Just woke up from a nap and saw DougJ’s thread about Ambinder and McCain. They just never are going to get it, are they?
McCain is a shallow hothead who personalizes everything, but politics most of all. The stories about this are legion, especially by local Arizona reporters who have pointing this out for years. The simple fact is that McCain does not like Obama for a number of reasons, including his belief that Obama slighted him as a Senator over lobbying reform (which was McCain’s personal fiefdom for tv grandstanding face time, whereas Obama wanted to do something about it), showed such disdain for him during the 2008 campaign that it was echoed openly by his staff, all amplified by the fact that Obama handed him his ass in the election. McCain is a bitter old man who is going to simply oppose everything Obama tries to do.
Period. There is no deeper reason. This is why McCain feels no remorse for thrusting Lady Starburst on a vulnerable America he claims to love. It was justified, because he had to beat Obama, who was the “enemy.” It is also why he always eagerly latches on to every neocon war scheme, because he is especially susceptible to manichean depictions of the world.
He’s a pathetic, disgusting shell of a man.
The end.
Alice B. Stuck
You aren’t going to fill out a Politico story with them slim pickens.
schrodinger's cat
I have never been taken in by his mavericky maverick persona, wonder why he is so beloved by the punditry though, why do they love him so?
mcd410x
“I remember how it used to be. He never was this nice, he can´t fool me.”
Ash
@schrodinger’s cat: Because he invites them pundits and their mutated offspring to one of his many homes to cook for them and shower them with praise and in turn they get to work on their fellatio skills.
schrodinger's cat
John Cole @ the top
How is the shoulder? Is it getting better? Is Tunch being a good kitteh?
Woodbuster
Personally, I hope Hayworth beats his sorry ass. Granted, that would unleash another damned wingnut on the Senate, but would we really notice the difference?
demo woman
McCain felt that Obama insulted him when the President was a Senator. McCain has trouble forgiving.
John Cole
Because it is a two way street, this personalization thing. Like I said, he personalizes politics, so these guys are treated as friends. They have long talks on the Straight Talk Express, they do bbq together, they hang out, he is always available for a quote. They be buddies.
Until he perceives they have crossed him in the slightest. Remember what happened when Jay Carney and Michael Scherer interviewed him last year?
slag
But but but…He has a tire swing! You can’t flat out reject a guy with a tire swing. The cool kids gotta hang out somewhere. McCain keeps them off the streets. And away from the Democrats.
nalbar
John, could you tell us how you really feel about McCain?
Rick Taylor
Yup.
schrodinger's cat
@slag: I am hard pressed to believe pundits like Bobo, Chunky Bobo, Good news for McCain Halperin, were ever considered cool by anyone at any point in their lives.
DaBomb
Oh isn’t possible that McCain is just cranky because he just switched from Metamucil to Benefiber?
I heard old people get pissy about that…
Cat Lady
Tell us what you really think/
He and Lieberman make a perfect fucking pair, don’t they? If McCain could have chosen Lieberman as VP, how badly would they have lost? I say 65% to 35%. Palin gave him a boner and about 11% in the polls give or take, so yeah, it was all about him and his little man pathology. Is it wrong to root for Hayworth?
beltane
Funny how McCain never opposed Bush after he also handed him his ass. He is not even a consistent disgusting shell of a man.
And I’ll never forgive him for foisting Granny Starburst upon the world.
TR
@schrodinger’s cat:
Because he cooks them BBQ.
Alice B. Stuck
Leave John Mccain alooooooooone! He didn’t get much Balloon Juice as a POW.
schrodinger's cat
Sound more like the courtiers at the Versailles Palace to me.
robertdsc
He’s grotesque to the extreme.
Keith G
Well, since you put it that way….
I know you are doing better. How is Tunch and sweet Lily?
GReynoldsCT00
They invented the tire swing
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@beltane: Lots of rumors that McCain was negotiating to jump the aisle in 2001 when Jeffords stole his thunder– he wanted the attention and probably some key chairmanship. Then 9/11 and the opportunity to bomb people. That and abortion are the only two issues McCain has been consistent on. In the last ten years he’s taken just about every position on just about every other issue. Only Lefty Bloggers seem to notice.
@John Cole: and also too, the War Hero triggers their daddy issues (Brokaw, Matthews, Russert).
beltane
@schrodinger’s cat: I can’t vouch for the rest of them, but I am certain that Bobo was never cool, not even for a brief moment in 10th grade. While he is several years older than me, we both grew up in Manhattan, and I can guarantee that had he gone to my high school, he would have been nothing more than a goofy looking spitball magnet.
slag
@schrodinger’s cat: Someone hasn’t been reading MoDo’s tales of cab-riding Bobo.
It doesn’t matter if they are cool. It matters that they think they’re cool. And as John mentioned when he stole my in-depth psychoanalysis right before me, swinging with McCain makes them think they’re cool. Probably in the same way chest-bumping with GW did. By making them feel smart by comparison and also by excluding certain “others” while letting them in–using nicknames and inside jokes and the like. Classic clique mentality.
Why oh why
That’s not true; in fact, McCain sometimes opposing Bush out of spite is the only reason for his mavericky reputation.
To be fair, the Rove-Bush campaign slime against him would have pissed off anybody.
rob!
You’re never going to get on David Gregory’s good side talking like this, Cole.
John Cole
To those who have asked, I am doing much better. I think at the rate I am recovering, by the end of tomorrow I will feel better than I did before going into surgery last week. And I’m not saying that sarcastically. I had really healed up over the two week period from the fall to surgery, and then they went in to fix everything and I was in worse pain than before the fall.
Also, I’m off those godawful Percocets and only taking tylenol during the day and taking one or two “Norco’s” every night at bedtime.
suzanne
As much as I think John McCain could only do the public any service by removing himself from it (preferably with two wetsuits and a dildo), I really think Hayworth would be monumentally worse. God, I hate that corrupt, sexist bastard.
Dr. I. F. Stone
Sounds like you may want to ease back a little on the meds…..or start taking a few more.
Alice B. Stuck
@John Cole: When the sass came back, I knew you was doin’ better
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Why oh why:
Remember when McCain vowed to stop the Military Commissions Act (Torture Approval Act), even if it cost him the nomination? He stuck to that for almost a whole month.
Alice B. Stuck
@Dr. I. F. Stone: You better shut up or we’ll give you a BJ Atomic Wedgie. Mr. Poseur wanker.
slag
@John Cole:
If you were in worse pain before the fall than you were after surgery, we should consider re-evaluating some of your life choices.
Also, congrats on feeling better! Keep up the good work. We’re sending positive vibes in your direction.
Ajay
Very well put. At one time he did have some integrity, especially when he was running int 2000 against Bush. Hunger of power made him a complete hateful person, someone even a 10 year younger McCain would hate.
His image is gone and not even republicans like him.
soonergrunt
That’s about all there is to it.
AngusTheGodOfMeat
We know him well out here in Arizona. I think you are giving him way too much credit.
aimai
Ajay,
I don’t think you can even being to talk about McCain having “some integrity”–certainly not on the strength of the brief period when he was running against Bush. Its just that his personal self interest and desire for ego aggrandizement also jumped, momentarily, with taking public positions which were the opposite of Bush’s public positions. That’s sort of more of an “the enemy of my enemy can pose as my friend” story rather than reflecting any kind of integrity. By definition integrity would be taking positions that were not to his own benefit, or sticking by the same positions when they were difficult. McCain has never done that: all the positions he’s taken have been abandoned when it suited him. Including his swaggering, macho, manly persona itself. I’m not a fighter jock, and I’m not a guy with a macho military personal history and *I* would have popped Bush in the jaw for spreading the story that my wife was a drug addict and that I’d foisted my illegitimate love child on her. I mean, jeezus, I don’t hold much with archaic medieval notions of honor but even I would have done that. He *embraced* Bush publicly–because it was politically expedient to do so. McCain has always struck me, like John Bolton, as a classic “kiss up/kick down kind of guy. No integrity at all.
aimai
JK
Great article from a years back describing the many ways in which John McCain is a hideous montrosity
Make-Believe Maverick
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/make_believe_maverick_the_real_john_mccain
Annie
@Alice B. Stuck:
LOL. You are soooo right. Unfortunately, in addition to McCain, John just described 99.9% of the Republican and conservative leadership. They are all pathetic old men, pissed off that Obama won, and equally pissed off that he may be smart and actually care about the country. The message is to obstruct at all costs, and throw in key phrases such as family, faith, limited government, deficits, etc. at every opportunity. McCain’s problem is that he can’t throw these phrases at will, because everyone on both sides of the aisle would laugh or vomit if he did.
Unfortunately, the only time we have genuine agreement on both sides is over McCain. No one, except maybe old Joe, can stand the guy.
Dr. I. F. Stone
Also, could you please pass a few of the meds to Alice B. Stuck, who obviously has more than a few “problems,” to put it kindly, and would likely enjoy better living through modern chemistry.
jacy
Since I’ve ceased to follow the politics too much out of a sense of self-preservation, any of you smart people out there have any theories on the chances of a Democrat taking McCain’s seat if that Bag o’ Crazy Hayworth beats him in the primary?
I know next to nothing about Arizona politics.
eemom
@Annie:
and Lindsey Graham. Don’t forget his other boytoy.
jacy
@John Cole:
You could have followed the advice of Tim Tebow’s mom, ignored everything the doctors advised…and then someday Tunch would win the Heisman Trophy and everything would be rainbows and gumdrops. Or something like that. Also.
Midnight Marauder
@Dr. I. F. Stone:
Sounds like you should get back to work on your next snoozefest for Time, Joe Klein.
Alice B. Stuck
@Dr. I. F. Stone: Shut up you Mad Hat phony. go ask Alice, when she’s ten feet tall.
demo woman
@John Cole: We’ll know that you are back when you can play Mass Effect 2 and you can take pictures of Tunch and Miss Lily.
demo woman
@jacy: or he could follow Tebow’s mom’s example and be dead. That’s the ad that CBS won’t air.
rob!
@AngusTheGodOfMeat:
If Hayworth beats McCain, any chance a Dem could score an upset?
How fucking sweet would that be?
demkat620
McCain needs to retire. He is just flat out angry.
I don’t care why they like him. He needs to go away.
beltane
@jacy: No, no. If John had only ignored his doctor’s advice, his shoulder would be in such good shape that the Steelers would be at his door begging him to play for them next year. It is a pity he doesn’t put more faith in The Lord.
beltane
@demo woman: Dead women make no ads.
slag
@demo woman: I’d like to see that ad. Right before or after the other one. Some small semblance of justice.
jacy
@demo woman:
Zactly. Dead people just don’t make inspiring commercials.
I swear I wish the earth was as flat as all those people believe, then maybe we could spook them and they’d all stamped over the edge and stop taking up my air.
Annie
@eemom:
LOL. My fault. So creepy…the only thing I can think to do is reach for another glass of wine and hope things will look better in a few hours…
polyorchnid octopunch
Why don’t you tell us how you really feel?
CaseyL
@John Cole: Very glad to hear recovery is a happenin’ thing in the Cole Household.
How soon will you be feeling well enough to post more photos? I think I speak for everyone when I say I want a photo of Tunch giving you the evil eye for being laid up.
kommrade reproductive vigor
That and she’s got nice gams.
No really, for all of his faults, we should thank McPOW for unleashing Ms. Word Salad on the GOP. Every time she lets a random assortment of syllables fall from her lips everyone except the dimmest bulbs in the chandelier think “Jesus! I can’t believe the fucking Republicans tried to put this opportunistic, greedy flake one heart-beat away from the Oval Office!” Meanwhile she continues to rile up the Teabaggers who are thisclose to going all Frankenstein’s Monster on the RNC.
No way am I going to hold that against McCain.
@beltane: Brain dead women speak at Teabagging conventions.
Alan
The title reminded me of En Vogue.
Ash Can
OK, wait a minute. Is aimai now OK with this “I.F. Stone” character posting here under that name? Because if she’s not, then neither am I, and frankly no one else should be either. One of the main reasons I enjoy posting here is that pretty much anything goes, but this is a special situation and it goes clearly over the line of propriety.
mai naem
Mavericky has been not only my senator but my house rep. too. He was a classic carpetbagger. I have never liked him. A friend and I have even thought about switching party registrations just so that we can vote for Hayworth. The problem is that this state’s just stupid enough to vote for Hayworth, plus it’s a sleazy thing to do. Hayworth would still make it easier to kick him out in six years rather than an open seat in 6 yrs.It doesn’t help that the Dem. bench in this states sucks. I have no idea who’s even going to run on the Dem. ticket. They always talked about Napolitano running against McCain for the senate. I think some of the people )bama picked for appointments really depleted Dem. leaders in different states.
SFAW
I guess he thought he’d have better luck this time. But he didn’t end up videotaping the confession his war crimes, so maybe he was right.
Pissy? Probably not the best choice of words …
Was he a POW? I hadn’t heard that – when was that?
Big deal. They begged me, too, after I wrote them a letter saying that I kicked a buncha home runs, maybe I can help them, too? etc.
SFAW
I think she probably has a thick enough skin, although it would be nice if “Stone” had some class (other than “low”, that is).
On the plus side, “Stone” makes Holy Joe look intelligent, so it’s easy to ignore.
RareSanity
John McCain suffered for this country as a POW.
John McCain has made this country suffer Caribou Barbie.
We’re even McCain…You hear me McCain!?!?
We. Are. Even.
Now go away you horrible, horrible man.
mcd410x
Walnuts!
Silver Owl
McCain is and has always done what works best for him. His POW status has always been an excuse for him and everyone who did not feel like treating McCain like an adult.
There are plenty of us that have had family and friends that came home from war and did not get all the easy passes McCain has gotten. There are even more where family and friends never came home. McCain is no authority on anything but leeching.
fortygeek
@RareSanity:
Well said!
Irony Abounds
This is the kind of BS we face in Arizona. Since the Republican is likely to win no matter what, we have a choice between a hypocritical, poser like McCain and any absolute buffoon like Hayworth. What a god-awful choice. I hate this state and its cadre of absolutely awful politicans (pretty much from both parties, to be honest).
nepat
Agreed, my friends.
The end.
scav
maybe we need something like Hollywood Squares for has-been politicos with delusions of relevance. CNN could run them at odd hours. Washington Cubes (I don’t think 9 squares would be enough, plus all that multi-dimensional play). The Match Game. OH! and could we put the Wasilla Wonder out to pasture as a Vanna Wannabe? The Word Salad Round on the Wheel of Free-Enterprise Fortune!
suzanne
@Irony Abounds:
Goddard’s a good ‘un.
But this is the state that brought to Congress Teh Salmon and Teh Flake. Not to mention the Great Pink Satan, Arpaio.
***sigh***
eemom
@nepat:
that reminds me: I am not now nor ever have been nor ever will be John McCain’s fucking “friend.” He never COULD get that straight.
Litlebritdifrnt
Haven’t read the rest of the comments but wot John said. He is evil personified.
RareSanity
@eemom:
It would creep me out every time he said it.
I felt like a kid getting offered a piece of candy from the dirty man in the white van…**shutters**
Zuzu's Petals
My brother has known him for years. Raised funds for him, was an alternate at the convention. And even he thinks he’s a not very smart guy.
Zuzu's Petals
@kommrade reproductive vigor:
I for one am thankful that she was launched before her time and laughed off the stage. I hate to think what we’d be looking at in 2012 if that “rising star” had had another few years to pad her resume.
Assuming of course she wouldn’t have imploded by then.
Aimai
It’s got nothing to do with my skin. I think this creepy guy whobis using my grandfathers name to spew racist and politically vile commentary is a really disturbed person. His posts are bad enough in and of themselves. It’s worse to watch him post under this nym. He thinks he’s making some kind of point. I wish he had the courage to make his point under his own name and not use my grandfathers. But this is not my blog. And the world is full of sick people. I’m not going to protest every time this guy turns up. It’s probably part of his turn on. Izzy would have kicked his ass. And he knows it. That’s all I have to say.
Aimai
Catsy
@Ash Can:
No, and several of us have taken pains to point this out to him repeatedly. I’m calling for a ban. John?
auntieeminaz
@suzanne: You left out Trent Franks.
John Cole
@Aimai: I will ask him to change his name.
Midnight Marauder
@John Cole:
I look forward to reading about this over at Swampland.
SFAW
aimai –
My apologies for my comment.
ImJohnGalt
Aimai, if he continues to show a marked lack of class, might I suggest that you add him to cleek’s pie filter? In it’s current configuration, you’ll still see the pseudonym, but you won’t have to read his cretinous writing.
On the other hand, I could modify the script to remove even the placeholder for a posting, so you’d never even know he passed by to piss on a tree.
FlipYrWhig
The whole reason reporters ever liked John McCain was that he told dirty jokes and war stories on his campaign bus. Reporters eat that shit up. They weren’t in any war, so they’re intimidated by that right off the bat; and then they’re disarmed by his Tales Of Poontang. Because on the bus he projects “uncensored” and “impish,” reporters have always given him the benefit of the doubt on ideology: surely no man who talks about his wild times could be, deep down, a standard-issue Republican. _Those_ guys are prissy Bible-thumpers and/or stodgy country-clubbers, but not John McCain. He must be a “moderate,” on account of the power of the word “fuck.”
freelancer (itouch)
Now it’s time for a breakdown:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krcVeo_CcPo&feature=youtube_gdata
xian
“My fellow prisoners…”