The McCain Sell-Out Express

According to recent polls, under 20% of the American people approve of the direction George Bush has taken this country-- on any issue. So explain to me why McCain, who is running for Bush's third term, is only 6% behind Obama?

McCain kisses up to Bush (literally in many photos) every chance he gets. Lately he avoids photo ops with him probably because he can't resist the huggie hugs and he's trying to look like he's his own man. Yeah right! He has followed in Bush's footsteps (when he isn't claiming credit for being better) on the war, economics, health care, Social Security. social issues, and pretty much everything except the environment where he will end up backtracking if he wins. So how can that many Americans, who believe we are going the wrong direction, still support McCain?

This isn't about that 20% who still defend Bush's administration; nothing I will say will matter to them. If someone thinks highly of Bush after 8 years, they aren't seeing the same world I am. But for someone who does not like Bush and yet defends supporting McCain? How do that be??!

If there was any doubt McCain would be a third Bush administration, it was eliminated when Karl Rove began advising the campaign. Rove is positioning himself, by having left Bush when he did, to be ready to take over the next administration. If that is good news to you, then you won't care about the rest of this blog either.

Although I have always disagreed with him on the issues, I have been surprised by McCain's lack of abilities and understanding. I assumed a Senator, who has garnered so much respect and has served so many years, would have learned something about national and world issues. Saying you get it does not mean you got it.

Every time he tries to explain anything, McCain shows himself to be a (trying to think of a nice word and failing) blithering idiot . He gets the names of countries and geographic locations wrong, can't keep track of who runs which countries, who the various factions are in Iraq, time lines like that we actually had a war in Afghanistan before Iraq (you know, all the little stuff); and yet Americans still see him as more Commander-in-Chief like than Obama. What is that all about? A flag pin?

Are they frightened of Obama because he tells the truth about things like gasoline prices? Or is it when he said he was a citizen of this nation and proud to be but also of the world and McCain jumped on it as the equivalent of treason, something he accuses Obama of a lot these days. Excuse me, Mr. McCain, but who is there living in the United States, who does not also live in the world???

I listened to McCain try to explain why he had gotten the surge information all mixed up for dates and why he criticized Obama for saying the Iraqis deserve some of the credit for the successes in Iraq. Listening to him mumble his way through his explanation in the grocery store (appropriately in front of the cheese counter), I tried hard to follow his points.

As best I could understand it, through the constant repetition and saying things that didn't go together, I think he was saying the Surge (that Bush called the Surge) actually was a secondary surge; therefore, he was right on his dates because actually there was a little surge ahead of the Surge and it's that to which he was referring.

That surge ahead of the Surge sounded an awful lot to me like what the object of the war was supposed to have been all along (but apparently was not)-- that is to get the Iraqis fighting to stabilize their own nation.

To follow this logic for yourself, listen here: McCain's Version of the Surge. Warning: Trying to actually make sense of McCain's words can be bad for the blood pressure.

After some quick research, and I can be corrected if someone else understands this better, but I think what is called today the Anbar Awakening began because of a colonel, who on his own began organizing Sunni sheiks to fight against those who were causing unrest (al qaeda types who had come into Iraq with that purpose in mind).

Colonel Sean McFarland and several bloody battles led to the suppression or elimination of the trouble-making al Qaeda and to the Iraqis doing their own fighting. They knew who belonged and who did not. It made sense that they could take care of the intruders. This all sounded like it was to the credit of the colonel and the Iraqis until McCain suggested that it was just a pre-surge and that he had something to do with making it happen since he visited there and talked to McFarland as it was beginning.

One other mistake that McCain made (there are so many who can keep track) was that the Sheik he claimed we were protecting through the real Surge (who was one of those who made the Anbar Awakening happen), who Obama would have led to this guy's death, actually was already assassinated during the Surge.

Little of this would I be able to understand by only listening to McCain because it never got there. Logic isn't what McCain's spiels are about. Not on anything. He uses emotions and smirks smugly hoping nobody will notice.

The criticism I am hearing from many right wingers is that communication skills are actually bad because real commanders don't know how to communicate. Really? So Reagan was a lousy communicator? Churchill? FDR? Kennedy? Lincoln?

Well, I guess if you voted for George Bush, it would make sense that you would not see value in someone who could communicate ideas and inspire others to take action. Bush was not a communicator but a decider (a decider who decided a lot of things that likely will require him doing a blanket pardon before he leaves office just to sweep those decider end results under the table).

Now maybe this popularity of McCain is due to something else. Irrespective of intellect, higher education, good ideas, or the ability to communicate them, there is another important quality people want in their leaders. One journalist (using that word loosely, very loosely) said he would vote for McCain because he'd rather sit down and have a beer with him.......... (Ellipses, especially three in a row, are often considered poor grammar but there are times.........) Okay, so I just have to say it-- isn't that how we got into this mess by people who voted for the guy they thought that would be more fun at a barbecue?

Here are a couple of additional pieces on McCain which I read and seemed worth sharing (no, not the beer guy): Obama is the foreign policy realist. You won't find that one on Fox.

Then there is an analysis of the spiked piece that McCain wrote for the New York Times in his attempt to criticize what Obama had written the week before. Here is the speech and the analysis.

And for people afraid Obama will raise your taxes, check out the difference between his suggested policies and McCain's: McCain and Obama on taxes. McCain promises balancing the budget but not going to tell anybody how!

McCain's straight talk express took a power detour. What we have left is a man who seems to only vaguely understand any of the policies he is supposed to be implementing, smirks every time he says something he thinks is cute, rides on a past reputation, and is going to say anything to win. His Straight Talk Express should be renamed the McCain Sell-Out Express.

When McCain said this week that Obama would rather lose a war than lose an election (basically called him a traitor), he was actually talking about himself in terms of what he has done to win this nomination and he hopes the election.

Now unlike some 'opinionators', I won't stop with why McCain is such a disaster (and if you are following the campaign, you know I barely touched on the reasons), but will write soon about what is good about Obama. Voting against someone sometimes happens, but it's better when we know for what we are voting.