All Posts Tagged With: "John McCain"

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The McCain campaign is like a guy leaning over the edge of a dock, seeing just how far he can stretch without falling in. With lie after lie they stretch the truth, manipulate the media, and mislead the people.

Palin’s statements about her opposition to the “Bridge to Nowhere” are demonstrably false. And she still hasn’t given back the money.

The most recent McCain ad “Lipstick” so obviously distorts Obama’s comments, changing his “lipstick on a pig” line about dressing up the same old Bush economic policy, trying to instead say he was calling Palin a pig. Then they use this distortion to label Barack Obama a sexist.

The list goes on, but for how much longer? Eventually the weight and shamelessness of their mendacity will infuse a new media narrative: McCain will say anything to win.

If they keep pushing lies on the people, if they keep stretching the truth, if they keep leaning further over the dock the media will report that the McCain campaign is “all wet”.

Every time the McCain campaign has issued a statement that seemed over the top, ill-conceived, or asinine, I’ve noticed the messenger tends to be Tucker Bounds. I hadn’t noticed him on cable news, probably because I mostly watch MSNBC. This is the first clip of him I’ve seen, and he’s a weaselly shit.

Slate’s William Saletan discusses drones, which he believes to be the future of warfare. The explicit parity between these drones and the video games so many children now grow up with is unsettling, yes, but is it also ultimately irrelevant? Less risk to American soldiers is always a good thing, is it not? This is certainly fair play [whatever that means] within the bounds of warfare. That answer doesn’t satisfy really satisfy me; I’m interested in what you think after reading Saletan’s piece.

There’s also a deeper argument here. “They don’t understand war’s horror the way McCain does,” Saletan writes about tomorrow’s army, those who have grown up playing video games with mass senseless killings. In the past, I think a lot of books written about warfare — novels, not actual accounts — were highly romanticized, visions of the noble soldier fighting alongside his countrymen for the safety and justice of those at home. Now war is often skewed through the glorification of violence. Conversely, the proliferation of war photo-journalists has led to an abundance of images, which I think are used to manipulate as often as to clarify reality. The hawks and doves divide, distilled. How do we come to a realistic view of warfare — both from an on-the-ground perspective as well as from an overarching policy standpoint — in ourselves, or the public at large?

On a slightly tangential note, and *please* do not let this derail all the comments, this is part of the reason why I think McCain’s considerable military experience means quite a lot. For certain things, there’s just no substitute for personal experience.

McCain is getting a little bit of media attention with speculation that he will announce his VP choice this week. So far the sources lurk in anonymity. Contrary to what U of I alum Bob Novak claims, the McCain campaign is bluffing.

But this is a shrewd tactical bluff. The former media darling McCain is discomforted and perplexed by the media’s scant coverage of his lifeless campaign. Speculation he’s about to announce his VP carved out some coverage for McCain in a media week that would otherwise be consumed by Obama’s world tour. Reports are now saying the campaign will “hold off for now.”

A good friend of mine put it an entirely different way, significantly cruder way: “The VP thing was kinda smart, kinda sad in a way. It’s like a fat girl wearing a miniskirt in a last desperate act because it’s the only thing left that gets a look her way.”

It was a smart move, though probably a dishonest one. Incidentally, I think McCain should have picked this week, or better yet last week, or even better yet, the week before. The sooner the better.

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On an unrelated note, does anyone else think its lunacy that the selection of a VP is left to the whims of one man? After all, the VP is one breath of one man from being the leader of the free world. The public should have a much greater role in this pick. It is too important for a politician to pick some fool just because he might be able to carry an electorally significant swing state.