John McCain's Glass House Part 3

MR. MATTHEWS: If you have liberal views, does that mean you have anti-American views? What's the connection? I don't get the connection. What's the connection between liberal and leftist and anti-American?

REP. BACHMANN: Anti-American is the point, because --

MR. MATTHEWS: I mean, if you're liberal, are you anti-American?

REP. BACHMANN: Well, the liberals that are Jeremiah Wright and that are Bill Ayers, they're over-the-top anti-American. And that's the question that Americans have. Remember, it was Michelle Obama who said she's only recently proud of her country. And so these are very anti-American views.

MR. MATTHEWS: Okay.

REP. BACHMANN: That's not the way that most Americans feel about our country. Most Americans, Chris, are wild about America, and they're very concerned to have a president who doesn't share those values.

And now we have the latest episode of Republicans shooting themselves in the foot with their attempts at slander as Michelle Bachman gets her Joe McCarthy on.

This is the same person who blamed the Minnesota Democrats for failing to pass a bill that she herself voted against - The Protect America Act.

She also has this fetish for old-fashioned light bulbs, introducing a "Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act" to combat the government intrusion of phasing out conventional light bulbs! Will the A.C.L.U. back her? Will the onslaught of incandescent bulbs lead to communism? Stay tuned!

Anyway, her jaunt into McCarthyism will cost her her job now that the RNC has pulled out of her campaign, and people incensed by her remarks have contributed enormously to her opponent's campaign.

John McCain's Glass House Part 2

“This Bill Ayers situation that’s been going on for weeks became something of a central point of the campaign,” Powell said. “But Mr. McCain says that he’s a washed-out terrorist. Well, then, why do we keep talking about him?”

Colin Powell just gave his endorsement of Barack Obama. The above quote illustrates that he considered the behavior of his long-time friend McCain to be unconscionable.

What McCain & Co. have done is paint themselves into a corner, and now that they have run out of any talking points with any hint of verisimilitude, they have been reduced to a dog and pony show.

The loss of Powell for John McCain betrays another weakness in him that we don't want in a President, an inability to adapt.

He has been called on the matter of negative campaigning, calumny and slander for weeks now. Wouldn't that have warned him that an icon of moderate Republicans like Powell might be inspired to bolt?

John McCain's Glass House Part 1

The nerve! Last week, we heard cries of "Terrorist!" and "Kill him!" when McCain or Palin rhetorically asked who Obama was, or what to do about him. It wasn't just that the crowd yelled these things, it was also that neither candidate repudiated, or even mildly corrected the crowd until three days later. Instead, McCain stood there with his stupid smile. And Palin? Her accusing a political opponent of "palling around with terrorists," not only crossed a line, it shows a tremendous lack of understanding and intellect. Then there are the McCain surrogates who feel free to slander and insult their opponent with the seemingly tacit approval of the principals.

Which makes the crocodile tears and false indignance of McCain over John Lewis's protest all the more galling.

John Lewis lived through the era he is comparing McCain's campaign with. I know that McCain's absence from the Freedom Rides or Mississippi's Freedom Summer was excusable, but didn't the public schools of Wasilla, or the five colleges that Sarah Palin attended teach about those things?

The brutal reception by the Klan of the Freedom Riders at every stop was a result of the atmosphere created by men like George Wallace, Orville Faubus and Lester Maddox. In the South, many politicians gave a wink and a nod to Klan activities. With the atmosphere that the McCain / Palin ticket is creating, such politicians may soon be returning.

McCain accuses Obama of having more negative ads than him, but answer me this Johnny, did Barack ever associate McCain any characters of ill repute? No! Obama took the high road in his attacks, and did not engage in innuendo and character assasination!

And yet to listen to John McCain's whine over John Lewis's written words, you'd think that Lewis was some Democratic Sarah Palin claiming that McCain was "palling around with Klansmen."

John McCain: Meet Hank Martin - And Morris Dees: Part Five

The pattern is this: You have a clunker to sell, so you distract your mark with the bells and whistles when they want to kick the tires, or look under the hood. And if all else fails, yell "Hey! Look over there!" will work as you cover the grease spot.

But the McCain campaign is ready for Prime Time. It's like an inferior version of "I Love Lucy, only we all get to play Ricky, and McCain has some 'splaining to do!

McCain's story is not unlike those old black and white political satires where the honest idealistic candidate is corrupted by the campaign process, only unlike Spencer Tracy's Grant Mathews in "State of The Union," he hasn't awakened at the last minute to confess his sins in public. Rather, like James Cagney's Hank Martln in "A Lion is in The Streets," he has quit his conscience altogether, perpetrated the most grotesque demagoguery,and allowed the basest race baited mob behavior to occur in his name.

And now McCain's chickens are being counted. They are coming home to roost! All that innuendo and race baiting demagoguery are creating a mob mentality in his "base." And, make no mistake, he was letting it happen. I say thls despite his cosmetic attempt at crowd control yesterday. Review the tape. Did he try to control the crowd on the day they yelled "Terrorist!" or "Traitor!"? No! In fact he was smiling!

The implications this has for the future is disturbing. McCain has attracted the lunatic fringe of the Right. That faction already has many established venues for action. There is the militia movement just under the surface. Extremist groups like White Aryan Resistance, the Klan or the Nazis are undoubtedly hanging around the edges of McCain rallies looking for recruits.

Time to get re-acquainted with Morris Dees,the SPLC and Klan Watch.

John McCain: Meet Hank Martin - And Morris Dees: Part Four

And of course, that meant that the showmanship had to start. It started with the stunt casting of Sarah Palin as his running mate. My what a feminist our Johnny is! Of course, it pleased McCain's adopted by necessity base that she was against taxes, pro-drilling and pro-life! Well, I'm sure the base enjoys Sarah's endless verbatim repetition of the same stale talking points.

The desperate game-changers didn't end there. No sooner did the liquidity crisis begin than did our dear Johnny do his Mighty Mouse routine, and swoop into D.C. and crash land into a done deal rescue and delayed it's passage. How queasy it must have felt after Monday's bragging and chicken counting to watch the House Republicans stomp on the eggs! And this after Grumpy had to bomb in the first debate with Barack!
The economy's tanking. Anyone not peeing in their pants is doing the two-step. And McCain bombs on economy! Quick! We need another game-changer! And so, McCain brings in William Ayers.

Never mind the fact that Obama was only eight years old when Ayers was active in the Weather Underground, or that he condemned their acts as "reprehensible." Never mind that Obama was acquainted with Ayers, a tenured professor whose underground past was behind him, a man honored by many, only through various boards that he sat on, or that one of those boards was chaired by Lenore Annenberg, whose brother worked for Richard Nixon! Ayers is a terrorist! Ayers is unrepentant!

John McCain: Meet Hank Martin - And Morris Dees: Part Four

And of course, that meant that the showmanship had to start. It started with the stunt casting of Sarah Palin as his running mate. My what a feminist our Johnny is! Of course, it pleased McCain's adopted by necessity base that she was against taxes, pro-drilling and pro-life! Well, I'm sure the base enjoys Sarah's endless verbatim repetition of the same stale talking points.

The desperate game-changers didn't end there. No sooner did the liquidity crisis begin than did our dear Johnny do his Mighty Mouse routine, and swoop into D.C. and crash land into a done deal rescue and delayed it's passage. How queasy it must have felt after Monday's bragging and chicken counting to watch the House Republicans stomp on the eggs! And this after Grumpy had to bomb in the first debate with Barack!

John McCain: Meet Hank Martin - And Morris Dees: Part Three

You see, if you don't have thought one on how to change the country, you have to follow the old magician's rule of misdirecting the audience in order to scam them. Now, a magician only wishes to entertain the audience with his illusions. McCain wants to pull the Presidency out of his magic hat.

Out came Sarah Palin with all the beauty and superficiality of a Miss Alaska runner-up. As she cheerleaders her way around the lower 48, with her Stupid Smile and her script of tired catchphrases, has stoked up the base, some of whom wish that she'd run for the top of the ticket, instead of that tired old man hiding behind her!

That brings me to the worm in this apple. The real inner insecurity of John McCain.

McCain is competing against a younger, more energetic opponent called Barack Obama, not old Kankles Clinton. He is afraid that when people compare him to Obama, they will see a decrepit old man, devoid of possibities, trying to beat a younger man - who is out to change the world. This makes him desperate. And in an election that's favoring the Democrats, a desperate Republican feels rotten and mean.

It didn't take long for the mean to come out. No sooner did the Republican National Convention end, then did the broad brush lies about how Obama would raise taxes on "you" came out. Never mind that only one percent of the people would feel the pinch, McCain had buttons to push. At the time, he was twenty points ahead of Obama. There was no earth - shattering economic crisis then. McCain's insecurity was showing.

John McCain: Meet Hank Martin - And Morris Dees: Part Two

And so, in 2007, John McCain, the maverick who in 2004 opposed Bush's wartime tax cuts for the upper 1%, decided in 2007 that it just as "maverick-y" to suddenly be for them!

Again regarding the Iraq War, McCain showed his convenient ambivalence. Though he wasn't against the war, he made noises like he was reluctant to go to war. The U.N. was to referee the end game, and the pitiful few troops in lraq had to be reinforced. But after the Surge, McCain was all ready to jump into the war bandwagon. Suddenly it wasn't important that we rendered the U.N. helpless, and were continuing a military adventure that was bleeding our economy. We needed "victory!" Despite that, people are still unmoved about the war, and want it to end.

And the economy continued to fail. While people and yes, mortgage and investment banks continued to gorge themselves on the high cholesterol of subprime mortgage loans, McCain said "OK" to continued deregulation of the securities market.

With this bankruptcy of ideas, McCain has sought to lead his soulless party to four more years of Bush's madness. Only how to do it? His campaign, his party and his allies were going to be out organized, outspent and outproduced by Obama and the Democrats.

The answer? Free publicity! How to get it? Stunts!

You see, if you don't have thought one on how to change the country, you have to follow the old magician's rule of misdirecting the audience in order to scam them.

John McCain: Meet Hank Martin - And Morris Dees: Part One

And Now The Flailing Begins:

Now the comedy known as the McCain / Palin campaign is in it's last stages - that of flailing about incoherently.And Now The Flailing Begins:

No wait, wasn't that the condition it was in throughout the general election?

It seems only a year ago that the Republicans were fighting a primary over who is best suited to beat the Democratic Opponent and keep the White House in G.O.P. hands.1

Only they were counting on the Democratic Opponent to be Hillary Clinton. What they got was Barack Obama. That plus the damaged Republican brand.

And then they got John McCain.

He was the best of a bad lot. All of them bear the taint of Republican misrule. Most, like Huckabee and Romney were so in the Bush tank that they almost said "Sieg Heil" Grover Norquist's tax cut pledge during their Youtube debate. Fred Thompson doddered around in a manner appropriate to his age. They played so far to the Right that you just knew that in a year when Republicans were expected to lose in the House and Senate, it would suicide for the G.O.P. to use them in an attempt to bridge the gap.

McCain seemed like only one who could talk the middle class's language. After all, wasn't he the "maverick?" Didn't he always speak his mind, especially on matters of civil rights, social justice, and other things that ruffled the feathers of the party elite? And yet, he was certainly no "tax and spend" Liberal! Just a moderate Conservatlve. He even hated fundamentalist evangelicals, and had no truck with the "Culture War!"

But then something happened in the 2000 elections that changed McCain. Honest John got beaten in the primaries by an upstart governor from Texas who used sleazy smear tactics and had no shame. He became the victim of smear tactics and innuendos. The lesson he took from that was: a conscience is an inconvenience to a man with high ambitions. And, in order to win the Oval Office, he had to play to the base of hls party.