<I>This Week</I>: On John McCain and Everything We Tell You Is Wrong
By Nicole Belle Saturday Feb 02, 2008 6:24pm
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On This Week, panel Torie Clarke, Robert Reich, DeeDee Myers and George Will join host George Stephanopoulos and muse on the seemingly miraculous rise from the presumed dead campaign of John McCain and whether his focus in choosing a running mate will be someone to offset his "maverick" (i.e., non-conservative) appeal or his age (Getcha yer media narratives here!). When Jeb Bush is raised as a possibility, as has been done regularly since GWB took office, George Will summarily dismisses him with the statement that his name is too "tainted" for it to be feasible.
And more than anything, that's what stood out to me. George Will, who has been lambasting the Democratic party for not going along with all of George W. Bush's policies, now admits that George W. Bush's policies have essentially ended any aspiration to higher office his brother might have had. Torie Clarke, who has held positions in the Reagan and both Bushes administrations as well as the Public Relations chief for John McCain (nice disclosure there, ABC), says fairly mildly that conventional wisdom has been wrong during this campaign.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but who is it that has been giving these conventional wisdom tidbits? No one on the pundit panel argues against conventional wisdom being wrong, as if it hasn't been people like Torie Clarke and George Will weren't the ones giving out the information. But now, they're all sensing a sea change and distancing themselves away from their own words. Sorry, folks. I don't know about you, but my memory of being told how wrong liberals were, when what we said was borne out in reality, is very long.
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Kate Bush for vice!
If I were a beltway insider, I'd say anything to keep my place in Georgetown.
It's a pity the two greatest heroes to the modern republican, Ronald Reagan and Adolph Hitler, are dead. However, I'm sure McCain will find a comparable running mate somehow.
I still have stacks of NY Post papers, Newsweeks, and many other publications with articles insulting us antiwar folks all the way back to 2001. I have the infamous Post cover where they labelled James Baker a "weasel" and the Newsweek issue back in 2002 when Fareed Zakaria was calling out anti-war folks for not being informed enough to understand the real consequenses of not going. 99% of the media was completely and totally wrong. Yet, me, an art school drop-out who gets his news from the blogs and foriegn newspapers as well as bookstores in the East Village was able to know back in 2001 that Afganistan would backfire, that Iraq would be an atrocity.
For many years I was personally called a communist at protests, a traitor and delusional even by these folks and now they are expecting us to forget about it by distancing themselves from it? I won't. I just hope America's short-term memory won't forget.
When is George Will right about anything. The fact that these idiots are talking about the possibility of Jeb Bush running is sheer lunicy! The thought of another Bush presidency gave me palpitations. The sad fact is, if Jeb would have won Florida in 94. He would have Pres. I don't know if he would have been better, but I guess anybody would have been better than Georgie Boy. George has no common sense or empathy.
george will is a fascist and has blindly spewed out any talking point
the bushco admin has given him. he is a traitor to the American people
and should be tried for his crimes in supporting a fascist dictator of bush/cheney.
James @ 3:
Maybe McCain won't select a running mate. Instead, he'll promise to hold a regular series of seances in order to get Ronnie's imput directly from the man himself. Hey, if Dear Leader can claim that God speaks to him on a regular basis, is anything really too crazy for the GOP base?
Stupid Git, I do was smeared and labeled a liberal by members of my own family in 2002 to 2004. My how the mighty have fallen. My mother told me that Kerry had no moral standing compared to Bush. Unbelievable, Huh.
with the average idiot in the US being paralleled with the neanderthals it's no wonder you'd want to gather some of the most celebrated idiots and arrange them in a semi circular pattern. if not for the chairs they wouldn't even find their way to that pre determined pattern.
Hitler would be jealous of the demanded, conformed to and celebrated stupidity that Bush enjoys and that ABC perpetuates.
That's "input" - goddamn, fucking typos!
bush submits a 3 trillion dollar budget...which comes with tax cuts
the repugs are dead in the water
(Sen.McLame,) Hitler and Reagan are dead?...huh....when did all the happen?
Uncle Joe, I saw that on CBS. How do you think are children are going to pay this? By slashing every beneficial program they can find. Sad.
Patty D. @ 8:
Isn't it amazing how viscous the conservative nationalist movement has become? I'm sure many of us have had family accuse us of being crazy hippies or deluded, friends think we're conspiracy theorists and of course all the anonymous trolls, pundits and politicians and/or pro-war protests call us every hateful name in the book - all because of a differing opinion. Now that our "delusions" have been vindicated not a single one of these people seems to acknowledge the incredibly hostile atmosphere they created and instead many of them still continue smearing us as "not wanting America to succeed" and "not supporting the troops" and so many other awful things.
It makes me sad to think that this country I was born in seems to hate me so much. Because I don't support either war, torture, spying on citizens, unregulated capitalism, government subsidies for religious groups and so many others. Or because I do support civil unions for gays, single-payer healthcare, affirmative-action, a woman's right to abortion no matter what the reason or stage of the pregnancy, privatization of essential industries such as the military, intelligence, energy, transportation, education and healthcare... I could keep listing for days just like many of the opinionated folks on here. But I've found that most folks here will listen to these opinions, critique them, criticize them or even rip me a new one sometimes yet almost everytime it will be backed up with facts or researched opinions. Outside of these liberal blogs or my circle of NYC liberal friends it is just name-calling and hatred.
I don't feel like this is my country anymore.
Heyall,
Where can a guy download a reasonably high-res copy of the video of John McCain singing "Bomb Iran". The close-up version, not the back-row seat view.
I'm compiling a "greatest hits" so to speak. :)
-Scott
gene214 @ 7:
I don't doubt but what Nancy could find a medium.
*meant to say I don't support privatization of essential industries such as the military, intelligence, energy, transportation, education and healthcare.
Patty D. @ 13:
our children aint gonna pay for this
our great, great, great grandchildren will still be in debt thanks to this bastard
im so sick of the wingnuts thinking that our hatred of bush has no basis
look at this shit....im just amazed that they dont hate him worse than we do
the man aint a conservative....hes a friggin sociopath
Stupid Git, you said it perfectly. Before the 2004 election, my Kerry signs were stolen or trashed. The hatred from the right is disturbing. It is like this isn't America anymore. But a country that has been hijacked by corporate elites and religious zealots.
wisedup @ 12:
They're alive and well in the Republican Party.
be more respectfull johnny boy mcsnains the next president of these new nineted states!
Patty D. @ 19:
this isnt america anymore !its a fuckling zoo!
I don't have a lot of time here right now.
John McCain sucks and is a frickin loser, and any "liberal" who votes for that piece of human trash deserves him and Bush, too!!!!!!
McCain is a "maverick" my ass, by the way!!! Anyone who believes that "maverick" crapola, needs to become politically educated very fast and stop drinking the media's Kool-Aid!!!!!!!!!
Stupid Git @ 14:
i am with you all the way. the repugs and the neocon religious reichwingnuts
have become repressive bullies and they appear their greatest happines would
be the return of hitler......oops, he's here in the guise of bush/cheney.
Jeb Bush as McCain's VP may not be far-fetched at all. Makes you want to throw up, but far-fetched? Nope.
I'd be willing the bet that GWH Bush is out there right now, twisting arms, shmoozing, calling in old favors and using every contact in his huge rolodex to put Jeb on the ticket.
Jeb's pluses:
- he's a successful Southern Republican governor and has a political base in a region where McCain needs support.
- he's married to a Hispanic and speaks fluent Spanish. This is not a small thing. The GOP has lost a lot of support among Hispanics and badly need someone who will appeal to them.
- he's been out of politics for a couple of years and can at least pretend to 'run against Washington'.
his minuses:
- he's a f*cking Bush.
It's a long shot, but never underestimate the ambition and persistence of this family. If he doesn't get to be VP, he could still become Secretary of Commerce or something like that.
These people say whatever they are told to say by their Corporate Masters, who run the country (and badly).
If they have ideas of their own, they keep silent about them; but I think they are hired for their genuine lack of ideas, or ability to objectively observe, think, analyze, and explain *anything*.
Their corporate masters are making up memes, stories of whatever they call it and force feeding it to the public. It doesn't always work.
Scott @ 15:
look under a rock@
tyree @ 27:
Don't go looking under rocks. That's where these right wingers crawled out from.
Half-time Highlights...
The game sucks.
The pre-game was a (12) hour commercial for the US Marines.
The DOD and the NFL a match made in heaven. Pat Tillman was MC Deadceleb. His wife should've politely passed on the invite.
Tom Petty is a cadaver, his music sucks, always has and now he is a sell-out.
Fox celebrates family values with plenty of cleavage close-ups.
Gene Kelly in "An American In Paris" on TCM is time better spent.
gene214 @ 7:
Maybe ol' DeadEye Dick Cheney will pick himself AGAIN as the running mate!!
It makes me laugh how the Repukes invoke Reagan. I respected Reagan and his foriegn policy was good. But domestically he helped break unions and ushered in the era of big business. Maybe they should let the dead guy rest
Patty D. @ 31:
hey!the bastard rested his whole second term!
tyree @ 32:
Give him a break. He had alzeimers through both terms. It was the idiots that voted him in.
LOL tyree, Your right. And good old Nancy was in the drivers seat. I bet she was clawing the walls when they had to make her leave the White House. Like the skit on SNL.
Patty D. @ 31:
His foreign policy was good???????
Ever heard of Iran-Contra? - You should look up the most corrupt foreign policy and financial atrocity our nation ever committed until Iraq - part 2.
Ron @ 33:
the only break id give reagan is the lineing of his anus!
Patty D. @ 31:
Sorry Patty, but Raygun's foreign policy consisted of trying to overthrow governments, illegal arms deals, and massive slaughtering of the poor from South America. Not sure how this is viewed as good foreign policy.
tyree @ 36:
Now that's an ugly thought. He's dead!
Ron @ 38:
that only means god did good
I admit you are right, when I was a young girl I was surrounded by Reagan lovers. The Gipper was always right. It was like I lived in a King of the Hill episode.
Maria Shriver Backs Obama
the bildeburgh group have a new ritual now every superboel game night they all gather at the reagan crypt and perform felatio on ronnies cold dead johnson!
McCain has already been chosen to be the next president. He will guarantee endless war. If you don't believe me wait 350 days. You all think you live in a democracy? Don't make me laugh. "They" will never allow a woman or black to be president. You are all so naive.
Don't forget that Reagan CUT AND RAN after 300 Marines got blown up by terrorists.
Don't forget that Reagan ran up his deficits and created thousands of new nukular weapons into this world.
Don't forget that Reagan wanted to spend BILLIONS on a missile defense system THAT NEVER WORKED.
Don't forget that Reagan supported AMNESTY for illegal immigrant workers.
Don't forget that Reagan's administration negotiated with terrrorists in Iran and Central America.
Don't forget that Newt and Rush and Hannity and all the rest of them want another Reagan for president.
This year, either an African-American from Illinois... or the Lady Senator from New York will begin to UN-DO the misery and suffering that the "Reagan Era" has brought us.
John Bowers @ 43:
You got to HAVE FAITH, my brother... you got to have faith!
Patty D. @ 13:
I was thinking eventually it will be virtually impossible to sustain the military machine. It is by far the biggest expense sucking on taxpayer's wallets. To keep it going, is impossible.
in early 2oo3, I went down to so. cal to visit friends..I had a bumper sticker on my car,"attack iraq,NO!!" they insisted that I take it off, because they were afraid that someone would shoot me, or set my car on fire!!scary, no?
John Bowers @ 43:
You're half correct. "They" have no problem with a black or woman president - they do have a serious problem with any president who would attempt to restrain their unregulated and unending accumulation of power. That is why Obama and Hillary are the Democratic front-runners - they are the only two candidates who are "centrists" (meaning supporters of the status-quo). If they can't have McCain or another warhawk they'll settle for a candidate willing to give lip-service to us common folk while voting for everything "they" ask for. It's why Edwards was called unelectable from early on and why Dodd, Biden and so many other candidates were never given a moments notice in the media or by the DNC.
Racism and sexism are serious issues but not as powerful a force to the ruling class as sustained power. They'll happily have a Condi on their side any day.
Cowboy Bob from Austin @ 45:
faith can move ummmm nothing!
Patty D. @ 40:
Want to watch something that is laughable? Do a search on Youtube for the old "dreaded communist" propaganda commercials that ol' Ronnie Raygun did the voiceovers for. Talk about pathetic. And people believed it!
Concerned Canuck, the enormitiy of this debt is terrifying. I just don't know what are children are going to do. Sometimes it seems so hopeless.
tyree @ 49:
Tyree, basically I agree with you.
The THING is... this year, you have to bring your faith into the voting booth... AND VOTE! Even re-engineered diebold voting machines will not be able to hide the groundswell of LIBERAL, CENTRIST, INDEPENDANT, AND EVEN FED-UP REPUBLICANS... when they vote for the Democratic candidate.
Patty D. @ 51:
dont be alarmed , since china owns most of our debt , they will only take half of the states in payment of thoes debts , wall mart will get them the rest!
The Media has tried its damnest to run this country... this very thing shows that, even if it took awhile, the american people have finally awakened. The talking heads can sit and talk as much as they want... but.. this shows fewer and fewer people are paying any attention. Americans are finally realizing that the very people who were suppose to protect us have turned against a constitutionally run government. This whole thing might have had a different outcome had it not been for the internet. Let those fools try to undermine our democracy... maybe if they keep busy they won't notice that nobody is listening.
Cowboy Bob from Austin @ 52:
funny thats what i figured in 04 , go figure huh!
tyree @ 55:
How could we have ever lost with John Kerry?!? Why does the Democratic party always nominate the least liberal candidates?
It actually doesn't look like Torie Clarke wore her shower curtain on the air.
verna @ 47:
lovely country we live in. :(
Nicole:
Nicole, you obviously haven't read many of George Will's columns over the last 3 or 4 years. He's been as critical of Bush as Pat Buchanan.
Liberals have been right on just about everything the past 7 years. Conservatives have been dead wrong. This point needs to be hammered home relentlessly. George W. Bush, failure, and conservatism need to be inexorably linked for the next generation.
Notice how desperately conservatives are trying to revive the Reagan myth. They know their policies have failed. Failed while enjoying almost unprecedented freedom in implementing them. So they're trying to live on the Reagan myth.
Liberals need to start hammering this point home: George W. Bush is the face of modern conservatism. Failure and disaster are the result of modern conservatism.
Please Nicolle,
Saying this, "George Will, who has been lambasting the Democratic party for not going along with all of George W. Bush’s policies..." when you should know that it is not true really riles up the troops here is bad. Its bad for Democrats and its bad for our causes.
Now, I will agree that Mr. Will has his head up his ass almost all of the time and his WaPo screeds are major political crap, but he is no friend of the Bush family and his is certainly not a W supporter.
I live overseas and catch most of my news from sites like this one and I know this for a fact. I know it is very tempting to do, but please be a bit more specific and don't go with sweeping generalizations that just aren't true.
Thanks,
NY Giants win the Super Bowl!
Nicole,
One further note on George Will: AHHH HAHA Hahaa AhaHa Ha ha ha.
Jeb Bush doesn't need to be George W. Bush's brother to be 'tainted', he's accomplished that all on his own. Never mind the past Election snafu in Florida, this was enough:
http://digg.com/politics/Jeb_Bush_The_truth_is_useless
or at least once was in America. (Sheesh, this country desperately needs a new name -This patently is not the same America any longer, for sure.)
What that link quotes Jeb as saying is this:
"The truth is useless. You have to understand this right now. You
can't deposit the truth in a bank. You can't buy groceries with the
truth. You can't pay rent with the truth. The truth is a useless
commodity that will hang around your neck like an albatross all the
way to the homeless shelter. And if you think that the million or so
people in this country that are really interested in the truth about
their government can support people who would tell them the truth, you
got another thing coming. Because the million or so people in this
country that are truly interested in the truth don't have any money."
I don't recall hearing Tori's final explanation for the Paul Wellstone "accident" when she was spokeswoman for the FAA, I think that was her position. All over the networks saying there would be an investigation.
Stupid Git @ 56:
Lovely question, Git. If I may proffer my humble opinion:
It's hard.
It's hard to be Liberal. Ask Jesus. Look at what it takes to simply be mature.
Look at Ron Paul has had to face within the Republican party.
It's hard to be wise and prudent. It's hard to be really courageous.
It's hard to be fair. It's hard to be all inclusive. It's hard to be responsible.
It's hard to study without bias, without venal self-serving motivations.
It's hard to not ignore the full length and breadth of the lessons of various histories one must aggregate and compare -and still understand the real history beneath those is likely not known nor may not ever be.
It's hard not to resist the intoxication of power and it's influence.
It's hard not to pander and cater to fear.
It's hard to resist money -and hard to be discriminating as to it's source.
It's hard to not engage in the illusion of the necessity of realpolitik, of 'pragmatic' politicking'. It's harder still to have these problems without having thought it necessary to engage in such things to get to any lofty candidacy.
Because of such things, there is always a pull rightward, to coercion and insipid Maciavellia, the politics of force, of base drives, of puerile values, of perverse reasoning and motives, of Control and domination.
*urp*
And so on.
Great job being a broken clock, right twice a day and collecting the big bucks. Not much worse than the rest of us working stiffs forced to ... ahh, forget it.
*
Bet's on how long it will take
for the democratic president
to become part of the machine?
The lady on the last part of the segment is hinting at something big;
Republicans, at least some of them, won't rally behind McCain if he wins the nomination.
Evidence of this is abound in the bloggysphere. Over at Alternet.org, in the John McCain article for today, a commenter says just that;
he and others he knows who are conservative won't vote for McCain. They'll vote for someone else like Obama, Hillary, 3rd Party, whatever, but not him.
That will cost him in likely swing states.
Why are news organizations in the business of prognosticating anyway? Shouldn't they just report what has happened and not what might? I'd say at least 50% of the news tells us what will happen instead of what did.
Nicole, you're so wrong about George Will, he hasn't written a positive article about Bush in about two years and has always been very critical of his policies.
Patty D. @ 5:
George Will is pulling running mates out of his a**. In an article a few weeks ago, when Romney was running well, he suggested that Romney might choose Matt Blunt, Governor of Missouri, as a running mate to carry MIssouri.
Matt Blunt is so disliked in Missouri that he dropped out of plans for a second term about 2 days after his State of Union. The guy is about 2 feet tall, looks like he's 12, and totally clueless. However, his father is the Minority Whip and another total jerk. I wondered at the time if George Will had ever spoken to anyone from Missouri to get an idea of whether this was feasible, or if he just took Roy Blunt's word for his son's ability to carry the state for Romney. A lot of these folks are phoning it in these days, or so it appears.
what the GOP and john mccain himself just admitted...
McCain Confirms It: A Vote for Him Is a Vote for a Third Bush Term
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Mon, 02/04/2008 - 1:24pm. Alerts
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
DNC Press
Washington, DC - During appearances on Fox News Sunday and CBS's Face the Nation, John McCain made it clear: a vote for him is a vote for a third Bush term. Echoing his earlier statement that we could be in Iraq for 100 years, he said again that he would continue Bush's never ending civil war in Iraq. "We have to take care of the world's security," McCain said.
"The choice between the Democrats and Republicans couldn't be more clear. A vote for John McCain is a vote for a third Bush term with a never ending war in Iraq and an economy that favors those at the top. A vote for a Democrat is a vote to bring our troops home from Iraq, for an economy that works for all Americans, and a return to America's priorities," said Democratic National Committee Press Secretary Stacie Paxton.
McCain: A Third Bush Term
"They want to have the government run the health care system in America. I want the private sector to do it. On the issue of national security policy, there are very sharp differences... They want to withdraw from Iraq and if we do that al Qaeda wins." [Face the Nation, 2/3/2008]
"I have a strong conservative record and I'm proud of that record and I also believe on the national security side it's going to be a clear difference between me and Senator Clinton or Senator Obama. A clear difference on whether we're going to increase spending or decrease spending, increase taxes or decrease taxes, whether we're going to withdraw from Iraq or we're going to see this thing through to the success." [Fox News Sunday, 2/3/2008]
McCain's 100 Year War in Iraq: "We have to take care of the world's security"
"...This strategy is succeeding. Ad I believe that if we had set a date for withdrawal or if we do set a date for withdrawal, al Qaeda will then win and we'll see chaos and genocide in the region. That's another significant difference that Senator Clinton and I have...and I look forward to discussing it. It's not a matter of how long Americans stay. It's a matter of American casualties. And those casualties are coming down and we can eliminate them. Look, we're in Kuwait right next door to Iraq. We're in turkey. We're in Bosnia. We're all over the world. One of the obligations, unfortunately, of being a great superpower is that we have to take care of the world's security." [Fox News Sunday, 2/3/2008]
McCain: More of the Same Bush Supreme Court
"I would appoint justices such as the ones I've strongly supported and gotten through the Senate with the help of many others or help along with others. Only those who strictly interpret the constitution of the United States and do not legislate from the bench... If you have justices that have a clear, conservative, a clear, strict interpretation of the constitution of the United States, then you don't have to worry about what their decisions will be." [Fox News Sunday, 2/3/2008]
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/alerts/331
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