I thought I would share a simple 4 1/2 minute long video, from JohnMcCaindotcom on Youtube. Although I know it is meant to be silly, I really think this shows the whole McCain philosphy. Such as campaign staffers sleeping in the luggage hold, and buying buses off ebay for an "undisclosed amount". Oh, and it also captures his maverick-y attitude... It is the "Straight Talk Express".
A story that has been somewhat under the radar but picked up by a few media outlets (as is what typically happens with McCain-related-less-than-positive stories) has flip flopped in honor of John McCain himself.
Updated 2: It's finally broken on HuffPost. I like their title better and changed mine.
When even Fox News has the guts? to explain at the end that they were misled by the McCain campaign, there should be some negative press (please press wake up) about McCain's "town hall", i.e., campaign event with supporters in New York tonight.
Update: Just as some of the comments to Karendc's diary, some of the media (Time's Mark Halperin) has bought McCain's story and is providing positive coverage in a blurb titled "McCain's Goes It Alone"
He starts off by explaining he invited Obama to the event for the first of 10 unmoderated town halls he proposed, stressed the importance of such meetings.
"I hope that Senator Obama will agree. I will block out a day every week from now until the conventions. I strongly urge him to do this because I think...we need to communicate with the American people and give them a plan of action for the future of this country." [emphasis added by me]
To win the election, Barack Obama is going to need a clear way of framing the tax debate. I don't think it should be very hard, assuming he's willing to tell the truth.
John McCain's "Straight Talk Express" is desperately in need of roadside assistance.
This time, the McCain campaign has set what may be a new record in going back on its word. A mere three days after promising to the American public that McCain fundraising events would now be open to press pool reporters, John McCain has scheduled a series of New York fundraising events for Tuesday - one a reception for a whopping $28,500 per person - that will be closed to the press.
... the Hillary Clinton diaries and post-primary "why she lost" analysis on the Daily Kos needs to end. This stuff serves no purpose in looking down road to the general election.
... the John McCain diaries and the in-depth, critical and objective analysis of the man's candidacy for POTUS needs to ramp up and become the focus of activist Democrats.
... this will be the dirtiest, nastiest Presidential campaign in history. The Republicans are a cornered dog, given the mood of the country. They will lash out because the Congressional/Senate landscape now favors the Democrats which means winning the White House will be their priority. They will attack Obama on character and wedge issues and in ways that none of us have ever seen before. Watch for active voter suppression in the general election by the Republicans.
A lot can hinge on the meaning of 'is'. I think it was Bertrand Russell who said that most philosophical problems are confusions of the 'is' of predication, the 'is' of identity, and the 'is' of existential quantification. The mining of such careful logical and grammatical distinctions that began with Frege and matured with Russell flourished in Wittgenstein's thinking with the idea that there are no real philosophical problems, only logico-grammatical confusion.
According to Ben Smith over at Politico, the McCain campaign is pushing back on McCain's latest show of unawareness in Iraq:
On a McCain campaign conference call, Senator Jon Kyl did not concede that McCain had made an error in saying "We have drawn down to pre-surge levels," instead accusing the Obama campaign and reporters of "trying to nitpick the tense of the verb about the surge troops being home."
"The surge troops will be home by the end of July," he said.
McCain advisor Randy Scheunemann hit the same talking point.
"To get into a debate about a verb tense rather than the real fundamental national security issues at stake is really a distraction," he said.
As Ben notes, this freedom from verb tense is a powerful new tool in the political world. hop below the fold to explore this subject in depth.
I am struggling to believe that the most loyal Clinton supporters have really thought through their promises to pull the lever for John Mccain.
John McCain appears more and more to be beholden to special interests and lobbyists and big money concerns...far from the Maverick label that he is trying so desperately to hold on to.
Recall that in Euclidean geometry the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Applying this spatial concept to establishment politicians can shed some light onto how those who oscillate between two points can also claim to be straight talkers. Robert Greenwald's latest documentary, "The Real McCain" provides some recent examples of Senator Megalo McCainiac oscillating at his straightest ...
I believe in giving great access to the press for three reasons. First, I much prefer long back and forths, where reporters have multiple follow ups and I have an opportunity to explain my views in greater detail....
That is good to know! It's all in my head! I'm not really thousands of dollars in debt from my education with no plans to write any best selling books so I can pay them off! Our education system isn't failing our youth! We aren't in a pointless war in Iraq that's costing us billions of dollars that could be spent right here in the United States!
It's all in my head!!
That's the best news I've had all day, no all week!!
So enough with the "When a Man Loves a Woman" act.
If she's bad he can't see it
She can do no wrong
Two months ago, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof noted John McCain's flip flop on torture, but concluded that "Mr. McCain truly has principles that he bends or breaks out of desperation and with distaste. That’s preferable to politicians who are congenital invertebrates."
I'm just guessing here, but the people who have been killed due to the Bush Administration's torture policies probably wouldn't find anything "preferable" about John McCain's "desperation and distaste" with selling them out.
My Aunt Jo died at 82 years old, some 20 years ago. Since I lost my grandparents very young, as a child, Aunt Jo was the only real close relationship I had with an "older" person. Aunt Jo immigrated to the U.S. from Italy, she came here at the age of 9, worked hard in the garment industry, and was married at 13 years old to a man 10 years her senior. She was a remarkable woman, she taught herself to read and write English, spoke with no accent, and had an insightful approach to life. She had a difficult life, filled with so much sadness, but it never defeated her. I believe some people are born ahead of their time, she was born to a world where strong women were not appreciated. Her inner strength caused her to get beatings to keep her in her place.
I love Cliff Schecter. When he appears on my teevee to "debate" some empty-headed GOoPer strategist it is always a slaughter, with Cliff leaving the set unharmed but his shirt ruined from RightWinger bloodstains. He's the kind of fella I'd want on my side of an argument.
Break on thru to the other side to see a truly despicable example of McCain's temper and why this would doom the presidential hopes of any other candidate (especially if their name ended with a (D).
I guess I'm just in a John McCain mood this evening. Here's a helpful little video to put the lie to McCain's image of a straight talking maverick.
If anything this video should be longer. It doesn't cover near enough ground for McCain's complete lack of firm positions. In the meantime, this video should be posted throughout the blogosphere on a regular basis from now until the election. What do you say?
John McCain has prided himself time and again on his, "straight talk," and his no-nonsense attitude when answering questions and delivering policy. In fact, one of his largest complaints about Barack Obama is Barack's tendency to make opaque and unclear generalizations regarding his plans for the country:
To encourage a country with only rhetoric rather than sound and proven ideas that trust in the strength and courage of free people is not a promise of hope. It is a platitude.
His unwavering commitment to specificity is precisely why his latest campaign produced web advertisement is so strikingly bold in it's content:
