08/22/2008
John McCain's Get Out of Gaffe Free Card
DailyKos has a list of reasons one might be able to use this card.
Sphere: Related ContentPosted 12:35 PM EST by Andy in Election 2008, John McCain, News, Republican Party | Permalink
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I think it's time America woke up to the fact that McCain has played the POW card for years. Just yesterday, I read that Limbaugh said, "We can't pick on the little black child-man" while proceeding to do just that. Isn't it time we started calling McCain out on being too old, too disconnected, and too angry to even be considered a viable candidate, much less president?
I like this card, and have passed it on.
Posted by: DwH | Aug 22, 2008 1:20:58 PM
Nobama's card should be to talk about anything but the issues. When you're physically and mentally tortured for your country you'll get one too.
Posted by: Nobama...no thanks | Aug 22, 2008 1:41:39 PM
Unfortunately, this card only reveals that the Kosby Kids are, in their own way, just as arrogant and out-of-touch as their target.
McAlzheimer's exploitation of his POW history is fair game, but how it's done, in context and word choice, can explode in our faces. A huge, repeat HUGE percentage of American voters still understandably support POWS and many would selectively see this card as mocking THEM.
Those from the Vietnam-era are a particular stinging-hot button because many still believe that, in its haste to evacuate Vietnam, and wash its hands of the war, the US government left American soldiers still in capitivity in North Vietnam. Have none of the Kosby Kids ever seen one of the black and white POW-MIA flags?
Good idea so poorly executed it could cost Obama votes on this alone.
Posted by: Leland Frances | Aug 22, 2008 1:42:58 PM
so, mr. nobama & leland, are you suggesting that mccain gets a free ride on the sole basis of his being a POW?
Posted by: alguien | Aug 22, 2008 2:02:03 PM
Not to disparage those who have been tortured (although by Bush/Cheney's definition, McCain was NOT tortured) but having lived through eight years of the neocon nightmare, I feel like a POW in my own country.
And if you think Obama is not addressing the issues, you're not listening.
Let me ask: what privilege gives republicans and their mouthpieces on the airwaves the right to cry foul when the other side strikes back? Rove/Atwater tactics have come back to bite the r's on their fat asses, and I am digging it.
Posted by: DWH | Aug 22, 2008 2:18:43 PM
DWH, i've noticed over the last few years that the right seems to confuse dissension with censorship.
Posted by: alguien | Aug 22, 2008 2:23:09 PM
I love this.
Let's face it, McCain--despite "not wanting to talk about it"--refuses to shut up about the POW issue. Everything becomes, POW. Elizabeth Edwards criticizing his health care non-plane? POW! Saddlebrook? POW! lots of houses (and spending 5x more on servants than the median US income)? POW!
But, watch the DC press corps go ape shit. Remember when they went crazy over Wesley Clark saying "getting shot out of an airplane isn't a qualification for President?" Same thing's going to happen here. They've been blowing the golddigging old bigot for years.
Posted by: MAJeff | Aug 22, 2008 2:29:04 PM
I can't even imagine what would be said if someone did this to Obama. They would be labeled a racist. As much as I generally think Limbaugh is a blow hard bomb thrower the fact of the matter is that he is right. If someone drew a cartoon of Obama and threw some little pat word behind it like inexperienced, evasive, liar liar pants on fire about your pastor, and arrogant...they would be labeled a racist by the liberals. The problem is that the Democratic party has damn little in the way of history of holding up military heroes.
They been too busy putting people like Kerry on a pedestal for throwing (or not throwing) his medals over the fence. No one probably thought in the 60s that the fad radicalism would come back and bite them in their liberal ass. Now that it does people like Obama have to sit there and explain why they know bomb makers and radicals from a by gone era.
Now the platform for DNC has been released. Guess what? Its top three points are the same damn points from 4 years ago. Nobody learns at the DNC just keep putting forth flawed canddiates with the same agenda and hop maybe...jsut maybe it sticks.
Posted by: Las Vegas | Aug 22, 2008 2:37:17 PM
I just wish the mainstream media would call McCain out on this!!! He has milked his POW status as far back as 1982 in his initial run for The Senate to silence any criticisms of him, it is time to put a stop to it. Republicans, in particular, do not accept excuses like this from any of their opponents, neither should the general public have to. McCain needs to stand or fall simply on his own merits of RIGHT NOW. I wish this card could be seen by everyone -- with the cautionary note that its source has nothing to do with Obama and his campaign...
Posted by: MARTY | Aug 22, 2008 3:03:43 PM
20 major gaffes listed on the dailykos site, and they forgot to mention the geography gaffes:
referring to Czechoslovakia many years after it ceased to exist
referring to the Iraq/Pakistan border
placing Darfur in Somalia
Oh sure, he's ready to lead from day one, but with map skills like these, where is he gonna lead us?
And Las Vegas, if you don't realize the right puts out a whole lot more loony lying smears than the left, you're not reading the wingnutdaily! Obama favors infanticide! Obama wasn't born in the US!
I think what the left DOES need to do is start hitting back hard with the same kind of shit. Enough nuance and complexity. Most Americans don't get it.
Posted by: Kevinvt | Aug 22, 2008 3:06:21 PM
it's kind of funny that Las Vegas seems to think this is attacking McCain for being a POW rather than for him and his campaign shrieking "I WAS A POW!" whenever he's questioned on anything.
Posted by: MAJeff | Aug 22, 2008 3:09:53 PM
This was EXACTLY what happened on Hannity & Colmes. When Colmes suggests that Edwards's adultery might be comparable to McCain's adultery, Hannity totally loses it. BUT HE WAS A POW! He must repeat that, yelling, over his co-host's reasonable comparison, a good 10 times. He even comes back to it after the break!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saDewF41rJI
So being a POW means you can commit adultery. What's the connection? But he was a POW! I don't understand the logic. But he was a POW!
Posted by: Kevinvt | Aug 22, 2008 3:14:24 PM
Noun-Verb-POW
rinse.
Repeat.
I still think the ultimate was Bob Schiefer freaking out when Clark said, "I don't think getting shot out of an airplane is a qualification for the Presidency." He was absolutely gobsmacked. You could hear the incredulity in his voice when he said, "You don't?!?!"
[and let us not forget that Clark was repeating "getting shot out of an airplane" as Schieffer's line, and prefaced everything with "I respect and honor his service."]
The press corps' swooning over Shrubbie's codpiece in the "Mission Accomplished" moment was nothing compared to their hard-ons for McCain. It's pathetic.
Posted by: MAJeff | Aug 22, 2008 3:19:29 PM
I agree being a POW doesn't necessarily qualify John McCain for the Presidency. However, military service certainly is a qualifier. Haivng a record of voting and being proactive in you career does qualify you.
Being someone young and brash with cute sayings doesn't. Having little or no voting record and a very shaky record of action in government beyond "me too" doesn't. And if we're going to go there with McCain..then...playing on the white guilt liberals who feel they owe the black community this is certainly not a qualifier.
Posted by: Las Vegas | Aug 22, 2008 4:04:33 PM
No, military service is not a qualifier. We have civilian rule.
And McCain is, well, wrong about everything.
Posted by: MAJeff | Aug 22, 2008 4:09:09 PM
Jeff we have a civilian representative government system. Not civilian rule..how lame are you? geez! The civilian populace grants the power to the individual(s) to act one their behalf.
Military service is a plus for this job Jeff. I'm sorry but your wrong. Being in the military gives benefits across the board for many people. Being an officer even better experience for people. You can do the job without it but it certainly helps.
The CIC of this country has an extremely tough job of running the military while in office. Having some experience of being in that culture and system certainly helps.
The only other thing that would be great is that the person in office had some foreign policy experience as well or in place of military experience.
I might point out that Obama has neither. So why don't you go and pack your backpack for school on Monday and pay attention in civics class this semester.
Posted by: Las Vegas | Aug 22, 2008 4:22:37 PM
pretty disgusting and childish, but it's to be expected from the 'koskids'. the fact is that mccain has always been very reluctant to make ANY comments regarding his time as a prisoner despite the urging from others to do so. he tells one story at saddleback and now suddenly it's "all he talks about" ?
Posted by: el polacko | Aug 22, 2008 7:14:38 PM
and how 'bout you pack your white hood vegas.
Posted by: MAJeff | Aug 22, 2008 7:17:20 PM
gee.. remember way back.. until oh about a year or so ago.. when mccain's frequent guest spots on 'the daily show' were met with screams and cheers from the lefty audience and praise for his individuality, bravery, and sense of humor ?? now, he's the senile devil incarnate according to those same people. hmmm.. there's a lesson in there somewhere...
Posted by: el polacko | Aug 22, 2008 7:22:08 PM
"Reluctant," El Polacko? Are you fucking kidding me? McCain has been running on his POW status since AT LEAST 1982!
http://canwest.a.mms.mavenapps.net/mms/rt/1/site/canwest-tnr-pub01-live/current/launch.html?maven_playerId=tnrallsmall&maven_referralObject=3043382
"reluctant" my ass
Posted by: Nick | Aug 22, 2008 7:30:12 PM
Thanks Jeff for proving Rush Limbaugh correct...you can't hit the black man-child..or your a racist.
Posted by: Las Vegas | Aug 22, 2008 7:53:43 PM
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/08/the_case_against_obama_in_his.html
Posted by: Tom Cruise | Aug 22, 2008 8:47:48 PM
As a gay disabled veteran of the conflict in Vietnam I find the McCain card the flip side of Rumsfelds' remarks that "draftees didn't add appreciably to our effort in Vietnam", and Ann Coulters' remarks that she was tired of the gimme gimme lifestyle of disabled veterans who "expect hand-outs" from the government. Republicans only value their own. To them everyone else didn't give all they could, or they lied about their service, or they're milking their scratches for all they can get. The sad thing is .. they get away with it.
Posted by: Robert | Aug 22, 2008 8:53:21 PM
"The only other thing that would be great is that the person in office had some foreign policy experience as well or in place of military experience."
McCain thinks Darfur is in Somalia and that Iraq borders Pakistan. He wants to bomb Iran and go to war with Russia.
That's why Obama's much more popular all over the world: he'll have a rational foreign policy in part because he knows where things are and doesn't JUST want to fight everyone.
Posted by: Kevinvt | Aug 22, 2008 9:11:30 PM
http://canwest.a.mms.mavenapps.net/mms/rt/1/site/canwest-tnr-pub01-live/current/launch.html?maven_playerId=tnrallsmall&maven_referralObject=3043382
Posted by: Nick | Aug 22, 2008 9:20:22 PM