Comments for The peculiar tragedy of this flawed hero, John McCain »
Posted By gamahuche 1 year ago in Political NewsFor one whose single rhetorical flourish is the gratingly incessant appellation "My friends", John McCain has very few left. The roll call shrinks by the day as his bamboozled campaign grows nastier, and if the decline maintains its trajectory this year's Friends of McCain Thanksgiving Dinner in Arizona will be held, in homage to his naval career, in a solo canoe. By then, even the Clintons will have baled out because, barring a malevolent miracle, Barack Obama will be President-Elect, and Senator McCain's value to them as Oval Office seat-warmer until 2012 will have gone the way of Lehman Brothers. Even his wife, Cindy, can barely tolerate his presence, judging by the body language at the end of Tuesday's debate in St Louis. As they gingerly embraced, you sensed her wondering whether seven houses will provide a sufficient cordon sanitaire from each other's company come 5 November.
Read Full Story at independent.co.uk »
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gamahuche1 year ago
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A DEVASTATING critique, perhaps no one in the US would have dared to be so brutal to this poor old geriatric joke of a candidate.
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The very best story that I have read about McCain and his absolute
irrelevance to anything and everything that could possibly bring hope and success back to the US at this exceedingly dismal time.
I don't care what brickbats get hurled at me from the OTHER side I'll be happy I posted this to the end of my days.-
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berkeley1 year ago
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great essay. the author simply described what he saw during the debate, and compared it to other politicial figures from the past. the choice we have is what we will do with the information in the next few weeks. brickbats would be entirely uncalled for.
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for more detail, see
http://www.propeller.com/story/2008/10/04/a-closer... -
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gamahuche1 year ago
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As a "foreigner" I was actually nervous of putting this up. A few years ago I think that I'd have been drowned out with boos and hisses even from people who were not so different in their opinions simply for having the temerity to voice an opinion at all. "Love it or leave it" was directed at Berkeley radicals and people like Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman. I'm sure that some other contributors to this thread have had some parallel experiences.
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I lived in Montana for several years but Richard Brautigan had lived in the same neck of the woods, round Livingston, and done some "pioneering", Though apocryphally if you were a "longhair" - i.e. anything more than half-an-inch - and accidentally stumbled into the Long Branch Saloon instead of the adjacent Wrangler you were in big trouble, in actuality seldom did anything amiss occur, even when Sam Peckinpah was letting off volleys of pistol shots into the ceiling of his permanent room at the Baxter Hotel. [When he wasn't around the owners would sneak other guests in for a peek at the bullet-holes]. But criticism wasn't acceptable on the "love-it-or-leave-it principle.
I'd take those days back any time over the acute polarisation which virtually makes it impossible to think different without automatically becoming an enemy.
In this present campaign the behaviour of the candidates of both sides stayed within the realm of normal difference of political opinion and the racial issues stayed undercover though latent. Unfortunately this chosen VP candidate - who I feel 90% sure was NOT McCain's choice but was "thrust upon him" has polarised the situation far more profoundly, while the economic stresses have also ratcheted up the tension for all sides and the biggest question in my mind is how it will be possible for the next President to be free to put in place the seriously extreme measures which will be required without a consensus behind him. My hopes are with you all and for all of us on the planet, wherever we may be living - or to whichever nation we may belong - the impact of this election in this moment in time is if overwhelming importance. Our hearts are with you because they have to be.-
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CORVIDIVS1 year ago
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AND THOSE HOPES MAY BE... a very tenuous thing at best.
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Consider what was perhaps unthinkable: a replay of a previous 4 year joke, when the son of the father was RE-Elected. All the niacin deprived lot needs is sufficient rhetoric and packaging to stay good old boy until the cows come home.The logic of fear keeps 'Them Guys' together,and John's purported impotent flailing still may not tip the dingy...
DON'T TELL ME ALL AM I REALLY SAYING... is his investiture wouldn't surprise me...
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Spadecaller1 year ago
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Thanks g. The story describes the McCain most of us have come to know and despise - a pathetic corpse of a bedeviled soul. The flip flopping self-ordained maverick who promised to keep his campaign about issues and not scurrilous character attacks has lied enough to the American people and to the world.
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His latest slip, "my fellow prisoners" must reveal the hell he lives in. His robotic use of the phrase, "my friends" is nothing more than empty and false endearments from a man who has little left of value except his houses, cars, and the image of his hardhearted untouchable wife. More and more of us are looking forward to the day when we will not have to see this sorry and pathetic shell of a man hobbling around waving his banner of deceit cloaked in patriotism and false heroism. -
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gamahuche1 year ago
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I'd like to be clear that I intensely dislike picking on my elders - he's actually not SO much older than me [sshhh!] but I feel like 30 or 40 years younger..
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I never disrespected the man UNTIL this terrible campaign which was simply a catastrophic mistake for both him and the country.
Even so - I STILL didn't completely lose ALL respect for him until today, when I read about the hate-mongering that he and Palin were indulging in during some campaigning out in the boonies. I've blanked out where because it was so despicable and so vile.
Considering the problems that the country is facing right now all of this is in the nature of a side-show right now. It would be far better to simply STOP campaigning right NOW and deal with the problems. Lord knows the current incumbent is doing nothing but quacking like the lame dick he is and any "solution" which he proposes will be moot anyway.-
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alakazam1 year ago
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ClockworkorangeComment removed: Abusive
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Tangent0011 year ago
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"You have to ask yourself...Is Age a measure of prowess?"
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To certain extent, yes. We live in a culture that devalues the old and celebrates the young. As the boomer generation ages, that will almost certainly change. McCain has a wealth of life under his belt, but I question his temperament ( just learned it was spelled with an 'a'), his temperance, and his world-view.
Were Obama's principles and policies encased in McCain's body, I'd still vote for him. Were Obama's principles and policies encased in Palin's body? Oooooo, baby! -
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sinophil491 year ago
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alakazam "Is age a measure of prowess?"
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Possibly. Remember, even stupid people grow old. Advanced age merely means that person has had more chances to experience a variety of learning situations and can retain an increasing repertoire of solutions and ideas.
However, there is no guarantee that a specific old person has learned the correct lessons in life. McCain, it seems increasingly clear, has learned some of the wrong lessons in life.
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jaern1 year ago
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Great article, gamahuche! I was dumbstruck at how old McCain looked during the debate. I thought he almost had one of those Parkinson shuffle while he wandered around the stage. If I were him, I'd be firing every member of his team that didn't insist he sit down or stand behind a podium.
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Goppy1 year ago
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I agree. Great article.
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Hey ... has any of you seen this remarkable video that interviews a number of veterans who had encounters with John McCain.
It's one of the most remarkable videos I've see. Truly.
Some of the interviews are with Veterans who had to fight with McCain .... he was trying to prevent them from obtaining classified records on MIA's and POW's.
Some other interviews were with Veterans who were with him in the POW camps. I must say ... my jaw hit the floor.
I had never really believed the charges of collaboration that many Righties on Propeller had proffered ... but after watching this video .... well ..... all I can say is .... I am truly stunned at this .... check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFM1xqqTX_g
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BTW ... be prepared for some VERY angry Veterans.
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Dobes_Rule1 year ago
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Talk about hitting the nail right on the head - leave it to the Independent! Excellent post gamahuche - one of the best I've read so far summing up all that is McCain. Crotchety, old, snarling, old, nasty, old, lieing, old, racist, old man....!
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Goppy1 year ago
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This also is an amazing video.
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It's an interview with a Veteran who went to the Naval Academy with John McCain and was also a POW with McCain.
He considers McCain COMPLETELY inappropriate to be President.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLWEDMLmjKk
I think there's a lot of information about John McCain that we were never told by Mainstream Media.
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ClockworkorangeComment removed: Abusive
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jordan111 year ago
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I remember a time when there were lines you didn't cross or you'd lose respect & credibility. Not just among those who were our mirror (journalists), but among the people themselves. Then along came a group of spoilers who made ugly a good thing, and our mirror was relegated to a fun house, showing a caricature of what we used to be. Forty years ago this piece would have been disregarded and shunned. Not that people wouldn't have been thinking it privately, or whispering it among friends, but because it went over the line & put it in the public arena. We don't have lines any more. And those who used to talk softly and respectfully were trampled by the new ugly. You do what you have to do to survive, or you lose.
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rimbaud1 year ago
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After the politics are over, McCain will regain his reputation, at least among those inside the Capital beltway. The Democrats and Republicans belong to the same club. They may call each other names in debates, or to get elected, but they have a good laugh about it later, over drinks, at the club. McCain is the Republicans' sacrifice candidate following the 8 years of George W Bush. He is really running as an independent, against the Republicans.
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rimbaud1 year ago
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George W Bush forged ahead and gave the Republcans all the things they had been grousing about all these years. Now, even they are balking! If their plans could not be discredited as ideas, they have now been discredited in practice. There is no real way to defend their voodoo, neo-liberal, slight-of-hand economic philosophies. Unfortunately, it does not appear Obama will stray too far to the other extreme: he is the conservative in this election.
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Poulenc1 year ago
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A moment that encapsulated a sense of "it's-come-to-this": McCain attempting to quell the political-rally mob as they foamed about and even threatened the opposition.
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A McCain who still stood for some semblance of civil discourse drowned out by the hatred he and Ms. Palin encourage and arouse--arouse in those who will vote for the very party that fuels their desperation.
Thanks for the post, gam. -
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ClockworkorangeComment removed: Abusive3 Replies
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ETproductions1 year ago
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FTA: McCain needs a game changer like, "Russia unilaterally reviving the Warsaw Pact; or the detonation of a radioactive device on Pennsylvania Avenue."
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I fully expect something just like this. The NSA and CIA will do whatever they can to keep the reins of power Bush has given them. But even if such a hideous thing happens and even if we can't prove that operatives in the McCain campaign were behind it, I don't see it changing the day for McCain at this point.
McCain has shown himself to be so erratic he does not any longer look like a man who should be in charge of the nation's military. Leadership is not jumping on your horse and riding off in every direction at once. Leadership is not lurching through a list of directives like: "The economy is fundamentally strong." then "The economy is in crisis." then I'm suspending my campaign." then not suspending it, then "I'm not going to the debate till the bailout plan is passed." then going when it isn't passed, then slamming Obama for "phoning in" his input on the bailout while McCain himself was doing exactly the same thing.
Charge, retreat, fire, order arms, forward left face to the rear at-ease. Leadership? I don't think so.-
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reallypsst1 year ago
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ET thank you for this reality check i cant see people of common sense giving this relic the vote it seems there are a lot of old redneck views out there most of these people are out on their butt living in poverty who have lost their job, homes, money ect.. and you ask them why they pick mccain and palin well because he s white and must have the answers to the crisis! these lame brains need a little shock treatment because of the brain washing because they still don't know who s screwing them !
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