Over the course of several weeks, we've all seen the general election take shape. We've seen Obama backing away from FISA, McCain professing his love for offshore drilling, Obama opting out of public financing, and McCain being the regular ass he always is.
What I have seen to be the most startling occurences of the last few weeks is 'outrage' by the conservatives and McCain's surrogates about the comments made by General Wes Clark, McCain's need Energy Ad attacking Barack, and the pass he gets of being just like us.
We have been told we can not question McCain's "hero credentials" while he can rip on Senator Obama's communication skills and his keen sense of nuance and intelligence as being too idealistic and in the clouds. Though Barack Obama is not without his shortcomings and should be subjected to critique as well -- he is the best choice we have now and had in a very long time. The fact is, John McCain did serve his country which is absolutely worth of praise. HOWEVER, the reasons for his being shot down and POW status were in part due to the hot headedness and stubborness we have heard about McCain from his fellow senators and quite a few Republicans. He's not a hero for being a prisoner of war, and especially because he did end up disparaging his nation to the Vietnamese. Not that it should be held against him, however it shouldn't be ignored when critiquing his accomplishments. But what escapes me is how being a fighter pilot prepares you to be Commander-in-Chief. It does not. One should of course take into account his 25+ years in Washington, but then you look at the bills he's supported and not supported and I'm sure any moderate and independent might have a conflict of interest.
In the world of media, and to a lesser extent in everyday life, it has become a sort of blasphemy to criticize McCain's war record. We heard this from Senator Obama's victory speech after the last primary that he honors Senator McCain's accomplishments despite McCain denying his. It is a matter of class and honor, qualities that seem to be lacking in McCain and his campaign.
It is the idea that our president has to be just like us, a regular Joe, a beer drinkin' football watching kinda dude. Thus, George W. Bush. And I hear pundits and failed politicians (and reknowned racists) like Pat Buchanan always complain about how Barack hasn't proved he's one of us. One of us? Are you saying..white or just lazy and unintellectual? In the words of Jon Stewart "be better than us." If I wanted a president like us, I'd just run. But we live in the country we live in, and this is part of our political process. A few months ago, we heard McShame and Hillary Clinton call Obama and his statements "elitist." Elitist? The biracial son of a single parent who was on welfare, who worked his heart out to get where he is, is the elitist? Not many have accused of McCain of being an elitist (even though he is the party of don't touch my money). Since when did being a Neo-Con mean you were just like us? So you guys live paycheck to paycheck and live in small apartments? Well, author Matt Welch takes him to task.
But, you know, getting back to his military history, this is something, again, that is not very well understood. Not only were his parents—father and grandfather in the military, but his father used to go around giving these lectures about how, you know, the naval gap between the US and the Soviet Union was threatening democracy, how we—his nickname was Mr. Sea Power. You know, he would recite British colonialist poetry around the dinner table. They were constantly talking about the necessity for just a huge US navy to guarantee the world’s security. That is the background that John McCain was just marinating in from the time he was a child. And for much of that period, whenever his father or grandfather was not out at sea, they were living on Capitol Hill, usually in some Washington, D.C. capacity. So he was sitting around the breakfast table with senators and congressmen from the time he was a kid. There’s this big notion that he’s a man of the people, which is actually the name of a biography of him, when in fact, down the line, he’s been very much an elitist his entire life, for both good and for ill. He has just been surrounded by, you know, top historians, top senators and congressmen and top military brass.
-Matt Welch on Democracy Now!
It is a wonder that a majority of Americans don't know or don't remember that he is for a lack of a better term, a womanizer and stupid. Yes, I said it. He is stupid. His economic plan is near gibberish so he was at least telling the truth when he said he didn't know enough about the economy. Not only does he not know anything about the economy, he apparently does not know not every government expenditure is pork barrel. For example, John McCain says he'll stand up for small businesses.
But his econ plan and healthcare plan would "encourage some employers, mainly small businesses, to drop health benefits," eventually leading to the elimination of "job-based insurance altogether," and would "weaken small business protections." McCain’s voting record backs this up–in 2000, he actually voted against a tax credit for small businesses offering employee health insurance for low-income workers."
-Today's McCain Myth, JMBell.org
He also likes to talk about how he's pro-new energy and seems to have voted against most if not all the bills one would vote for if they did support alternative energy sources. Yet, the league of conservation voters gave McCain a 0 out 100 in 2007, and a 6 out of 100 back in 2000 when he was so Maverick. In the years between he received 36%, 41%, and 56%. Ok, but definitely not good or great. Barack Obama in 2007 received a 67% primarily due to missed votes (as did Senator Clinton) but in the 2005-2006 Congress he was awarded with an astounding 96% rating based on his votes in the senate.
It may be politically incorrect to call McCain an idiot and stupid, but I don't think it should stop anyone.
John McCain, being the third generation here with a lot of expectations on him, rebelled against those expectations. He finished near the bottom of his class, 894th out of 899 at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. And he was a real sort of maverick in the kind of Top Gun way, always getting into trouble, sneaking off to drink beer and smoke cigarettes and date strippers, and had a pretty colorful kind of straining-at-the-leash type of life, because he knew he didn’t really have a choice but to fulfill his sort of family’s destiny.
And he became a flyboy in the Navy and was involved in one of the worst—and in fact, I think the worst—Navy sort of tragedy after World War II, which was the Forrestal fire in Vietnam, which killed 130-plus men. He tumbled off the nose of his airplane as it was sort of exploding on the deck of this aircraft carrier in Vietnam. And then on his—I believe his fifth mission was flying over Vietnam on a—Hanoi on a bombing run and was shot out of the sky and, of course, became a prisoner of war for five-and-a-half years, where he, you know, withstood torture with great bravery and distinction. He eventually cracked, like most prisoners of war do under the duress, and taped some statements, you know, disparaging his country and apologizing for his crimes, but stuck it out and then came back to the US in ’73 and became the Navy liaison to the Senate and eventually started his political career in 1982.
-Matt Welch on Democracy Now!
Maybe some of you Kossacks have read McCain: The Myth of a Maverick -- if not, please do!
Everybody admires John McCain's service as a fighter pilot, his courage as a prisoner of war. There's no issue there. He's a great man and an honorable man. But having served as a fighter pilot and I know my experience as a company commander in Vietnam that doesn't prepare you to be commander in chief in terms of dealing with the national strategic issues that are involved. It may give you a feeling for what the troops are going through in the process, but it doesn't give you the experience first hand of the national strategic issues.
--Wesley Clark, March 2008
...Yeah John McCain makes me mad.