(no subject)

[taerowyn]

I've been trying to wrap my mind around the past few weeks in politics. I wish I had been right that McCain's desperation play wouldn't distract too much from the reality of it all, but I think I placed too much faith in the public and too little in how much the McCain campaign was going to channel Karl Rove.

I think that's what really upsets me. Disappointment in Bush means nothing...I never liked the guy. Always felt like he was an idiot that would take this country in the completely wrong direction and hey...would you look at that.

But I remember liking McCain. I remember the 2000 primaries and thinking this, this was a Republican I could actually get behind. Thinking, if he won the nomination, no matter what, the country would be in good hands.

What happened?!?!?!

I couldn't get my brain around it so I couldn't get my words around it so...nothing to say here. But now I don't have to cause Andrew Sullivan at The Atlantic has said it far better than I ever could:

For me, this surreal moment - like the entire surrealism of the past ten days - is not really about Sarah Palin or Barack Obama or pigs or fish or lipstick. It's about John McCain. The one thing I always thought I knew about him is that he is a decent and honest person. When he knows, as every sane person must, that Obama did not in any conceivable sense mean that Sarah Palin is a pig, what did he do? Did he come out and say so and end this charade? Or did he acquiesce in and thereby enable the mindless Rovianism that is now the core feature of his campaign?

So far, he has let us all down. My guess is he will continue to do so. And that decision, for my part, ends whatever respect I once had for him. On core moral issues, where this man knew what the right thing was, and had to pick between good and evil, he chose evil. When he knew that George W. Bush's war in Iraq was a fiasco and catastrophe, and before Donald Rumsfeld quit, McCain endorsed George W. Bush against his fellow Vietnam vet, John Kerry in 2004. By that decision, McCain lost any credibility that he can ever put country first. He put party first and his own career first ahead of what he knew was best for the country.

And when the Senate and House voted overwhelmingly to condemn and end the torture regime of Bush and Cheney in 2006, McCain again had a clear choice between good and evil, and chose evil. [Keep reading]

And I hope, how I hope, that the country will see through the BS McCain and Co. have pulled and continue to pull...see that, while once upon a time McCain may have been a candidate worthy of respect, that time has passed, that candidate...that man... is no more.

But then, apparently I'm prone to having more faith in the public than they sometimes deserve.

Comments

[gremlingirl.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain. I remember oh 6-7 months ago, McCain saying he would run a clean campaign. Then he runs the ad about Obama teaching sex ed to kindgergartners, when really it was about sexual predator prevention. But they make him out like a liberal pedophile.

They hit him for being a celebrity, but then they pimp Palin out like the hot VPilf (gross) so men will vote with their dicks and women will vote for her as a Vagina-American (God Bless Samantha Bee for coining THAT lovely phrase). They can't run on issues, and since McCain couldn't beat a wet paper bag in a personality contest they bring out the snow princess. They won't let her talk to the media, lord knows that would make her woman-head spin, but she is certainly ready to be a heartbeat away from the leader of the free world.

Then they mock and deride everyone who doesn't want to live in this alternate universe.

I'm ready to vote and be done with this once and for all.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Nah, if everyone votes today McCain probably wins. Give the fantasy a few weeks.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

The truth is, McCain the bipartisan reformer was always something of a sham. The guy played good-government advocate for a while as a way of restoring his reputation after the Keating Five scandal, and his flirtation with bipartisanship post-2000 was mostly pique at being screwed over so badly by Bush's people in the primary.

I also remember, in 2000, hearing lots of my fellow liberals opining after they saw the VP debate that it might be better for all concerned if both tickets were flipped. Yes, they heard Dick Cheney debating with Joe Lieberman and thought these guys were the better candidates than Bush and Gore. In hindsight it's clear why that debate seemed so adult and amicable--those two were born soulmates!

[whiteboy.livejournal.com]

I lost a lot of respect for McCain today, but not all of it. I have a faith, albeit weakening, that once in office, he'll get back to being the McCain I liked in 2000. I have the feeling that his campaign is out of his hands. Forces (or evil geniuses) are working to get him elected no matter what and we all have to suffer through the pouncing on any slight, intentional or not.

Former Gov. Jane Swift is working on the so-called Palin "truth squad", which like "change" is another idea stolen from the Obama campaign. It will be their job to find any so-called smear and bring it to light. Of course, any smears that are actually truthful will get just as much press, I'm sure, but probably won't be addressed by Swift & Co.

[taerowyn.livejournal.com]

I'd like to tell myself that...that he's just doing this to get elected and then he'll go back to 2000 McCain, but I realize that, you know what? I don't WANT a president who decided that stooping to these levels is the only way to get himself elected. Screw that.

[taerowyn.livejournal.com]

The "once in office" theory also doesn't take into account Palin. I mean, really...if something were to happen to him, do you want someone like her in charge?

As a friend put it...the 3AM ad I want to see is: It's 3 AM and the vice president is about to be called and told that the president is dead. Who do you want answering that phone?

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Jane Swift, the only former governor we like less than Mitt Romney! I'd say she probably sympathizes with Palin, but the fact is that they like Palin in Alaska.

[taerowyn.livejournal.com]

Also? Convenient last name considering the shenanigans of last election.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Also, if you squint hard enough you can sort of blame her for 9/11.

[taerowyn.livejournal.com]

Hee. I was being facetious. Wasn't actually in MA during the Swift timeframe so only know stories.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Before she was governor, she was the head of Massport, which runs Logan Airport, during a period when it was legendarily mismanaged. She'd already been governor for a few months by September 2001, and blaming her for the lapses of security that allowed the hijackers to get through is almost certainly grossly unfair, but it wouldn't be out of line with, say, the stuff being slung around in the current presidential campaign.