McCain's Media Lapdogs

[Dr Dave]

The following exchange between Tim Russert and Chuck Todd on Sunday:

MR. RUSSERT: McCain had some problems when he was in Jordan, he talked about al-Qaeda being trained by the Iranians.

MR. TODD: Mm-hmm.

MR. RUSSERT: And then, then Lindsey Graham, who he was with, and then Joe Lieberman both tried to say to him, al-Qaeda is Sunni, not trained by the Shiite Iranian government. Does that kind of stumble hurt a McCain candidacy?

MR. TODD: . . . You know, he's -- because of the age issue, he can't ever look like he's having a senior moment. So instead, he's better off going ahead and saying, you know, OK, so he misspoke. Even if he gets dinged on the experience stuff, "Oh, he says he's Mr. Experience. Doesn't he know the difference between this stuff?" He's got enough of that in the bank, at least with the media, that he can get away with it. I mean, the irony to this is had either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama misspoke like that, it'd have been on a running loop, and it would become a, a big problem for a couple of days for them.

Read the whole thing here.

[patricia]

I think that many find it difficult firing hard questions at McCain because his whole thing has been his experience as a POW, war hero, warrior, tough guy etc.

They are afraid that they will be accused of not respecting his military experience and his assumed superior knowledge of waging war since the country, thanks to the present administration, is at war.

If the economy and other domestic issues come to the forfront, he will be at a loss, since he has admitted on several occasions that he knows nothing about the economy and I would guess little about other domestic issues.

If reporters attacked him it would seem like they are beating up on an old guy and they don't want to seem mean, particularly since he is a former POW.
On the other hand, being in Iraq for the next 100 or even, as he said on one occasion, 1000 years can't be a good future for the country, quite apart from the dead, from an economic standpoint.

And, McCain being in his seventies, the new young voters don't feel any connection to Vietnam, since they weren't born then.
They do feel an affinity with Obama and that is evidenced by the huge number of them who attend his rallies.
IF they follow that with their vote, both McCain and Clinton are in trouble. She's not much younger in their minds than McCain.
Clinton's chief appeal is to women of my generation who seem to see the goal of having a woman as President as transcending all common sense.

Yes, a woman should be just as viable a candidate for President as anyone else.
And that's the thing.
Believing, as I do, that there surely must be women who could do a fine job as President isn't enough.
Just being a woman is not qualification enough.
Clinton's qualification doesn't seem to be her own experience in politics, but rather as the wife of a former President, given to flights of fancy about just how involved she was in policy development.
Of course there are women at least as qualified as the present occupant of the Oval Office out there.
Just not this woman.
Being married to the President, IMO, makes Ms. Clinton no more qualified to be President than is Laura Bush qualified to take over from the current President.
But, I do understand that Ms. Clinton was a log on the road for Al Gore, horning in on his job, pushing her failed Universal Healthcare project.

[Dr Dave]

As Greenwald says, it is not up to the media to give McCain a free pass on his "mis-statements" (there's that word again!) about Iran and Al Qaeda; they gave Bush et al a free pass on Iraq; it is just immoral of them to do it again for McCain. The voters should be the ones to decide whether McCain has good foreign policy judgment, not the press.

[Gary Sisco]

He'd be far from the only prominent pol who can't keep shit like that straight. Never mind far from the only citizen.

I still encounter people who have the Iranian hostage business confused with Iraq and Saddam Hussein.

Most people, truth be told, didn't know how to pronounce Saddam or find Iraq on a map until the First Gulf War. (Poppy Bush never did learn how to pronounce it. He called him Sadd-Am. Kind of like JFK with Lay-Ose and Veet Namm.)

[Al in NYC]

Damn liberal media...

[Darryl G. Thomas]

Well McCain is the media's favorite conservative. Because he's such a straight talker and all that.

It'll be interesting to see his performance during the fall campaign. I think we're going to see him for what he is, a tired old man.

You know, everyone's concentrating on the potential short comings of Clinton or Obama. What about the energy it takes for running a presidential campaign? And the debates will be interesting. You'll have the contrasts of age and vigor on stage for the whole world to see. Plus, McCain has not only signed on to Bush's foreign policy, but his economic one as well.

Here's how I see, for McCain to win he'll have to concentrate on a bunch of wedge issues the Republicans usually trot out (race, sex, Obama=Muslim, Monica's dress) in order for this election to not be a referendum unpon Republican rule.

[jesus marion joseph]

Y'know, I like John McCain, but there's no way I'm gonna vote for him, primarily because of his determination to "slug it out" in Iraq instead of giving it up as the more or less hopeless cause it is. Anyway, it seems to me that there is a way to have an honest discussion about the relative merits of his position without having to resort to "attacking" his position. I doubt it will unfold that way, but one can always hope.

[Uli]

Originally Posted by jesus marion joseph

Anyway, it seems to me that there is a way to have an honest discussion about the relative merits of his position without having to resort to "attacking" his position.

honestly, his repeated linking of Al Q with Iran sounds so bushy to me.

[Darryl G. Thomas]

Very Bushy.

[Gary Sisco]

I'm getting restless over this "war hero" business. To me, a hero is someone who does something extraordinary for other people, first. Second, he was shot down and taken prisoner. Nothing heroic in that. Balls, sure. It takes balls to fly a bomber on a mission, doubtless. But balls are not heroics. Third, his turning down an VNese offer of early release was also not extraordinary. Prisoners are still in the service and they are still subject to the chain of command (the senior ranking prisoner becomes the commanding officer) and American military law. His commanding officer has issued a standing order that no one got an early release. Taking one in that circumstance would be disobeying a commanding officer's order in war time, a very serious, potentially capital offense by American military law.

Balls, sure. Respect his experience, sure. Hero? No.

[rollhead]

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080324/dreyfuss

[rollhead]

Chris Matthews: The Media is McCain's "base."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXjFK4vcHY8

[groover]

Originally Posted by Gary Sisco

Poppy Bush never did learn how to pronounce it. He called him Sadd-Am.

That may have been quite intentional. Mispronouncing someone's name is one way of showing utter disdain, Geary.

[clinthopson]

When are they going to bring up that McCain was knee deep in the savings and loan fiasco?

[rollhead]

I've seen this bit of "news" pop up all over the internet. I haven't been able to find a source in the mainstream media, though:


"Under terms of the deal, Budweiser ...will serve as the exclusive alcohol sponsors of the NFL team, and the brands will have a major presence in the new Cardinals Stadium through 2010."

WHO IS THE DISTRIBUTOR?

"Budweiser will also have a presence on the new stadium's video replay boards, scoreboard and concourses, and local wholesaler Hensley Distributing will distribute 150,000 English and 50,000 Spanish team pocket schedules."

____________________

Q: Which politician worked to get the FAA to approve the doomed Cardinal Tempe Stadium?

A: John McCain

Q: Who just landed the alcohol deal for the Cardinals?

A: Anheuser-Busch

Q: Who has the distribution rigths for Phoenix area?

A: The Hensley Company

Q: Who is Hensley's Chairman of the Board?

A: Cindy Hensley McCain http://www.abwholesaler.com/hensley/AboutUs/AboutUs

You Too Can Connect The Straight-Talking Dots...

http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoen...ml?jst=b_ln_hl

[Scott Dolan]

Originally Posted by groover

That may have been quite intentional. Mispronouncing someone's name is one way of showing utter disdain, Geary.

Actually, I heard a scholar on television once who said that pronouncing it that way made it sound like another very derogatory term. I can't recall what it was, but yes, I'm pretty sure it was intentional on GHWB's part.

[patricia]

Originally Posted by groover

That may have been quite intentional. Mispronouncing someone's name is one way of showing utter disdain, Geary.

Who actually thinks that the President can't pronounce nuclear correctly?
Whenever he says NUCULAR it reminds me of my oldest daughter, when I corrected her pronunciation of a word saying defiantly, "That's the way I say it."
But, she was five.

[Monte Smith]

October 1995:

Darren: Why do white people insist on mispronouncing the Minister's name?
Monte: What do they call him?
Darren: They call him Farra-can. Farra-can. It's FarraKHAN, idjits.
Monte: You think that is a dis on purpose.
Darren: Hell yes. Come on.
Monte: But wait a second. Look at what Jesse Jackson calls the Speaker of the House.
Darren: What does he call him?
Monte: Gin-rich. He calls him Newt Gin-rich. It's Geen-GRICH, for God's sake.
Darren: People are fucked up.
Monte: Can I get an amen?

Those were good times. OJ!

[Gary Sisco]

Might sound silly here, but if you're home has been occupied by foreign klingons at gunpoint, who can't pronounce its name, even, well .... Let's say that's a different measure. Americans have been embracing a silly take on the world for so long, it's expected. Here.

[Ron Thorne]

Originally Posted by patricia

Who actually thinks that the President can't pronounce nuclear correctly?

Me.

[patricia]

Originally Posted by Ron Thorne

Me.

If that's true, then he's even more pathetic than I thought he was.

[Ron Thorne]

Originally Posted by patricia

If that's true, then he's even more pathetic than I thought he was.

Well, there ya go!

[LennyH]

Bush doesn't even say "nucular" anymore, exactly. I can't even figure out what he's saying.

It's like he decided that he didn't want to say "nucular" anymore more but didn't want to admit that he was wrong by pronouncing it like a normal person. So he selected some bizarre hybrid.

[Bluebrew]

Originally Posted by LennyH

Bush doesn't even say "nucular" anymore, exactly. I can't even figure out what he's saying.

It's like he decided that he didn't want to say "nucular" anymore more but didn't want to admit that he was wrong by pronouncing it like a normal person. So he selected some bizarre hybrid.

And he'll probably tell us that is good for the economy and the environment.

[rollhead]

10 things you should know about John McCain (but probably don't):
1. John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has "evolved," yet he's continued to oppose key civil rights laws.1

2. According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain "will make Cheney look like Gandhi."2

3. His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bush for vetoing that ban.3

4. McCain opposes a woman's right to choose. He said, "I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned."4

5. The Children's Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in Congress for children. He voted against the children's health care bill last year, then defended Bush's veto of the bill.5

6. He's one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires. The Associated Press reports he and his wife own at least eight homes! Yet McCain says the solution to the housing crisis is for people facing foreclosure to get a "second job" and skip their vacations.6

7. Many of McCain's fellow Republican senators say he's too reckless to be commander in chief. One Republican senator said: "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He's erratic. He's hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."7

8. McCain talks a lot about taking on special interests, but his campaign manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The government watchdog group Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money for his campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates.8

9. McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right in recent years. The pastor McCain calls his "spiritual guide," Rod Parsley, believes America's founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a "false religion." McCain sought the political support of right-wing preacher John Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for gay rights and called the Catholic Church "the Antichrist" and a "false cult."9

10. He positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a 0—yes, zero—from the League of Conservation Voters last year.10


Sources:
1. "The Complicated History of John McCain and MLK Day," ABC News, April 3, 2008
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpu...mplicated.html
"McCain Facts," ColorOfChange.org, April 4, 2008
http://colorofchange.org/mccain_facts/
2. "McCain More Hawkish Than Bush on Russia, China, Iraq," Bloomberg News, March 12, 2008
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...tk0ZM&refer=us
"Buchanan: John McCain 'Will Make Cheney Look Like Gandhi,'" ThinkProgress, February 6, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/06/...gandhi-mccain/
3. "McCain Sides With Bush On Torture Again, Supports Veto Of Anti-Waterboarding Bill," ThinkProgress, February 20, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/20/...-torture-veto/
4. "McCain says Roe v. Wade should be overturned," MSNBC, February 18, 2007
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17222147/
5. "2007 Children's Defense Fund Action Council® Nonpartisan Congressional Scorecard," February 2008
http://www.childrensdefense.org/site..._scorecard2007
"McCain: Bush right to veto kids health insurance expansion," CNN, October 3, 2007
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/...ain.interview/
6. "Beer Executive Could Be Next First Lady," Associated Press, April 3, 2008
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h...5ZtMgD8VQ86M80
"McCain Says Bank Bailout Should End `Systemic Risk,'" Bloomberg News, March 25, 2008
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...ZFM&refer=home
7. "Will McCain's Temper Be a Liability?," Associated Press, February 16, 2008
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=4301022
"Famed McCain temper is tamed," Boston Globe, January 27, 2008
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/ar...mper_is_tamed/
8. "Black Claims McCain's Campaign Is Above Lobbyist Influence: 'I Don't Know What The Criticism Is,'" ThinkProgress, April 2, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/02/...lack-lobbyist/
"McCain's Lobbyist Friends Rally 'Round Their Man," ABC News, January 29, 2008
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4210251
9. "McCain's Spiritual Guide: Destroy Islam," Mother Jones Magazine, March 12, 2008
http://www.motherjones.com/washingto...ual-guide.html
"Will McCain Specifically 'Repudiate' Hagee's Anti-Gay Comments?," ThinkProgress, March 12, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/03/12/...agee-anti-gay/
"McCain 'Very Honored' By Support Of Pastor Preaching 'End-Time Confrontation With Iran,'" ThinkProgress, February 28, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/28/...n-endorsement/

10. "John McCain Gets a Zero Rating for His Environmental Record," Sierra Club, February 28, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/environment/77913/

[Uli]

this mite be a good add for this thread too.

Originally Posted by Uli

from the syndrom, iirc

John McCain:
Unfit to serve as Commander-In-Chief
The spoiled son of military privilege got a free ride throughout his military career despite repeated instances of sex scandals and screw-ups
By Ted Sampley
U.S. Veteran Dispatch
January 27, 2008 Issue
John Sidney McCain III entered the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland in 1954. Young McCain wanted to become an admiral. He planned to be the “first son and grandson of four star admirals” to achieve such a distinction. But that was not to be. McCain III possessed none of the innate character and discipline traits that helped mold his father and grandfather into great military leaders.

His father, John S. “Junior” McCain, and grandfather, John S. McCain, Sr., were famous four-star Admirals in the U.S. Navy. His father commanded U.S. forces in Europe before becoming commander of American forces fighting in Vietnam. His grandfather commanded naval aviation at the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. Both men became highly influential in U.S. Navy operations.

At the Academy, aside being known as a “rowdy, raunchy, underachiever” who resented authority, Midshipman McCain became infamous as a leader among his fellow midshipmen for organizing “off-Yard activities” and hard drinking parties. Robert Timberg wrote in his book, The Nightingale’s Song, that “being on liberty with John McCain was like being in a train wreck.”

McCain’s grades were “marginal.” He drew so many demerits for breaking curfew and other discipline issues that he graduated fifth from the bottom of the class of 1958. Despite his low “class standing,” and no doubt because of the influence of his family of famous Admirals, McCain was leap-frogged ahead of more qualified applicants and granted a coveted slot to be trained as a navy pilot.

Good Party Animal - Bad Pilot:

He spent the next two and a half years as a “naval aviator in training” at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida and Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in Texas, flying A-1 Skyraiders.

While a pilot trainee, McCain continued to party hard. He drove a Corvette and dated an exotic dancer named “Marie the Flame of Florida.” Timberg wrote that McCain “learned to fly at Pensacola, though his performance was below par, at best good enough to get by. He liked flying, but didn’t love it.”

McCain Lost Five Military Aircraft

McCain, the “below par” pilot, eventually lost 5 military aircraft, the first during a training flight in 1958 when he plunged into Corpus Christi Bay while trying to land. The Navy ignored the crash and graduated McCain in 1960.

While deployed in the Mediterranean, the hard partying McCain lost a second aircraft. Timberg described the crash: “Flying too low over the Iberian Peninsula, he took out some power lines which led to a spate of newspaper stories in which he was predictably identified as the son of an admiral.”

Unscathed, McCain returned to Pensacola Station where he was promoted to flight instructor for Naval Air Station Meridian in Mississippi. The airfield at Meridian, McCain Field, was named in honor of McCain’s grandfather.

In 1964 McCain became involved with Carol Shepp, a model from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he had met at Annapolis. They were married in Philadelphia on July 3, 1965.

Flight instructor McCain lost a third aircraft while flying a Navy trainer solo to Philadelphia for an Army-Navy football game. Timberg wrote that McCain radioed, “I’ve got a flameout” before ejecting at one thousand feet. McCain parachuted onto a beach moments before his plane slammed into a clump of trees.

The Navy dismissed the crash as “unavoidable” and assigned McCain to the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal in December 1966, which was patrolling the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean. In Spring 1967, the Forrestal was assigned to join the Operation Rolling Thunder bombing campaign against North Vietnam.

McCain lost his fourth plane on board the Forrestal on July 29, 1967 when a rocket inadvertently slammed into his bomb laden jet. McCain escaped, but the explosions that followed killed 134 sailors. McCain was transferred from the badly damaged Forrestal to the USS Oriskany. Shortly afterwards, on Oct. 26, 1967, he was shot down and captured by the Vietnamese.

Post-POW Years: Political Ambition and a New, Young, Rich Wife

Upon his release from North Vietnam and return to the United States in 1973, McCain reunited with his wife, Carol, who had been permanently crippled in a car accident while he was a POW.

Still yearning to become an admiral, McCain enrolled in the National War College at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C. and underwent physical therapy in order to fly again. The Navy excused his permanent disabilities and reinstated him to flight status, effectively positioning him for promotion.

Timberg described McCain’s advancement: “in the fall of 1974, McCain was transferred to Jacksonville as the executive officer of Replacement Air Group 174, the long-sought flying billet at last a reality. A few months later, he assumed command of the RAG, which trained pilots and crews for carrier deployments. The assignment was controversial, some calling it favoritism, a sop to the famous son of a famous father and grandfather, since he had not first commanded a squadron, the usual career path.”

While Executive Officer and later as Squadron Commander McCain used his authority to arrange frequent flights that allowed him to carouse with subordinates and “engage in extra-marital affairs.”

This was a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice rules against adultery and fraternization with subordinates. But, as with all his other past behaviors, McCain was never penalized; instead he always got away with his transgressions.

Timberg wrote, “Off duty, usually on routine cross-country flights to Yuma and El Centro, John started carousing and running around with women. To make matters worse, some of the women with whom he was linked by rumor were subordinates . . . At the time the rumors were so widespread that, true or not, they became part of McCain’s persona, impossible not to take note of.”

In early 1977, Admiral Jim Holloway, Chief of Naval Operations promoted McCain to captain and transferred him from his command position “to Washington as the number-two man in the Navy’s Senate liaison office. McCain was promptly given total control of the office. It wasn’t long before the “fun loving and irreverent” McCain had turned the liaison office into a “late-afternoon gathering spot where senators and staffers, usually from the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, would drop in for a drink and the chance to unwind.”

In 1979, while attending a military reception in Hawaii, McCain met and fell in love with Cindy Lou Hensley, 17 years his junior, who was the daughter of James W. Hensley, a wealthy Anheuser-Busch distributor from Phoenix, Arizona. McCain filed for and obtained an uncontested divorce from his wife in Florida on April 2, 1980 and promptly married Cindy on May 17, 1980.

He resigned from the Navy in 1981 and went to work for his father-in-law in Phoenix; where he used the opportunity to make powerful and wealthy friends in Arizona including banker Charles Keating and Duke Tully, the editor-in-chief of the Arizona Republic. Keating was later convicted of fraud, racketeering, and conspiracy and Tully was disgraced for concocting a phony military record of combat in Korea and Vietnam including medals for heroism.

McCain ran for Arizona’s First Congressional District in 1982. McCain won the congressional seat. In 1987 McCain was elected to the US Senate.

http://www.usvetdsp.com/jan08/mccain...ary_record.ht…

[patricia]

Well, at least there is a record of what McCain did while in the military as well as a long list of people who caroused with him and knew him while enlisted.

Thanks to the typewriter used to produce some records for Dubbya causing doubt about the authenticity of the typeset, the information for an entire news story about his dubious military career became unimportant.

Unfortunately, the litiny of bad behaviour for McCain is being given a pass as "youthful indescretions"
As Yogi Berra might have said "It's deja vu all over again."