John McCain came very close Tuesday morning to outright questioning Barack Obama’s patriotism, painting his Democratic rival as a detached, cocksure candidate who believes too much in internationalism and not enough in the stand-alone strength of America.
Speaking to a crowd of several thousand American Legion veterans at the Phoenix Convention Center, McCain went right after Obama’s strength — his rock star appearance in Berlin earlier this month, saying Obama “was the picture of confidence.”
“But confidence in oneself and confidence in one's country are not the same,” McCain said.
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Senator Maverick, Senator War Hero, Senator POW, Senator Bi-Partisan....all self-described attributes of the Republican candidate for president, St. John the Insane. It's truly amazes me how easily someone sells their soul for power and prestige. The man who once was on the receiving end of Karl Rove's politics of personal destruction and railed against them now has embraced them whole-heartedly. He has decided to wallow in Rove's gutter.
Ever since his campaign was commandeered by Rove & Co, McCain's personal attacks on Obama have increased exponentially in both their level of vitriol and frequency. Mr. Straight Talk Express has assumed Bush's title of Prevaricator-in-Chief. There is no lie, no half-truth, no damning by innuendo he will not stoop to. The "Straight Talk Express" has been replaced by the "Smear and Slander Express". After all, it's what kept Bush in office for eight years. Always go with the winning strategy. And by the looks of all the most recent polls, it's once again working very well.
This time around we expect the attacks to be raised to new levels or, if you will, lowered to new depths. You see McCain isn't exactly what the Repubs had in mind for their next candidate. But goshdarnit, those pesky voters threw a monkey wrench into the works. So they have to work with what they've got. And it ain't much.
Their task is daunting. They have to turn a soon-to-be 72 year old, thirty-six year Washington insider with a lavish personal life-style, extremely wealthy wife, who has so many houses he can't keep track of them, who is showing signs of early senile dementia, war-monger into the candidate that most Americans will vote for. As opposed to the young, brilliant, vibrant, charismatic Democratic candidate Barack Obama.
Unfortunately, 95% of St. John's bio is unusable in the sales pitch. So that leaves the remaining 5%, the POW years as the only card left to play. And play it they have, over and over again. What began as part of McCain's story has evolved into all of John McCain's story. There is not an issue raised by the Democrats or the media that cannot be responded to by playing the POW card.
Question: Senator...about all those houses? I was a POW don't forget. About your wife's money? POW. About the Keating Five Scandal? POW. About you embrace of right-wing preachers? POW. About all those lobbyists in your campaign? POW. About those oil company contributions after you supported off-shore drilling? POW. About your flip-flop on Bush's tax cuts? POW. About?...POW. About?...POW. About?...POW.
And all this is why Obama has got to
stop saying nice things about this guy. There's nothing nice about the new John McCain. Screw his service to the country. The only thing McCain wants for the country is his presidency. And he's ready to pull out all the stops to make that happen.
