Gustav gives GOP a reason to disinvite Bush and Cheney from their convention.“It just wouldn’t be appropriate to have a festive occasion while a near tragedy or a terrible challenge is presented in the form of a natural disaster,” Mr. McCain told Fox News Sunday in an interview to be broadcast tomorrow morning.Didn't stop ya before.
From Paul Begala, CNN contributor and Democratic pundit.
"The more I think about it, the more staggered I am by the pick. It's totally about electioneering ... and fundamentally unserious about governing.
The first criterion for a veep - and I'm simply repeating a truism here - is that they are ready to take over at a moment's notice. That's especially true when you have a candidate as old as McCain. That's more than especially true when we are at war, in an era of astonishingly difficult challenges, when the next president could be grappling with war in the Middle East or a catastrophic terror attack at home."
Under those circumstances, we could have a former Miss Alaska with two
termsyears under her belt as governor. Now compare McCain's pick with Obama's: a man with solid foreign policy experience, six terms in Washington and real relationships with leaders across the globe."One pick is by a man of judgment; the other is by a man of vanity."
She may be a fine person, but she's my age, she has zero Washington experience, and no foreign policy expertise whatsoever."
McCain has just told us how seriously he takes the war we are in. Not seriously at all."
I smell desperation."Let’s compare Senator McCain to candidate McCain.
Candidate McCain now supports the wartime tax cuts that Senator McCain once denounced as immoral."
Candidate McCain criticizes Senator McCain’s own climate change bill."
Candidate McCain says he would now vote against the immigration bill that Senator McCain wrote."
Are you kidding? Talk about being for it before you’re against it."
...Senator McCain, who once railed against the smears of Karl Rove when he was the target, has morphed into candidate McCain who is using the same “Rove” tactics and the same “Rove” staff to repeat the same old politics of fear and smear."
...The candidate who once promised a “contest of ideas,” now has nothing left but personal attacks."
How insulting to suggest that those who question the mission, question the troops."
How pathetic to suggest that those who question a failed policy doubt America itself."
How desperate to tell the son of a single mother who chose community service over money and privilege that he doesn’t put America first."
Jason at DadCentric just posted a brilliant essay that aggregates all the best (read: most egregious) examples of how McCain lost all of his vaunted integrity in his no-holds-barred-(anymore) grab for the White House.An analogy: let's say your town has no restaurants.As you read the rest of Jason's post, click every link. Read every article. Puke.
One day, you and your neighbors get together and vote on which restaurant will be allowed to set up shop in your neighborhood. Applebee's wins by the tiniest of margins.
Ok, you think. Normally, I'd rather eat the ass out of a dead rhinoceros than eat at Applebee's, but I'll make do.
Eight years go by, and you and 79% of your fellow townspeople are pretty fucking sick of Applebee's. Christ, how much Nacho Cheese Smothered Chicken Fried Steak can one eat? Clearly, it's time to make a change.
The senior leadership at Applebee's, not wanting to relinquish their stranglehold on your tastebuds (the ones that haven't been seared away from years of Onion Loaf and Rhubarb Creme Pie), tries to convince you that they are actually the agents of change. They propose bringing on a new manager.
Problem is, despite the new manager's background (his character was forged in the ghastly crucible of a Denny's kitchen, and the horror he encountered there has greatly influenced his worldview), IT'S STILL FUCKING APPLEBEE'S.
"Ari Melber asked the pertinent question about how a reporter can possibly fail to call out illegal and immoral acts like wiretapping and torture for what they are, under some misguided definition of objectivity or neutrality. (The Washington Post's) Chris Cilizza answered the question honestly, admitting that they don't do a good job of it."I guess writing about the Clintonista Drama is just more fun?
As reported in the Huffington Post and other outlets, MSNBC has been beset by internal battles. A shame, in the wake of the unity they clearly felt after Tim Russert's tragic death.
I am a proud American who has struggled for eight years to explain to my increasingly-cynical children why the sins of the current Administration are not reflective of the America worth loving.
It’s been tough. My 16 year-old son has lived 1/2 of his life under this regime. He’s seen me scream at the broadcasters and so-called “pundits” on CNN, Fox News, etc., more than once. He and my daughter have seen the despair in my face as I tried to explain “what’s-gone-wrong.” I’ve seen their brows darken during these conversations; I can literally see bitter cynicism baking in their brains as I talk with them.
Watching their patriotic beliefs shrivel, I’ve always rallied with, “But this is the country that saved the world from the Nazis! This is the country that first sent a man to the moon! This is the only country where any man or woman, of any background, can rise to leadership in any endeavor.”
Luckily we have the examples of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to point to, to illustrate the latter point. But the victories of WWII and the moonshot? Well, that’s dusty stuff to my teens.
Like me – maybe because of me – they are focused on what I’ve come to call the Twelve Sins of the Bush Administration.
I once registered as a Republican so I could vote for McCain in the 2000 GOP primaries. Now I’d stop at nothing to quash his rise. To secure my kids’ future. To bring America back from the brink of irretrievable failure.
A world without the American example of days’ past would be a smaller world.
note: this catalog was helped along by reader comments I read recently at HuffPo.
