) speaks to this question of mine in a very succinct manner. The blog is only one short paragraph in length, so go and read it.
How can the neo-cons remain so complacent about America’s present condition and the incredibly uncomfortable position we are in this world? How? Are they deaf? Blind?
Don’t they realize the bind we are in over there in Iraq? I want to scream at them. They've gotten us involved in a situation that requires we disentangle ourselves very slowly and deliberately. We can’t just flee Iraq and I think Clinton and Obama both really know it. Yet, the game plan that General Patraeus has laid out for our congress, though wise and patient, is going to cost us trillions of dollars. And, my dear conservative friends, who are supposed to hate credit card debt so much, we are living on incredible high interest debt and the economy is going to hell in a hand-basket more quickly than any of us can understand.
How can they be so complacent? Our position in the eyes of the rest of the world is gruesome. Our position “economically, diplomatically, militarily” are all awful. [Andrew Sullivan]
This, this terrible situation, is what Rove, Rumsfeld, Chaney, Bush and the radically fundamental Christian Church have given us.
Do they actually want more? They talk and act like they do.
Listen to John McCain carefully. Please, listen to him very carefully. He doesn’t understand our nation’s desperate position. He does not understand the cultural and religious system in Iraq. He's misspoken a number of times on this subject – confusing Sunnis and Shiites – and handlers, including Joe Lieberman have needed to step forward to correct him. It might be a matter of age, but I don’t think so. I think he just plain doesn’t get it and he doesn’t care very much.
Howard Dean put it this way in an email to me a couple of days ago:
“At least five times as a candidate John McCain has stated that Iran (a Shiite nation) is supporting Al-Qaeda (a Sunni group) in Iraq. This is not some minor mistake, but a significant gaffe. He clearly does not understand the sensitive political dynamics in that region of the world.” [Newsmax]
In a front page article and accompanying editorial in 1999, when John McCain’s star began to rise as a candidate for the GOP nomination for President, the Arizona Republic ran a front page story, telling its readers that the paper wanted the public to know about the Senator’s volcanic temper.
"If McCain is truly a serious contender for the presidency, it is time the rest of the nation learned about the John McCain we know in Arizona. There is also reason to seriously question whether he has the temperament, and the political approach and skills, we want in the next president of the United States."
[Read this Washington Post story about the revelation in the Arizona Republic]
McCain’s response and deflection of this criticism has always been that he is a tough fighter and always will be. As I read some of the accounts of his temper I see a man who could really be dangerous in office. We’ve had enough of that.
The more I carefully listen to John McCain the more convinced I am that he would be as bad for America as was George W. Bush. You all really understand just how stupid George Bush really is. It’s a terrible thing to say about one’s President, but it is the absolute truth. We don’t need more stupidity in that office – and John McCain is showing some signs of such stupidity.
You are going to be reading about more and more of these McCain gaffes and “misspeaks.” You are also going to be reading about his horrendous temper and the way he shoots his mouth off when he gets angry.
A former colleague in the Senate, the New Hampshire Republican, Bob Smith, said what many people know of John McCain:
"I have witnessed incidents where he has used profanity at colleagues and exploded at colleagues . . . He would disagree about something and then explode. It was incidents of irrational behavior. We've all had incidents where we have gotten angry, but I've never seen anyone act like that."
Salon.com republished another 1999 story from the Washington Post about McCain’s furious temper. The story included the following:
“But McCain's a Rorshach test; you see in him what you want to see. To his Republican opponents in the House and Senate, he's a hot-headed, grandstanding opportunist, while his Democratic foes see him as an ultra right-wing wolf hiding beneath the pelt of a charismatic sheep. To his first wife, he was a philanderer; to veterans he is the exemplar of the American fighting man.”
In 1998, John McCain publically told such an awful joke about Attorney General Janet Reno and Chelsea Clinton that the newspapers wouldn’t even write about it. A few papers referred to it, but indicated taste wouldn’t allow them to put it into print. He made the comment at a Republic fund raiser and probably thought it would never leave the room. If you can handle really bad taste, read it here!
A new book, The Real McCain, by Cliff Schecter, just released, will tell even more gruesome tales about McCain’s frightening temper and his vile mouth. Some of those accounts will make the above joke sound like child’s play. Schecter was asked why he wrote a book with so many tales about McCain’s seismic eruptions:
"The public certainly has to know what this guy might do as president…"
Why has so little of this been reported over the decades? It’s because John McCain has been a media darling. He’s been protected and many of his gaffes have been covered up. Now, however, they’re coming to the surface and thinking people have got to give weight and consideration to them. Media Matters is one of the most important web sites in America because it keeps the Media honest and on its toes. You can read a very revelatory account there about McCain’s long and close relationship with reporters.
The neo-con system really doesn’t care much who is in the White House – just so they can control him and can be assured he will speak the company line. They then work him like a marionette and you can see evidence of such manipulation in the activities of John McCain over the last couple of weeks.
We can’t let it happen! Under no circumstance can we stand by and watch the election of John McCain. Progressive, intelligent Americans must be involved more deeply than they ever have before.
If you need convincing, just listen to John McCain carefully and you will understand that he is oblivious to the situation in which America is mired today.
I’ve never really gotten involved in a presidential campaign before; however, this year I am going to work my little tootsies off. I’m going to give money! I’ll make phone calls and write letters. I urge you to commit yourselves to do the same. For the sake of the country, stop the blind stupidity of the neo-cons.
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