McCain's bad week

[bascule]

Last week was a pretty bad one for the country, and also for John McCain. He did not weather the news of collapsing financial institutions well, and you don't have to take my word for it. Take it from that tie dye-wearing patchouli-smelling hippie, George Will:

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/22/AR2008092202583.html?

 

He echoed similar sentiments in an ABC news panel, for those of you who prefer the teevee to reading:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzc0re_3hQw

 

George Will both calls McCain "unpresidential" and suggests his populist tactics involve capitulating in order to be popular, which isn't becoming of a leader.

 

Last week McCain said if he became president he'd fire SEC chairman Chris Cox, even though he doesn't have the authority to do so. He said the fundamentals of the economy are strong as major financial institutions were collapsing around him. He said he would champion regulation of Wall Street, after years of pushing for deregulation, and his involvement in the Keating Five scandal.

 

And, to top it all off, he fell behind in the polls. According to http://fivethirtyeight.com McCain has lost his lead in Colorado, Ohio, Nevada, and Virginia, all key battleground states. Obama has rebounded to above his post-convention bump.

 

I expect the race will remain fairly close, but for the time being McCain has stumbled.

[john5746]

Yeah, but....

 

 

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/09/23/fifth-grader-suspended-for-wearing-anti-obama-shirt/

[Pangloss]

Gotta love that quote from the boy's father. (rofl) Of course, if the shirt had said "McCain was behind 9/11" then he would have been paraded in downtown Boulder. As it is I guess he'll have to settle for a prayer breakfast in Colorado Springs. You guys really do get both extremes out there!

 

What's this "Patchouli-smelling"? That's a new one on me. Some sort of 1960s thing?

 

I agree it was a bad week for McCain. He actually just about lost any remaining chance he had for my vote once I fully parsed and understood the Palin selection, but now he just seems petty and underhanded to me. I don't understand his campaign at all. It's actually less optimistic and motivational than Bush's campaign in 2000, which at the time I actually found sensible and inspirational (I ignored the negativity aimed at Gore, blaming it on external groups -- just one of the many things I learned I was wrong about later on).

 

I've been somewhat in Obama's camp for a while now, but even so it's a tough pill to swallow, being a fan of McCain-the-maverick for a long time. I think I better understand now some of the complaints raised early on by moderate liberals about how they used to respect McCain but no longer do. I've dropped my early idea of rubbing their noses in their earlier statements about how McCain was "the only Republican they'd ever vote for".

 

Just my opinion, though; I'm sure others see it differently. I still think Obama and his fans need to stay above the sort of thing the McCain camp has been doing, so that we can somehow try and move the country past partisanship over the next few years.

[bascule]

Gotta love that quote from the boy's father. (rofl) Of course, if the shirt had said "McCain was behind 9/11" then he would have been paraded in downtown Boulder. As it is I guess he'll have to settle for a prayer breakfast in Colorado Springs. You guys really do get both extremes out there!

 

Something tells me no one at that school district is familiar with Tinker vs. Des Moines. "Paperwork submitted by the school district says Daxx Dalton was not suspended for wearing the shirt, but for willful disobedience and defiance." Uh huh, this after giving him the choice of changing his shirt, turning his shirt inside out or being suspended.

 

What's this "Patchouli-smelling"? That's a new one on me. Some sort of 1960s thing?

 

It's the canonical hippie scent, an abrasive herbal musk intended to cover up the hippie stink that comes from not bathing.

[Pangloss]

I'll be darned. Thanks for the info.

[iNow]

Pangloss - Tell me you're joking. You've never heard of the association between tree hugging hippies (oft criticized by the voices of the far right... and many not so far... of our country) and patchouli?

 

I'll be darned, indeed!

[Pangloss]

No, that really was a new one on me. And I've seen all the big counter-culture movies, too! Heck, I was even conceived in the "summer of love". Go figure.

[iNow]

It appears McCain is not the only one out of touch.

 

 

Last week was a challenge for him. It reinforced the accusations he's been facing for months about lack of economic understanding, and goes further by scaring people that he's trying too hard to make a show rather than to make things right (i.e. talking about firing Cox).