George Will: John McCain is losing his head
McCain's Media is finally waking up to the fact that despite his impressive biography and (now defunct) honesty and straightforwardness, John McCain has some serious character flaws.
WaPo:
Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama.
Conservatives who insist that electing McCain is crucial usually start, and increasingly end, by saying he would make excellent judicial selections. But the more one sees of his impulsive, intensely personal reactions to people and events, the less confidence one has that he would select judges by calm reflection and clear principles, having neither patience nor aptitude for either.
It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?
When this election first started, I opposed John McCain because I fundamentally disagreed with his position on the issues. But as the campaign has progressed, I've come to realize that McCain -- not Obama -- is the truly dangerous choice to succeed George W. Bush. He simply doesn't have the right temperament to lead in an increasingly dangerous and perilous world.
For another perfect example of McCain "losing his head," see this notorious episode from 1989 during the Keating Five hearings.
Is McCain losing his head? Well, Duh!
My friends, for five and a half long, long years I couldn't lose my head if I had wanted to, for it was locked up in the same dingy cell with the rest of me....
and how many times does the reichwingneocons
need to have this pointed out to them to wise-up
infinity !!!
bush is a drunk
mcfuckhead is insane.
what more do you need to know?
How long will the "fog and mirrors" of the McGrampa campaign continue to swindle the public? How long will the "sheeple" continue to swallow Karl Rove's Koolaide?
Bush has been a complete fiasco for seven years. You really want more?
Yeah, but could I sit down and have a beer with him?
rumor has it that todd palin likes to screw around.
I think McCain was left more psychologically damaged by the 2000 primary than his 5 1/2 years in the Hanoi Hilton. He's been mailing it in ever since that. Sad.
Mc Bush would be cool to watch if he were on some other plane, in a planet far far away?
Even George Will thinks he is nuts.
This country will not survive a McCain or a, God forbid, Palin presidency. At least it won't thrive. I guess we made it out of the Great Depression, but it took a World War...
Imagine a President McCain faced with a crisis like the Cuban missile crisis..
I can't believe stuffed shirt George Will would actually say that. Does he know that he's going to be disinvited to the Barbecues and invited to the quail hunts? O_o
Anonymous Source @ 9:
...and it will take a world war to pick ourselves out of this mess. History is always on reruns.
galmud @ 10:
We'd be nothing but a pit of nuclear waste with McCain at the helm.
Yes, even people of average intellegence can clearly see that McPow is losing his marbles. But it is the Neanderthal knuckle-dragging rethugs followers who still think that the world is flat and are again poised to vote against themselves yet again, who should be subject to a healthy public flogging. It could do them and the country, good.
The FBI is investigating all the bailout companies for fraud.
Now, the politics of this bailout is interesting.
They will have to vote to bailout companies under investigation for fraud.
They all should vote no and they should call for all of their resignations like Senator Bunning.
Contacting your reps is working.
Tell them hell no bailing out criminals.
Call a bail bondsman.
McCacca is a turd
Reminds me of that Wall Street Journal poll that found most people thought Obama was the more "risky" candidate. I always thought that was a loaded term. Most people wouldn't describe putting a loaded gun to your head and pulling the trigger as "risky". They'd call it "suicide". I think that's the more appropriate term for the McCain/Palin ticket.
The Very Bitter Ceci Hussein @ 11:
George Will and his cronies are probably getting soaked in the market too.
So now, it's a problem!
The Very Bitter Ceci Hussein @ 11:
George Will never had an invite anyways. He's not part of the neocon or coporate republican clubs. You may not agree with him on much but he's not a blathering hack.
Jo @ 5:
Not unless you want to hear all the war stories, again and again...
when an old stiffy like George Will voices his lack of confidence, it's time to pay attention.
Obama is not the candidate of choice for conservatives, and McCain is showing considerable strain.
besides, his bullpen has maybe one inning of relief if the old codger kacks (god forbid).
The only thing this fraud claims to have is experience, but it's quite clear from Grandpa's scary, irrational, reactionary, responses he's just not good under pressure. The old man thinks simply being "old" equates to experience....and some people are buying this bullshit.
Jo @ 5:
I'd feel too weirded out, having a beer with a guy who has to lean over and drink a beer through a straw. Or does he get beer IV's instead?
This is depressing. We were the strongest most respected nation is the world. And after 8 years, it's gone. Bankruptcy, two wars, corruption, the destruction of the Constitution, etc. Bush is Nero, filddling while Rome burns.
what is george will, the perennial lefty-hater, doing? Has the word gone out to tank McC*nt?
Bill in Chicago @ 17:
Pretty much sums it up.
P.D. @ 24:
More like Barney Fife plucking a banjo in front of a burning outhouse.
Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?
No.
Vote Obama.
galmud @ 10:
Oh, he'd create one on the first day of his installation...
Guess after McDepends loses in November , he can begin preparing for the 2012 Olympics in London , seeing as how speedier he'll be after losing 20 to 25 pounds of unnecessary shit............
Mick@27, LOL. I need a good laugh.
Conservatives dig short tempers. They think it's sexy. They want to elect Dirty Harry. That's just how their brains are wired.
George Will can put another notch in his bow tie. My vocabulary is pretty extensive, but I always find myself having to look up at least ONE word every time I read one of his columns. This time it was...
Manichaean: adjective. Relating to the Manicheans and their basic doctrine of a conflict between light and dark, matter being regarded as dark and evil. SEE: The Bush Doctrine. (aka- The Bush "World View," as listed in the Junior Encyclopedia.)
McCain Campaign Caught in Lying Delecto: One of the giant mortgage companies at the heart of the credit crisis paid $15,000 a month to a firm owned by Senator John McCain’s campaign manager from the end of 2005 through last month, according to two people with direct knowledge of the arrangement. The disclosure contradicts a statement Sunday night by Mr. McCain that the campaign manager, Rick Davis, had no involvement with the company for the last several years.
How many ways of looking at this, does it take before people get it??? It's simple, this guy McCain? Is unfit for the presidency under any circumstances... ANY!! I'm not going to detail it at this point.. He's been parsed to pieces already. It's all out there and it's all bad... As for Palin? Fagitaboutit... She's a lightweight politically and that's her one good point.. Any look at the details behind this pretty face and it's damned scary.... Her freaking voice alone sounds like fingers across a chalkboard. She could do the voiceover for Ms. Bitters.....JD
Mick Piobr and unfrozencaveman: Will is a conservative hack. But, yes, on occasion he has criticized the Bush Administration. He's not like the Right-wing shills you'd find on FOX or the radio. But yes, he follows his orders like a good lackey. He's one of them.
And this is rather relevant in his stance against McCain.
It means the chickens have finally come home to roost.
fastfeat @ 20:
Look, McCain has made very clear that he is loathe to speak of his POW experience.
CoIntelPro for Pronktastic Victory Over SCLM, DIEBOLD, ESS and SEQUOIA! @ 34:
I'm shocked; shocked I tell you...
His head is lost in Bible Spice's titays.
CoIntelPro for Pronktastic Victory Over SCLM, DIEBOLD, ESS and SEQUOIA! @ 34:
Let me repeat again that the chickens have come home to roost.
McStain is a cranky old fuck who has no business being anywhere near the TV remote...much less the nuclear button.
Someone needs to inform this fossil that the Vietnam War is over...and the US lost. Move on. It's obvious that he can't wait to engage in multiple conflicts, just so he can amend that stinging loss.
It's simple. Amerika is in total free fall. It's is fighting two costly wars. The economy is a disaster. Its education system is a joke. Science and technology leaders can't get out fast enough, and the population is made up of obese, ADD-afflicted morons who insist on voting for someone "who's just like them."
Tell me that's not a recipe for continued decline.
Bill in Chicago @ 17:
a job applicant is "risky"? it's a code word, plain and simple, for the type of 'people' who were never expected to qualify for the job.
StirFry @ 39:
BIBLE SPICE!!!! AAAUGGGHhhhahahahahahahaha!
Thanks!
Meanwhile, remember kiddies; smoke pot = go to jail for a long time/ rape, pillage, plunder the world economy and kill millions of people = be a GOP hero!
Republicans to Cheney..."GO FUCK YOURSELF!"
LOLOLOLOL!
Karma is such a bitch!
The Truth Hurts @ 41:
voting for the neocon was the first ingredient.
The Republican Party is imploding. The implosion will be complete when McCain's head explodes.
Time to haul out The Moose Queen, GOP!
Pericles @ 33:
george will has staff that does the writing.
StirFry @ 39:
does that make him a d___head? :<[)
tr @ 47:
I think that Gee Willie considers himself the vocabularical heir to WFBuckley.
I thought that the Bush Doctrine was carry a big stick and beat the shit out of anybody smaller than you, and steal their resources for your cronies...
The Very Bitter Ceci Hussein @ 36:
Will has a very different point of view than you or me but that doesn't make him a hack. A hack is someone who jingles on the strings of a master. If you read Will's stuff, it's obvious that his work is his own and bears little resemblence to standard republican talking points. As someone pointed out here, even if he's completely wrong you can always come away learning a few new words.
I just think that George Will is seeing the hand-writing on the wall. It doesn't take someone from the brain trust to realize that we're all in deep feces if we hand over the keys to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. to McPOW and Gov. Hockey Mom.
This week alone, the MSM hasn't shown anything remotely reflective of leadership.
And I think that there are some folks who are simply sick of all the fashion talk about that braindead imposter trying to be a V.P. nominee. Her meeting wtih "world leaders" was a sick joke that nobody would miss.
So, yes, George Will is breaking ranks. Scary, but true.
Mick Piobr @ 50:
the Palin Doctrine will be to chase it down from a chopper and shoot it, cut off the front left foot and collect $150. Chainey would have wet dreams, but they would short his pacemaker.
Mastercard: the official card of the 2nd Great Depression http://www.break.com/index/mastercard-offical-card-of-the-2nd-depression...
I still want some one to ask McCain about ditching his handicapped wife for the little rich girl Cindy. I want Cindy asked how she feels about men who cheat on their wives and women who are home wreckers.
Miatch @ 32:
Screw Dirty Harry. The Republican base would nominate Frank Booth if he was a real person!
there is way too much time left.
looking at cokie roberts and gWill was like looking at people who were given distasteful orders.
they're media and I will not trust them for a few exchanges that I happen to like.
In case no one else has said so, McCain can't lose his head fast enough. And his wife Marie Antoinette, too.
"We do not support government bailouts of private institutions. Government interference in the markets exacerbates problems in the marketplace and causes the free market to take longer to correct itself,"
- Republican Party Platform, 2008.
Miatch @ 32:
Ah, but Dirty Harry knows his limitations.
unfrozencaveman @ 51:
Fair enough. I've read his columns too. I've even watched him prostrate himself on television.
I find his columns thought-provoking.
But he's part of the establishment, vocabulary lesson or no. His ties ( Reagan, Conrad Black, for starters) reek of who he associates with. His stands are too few and too far between.
This is one occasion though, that even a man of his intellect cannot miss what is going down in America.
When he says that McCain is bad news, McCain is simply that.
John McCain must not be a member of the Baseball Geeks Society. I don't believe Little Georgie Will has ever said or written anything truthful about that criminal fuck Little Georgie Bush, who is a charter member of the Baseball Geeks Society. The seventh inning stretch of the truth is all that irritating, bow-tied pansy can communicate.
I dropped off George Wills article from the Washington Post this morning over at Polipundit.
With it I added" When you lose George Will, you've lost the country".
No replies, not one. Usually I get called all kinds of names.
Not today.
" It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency."
Yeah, so where was this asshole in 2000 and 2004?
Kathleen @ 55:
Oh, please.
There's some real shit going down. You're not electing a block captain here.
George Will is a friend of Chris Cox and McCain wants to fire him.
jitter @ 65:
I agree with Kathleen. Although no one should ask because it's personal business. But it does lend itself to character.
Someone subject to impulses. Someone never happy with what they've got. Blind ambition.= trouble.
jitter @ 65:
I think that she has a point. It illustrates the lack of scruples that are a part of their "family values."
Bloody opportunists and no ****ing loyalty.
Why is no one, especially the msm, mentioning the Keating 5????
galmud @ 10:
Imagine McCain in a heated dialogue with Ahmadinejad.
Mick Piobr @ 68:
Just the same rules applied to Clinton, Edwards...McCain. That's all. If your going to dig into one persons personal life then ask the same questions of other candidates
McCain looks like he's passing a cinder block.
never thought I'd say praise the Lord for George Will,
and can't get enough of the 'round table' chat last Sunday
I don't think I can count how many times I've watched it
Kathleen @ 71:
Agreed.
steve b @ 72:
Through his urethra.
I read today that the Swiss banks and the German banks are saying "Thanks but no thanks" to this admin's help in this financial fiasco.
Well, that says alot.
I thought it was Alzheimers and mirrors.
Alert to C&L bloggers!
Chris Matthews had Steven Pearlstein on his program tonight as a supposed neutral economic journalist trying to explain this bailout situation to the peasants. He was supposed to bring us “clarity”. This guy was one of the biggest spinners I have heard so far. He was throwing out Paulson’s lines “alternative is terrible” etc.
But his most twisted line was that these “bailouts are the means by which we are saving ourselves” This guy kept referring to the CEO’s , as “we’re”. This guy Steven Pearstein http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/03/24/LI200503...
seemed like an inside player for sure. Both Jim Kramer and Pearlstein were screaming “go along with the bailout, go along with the bailout” Not finding any clips of this evenings news up at Hardball yet. Matthews needs to be hammered for only presenting one perspective on this bailout.
Chris Matthews needs to stretch the perspective a bit and have Naomi Klein
http://www.democracynow.org/features/alan_greenspan_vs_naomi_kleinor
Or Nomi Prins on his program for a wider lens
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/9/17/us_seizes_control_of_aig_with
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/23/cheney-gop-bailout/
GOP rises up ‘en masse’ against White House bailout package.»
Today, Vice President Cheney and White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten spent the day in Congress trying to convince conservatives to accept the administration’s bailout package. Politico reports, however, that “House Republicans rose up en masse against their vice president.” ThinkProgress has compiled a list of conservatives who have declared opposition to the administration’s $700 billion bailout:
Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY)
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC)
Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ)
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA)
Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO)
Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN)
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA)
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL)
“They were in worse shape when they left than when they came in,” said one lawmaker who was in the caucus meeting with Cheney and Bolten. “These were the wrong guys…The problem is that they’ve used up a lot of good will.” Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called the administration’s bailout “just wrong.” (Let us know in the comments if we’ve missed anyone.)
THEY ARE ALL RUNNING FROM THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION AND THE POLICIES THAT THEY HAVE ALL BEEN A RUBBER STAMP FOR. CHRIS MATTHEWS PUTS IT BEST "THEY ARE TRYING TO TAKE OFF THEIR UNIFORMS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE GAME AND ACT LIKE THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN PART OF THE BUSH TEAM" LIKE THEY DID NOT ELECT BUSH AND RUBBER STAMP ALMOST EVERYTHING THEY WANTED.
SEE THE REPUBLICANS RUN FROM BUSH AND CHENEY? RUN REPUBLICANS RUN!
It might be better asking, "Does Sarah Palin have the experience to be president?"
Obama can always ask Vice President Biden for advice. Who's Palin going to ask when McCain dies? (There is, after all, a 50-50 chance, based on his health.)
Kathleen @ 78:
Yeah; I called the office of my "representative", Trent Franks, expecting to get pissed off again - and was informed that Franks was against the bailout!!!
Unheard of for Trent Franks, who is a former Halliburton employee and voted with Dumb**** 100% of the time.
Things must be really bad.
Sounds like alot of the same sentiments expressed by Wick Allison, former publisher of the National Review, in an editorial a couple days ago.
http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/stories/09/09/22/0922...
Even the conservatives cant help but admire the fact that he comes across as a thoughtful, intelligent man while Mccain.... doesnt.
CoIntelPro for Pronktastic Victory Over SCLM, DIEBOLD, ESS and SEQUOIA! @ 48:
Bible Spice meets Old Spice--every stripper's nightmare.
Actually, George Will isn't so much McCain's Media as he is a true fiscal conservative.
Any fiscal conservatives should be sh*tting bricks just about now.
fastfeat @ 82:
Hahahaha..you sexists. ;)
Here's this topic from Countdown tonight:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHWgnXnOJ9s
StirFry @ 85:
Damn, I'm in love Rachel.
I like how people like George Will and other members the media always refer to Obama as not being ready for the job. That must be code to mean something else. What a joke!
Bush has been an incompetent fool (President) for the last 7-years. He is no more ready to be President today than he was back in 2000.
my personal goals for this week were to make sure george will and john negroponte are on our side.
it's not even wednesday and i'm 50% of the way there...
bullfrog @ 88:
I'm still waiting for Hagel....any day now.
The Very Bitter Ceci Hussein @ 11:
Well I guess he wants to be on the invite-list to the White House when Barack is prez...
"It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency."
Hmm, I wonder who else the above description describes. Will is only figuring that these are not desirable leadership qualities now?
oZer @ 21:
I have this feeling that a lot of on-the-fence, "mildly" racist Republicans are going to walk into that voting booth and say it, "fuck it, I'll vote for the black guy. That's how disgusted I am at my party."
Same thing happened at my high school ages ago. It was a richy rich school with only a few black people attending at the time. There were two candidates for student body president: one was the usual pasty white idiot who gets this kind of job and the other was a black guy. We voted in the black guy. Not because we thought he was necessarily a better choice but because we knew we wanted someone other than the typical geeky, nerdy out-of-touch asshole that usually got voted in.
Of course, in this case, Obama is by far a better candidate. He should be leading McSame by at least 10 percentage points. I suspect the polls have been manipulated to make the race seem closer than it is so the media can get better ratings.
I fully expect to see Obama become president. And when that happens, he'll make history. Not because he's black but because he has the genuine ability to lead.
It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. - Geo. Will
Then, Mr. Will, it is also arguable that, because of their inexperience, Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, and - perhaps more up your alley - Ronald Reagan were not ready for the presidency either.
So let's hear those arguments, Georgie boy.
Rant time.
I have had my fill of this "inexperienced" argument. It is a defective premise that applies to all the candidates of both parties. George Will while ostensibly questioning McCain is, in his typical pseudo-intellection style, attempting to cast deeper aspersions at Obama, probably with the expectation that it will go unnoticed. He is deploying this argument as a subtrfuge, to distract attention away from the fact that experience can never serve as an expdient that is preferrable to reasoned wisdom and informed judgment.
Unless one is a complete fool, nothing teaches more thoroughly than experience. The problem with experience, though, is that it consumes vast swathes of one's unrecoverable time and huge gouts of one's unrenewable life's energy. Few people who depend upon experience to be their teacher ever learn the lessons that experience has to teach on the first go-round , unless those lessons are deeply painful; usually, learning by experience is a process of making a particular mistake many, many times. When the lesson is finally learned, if one is intellectually honest and observant, (s)he will recognize that there was an enduring and timeless principle of integrity, ethics, morality or cultural wisdom that clearly idenitified not only the lesson, but explained the why's and the wherefore's of that lesson.
On the other hand, a person who seeks out, and exerts the effort to attain to a reasoned understanding of, enduring principles has an advantage that the person who depends solely upon experience can never match. By principles, I mean the condensed wisdoms attainable from the universal repertoire of human behaviors that are always, at their root, a matter of choice. Those behviors may be individual or collective. But, the key is that the results of abiding by a particular principle or living in conflict with it are invariant and universla, regardless the person making the choice, regardless the culture, regardless the time. For example, to any person who consistantly abides by the principle that one must think and act with honesty and regard for truth, will accrue certain outcomes that are inevitable and universal: clarity of thought, an accurate perception of reality and so on. Conversely, the person who consistantly rejects that principle and lives by an expedient of intellectual dishonesty, easy lies and self-serving rationalizations must inevitably pay a price for that choice: confusion and confused thinking, estrangement from reality and so on.
The choice to conduct an independent investigation, and to attain to reasoned understanding, of enduring principles versus the choice to stumble through life learning (eventually or not at all) from random experience is a reflection of one's inner intellectual, emotional and spiritual maturity. It differentiates between those we name as wise and those we name as fools.
Obama, though he may lack long experience, is a person of wisdom. He seems to grasp the value of principle, is actively engaged in the struggle to conform his living and thinking with those principles and, he also seems to learn quickly from experiences.
McCain, though a man of long experience, has little to show for that experience aside from the accumulated accretion of numerous serial corruptions of his inner being and a deep estrangement from reality. That is because he is both unprincipled and concistantly fails to learn from experience. He is the perpetual fool.
Palin, who is of marginal to no experience, shows little hope of progressing within the limits of any time frame that matters, because she has demonstrated that she, too, does not learn from experience. She has also demonstrated that she is unprincipled....the things she would name as principles are nothing more than bigoted and unworthy impulses to which she smugly and self-righteously attempts to ascribe the attributes of virute. Palin, is a person of ersatz principles. Like McCain, she is also estranged from reality...a state in which she seems blissfully content. She, too, is a perpetual fool.
So, George Will, it isn't a matter of experience, it's a matter of the qualities of character that are revealed by demonstrated by the habits of wisdom or foolishness. Here endeth the lesson.
End rant.
Other than five and a half years at the Hanoi Hilton, what does McCain's biography contain that is notable? His class standing at the Naval Academy? The number of planes he crashed before being shot down? The ditching of his wife to marry a soon-to-be rich woman twenty years his junior? The Keating Five? The simmering possibility that he helped bury evidence about abandoned POW's in Vietnam? The Sopranos-like business career of James Hensley, Cindy McCain's father? His three-year-old-like temper tantrums? Hey, it's understandable if he feels that he might not have been living up to the expectations of his family tree and needs to be President to meet those expectations, but he has repeatedly shot himself in the foot along the way. He is way past his prime physically and he repeatedly says things that indicate he might be losing his grip. His pick of Sarah Palin was a classic Hail Mary play that bore early promise but now its appears that as she goes so goes his campaign. But her resume, thin to begin with, might be only a mirage, a false oasis with a poisoned well.
Doesn't John McCain's face just beg to be "morphed" into the famous depiction of Lou Chaney as the Phantom of the Opera?
Can somebody do that and distribute widely?
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