October 19, 2008
We're Screwed '08: Sunday Edition
Just saw the interview with John "Can't We All Just Get Along" McCain on Fox News Sunday, and it highlighted his seeming inability to go for the jugular, to make a forceful case for himself and his candidacy.
Host Chris Wallace asked some fairly tough questions, answered rather unpersuasively by McCain.
The part that really grated was when Wallace pointed out that, with the Democrats poised to increase the size of their majority in both the Senate and the House, a McCain victory would seem to promise nothing more than gridlock.
Now, the obvious response is that an Obama victory would put a wildly liberal Congress in a position to pass a number of tax-raising, gun-banning, economy-crippling bills -- and send them to a president for signature with the knowledge that Pres. Obama had been the single-most liberal member of the Senate, guaranteeing not a veto, but the Oval Office okey-dokey into law.
It seems to me that the smart answer for McCain would have been that it's good to have a president who's willing to say "No!" to an irresponsibly free-spending Congress; that gridlock isn't necessarily a bad thing when the alternative is working together to pass perfectly awful proposals; and that the American people support the idea of fighting for what's right, even if it means sometimes disagreeing with the other side.
Instead, "Kumbaya" McCain treated us to a series of "Reagan worked with Tip O'Neill" lines, talked about "reaching across the aisle" to the Democrats; and said that Americans are tired of gridlock, tired of partisan bickering.
Excuse me?
EXCUSE ME?
Time out; I need a stiff belt of early morning Maker's Mark fine Kentucky bourbon. I'll be back in a few minutes.
[ten minutes later]
Man, that's good.
Anyhow, where was I?
Oh, right, McCain wanted to Row the boat ashore, Hallelujah!" with the help of "my friends" in the Congress.
Seriously, was I watching the real candidate, or a replay of a Saturday Night Live skit?
The Democrats -- especially Reid and Pelosi -- are piranhas, albeit rather stupid piranhas, but still, nasty little creatures given to ripping prey to pieces at the first sign of blood in the water -- or the GOP equivalent: talk of bipartisan hands across the aisle.
When McCain says the American people are tired of gridlock, what is he talking about? Pres. Bush vetoed almost nothing during his two terms in office, so the logjam wasn't on his desk in the Oval Office.
The biggest obstacle to anything substantive getting done in Washington has been the inability of Pelosi and Reid to move legislation through Congress, a result of both their incompetence and the unpopular nature of the bills they've backed.
When Congress has the lowest approval rating in polling history -- George Bush is a rock star compared to these guys -- do we really need the GOP nominee talking about how he's going to pull their chestnuts out of the fire, rather than ... hmm, running against the Democratically-controlled legislature and their quasi-Socialist nominee ("I'm for spreadin' the wealth around!")?
McCain had yet another opportunity to make his case about why Obama is the wrong man at the wrong time for the wrong job, and he squandered that opportunity -- again! -- in favor of his happy talk.
My gawd, the man is simply the worst campaigner in modern politics; he's like a perfect amalgamation of the charisma of Bob Dole, the passion of Michael Dukakis, and the killer instincts of Pee Wee Herman.
Notwithstanding the recent tightening in the polls, I'm afraid the theme of this campaign is still, "We're Screwed '08."
Posted by Mike Lief at October 19, 2008 08:43 AM
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