This, from John McCain at the Fiscal Responsibility Summit, was pretty amusing:
MCCAIN: One area I wanted to mention that I think consumed a lot of our conversation on procurement. It was the issue of cost overruns and the Defense Department. We all know how large the defense budget is. We all know that the cost overruns, your helicopter is now going to cost as much as Air Force One. I don’t think that there’s anymore graphic demonstration of how good ideas have cost taxpayers enormous amount of money. So the — we will and I know that you’ve already made plans to try to curb some of the excesses in procurement. We really have to do that. We’re going to have to pay for Afghanistan as you well now and we’re not done in Iraq, but most importantly, we have to make some tough decisions, you, Mr. President have to make some tough decisions, not only about what we procure, but how we procure it…
What a small, petty man. The attempt to blame Obama (“your helicopter”) is just another sign of how these guys are spinning their wheels. President Obama had NOTHING to do with the decisions regarding the helicopter and had nothing to do with the cost overruns, as these were all events and decisions made from well before he assumed office. From May 17th, 2007:
Lockheed Martin is projected to overspend by 34 percent on the development contract for the new presidential helicopter, according to Pentagon and Navy officials.
Costs for system design and construction of initial helicopters needed by October 2009 and more capable choppers for 2015 are estimated to total at least $2.4 billion, up from the $1.79 billion job Lockheed Martin won in January 2005, according to the Navy and the Defense Contract Management Agency.
Putting aside the fact that the President and Congress are already working on legislation to address cost overruns, on May 17th, 2007, Barack Obama was not even the party nominee, let alone President.
YellowJournalism
There’s a helicopter on a lawn joke here…
Punchy
Scarier yet, is that if it’s Obama’s, it’s by definition a Black Helicopter.
/shudders
Comrade Dread
If they were serious about cleaning up the Defense budget, they would be pitching cuts of 30-50%, not just talking about cost overruns.
Gwendy
On the bright side, it gave Obama another opportunity to totally own McCain. So, that was fun.
Rick Taylor
Anytime I start feeling sick with worry about the economy, I just remember it could have been so much worse; McCain could have been President. The pettiness you’re pointing to isn’t just in the fact that he could ask a question like that. It’s that he could ask a question like that when the world economy is falling off a cliff and where we need more than ever somehow to find common ground and pull together.
Country first.
liberal
There’s a theory that the helicopter deal is a payback from Bush to the Italians for helping to fabricate the case for invading Iraq.
JL
McCain’s actions haven’t changed in years. Remember this?
On 2/2/2006, The Senator Obama wrote:
On 2/6/2006, Senator McCain replied:
John McCain is still fighting the civil way. He just can’t understand why That One doesn’t know his place.
Jon H
Obama’s response was the best part. "My current helicopter seems fine to me. But then, I’ve never had a helicopter before." Etc. Right back in McCain’s face.
Incertus
Look, the right-wing is spending all kinds of time trying to backdate FDR’s presidency so that he was in charge when the Depression started; this is nothing by comparison.
baldheadeddork
Damn Obama for giving the contract for the new Marine One to Lockheed Martin, who have never built a fucking helicopter before. Nothing could go wrong with that, right?
jibeaux
Clearly Obama should put the helicopter on eBay.
c u n d gulag
Of course, if St. John the Douchebag was President, that helicopter program would be A-OK with him.
cosanostradamus
.
McCain who? Oh, he’s one of these:
New Webster’s dictionary now defines the word "assholes" as meaning "Republican." With a picture of one. No, really.
.
linda
obama’s response was the most excellent part of this… st johnnie’s efforts to put obama on the defensive backfired — as the assembled chuckled along with obama’s response.
Dave
Obama’s reply was masterful. I said this a while back – Obama is like the Sun Tzu of Politics.
If you read that whole exchange again, you can tell that Obama knew, somehow, that McCain would bring that up. And he let him, and then he cut him off at the knees with a smile on his face.
One day, the GOP will learn to stop underestimating Obama.
gopher2b
I take solace in the fact that one reason he lost was because he believed if he won, it would actually be his helicopter, plane, house, etc.
(for the idiots: I’m referring to his sense of entitlement).
JL
@Dave:
Let’s hope not, we all need a laugh.
rreay
On my drive in this morning I heard some excerpts from this on NPR. I heard this exchange and another about the "bipartisanship" in the house. I thought the house exchange was more interesting. I’ll look for a transcript or video.
Scott H
I’m trying to imagine Senator Obama asking President McCain about a helicopter. That won’t be the only fail in my day.
Meanwhile, Vice President Palin is in Italy bolstering our alliance and the global economic recovery buying shoes.
Cheap shot? Unless, buddy, you can spare a dime, it’s all I can afford.
bago
Not to go to bat for the defense companies, but Lockheed DID employ Kelly Johnson, a guy that knew more about air than god himself. He built the fastest plane on this earth that eats air in the 60’s. Anyone that builds a plane that leaks fuel until it has flown supersonic gets a win in my book.
rreay
The NPR show I heard is here.
The McCain exchange is at 2:20.
The excerpt of the bipartisan exchange is at 3:40 and based on a question from Joe Barton.
anonevent
@Incertus:
According to my right-y friends, FDR ruined the economy while being on the Federal Reserve of New York before he became president.
Atanarjuat
You Obama Juicers are right. Next time, Senator John McCain should respectfully address Obama as a supplicant would address his Lord. Perhaps McCain should have been on bended knee while offering his undying fealty, and begged to shine the blades of His Holiness’ Helo.
Anything else would be treason when it comes to Obama, right, lefties?
-A
gbear
You weren’t reading the comments. We Obama Juicers are hoping that McCain continues to asking ‘gotcha’ questions because Obama’s answers are so much fun. McCain is kind of a dipshit when it comes to falling into obvious traps.
anonevent
@Atanarjuat:
We’ve all seen Hero. If McCain went down on his knee, he could just jump up at the last moment, fly across the room, and try to kill Obama. No, if he is truly going to show Obama his reverence, McCain would humble himself and never enter the same room as Obama.
McCain is making the kinds of inane statements he used to decry back when he thought he could become president. Now that he thinks the American people are not watching, he figures he can be just as stupid as his compatriots.
Laura W
@jibeaux: Perfect!
Marlowe
I’m glad you made this rather obvious (at least to you and me) point. Other comments on this have highlighted (not incorrectly) McCain’s extreme pettiness in needling a gracious (over gracious in my book) Obama on this issue and Obama’s (again over gracious) response. However, more than exhibing McCain’s pettiness, the incident once again demonstrated that McCain is a dishonest and narcissistic sack of excrement. Although Obama does now need to make decision on how to proceed, the entire helicopter project, and its overruns, is a Bush era project. To imply, as McCain did at the least, that Obama was rushing to buy spiffy new helicopters was just a lie.
T Paine
Atanarjuat, it’s been said before regarding your insights, but it certainly bears repeating:
YAWN
Montysano
@Atanarjuat:
My advice to the GOP: next time, let your brainiac Cantor take the shot at Obama. BO will be devastated by Cantor’s rhetorical onslaught, also. It can’t fail.
We’ll all be watching.
Cain
@Atanarjuat:
Yes, Atanarjuat. Exactly that! Bow down to your Lord and Master, but nay do not look at his face for you are not worthy, worm.
Remember, Country First,
citizenmotherfucker.cain
The Moar You Know
McCain should know damn well that he should never offer to profane His Holiness’ Helo with his foul touch. And this nonsense about "bended knee"? How disrespectful. McCain is supposed to crawl on all fours when in the presence of the Our One Obama, and must never look him in the eye lest he be executed on the spot.
He must also preface any and all statements to Our One Obama with the phrase "m’lord Obama, Master of All". He si then supposed to offer Our One Obama the sexual services of his wife and daughter. It is customary for Our One Obama to decline such an offer, as McCain’s wife and daughter are lower-caste and not worthy of Our One Obama.
Get with the times, Atanarjuat. Bush may have allowed informality and ill manners in his term of office. Doesn’t mean everybody should.
Carol A.
"Pentagon contractors, their lobbyists and lobbying groups spent more than $340,000 on parties and other events to honor Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates in 2008, according to recent congressional filings. Among them were six companies that accounted for more than a quarter of the Pentagon’s procurement budget during the 2008 fiscal year." (C Q Politics, Alex Knox, 2/9/09)
How much of that money was put up by Lockheed Martin?
Tsulagi
Yeah, that’s pretty rich coming from Country First McCain. Who for years has been trying to swing a major defense contract, one that will start out around $40B then likely grow to over 100, one that will have a big impact on U.S. military logistical capabilities…to Airbus. The frenchies. A bit in Newsweek last year…
And McCain himself no stranger to EADS (Airbus) campaign contributions. To be fair, he never did specify which country first, right?
Okay, just because he has a french beret in his closet, and swills cappuccinos in his limos while listening to ABBA, not saying he’s an unpatriot. Just lower the hypocrisy a notch, Mav.
Dennis-SGMM
Senator McCain’s jab compares the price of an aircraft bought in 2000 with that of an aircraft bought today. He should ask his wife about how much prices for everything have gone up over the past nine years.
lilly Von Schtupp
Yes! More anvils like that from Obama! It’s so much fun. Gramps never knew what hit’em. Ha ha.
Tom Hilton
Well, if McCain is looking to improve his own popularity, he could certainly do worse.
Not treason; just not smart. Which, as noted by others, is why we hope McCain et al continue doing what they do.
BC
Two things on this. One is that Obama was looking for common ground on how to get this nation back on track, and all McCain could come up with was some cost overrruns on helicopters. Hell, the cost overruns on everything the Pentagon orders must be magnitudes of order more than that on the helicopters. And we must be in better shape than I thought if the cost of the helicopters is what put us in this economic mess. The second is that Obama showed he can think on his feet. Remember, during the primary and general election campaigns, the knock on Obama was that he could read these great speeches with the teleprompters but he was miserable at thinking on his feet. Obama showed the lie to that as well.
Faux News
I would say that day will be the day after Election Day in 2012.
Now I have to keep repeating this. PLEASE do NOT feed the Antana-whats-its-name Troll. Just ignore it and it will finally go away. Usually it just acts like a monkey thowing its feces on the thread then runs away never to be seen again.
Note to the Antana Troll: I do not read ANY of your posts. As soon as I see your name I post the above. So feel free to make some snide comment if you dare to come back to this thread. I won’t read it.
kay
@BC:
One is that Obama was looking for common ground on how to get this nation back on track,
Well, ostensibly. That or he was just baiting John McCain, assuming McCain would bite and make an ass of himself, with some petty, childish, "cutting" remark, like he did over and over during the debates.
Or that.
I miss the McCain laugh. That was creepy and fascinating. It’s gone missing. Someone must have told him to add a "heh, heh, heh" to cover the nasty when he was campaigning. Not that it worked. He must be relieved he doesn’t have to do that anymore.
Michael D.
John McCain may have a point. I would have to guess that his family owns several helicopters. Not that he would know how many his family owns. He MIGHT know how much it costs to maintain a fleet.
Not defending the integrity of the remark… just sayin’ :-)
Phoebe
Obama’s that guy at the country club, you know the one…
Tom65
Just give McCain the controls – he’ll crash it, end of story.
Next?
Wile E. Quixote
@gbear
That’s what got his ass shot down in Vietnam. He ignored tactical doctrine that called for him to employ evasive maneuvers when he got a SAM alert. You can read all about it in Tim Dickerson’s Rolling Stone article The Make Believe Maverick The Make Believe Maverick. My favorite quote, referring to the fact that McCain crashed two planes in training to be a pilot, from the story is below:
Nellcote
These odd little stories coming out of the Pentagon are starting to add up to not so subtle pushback from burrowers there.
Janus Daniels
McCain, "… we have to make some tough decisions, you, Mr. President have to make some tough decisions, not only about what we procure, but how we procure it… "
Obama, "Thanks Senator. It takes a big man to admit where his own party has taken us, and I want to emphasize how much I respect your admission, and you and the other Republicans who have so honestly admitted to the realities they have left to us…"
Sweet dream.
Michael Keyes
I, a strong supporter of the president, did not see Senator McCain’s comments as attacking the president. To me it seemed like a reiteration of previous conversations (as the president mentioned in his answer) and that President Obama agreed with him did not seem to be a surprise.
Senator McCain has been talking about paring down the bloated Pentagon budget for several years now and he objected to the contract that they were talking about when it first came up. Both the president and Senator McCain were on the same page and they both knew it before hand from public statements made during the campaign.
This was not a put down of Senator McCain. President Obama doesn’t operate that way and it seemed to me that there was an amicable exchange in the clip that I saw. It is a mistake to simply gloat everytime that President Obama is right on national TV or media. It will get old fast. Instead we should be happy that the Republican candidate is showing such good judgment and consistentcy on this subject. It can only be good for the country.
Being a sore winner won’t help that much except for appealing to the saved. It certainly doesn’t help the Republicans when they gloat (of course they are lying to themselves when they do.)
Rick Taylor
@Michael Keyes:
You have a point; maybe I jumped to a conclusion.
Darkrose
@The Moar You Know:
Not to mention that Michelle is 1,000,000x hotter than Cindy.
Captain USA
It’s Andy Card’s helicopter.
Richard Stanczak
Can anyone come up with a coherent explanation for why 47% of the US voting population voted for Sen. McCain?
Without using the words racist, ignorant, bigoted, and crazy?
The mind boggles that he came that close to being President.
But then you guys did elect Dubya. TWICE.