McCain has been an impassioned deregulator, and thus bears responsibility for the banking crisis we are in now.
Not exactly. While McCain has always voted in favor of deregulation, he has never been impassioned about the economy until the market tanked. As one prudent individual said, “I certainly don’t fault Sen. John McCain for these problems. I do fault the economic philosophy he subscribes to.”
John McCain has a history of bad blood with Hillary Clinton.
Half true. Yes, McCain told a joke in poor taste back in the 1990s about Hillary Clinton, Janet Reno, and Chelsea; and yes, by John McCain’s rules of interpreting the phrase “lipstick on a pig“, he called her a pig quite a few times; and yes, he has laughed along with the crowd during the primary when Hillary was called a “bitch.” But they seem to get along well. So – I guess Hillary is a tough woman who doesn’t take the McCain’s insults seriously.
[digg-reddit-me]McCain has “hired to run this campaign” “the very people” who smeared McCain in the infamous 2000 primary in South Carolina against Bush (as Joe Biden has claimed.)
Matt Yglesias points out that according to statements by Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki made only in Arabic, Bush had pressured him to change the withdrawl date from 2010 to 2011 “due to political circumstances related to the [U.S] domestic situation.”
In other words, Bush pressured Maliki to revise the withdrawl date, putting American military lives at risk, in order to bail out McCain. Pathetic.
McCain once attempted to strangle someone on a diplomatic mission.
[digg-reddit-me]John McCain has a history of calling his political opponents motives and patriotism into question.
[digg-reddit-me]John McCain has a history of over-personalizing and overreacting during crises – which has led a number of top former military officials and others who know him to voice concerns about McCain’s fitness.
SNL takes on McCain’s deceptive advertising. The best exchange comes after the line reader reads one of the new ads: “Barack Obama has fathered two black children in wedlock.”
McCain: My friends, I must say that reminds me of an attack that Bush made on me in 2000.
McCain aide: He won that election, right?
McCain: I’m John McCain and I approved this message.
Al Franken, the former SNL writer and current candidate for Minnesota Senator, suggested the idea for this piece to SNL’s head writer last week.
Matt Yglesias, I think fairly, gives his take on the whole McCain v. Spain gaffe:
…instead of admitting to a minor mix-up, the McCain campaign decided that in order to preserve their man’s aura of omniscience they would . . . provoke a diplomatic incident with Spain.
It’s kind of sad that virtually all of the other alternative ways of looking at this situation portray McCain in a worse light.
I wanted to put this in the “Humor” category – but it’s too scary/pathetic to be funny at the moment. Maybe in November – or maybe not.
This front page article in today’s New York Times might as well be called:
Don’t worry so much, Democrats – calm down! It still looks like he’s got this!
Basically, it’s a less funny and more data-driven version of this.