Friday, November 14, 2008

Wherein McCain proves our doubts correct

Last February I wrote a long post asking if Sen. John McCain was stupid or insane, because those were the only explanations I could come up with for his behavior over the years. I asked "Why does a man go out of his way to make enemies out of friends?"

It took a lot to get me to futilely pull the lever for McCain. And now I regret that I even did that.

McCain's "anonymous" trashing of Sarah Palin in the press is beyond contempt. For years McCain has been happy to thumb out the eyes of his supporters, while "reaching out" to his enemies. This is only the latest, and best defined example.

John McCain, you are a sorry excuse for a man.

13 comments:

  1. I'm thinking more and more that the Republicans are approaching a "Whig" moment and could disappear from the national scene very quickly if a truly conservative party with a reasonable possibility of success showed up. Maybe it's time to find one.

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  2. John McCain = honorable.

    Not.

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  3. Other than Sarah, it was Dole all over again. Only this time without the Viagra

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  4. That he did not immediately come out and denounce all of the "leaks", as he did anyone who dared so much as utter the middle name of his opponent, told me all I need to know.

    He is dead to me.

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  5. Agreed on all of the above.

    For any interested, there is going to be a Special Edition of the G. Gordon Liddy Show on Ayn Rand this coming Monday, 11/17 at 10 a.m. EST. There will be a panel of five guests from the Ayn Rand Center. Live streaming is available, and his shows are also always available for free podcast later from his website. It should be interesting. ◄Dave►

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  6. FWIW, I read online somewhere that McCain became appalled by Sarah Palin as he actually got to know her, and is determined to see anyone other than her represent the Republican brand in 2012.

    Another rumor I came across stated that the leaks have come from a former Romney worker, who was hired by the McCain campaign at some point during the summer. Take a wild guess why this person would be doing everything he can to sully Mrs. Palin's name and make her an object of ridicule.

    Ah, politics - tis a wicked game.

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  7. Thanks to Florida for given McCain the primary lead, and thanks to Huck for sucking votes away from Romney, the only candidate that could have beat Obama given the impact of the economy on the election.

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  8. McCain deserves to be driven from civilized society, but Huck deserves the 9th circle of hell.

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  9. Tyrone, what you heard about McCain could be true, but we're definitely seeing the left fabricating a lot of this stuff, and not even trying very hard to hide the fact that they're making it up. Oops, did I just use a euphemism? I meant to say, "the fact that they're lying." McCain is definitely culpable for not coming to her defense and letting this bile spread unanswered, though. He's just showing what so many of us knew years ago, that he's not someone we'd want in the White House. Truly, this election had no good choices, which is how the Democrats usually win.

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  10. DougLoss - It is true there are lots of McCain stories being bandied about online, the actual verity of which is anyone's guess. I did not support McCain/Palin, but I have to say I have never quite seen anything like the visceral hatred and venom Governor Palin has engendered in the MSM. A very brief burst of interest and excitement in her buzz, and then the nastiness began.

    I personally do not care for Governor Palin politically, but I am endeavoring to understand - and take seriously - the passionate support she has continued to receive from the conservative base. I agree that McCain does not do himself any credit with his [in]actions in this: if he is abandoning her to the wolves because he truly cannot abide her non-gubernatorial ambitions, he should never have campaigned with her on his ticket. Conversely, if he just refuses to put an end to the rumor-mongering, it doesn't reflect well on his integrity.

    As regards your final thought: other than Goldwater/Johnson, as far as the actual conservative base is concerned, I do believe you are correct.

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  11. Tyrone, I'm a social moderate (weakly pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, weakly pro drug legalization) and I find like Gov Palin much more than I like many politicians that are closer to me politically. Many of my friends feel the same way, and since I've pointed it out we've talked about it a lot.

    We *think* we're reacting the same way a lot of her rally crows reacts - they think she's "real." Most political speech is simply lies. The way Clinton went to church every Sunday with a bible in his hand, then ran back to the white house for an appointment with Monica. It's a show, intended to make them acceptable to people with opposing views.

    I think Palin is what she appears to be.

    There's also the sanity factor. I think you have to be at least a little nuts to run for President. McCain and Biden ran something like 87 times between them. Palin never chose to.

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  12. Well said Richard. We are close in our social positions (although I think marriage ought to be left to religion - abolish government marriage "licenses" and problem solved) and I will even throw in that I am a heathen. Yet I adore Palin, and of all the candidates in both Parties, with the possible exception of Ron Paul (only "possible" because I still can't get my head around his naive foreign and defense policy positions), she is the one I would most trust as POTUS.

    She is real, and exactly what she appears to be. Anyone who watched the hour last week of Greta interviewing her "On the Record" in her kitchen preparing moose chili and cheese dogs for her and her camera crew, could not honestly conclude otherwise. She is a Progressive feminist's worse nightmare. She is a powerful, accomplished, yet attractive woman, who has it all. She has attained the highest political position ever reached by a woman in our society, while remaining a happily married mother of five with a great husband and an idyllic lifestyle, which she seems to be enjoying thoroughly. Moreover, she accomplished all of this, not only without the support of the Shrieking Sisterhood, but while in opposition to their abortion litmus test (to her credit, she does not appear to regard the issue as a Federal matter). They simply must destroy her, before she gives too many young women and girls dangerous notions.

    In her own way, she is as charismatic to the folks in flyover country, as the Obamessiah is to the sheeple corralled in the ghettos and university towns. The metro-sheeple see government as the solution to their problems, and assume cheating, corruption, and power brokering to be the natural order of society, which they are quite willing to tolerate as long as they get their piece of the action. They are suckers for a charismatic Robin Hood for a "leader" spouting hollow platitudes and pandering to their base instincts to plunder the wealthy producers.

    The flyover folks see government itself as their worst problem, and are not hankering so much for a "leader" as an agreeable and jolly janitor, willing to go clean up the mess on isle "DC," and keep the muck from the cities from contaminating the rest of America. They ask little more of government than to keep out of their way, as they get on with their lives as they wish to live them. They may not quite understand how, but their common sense tells them (correctly) that government cannot give them a thing that it did not take from someone else, and that they will pay the tab eventually with their earnings from honest productive work. Sarah Palin eloquently speaks to their concerns in their native tongue. She comes off as utterly guileless and trustworthy; a true reflection of their own values, and thus a perfect representative to send to Washington. Not as Plunderer in Chief and Leader of Victimhood; but as the guardian of our Constitution, the public treasury, and the traditional values of the Heartland of America.

    Tyrone,

    If you truly wish to understand the conservative base, you could not do better than to read a decade old essay by Walter Russel Mead entitled, "The Jacksonian Tradition." It sure helped me understand myself better, because intellectually and politically I am a heathen libertarian / objectivist; but I am redneck through and through. I can conceal that - I don't even have the accent - and can put on the local costume and fit into polite society just about anywhere; but I am never more authentic and at home than when sitting talking common sense with the good ole boys over coffee in a flyover country truck stop. Personally, I would trust government in the hands of the next 535 drivers who walked in the door, than any handpicked list of Harvard Law School graduates anyone could name. ◄Dave►

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  13. The entrenched don't like her?
    Than she must be one of us.

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