How dare McCain act like he's the President!
By John Amato Saturday Aug 16, 2008 3:00pm
[image from the MoveOn ad] A memo to the media: did you look at McCain's record and his actions pertaining to the Georgia/Russian conflict... Didn't he act like he was the President? Wow, The Washington Post noticed that too:
Standing behind a lectern in Michigan this week, with two trusted senators ready to do his bidding, John McCain seemed to forget for a moment that he was only running for president.
Asked about his tough rhetoric on the ongoing conflict in Georgia, McCain began: "If I may be so bold, there was another president . . ."
He caught himself and started again: "At one time, there was a president named Ronald Reagan who spoke very strongly about America's advocacy for democracy and freedom."
With his Democratic opponent on vacation in Hawaii, the senator from Arizona has been doing all he can in recent days to look like President McCain, particularly when it comes to the ongoing international crisis in Georgia.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili says he talks to McCain, a personal friend, several times a day. McCain's top foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, was until recently a paid lobbyist for Georgia's government. McCain also announced this week that two of his closest allies, Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), would travel to Georgia's capital of Tbilisi on his behalf, after a similar journey by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The extent of McCain's involvement in the military conflict in Georgia appears remarkable among presidential candidates, who traditionally have kept some distance from unfolding crises out of deference to whoever is occupying the White House. The episode also follows months of sustained GOP criticism of Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, who was accused of acting too presidential for, among other things, briefly adopting a campaign seal and taking a trip abroad that included a huge rally in Berlin.
Login or Register to post comments.
President of what, the Rotary Club?
Why does the MSM tell us more drilling will not help and then spend the rest of the time talking all about more drilling? The rest of the world is actually DOING things about decreasing dependence on oil. We continue to drive our SUV's at 80 mph with the a/c on and it's 65 degrees outside. Virtually NO discussion, much less action, on changing our ways.
Murkins don't like to change.
But he spent time as a POW!!!! Listen up, libs, that AUTOMATICALLY makes you a military and foreign policy expert. It'd be a sin for him not to take charge of this crisis!
"When asked what he thought of the conflict in Georgia, McCain answered: 'I just hope the fighting doesn't spill over into Florida where I own a mansion.'"
ysbaddaden @ 1:
His US Naval Academy Class.
McCain is not only feckless, he is confused.
McCain: "The Russians Are Burning Atlanta, Georgia"
Heh, McCain does it, and it's fine. Obama does it and its complete and utter arrogance.
God I hate the US sometimes.
John McCain plagiarized his own personal story about faith
http://www.thepersonalispolitical.com/2008/08/mccains-faith-plagiarism.html
John McCain always says how he is going to follow Bin Laden to the gates of hell, well that’s problem a prediction he will get right seemingly because that will be his destination when he leaves this earth
that's the theme mccain is ready and obama is not. personally i thought it was ridiculous and interesting that
mccain spoke up before bush. to me it's all fancy gift wrapping he is told what to say and do i really believe that........what concerns me i think it may be working on the public. obama must continue to align mccain to bush.
he must also continue to speak about the economy.
6 General_Rennenkampf Says: Heh, McCain does it, and it’s fine. Obama does it and its complete and utter arrogance.
God I hate the US sometimes.
Don't tell me, your real name is Michelle isn't it?
General_Rennenkampf @ 6:
they're going to tell us what to think and believe. it's all part of the obama is too risky theme....this is based on perceived conventional wisdom.
Ron @ 4:
The one where he was 4th or 5th from the bottom ?
MCMetal @ 11:
894 out of 899.
constituent @ 10:
Isn't electing another Repub, you know...riskier after the mess the last one put us in?
ysbaddaden @ 9:
LOL.
That is all.
He can pretend to be president and negotiate whatever he wants between Russia and Georgia, but the truth of the matter is, it's Russia and Georgia, and to most Fox viewers, they wonder why we're involved and why we care. Wasted energy on McCain's part. Barack would be wise to say out of the whole situation until he's elected president.
Frankly, this whole Georgia/Russia thing royally pisses me off. Besides being a huge distraction to what's going on here, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Saakashvili, good friend of Buffalo Chip McSurge, goaded the Russsians into it just to give his buddy an opportunity to look "presidential". The timing, to me, is very suspicious.
This past week, the Washington Stenographic Corps was all atwitter about how McBush was acting so Presidential while Barack Obama was eating poi with his fingers.
Bunch of freakin' morons were elbowing each other aside a few weeks ago to get face time on the evening broadcast and somberly pronounce Barack was arrogant because he had a joint press conference with Sarkozy.
I wish McBush would make up their minds - or maybe he already has. It's okay for him to pay President by interfering in foreign policy during a genuine crisis, but not for Obama to share a podium with European leaders relieved to find an American pol who doesn't tell them how to think.
Ron @ 12:
Which makes him highly qualified to be President. Another effing legacy student - you'd think the tiny-brained would figure out the reason Bubba Jr. is a paraplegic or dead is because a Yale legacy student was awarded the WH by the Supremes.
John McBu'ush
Loss Leader
Bushed
Photoshop fun for free distribution.
if only his Aricept prescription hadn't run out, then he would have realized the hypocrisy. Too bad Cindy never bothered stealing that type of drug. Or maybe it was because he spent all of those year as a prisoner.
redsaunas @ 3:
Ha!
This whole Russia/Georgia thing seems like another Bush messup. Let them handle it. I think it would be better to stay clear.
yellowdog @ 17:
Where are the other 4? They should qualify to be VP and other top cabinet members.
i am somewhat concerned.........(RNC) seems to be superior to the (DNC) in the negative linguistic framing.
(RNC) is going to go completely negative from here til the end. they have set the pace for obama to be on the defense. i believe something of importance is that we support our candidate.
Che's Lounge @ 2:
We haven't faced something that forced a change of this magnitude since the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.
Unfortunately, less can be tangibly done to make effects visible.
Acting presidential is only for whites. Black men aren't yet part of that exclusive club. Come November that will all have changed and the landscape will be the better for it.
Why ...
[Deleted. Name edited after 'God Damn.' Leave-Sitemonitor]
(RNC) is going to go completely negative from here til the end.
From here til their end.
thepoetryman @ 26:
hey that's poetry to my ears.........
thepoetryman @ 25:
Yes, I believe for those 'colored folks' the technical term for that kind of behavior is 'uppity'.
Actually, between his hair, his pallor and his wife's teeth, has there ever in history been a 'whiter' candidate than McCain?
Mine, too, constituent. Mine, too.
With or without Diana Ross ?
redsaunas @ 29:
Not to my recollection. Uppity is certainly something that is given a different set of standards for black people than white. I suppose any black man or woman (or Latino) who truly aspire to heights not normally afforded them, the majority seem to qualify their every word as a threat to the status quo. Uppity indeed!
OH SO THE GOOD OLD BOYS THINK obama is the only one who has the right to do that. What a sad commentary of the condition of the women haters in this country. BUT these wimpy scared men won't be in control much longer. And people will be saying obama who.
In McCain's rotting, Dementia-riddled mind he is President.
Senility is a sad condition.
thepoetryman @ 25:
Yes, as the ability to be a President broadens, perhaps we'll join Europe, Latin America, and Asia in having female heads of government. I mean, Jebus Cribes, when you have a female head of government in fucking Pakistan and Haiti (though in some ways, considering how radical Haitian founding principles were, that's no suprise) before a much more sedate and stable nation like the US, that says a lot.
I mean, if Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere can afford and remain quite stable, two female PMs, why the hell can't a much richer and larger nation like the US do it?
uk visa @ 35:
Are you talking about Marge?
theWalrus @ 15:
BINGO !!
Robert Scheer: Georgia War a Neocon Election Ploy?
thepoetryman @ 32:
The other thing I can never work out is why, if someone has an African father and a white mother, it makes them 'black'.
Not just in hue (and who would say Obama has 'black' skin?), but in culture, they are automatically considered 'black'.
Why doesn't having a white mother make them 'white'?
Like most of this racial stuff, it stands up to about a nanosecond of rational consideration then vanishes in a puff of logic.
(But that doesn't hold much water with the irretrievably irrational, ie the GOP 'base'.)
redsaunas @ 39:
i totally agree.....personally it shouldn't be a topic
but in the u.s. you can only check one box
theWalrus @ 15:
I thought this was probably true as soon as I learned that McCain's gets 'advice' on this from a paid-up shill for Georgia.
It's just toooooooo convenient.
redsaunas @ 39:
The one drop rule.
When slavery was adopted here in the South, the need for a clear boundary between hereditary slavery and the free people of the South and the inadequacy (fortunately for them) of Indians for what the Planters here needed in terms of labor, the concepts of "Black" and "White" evolved.
"Black," from the time of the first slavery days to the Jim Crow era was defined as African, and even a slight geneaological connection with a black ancestor made you black, and hence a slave.
Unfortunately, that attitude has become so deeply engrained that it will take at least a century of the current trends in race relations (of overt racism becoming less and less acceptable) holding (which is by no means a guarantee, either) to stop the onslaught of the One Drop Rule.
The thing is, Obama did express his opinion on the conflict and it was pretty much in line with what most qualified people were saying. Heck, even Bush was saying something similar and not calling for escalation. McCain went nuts and nearly threatened war with Russia and he won't shut up about it. I can't believe the media is falling for this double standard. I mean I can believe it, but it just seemed so obvious I thought they'd catch on this time. At best, they're noticing it, but not really calling McCain out for it.
As a side note, isn't staying on vacation during a crisis the presidential thing to do now after Bush's examples over the years? That's no dig at Obama, by the way. I think he did the right thing.
As an old white man who has seen his share of uppity people in his life, let me tell you that for the first time ever I made a donation to a presidential candidate. Hope all of you have done the same. If you can afford it, please help give what you can. Give up one pizza or one night out to help change the direction of the country.
This just in... Republicans are hypocrites.
Hillary Clinton supporters are so awesome. I'm really going to miss their hilarious hi-jinx and their finely calibrated sense of self-parody. One day they'll be remembered as the supporters of the most unpopular woman to ever make an ill-timed failed run for the White House, all in an thinly veiled attempt to stop a black man from becoming President. One day, your daughters will look up at you with their big, beautiful eyes, gently holding your hand as they ask, "What were you thinking, Mom? Hillary Clinton? Epic fail, Mom. But I love you just the same."
Thrillhouse @ 43:
You can't expect Obama to have a different response because he didn't have all of the information, getting the news from the MSM.
Cynthia Tucker (Atlanta Journal Constitution) noticed.
The world is no longer ours to command
General_Rennenkampf @ 42:
The Nazis had a nutty theory (who'da thunk?) that any 'Aryan' woman who had sex with a Jew would be permanently 'infected' with Jewishness by the contact. Any children she subsequently had would spring forth from the womb clutching a Torah and singing 'Hava Nagila'. They promoted the idea that Jewish doctors were in the habit of drugging and raping their female clients as part of a grand conspiracy to undermine German 'purity'.
Racial politics has long been the playground of the unhinged.
Maybe he knows the fix is already in.
Thrillhouse @ 43:
Nope!
Staying on vacation during a crisis is the Secretary-Of-
Shoes-State thing to do.Getting drunk at the Olympics and frolicking with the bikini-clad volleyball girls is the pResidential thing to do.
redsaunas @ 48:
Indeed.
It's worth noting that the situation of the average Ashkenazim in Europe was quite bad indeed, and bears a great deal of resemblance to what happened to Indians, in some ways, and to blacks in others.
The release of Jews from that situation took a long time, and it took the Holocaust to wake up Europeans to that bigotry, to some degree. Even then, Ol' Joe was going to commit a second one before he died.
The situation in the US was different in that Jews were exiled out of European life, but had no permission to create a life of their own, and were forced in financial jobs and then accused of cheating Europeans once they got those jobs. The black people in America have been forced to live in squalor and slavery and had no education and their literacy was frowned upon as recent as the 1960s.
Our history towards black people, then and now, is one of shame.
Be thankful that mccain, the insane, is only "playing" president. Otherwise he would have unleashed a strike on Russia's military - throwing the world into a degree of chaos not seen for decades.
These people, who have overthrown the government, will say whatever they need to be said. Lie or no lie, because they CAN! They own it. They are repeatedively preaching out their propaganda on msm to everyone, everywhere, and they ARE reaching them.
Sites like this, reach out ONLY to the few. I am not putting this site down by any means. It is one of "the" best and largest there is. But let's face it, whatever they say is NOT being contested WHATSOEVER, IN THE LEAST, on the same mega-venues they are using with impunity, in mass. Grandma and grandpa do not have the internet, aunt and uncle have a computer, but it's broke, or have a computer that is useless because as soon as they turn it on, a million pop-ups appear, and they quit using it.
Bottom line is, they reach out and touch a bigger, gigantic percentage of the population, TOTALLY UNCHALLENGED, 24\7, and grandma, grandpa, aunt and uncle can hear it, very easily, without the need of a properly working computer.
Without any debate, without any challenge, to any of the validity of the bs statements being made, on the SAME outlets, LIES can easily become a virtual reality. It DID, and has worked before, in 2000 and 2004.
How can McSame be ANYWHERE EVEN NEAR CLOSE in popularity or the polls?
He's not called McSame for no reason. GWB is "the" most unpopular, make that HATED president EVER,...yet, McSame is so VERY VERY CLOSE?
It's very, very scary? It makes NO sense AT ALL, if the people truely have any say whatsoever into their government.
Voting for even MORE of what they seriously HATE, is totally ...ILLOGICAL!
General_Rennenkampf @ 6:
Though not a praying man, I say "amen" to your comment General. Hit the nail right on the heas!
McCain = PRESIDENT OF THE LOW FLYING CLUB
It's clear. McC*nt was acting "presidental." Obama is simply "uppity."
Amerika deserves McC*nt as its next president. Enjoy your continued decline, US.
Anyone else remember Alexander Haig's, "I'M in charge"? McStrangelove is getting dangerouser and dangerouser.
Ex-Canuck @ 54:
I hate hypocrisy in all its thousand forms.
I also have come to dislike US politics intensely, it's flash and thunder over meaningless crap while the important stuff looms in the distance, unnoticed.
I forgot to add that what's up with Saakashvili talking to McCain two or three times a day? Does Bush know about this and does he approve? The Republican administration has a shadow Republican administration.
naschkatze Hussein @ 57:
I remember. I also worry about that - it's the next statement I expect to hear out of Cheney's mouth now that Bush is on vay-cay again down home at the ranch.
naschkatze Hussein @ 59:
Probably comes from the fact that Saakashvili sees no sense anymore in talking to the current Prez, he's effectively dead, politically. He thinks that John McCain might concievably bail him out, forgetting that McCain first needs to win (to do that, he'd need perhaps the Greek Dodecatheon on his side, at the very least), and then he has to wait until after Jan. 2009 for the US to actually do something, by which time the Russians might well have gobbled Georgia up.
IOTW, he's a damn fool. But then, we already knew that when he attacked a Russian ally with the equivalent of kids with peashooters against the August Storm Red Army.
You know what this looks like? It looks to me like Bush sent Rice to Georgia on July 9th to green-light a Georgian military action that was already being supported by US troops. It looks like it was timed to make McCain look more presidential. It looks for all the world like these people have put politics before country for about the millionth time.
Knowing that civilians got killed looks like it's icing on the cake for them. Cost of doing business.
Marge @ 33:
You don't happen to be one of those PUMA people, do ya Marge? I hear you had a HUGE turnout of almost more than 20 people at the big get together.....is that true?
General_Rennenkampf @ 61:
And now he is apparently eating his own tie, if the video recording is to be trusted.
dureing andy jacksons presidency the rednecks grew jelouse of the better farms that the cherokee indians owned , now the cherokees were convinced if they became like the whiteman they would leave them alone so they dressed like the whites built thier farm homes like the whites read and wrote english attended colleges became well educated even helped andy jackson subdue other tribes hostile to the whiteman, inter married with the whites untill allmost half of them were pure white in colour, the tribal leader for the cherokee nation was only an eighth blood cherokee, i think his name was john ross, at any event when the red necks decided to steal the lands and farms of the cherokee they talked andy into seizing thier propertys and driveing the nation onto the famous trail of tears to oklahoma , and over half of them were pure white in colour, many men women and children died along the way, i have more cherokee blood in me then ross had , in my heart ive allways been cherokee and allways will be!
As long as the MSM lets McCain and the RNC get away with whatever they say, they will continue to say anything they wish. Why not? The progressive blogosphere is all over these stories. However, until we can get the message to those who's primary source of information is TV, most of the MSM is also talking, or omitting news as they see fit, and without sufficient criticism. I wish I could tell you I have a solution. However, I do not. What would be great is if a nightly progressive program ran, which goes after the MSM, could be aired by the second-tier stations, who might like to see pressure against their main competitors. There might be a way to pull that off, but I do not know enough about the industry to even guess what the obstacles are (other than cost).
What we can't afford is another president as stupid as the people who vote for him.
58 General_Rennenkampf
Sounds like a paraphrased, clunkier, version of, "Much sound and fury signfiying nothing."
ysbaddaden @ 68:
Indeed it is, but posting the whole spiel from MacBeth would probably go over a lot of heads here.
Oopsie, even I got it wrong
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Shakespeare's Macbeth
Actually one of my ancestors was murdered by Macbeth, King Duncan, and another killed Macbeth. However, unlike the play, it's my understanding that Macbeth and Duncan fought a proper duel. It was no sneak attack in the night.
However, one of my favorite movies is Roman Polanski's Macbeth.
Talk about presumptuous, why does he keep calling his entire audience "my friends"!?!?
testing
McCain out talked and out smarted the "gift of gab" Straw Man Obama! The deluded Obama must be spoonfed material and then programed. The misguided Parrot/Puppet has no clue what all is required, for the most important job in the free world! The Presidency is way over his head. God help America. Ex Democrat
McCain better be careful, he might spoil the November surprise.
Well ....he's going to be president....he's tied right now with no where to go but up...
[Deleted. Flame bait Sitemonitor]
It seems that our government, since the Neocons have had influence,
has perfected the ability to speak with two distinct voices. One the State Dept.
CIA.....official government position....and the unofficial, but more powerful
Executive branch ( Cheney ) voice. I think this is how the Kuwait misunderstanding
with Saddam Hussein and April Glaspie.....how he got the signal that we were
ok with his invasion,......and then POW.....we pull the rug.....
Likewise the same trick after the war (Gulf I) State said ok you Kurds dump
Saddam and we've got your back........WRONG....POW Bush was only fooling.
And we let Saddam punish them...But we maintained the upper hand.
Selling everyone guns and tanks. $$$$
Now most important on the Neocon agenda is NOT letting the Dems win the
White House......think of all that evidence, a Dem congress with subpoena power. OoooooWeeee.....so to make McCain look like a foreign policy genius, they have State tell the Georgians...."go on ahead....Democracy is yours......kick out the Russians.....we got your back...".....
but POW the Russians kick their butts.....and where were we..??.......
We send McCain out to yell at the Russians....I don't think 2 hours went by....
Look....he is not normally so smart......but that wasn't really the game.
Tho' it was a byproduct..........The zinger was getting the questions to the Evangelical pastor's little inquisition. He was great (McCain) Even I was impressed. Every question was perfectly answered.......immediately.....and impressively and with the political agreement of his hosts. ...do you smel.l fish yet ???
He can't answer that fast and clear if you asked him his name and address.....!!!
Think about it........a few times I thought he was going to answer before the guy asked the question......Think about it......Sounds like the Neocon playbook....
He really needed to please these Evangelicals....can't win without them.
Smells like rotten fish.
Smells like rotten fish. Again...
Lenny Laks
Mendocino, CA
Salmon Dave @ 76:
From a tactical standpoint, it appears fairly evident tha Putin took advantage of U. S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan to shore up his shrinking sphere of influence among former Soviet Eastern Eurpoean nations and gain control of the oil pipelines to Europe, knowing the U. S. was fully committed both militarily and economically to those wars. However strategically, I believe he also invaded Georgia at this time in an effort to influence the U. S. Presidential election. It is to Russia's advantage to stir things up internationally and keep the U. S. fully commmited to its' present course. What better way than to give the Chicken Hawks an issue with which they can convince the voters into believing that in these dangerous times we need a military man in the White House?
Login or Register to post comments.