McCain's Shame
There's one dead horse being beaten today, and a pony being born.
Of course, those of you who know about the Intertube-nets and all their traditions know what a "pony" is. It's actually been the governing concept of the United States foreign policy for a number of years. A pony is the free thing that comes along with all the other magical things that happen in places like Iraq when you wish hard enough. Our Boy King and his Court have been making wishful thinking the centerpiece of their war policy for a long, long time.
"Maybe tomorrow they'll stop shooting at us and planting IED's to kill us."
"And maybe tomorrow we'll get a pony, too."
Today's pony is the Martyred Maverick, John McCain. Poor, John. He ran for president, but he somehow was force - forced - to use all the mean old bastards who ran the Boy King's campaign all those years ago. They were just shameful in 2000 and 2004. Maybe Honourable John thought they'd mellow with age, so he hired the lot of them. Not that he wanted to.
And then they forced - forced - him to pick the unalterably unqualified Sarah Palin as his running mate. And she bought clothes and "went rogue" and whupped up the rednecks and said a series of things so surreal in its abject cluelessness that even the big boys at CNN and Big Media (who, after all, listened to, reported on, and recorded her every word) started to notice.
That takes a lot.
So Poor John ran the nasty brutal race-baiting lying below-the-belt dishonourable corrupt and stupid campaign he swore he would not run.
I hope he enjoys his pony.
The dead horse being beaten to death also has to do with McCain. And it's a vital horse to beat, so, please, hammer that horse meat.
That horse is the gone and unlamented McCain campaign itself in all its gore and absence of glory. The McCain guys are pointing at Sarah. The Sarah guys are pointing at McCain. And everybody is writing the post-mortems on the ugliest campaign in modern history.
I've taken a few pokes at it, and may well do more. But today I'd like to take a moment to consider the McCain campaign that could have been.
We may take it on faith that JM had to say and do certain things in order to win the nomination. He was a slow starter and was behind in the polls for a long time, even once considering quitting. Fair enough. I think that Rudy was an unelectable nutjob (even for Repubs, so consider...), so his faux lead in the primaries was a ghost on the radar. Huckabee was a fad; no squirrel-eater has been a major party presidential nominee since Bob Dole.
Mormon Mitt Romney was a threat, but turned out to be a un-nominatable Mormon (who knew?). What I'm saying is that the field fell away from McCain. He didn't have to chase it by becoming Bush Junior Junior.
He could, instead, have been the man he tried to be in 2000. I don't think that version of JM actually exists, but as the character he plays on the Daily Show he can be somewhat charming and politically centrist.
If the fire-breathing neocon JM is not the real JM (per the pony above), the Maverick certainly isn't either. But they are both characters he's chosen to play at various points in his political career.
As the nominee, he could have chosen a different direction. He could have run a 'change' campaign with real changes and a real set of policies. Instead, he ran Ayres and Wright. He thought his 'cover the world with carpet bombs' would win a war election. But even if his stunning lack of fiscal acumen had not been exposed, how was he supposed to win on Iraq? Couldn't he read a poll?
The Maverick character would not have been blown the hell out. And the Maverick character would be a character he could play for years, like Kelsey Grammar playing Fraser Crane for 78 years on the long-running Cheers and again in the very long running Fraser. Tossed salad and scrambled eggs indeed.
As the Maverick, JM could have left a legacy. Isn't that something you want to do at 72 years old?
Of course, those of you who know about the Intertube-nets and all their traditions know what a "pony" is. It's actually been the governing concept of the United States foreign policy for a number of years. A pony is the free thing that comes along with all the other magical things that happen in places like Iraq when you wish hard enough. Our Boy King and his Court have been making wishful thinking the centerpiece of their war policy for a long, long time.
"Maybe tomorrow they'll stop shooting at us and planting IED's to kill us."
"And maybe tomorrow we'll get a pony, too."
Today's pony is the Martyred Maverick, John McCain. Poor, John. He ran for president, but he somehow was force - forced - to use all the mean old bastards who ran the Boy King's campaign all those years ago. They were just shameful in 2000 and 2004. Maybe Honourable John thought they'd mellow with age, so he hired the lot of them. Not that he wanted to.
And then they forced - forced - him to pick the unalterably unqualified Sarah Palin as his running mate. And she bought clothes and "went rogue" and whupped up the rednecks and said a series of things so surreal in its abject cluelessness that even the big boys at CNN and Big Media (who, after all, listened to, reported on, and recorded her every word) started to notice.
That takes a lot.
So Poor John ran the nasty brutal race-baiting lying below-the-belt dishonourable corrupt and stupid campaign he swore he would not run.
I hope he enjoys his pony.
The dead horse being beaten to death also has to do with McCain. And it's a vital horse to beat, so, please, hammer that horse meat.
That horse is the gone and unlamented McCain campaign itself in all its gore and absence of glory. The McCain guys are pointing at Sarah. The Sarah guys are pointing at McCain. And everybody is writing the post-mortems on the ugliest campaign in modern history.
I've taken a few pokes at it, and may well do more. But today I'd like to take a moment to consider the McCain campaign that could have been.
We may take it on faith that JM had to say and do certain things in order to win the nomination. He was a slow starter and was behind in the polls for a long time, even once considering quitting. Fair enough. I think that Rudy was an unelectable nutjob (even for Repubs, so consider...), so his faux lead in the primaries was a ghost on the radar. Huckabee was a fad; no squirrel-eater has been a major party presidential nominee since Bob Dole.
Mormon Mitt Romney was a threat, but turned out to be a un-nominatable Mormon (who knew?). What I'm saying is that the field fell away from McCain. He didn't have to chase it by becoming Bush Junior Junior.
He could, instead, have been the man he tried to be in 2000. I don't think that version of JM actually exists, but as the character he plays on the Daily Show he can be somewhat charming and politically centrist.
If the fire-breathing neocon JM is not the real JM (per the pony above), the Maverick certainly isn't either. But they are both characters he's chosen to play at various points in his political career.
As the nominee, he could have chosen a different direction. He could have run a 'change' campaign with real changes and a real set of policies. Instead, he ran Ayres and Wright. He thought his 'cover the world with carpet bombs' would win a war election. But even if his stunning lack of fiscal acumen had not been exposed, how was he supposed to win on Iraq? Couldn't he read a poll?
The Maverick character would not have been blown the hell out. And the Maverick character would be a character he could play for years, like Kelsey Grammar playing Fraser Crane for 78 years on the long-running Cheers and again in the very long running Fraser. Tossed salad and scrambled eggs indeed.
As the Maverick, JM could have left a legacy. Isn't that something you want to do at 72 years old?
posted by fiduciary at 10:20 AM
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