Comments on: These are the times when I really like John McCain

By: Ruth H

Ruth H — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:14:52 +0000

I watched this on c-span and I’m pretty sure he was reading from a script someone wrote for him in case this came up. Notice he stumbles and looks down before he finishes.

By: BrianE

BrianE — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 23:57:49 +0000

I didn’t say I agreed with the politics or the policies of LBJ, but we are still living with suffering from some of his policies.

We were warned prior to this election about the lack of administrative experience of the elitist political class (aka senators).

They’ve never actually run anything larger than a senate staff for the most part, with a seemingly limitless personal of official budget (think the millions of dollars they take with them when they leave the senate in the form of unspent campaign contributions. Like the inheritance tax, they should forfeit that money when the retire)

We’re certainly seeing that in the current occupant of the WH. A year into his adminstration, many key appointments are still vacant.

By: Ymarsakar

Ymarsakar — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:22:45 +0000

LBJ’s another wannabe leader.

By: Danny Lemieux

Danny Lemieux — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:23:04 +0000

True, BrianE…but then consider where LBJ took us.

By: BrianE

BrianE — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:34:50 +0000

This is why Senators should never run for and be elected to the Presidency. The Presidency is an executive post that demands leadership which, in turn, demands a willingness to stand fast to one’s positions and an ability to carry others along in a grand and shared vision of victory. Our failure to recognize this is in large part why we have such moral and mental gerbils populating our government today.

Good point.

I think LBJ was the exception to this, possibly because he knew where all the skeletons were.

By: SADIE

SADIE — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:14:27 +0000

mental gerbils - rodents, aren’t they.

By: Danny Lemieux

Danny Lemieux — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:04:39 +0000

Ymarsaker says “McCain has for some odd decades demonstrated that he is still on the old template of “let’s all just get along to go along””
Because that is how the Senate operates. Its trademark is forced comity and compromise to get things done , which is almost always half a loaf or less.
This is why Senators should never run for and be elected to the Presidency. The Presidency is an executive post that demands leadership which, in turn, demands a willingness to stand fast to one’s positions and an ability to carry others along in a grand and shared vision of victory. Our failure to recognize this is in large part why we have such moral and mental gerbils populating our government today.

By: SADIE

SADIE — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:39:33 +0000

This is the result when a not funny comedian from SNL transitions from programmed TV to politics – they still believe their own hype.
It was a twist on the Chevy Chase tagline…I am Chevy Chase and you’re not – AF tweaked it to: I am in charge and you’re not. What a putz!

By: Mike Devx

Mike Devx — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:31:22 +0000

The problem for me is, if the Republicans regain the Senate or the House, whether in 2010 or 2012, I haven’t seen anything that would tell me that they’ve learned any lessons from 2008. It will be back to the same old, same old crap that turned off the American people in the first place.

They haven’t put out any kind of coherent message yet. The American people seem on the whole to sense this as well. The negative-positive split for Republicans – in some polls – is still worse than the Dems.

What good is power, if all you use it for is a status quo that perpetuates corruption, malfeasance, and allows those people in control to stay asleep at the wheel (when they’re not busy being corrupt, that is). There’s no conservative philosophy guiding their actions; the only philosophy they rely on is getting re-elected. For what purpose?

McCain’s good on military foreign policy, but he was one of the Republicans who publicly bought in big time into global warming and illegals amnesty. And a number of other Republican-lite positions. Pandering? Or a lack of a coherent philosophy? I suppose he’s good on some other things, but I just can’t trust him. And he’s proven he can’t inspire. From what I can tell, he’s even in trouble for re-election.

But yes, it was good of him to try to take Franken down a notch or two.

By: Ymarsakar

Ymarsakar — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:14:52 +0000

McCain is also strategically unnecessary in the broader view, since anyone that simply gives what Petraeus and McChrystal needs, will win the foreign war front. But only the politician can take care of the political front and McCain has for some odd decades demonstrated that he is still on the old template of “let’s all just get along to go along” which has been the cause of so many anti-American sabotages and erosions of liberty and self-respect in this nation.

There is no military leader or military background McCain can call upon to fix the political issues and the misplaced set of priorities McCain himself has. Surge or no surge, support for the war or lack of support, doesn’t come into it. It won’t help him fight the political front and eradicate the evil at the heart of America.

I would sooner trust his wife as President than he himself, for I have more trust in her judgment than his.