Great Leadership
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The GOP loyalist response to McCain’s stunt has been predictable (right down to Gingrich’s Romneyesque call for a “workout, not a bailout”), and it says a great deal about what these people think constitutes leadership: opportunism, trying to hog the credit for other people’s work and, above all, a mindless dedication to taking action. No doubt, if these were what made for great leaders McCain would be the new Augustus.
Laughably, Gingrich likens this to Eisenhower’s “I will go to Korea,” but unlike Eisenhower and the Korean war McCain has no credibility concerning the crisis he is supposedly addressing. In the end, knowing when you can contribute something and knowing when to avoid complicating an already difficult situation by intruding on ongoing negotiations is what separates grandstanding from leadership. It is what separates the simple egomaniacs from the ambitious pols who nonetheless have some idea what public service is. McCain’s belief that he is indispensable in a time of crisis is the surest sign that he is unfit for any office in republican government, much less the chief magistracy of the Republic.
Filed under: politics
He keeps getting scarier – one thought he was only interested in blowing up foreign countries but he seems to bring the same cynical, breathtakingly recklessness to most things, not just warmongering foreign policy – hard to believe many of us actually liked the guy at some (distant) point in the past.
What I can’t figure out is this: if McCain is this foolish, hysterical, impulsive, and desperate for approval, what else can we get him to do? Eat worms? Try to catch a frisbee with his teeth? I feel that as long as we can portray it as a form of Strong Leadership, and get a news crew to cover it, there’s no lower limit.
If he’s acting this crazy now, can you imagine what he would do when he gets elected? What a fit he would throw as President if congress did not pass – say- amnesty. He’s a loose cannon – I don’t even know if anyone can reign him in if he does something really insane and bizarre in his quest to greatness.
McCain already had his “Eisenhower in Korea” moment. It was in Iraq, when he grandstanded in Baghdad and lied about conditions there and about how many soldiers were protecting him as he took a photo op in the city.
I guess we’re supposed to forgive him his arrogance and dishonesty because he was “right about the surge.” But even if that were true I’m not sure how it excuses parachuting into a war zone, making yourself the center of attention, insulting the knowledge of war correspondents who’ve covered Iraq and worked with Iraqis for years, and lying both about your personal experiences and the tactical/strategic situation.
If McCain treats his economic crisis PR tour the same way he treats his foreign policy crisis PR tours, he’ll be lucky to escape Washington without being pushed down a flight of stairs by an irate colleague.
I was thinking of who McCain reminds me of and then I realized – Lopez Obrador in the 2006 Mexican elections. Both are theatrical maniacs and Obama resembles Calderon without the experience. *If* Obama wins by a few thousand votes, it would be a fitting end to this bizzare election to see McCain touring the country, proclaiming himself to be “el presidente” and appointing his own shadow cabinet.
I am enough of a dotard to remember Eisenhower’s pledge to “go to Korea,” which was meaningless even if Ike did know something about war.
Fifty thousand American dead later, and we were back where we started. Less bad, considering the costs of a land war with China.
Now we have the three stooges (W, Johnny Mac, and BHO) meeting to avert the collapse of the economy. A business failure bailed out by papa’s pals’ money, a career military guy whose claim to fame he was shot down, and a 46-year old Ivy League arriviste who is a doubleplusgood ducktalker with nothing to say. I wouldn’t hire any of them to paint my living room or repair a leaky faucet.
They’re going to bankrupt our children to rescue the Ivy League clowns who got us into this mess. As for the poor slobs who are losing their homes–fuggedabadit.
Where is Savonarola when we so desperately need him?
Though you mentioned it earlier, the reader of just this post might get the idea that no one on the right is calling McCain on this… I’ve seen a number of naysayers on this one, more than on “lipstick on a pig” or the false sex-ed ads or anything else.
The bloom is starting to come off the rose, re: both Palin and McCain. He’s not a conservative, he’s not a “maverick” and his VP selection showed he’s not really that serious about national security. When George Will implies that he’s thinking of voting blue, there’s a major problem.
‘He’s a loose cannon’
From what I’ve read, people who broke under torture spend the rest of their lives knowing they broke and what made them break. They’re unstable, especially if pushed to a an uncomfortable place that even remotely brings to mind how they felt just before they broke.
They should be nowhere near a nuke button. Ever.
Just when you think the situation in this fading republic cannot possibly turn more surreal, it does.
If McSame wants to claim credit for an unnecessry, wasteful, ill-conceived, politically unpopular boondoggle … well, be my guest, senator.
Less surrealism than Tom Wolfery. The death of the Empire seems to be moving directly to farce. The tragedy, no doubt, will come later, turning poor Karl Marx on his head.
* * * *
How many surrealists does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A fish.
* * * *
“How many Vice Presidents does it take to dress a moose?”
“One, if the moose has fashion sense and the VP has no foreign policy experience.”
* * * *
“What happens when you give a moose a muffin?”
It asks for a $700 billion bailout.”
* * * *
See the moose: http://www.amazon.com/You-Give-Moose-Muffin-Give/dp/0060244054