McCainosaur

By Mavricks

Yesterday, Arianna Huffington revealed that John McCain told her in 2000 that he didn’t vote for George W. Bush. Which we believe. We believe that he told her this, anyway. Who knows if it was true then, or now. But McCain denied it, right away. Which leads Arianna to list all the documented times he’s blatantly lied about saying something so far this campaign season. A fun little list! Of course it shows why McCain felt comfortable telling Arianna Huffington that he didn’t vote for Bush in 2000. And also why he’s the most popular guest in Daily Show history!

The man just naturally says whatever the hell his audiences want to hear. This is why, in small, intimate settings, everyone comes off impressed with John McCain’s honesty and no-bullshit approach. This is why the media loves him. He’s chatty, he’s charming, and he will immediately key in on exactly how to convince you that he’s on your side. And he’ll crack a few off-color jokes!

Read the whole article here.

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by Ari Berman

Back in 1990, the Republican candidate for Governor of Texas, Clayton Williams, likened rape to bad weather, saying, “As long as it’s inevitable, you might as well lie back and enjoy it.”

When that joke came to light in June, John McCain was forced to “postpone” a fundraiser in Midland hosted by Williams. McCain spokesman Brian Rogers called the joke “incredibly offensive.”

But what Williams said in 1990 is not all that different than a joke McCain made about rape in 1986. According to the Tucson Citizen, here’s what McCain, then a two-term Congressman from Mesa, said during his run for the Senate:

Did you hear the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die? When she finally regains consciousness and tries to speak, her doctor leans over to hear her sigh contently and to feebly ask, ‘Where is that marvelous ape?’

The Arizona Women’s Political Caucus and the Arizona chapter of NOW condemned the remarks as “insensitive, cruel and sexist.” McCain said he “did not recall” telling the joke and his spokeswoman at the time, Torie Clarke, said the furor was “a politically motivated sideshow” initiated by McCain’s Senate opponent, Richard Kimball.

The reporter on the story, Norma Collie, stood by her account in an interview with the Huffington Post this week.

Read the whole article here.

By Jacob Weisberg

This article is adapted from Jacob Weisberg’s introduction to McCain’s Promise: Aboard the Straight Talk Express With John McCain and a Whole Bunch of Actual Reporters, Thinking About Hope by David Foster Wallace, published by Back Bay Books.

In August 2007, John McCain came through New York to promote his latest book, Hard Call: The Art of Great Decisions. McCain’s editor, Jonathan Karp, was kind enough to offer me one of the hourlong slots set aside for back-to-back interviews in his office. The new book, written with (all right, by) McCain’s literary alter ego, Mark Salter, was evidently meant to serve as a kind of Profiles in Courage for the Arizona Republican’s presidential campaign. It recounted moments in which wise leaders made brave choices: Lincoln’s issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation, Branch Rickey’s hiring of Jackie Robinson to break baseball’s color barrier, etc. I sampled a few of these vignettes just before our meeting and found them characteristically well-done.

But the book, at that moment, seemed rather beside the point. While Salter was hard at work on Hard Call, McCain’s presidential campaign had fallen apart. Instead of breaking away from the Republican pack, McCain was loping after it from a considerable distance. At that point, McCain was trailing Rancorous Rudy, Mutable Mitt, and possibly even droopy-eyed Fred Thompson in the polls. McCain had raised a pitiful amount of money and quickly run through it. He’d just fired his longtime campaign manager and laid off three-quarters of his feuding and divided staff. Esquire reported that he was personally scrutinizing the campaign’s daily doughnut order as a cost center. Unlike his first book, Faith of My Fathers, the Salter-abetted autobiography that had launched his 2000 bid, Hard Call, was looking like a tough sell.

Read the whole article here.

Cafe, Election Central

As I’m watching Countdown, we get the story of “our friend” John McCain in Pittsburgh answering the question, “What do you think of when you hear “Pittsburgh?” McCain’s answer: the Pittsburgh Steelers. McCain goes on to tell his interviewer an anecdote of giving the name of the famed Pittsburgh Steelers defensive line to his captors as he was being tortured to get some relief.

Is there a problem with that? Just a tiny one.

McCain had written about this incident in his book (page 194) and described reciting the names of the Green Bay Packers football team… Coach Vince Lombardi, Bart Starr and company. It was re-enacted in a made for television movie, using the Packers and not the Steelers.

Read the whole article here.

by David Letterman

After spending the last few weeks ripping pretty-boy Mitt Romney, David Letterman is now slinging comic barbs at septuagenarian John McCain:

“But seriously how about that John McCain? John McCain looks like a guy whose head you can barely see over the steering wheel. … John McCain looks like the guy who thinks the nurses are stealing his stuff. ‘Dad, why would they take your socks? It doesn’t make sense.’” –David Letterman

“How about that John McCain, huh? John McCain looks like the kind of guy who brags that his new denture adhesive allows him to eat corn on the cob. He looks like a guy who parked his RV overnight at Wal-Mart.” –David Letterman

“How about John McCain? He looks like a guy at a restaurant that says I’m leaving 10%, that’s good enough. John McCain, looks like the guy who goes to the curb for the paper and locks himself outside of the house.” –David Letterman

“John McCain … He looks like the guy that walks up to the mound to settle down a young pitcher. John McCain looks like the guy who picks up his TV remote when the phone rings.” –David Letterman “I like that John McCain. He looks like a guy who gets tickets for mowing under the influence. He looks like a guy with a collection of movies he bought at the car wash. He looks like a guy on the beach with a metal detector. He looks like the guy who is still confused by the phone answering machine: ‘Hello, is that - hello, is that you? Larry, Larry, hello?’ He looks like the guy who calls his grandson when he screws up the remote: ‘Well, now all the shows are in Spanish. What am I going to do, hello?’” –David Letterman

Read the whole article here.

John McCain enjoyed some sweet comic revenge at David Letterman’s expense during an April Fool’s Day appearance on the Late Show.

Letterman has been mocking McCain with wicked glee in recent weeks with his trademark series of “he-looks-like” jokes portraying McCain as a crotchety old man. Tuesday night’s show was no exception, with Letterman ripping McCain during his monologue:
“He looks like the guy at the hardware store who makes the keys … He looks like the guy who can’t stop talking about how well his tomatoes are doing … He looks like the guy who goes into town for turpentine …

Read the whole article here.

by BILLIE STANTON

The scariest thing about Sen. John McCain isn’t his hawkish views, his closeness to President Bush or even his spiritual reliance on wacko televangelist Rod Parsley.
The scariest thing is McCain’s charm - and how many votes that may mean come November.
McCain is like the Jack Nicholson of Washington. You just can’t help but like the guy.
On “Saturday Night Live” recently, he reminded viewers with a straight face that he has “the courage, the wisdom, the experience and most importantly, the oldness necessary (to be president).”
(McCain will turn 72 on Aug. 29.)
The important thing about controlling government spending, he says, is being able to look your children in the eye.
“Or in my case, my children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren and great-great-great-grandchildren - the youngest of whom are nearing retirement.”
Besides good humor, the Arizona Republican also is known for human decency, an increasingly rare commodity in U.S. politics.
A current Newsweek article recalls McCain’s friendship with U.S. Rep. Mo Udall, a beloved liberal Democrat from Arizona.
For eight years, as Udall lay dying, unable to speak, McCain regularly visited his former mentor.
McCain has a humane approach to illegal immigration, too, pushing for comprehensive reform.
In an age of mounting xenophobic hysteria, he insists: “We are all God’s children.”
His push for comprehensive reform alienated members of his own party, though.
Republicans also were miffed when he pushed through campaign finance reform and when he tried to get a bill passed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Read the whole article here.
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By BEN SMITH

Ever hear that joke about waterboarding? How about the one about killing Iranians? And why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?

If you aren’t familiar with those witty japes, then you’ve missed out on John McCain’s lighter side. Rooted in a time before there was political correctness, and before there was the “South Park” backlash against political correctness, McCain’s wisecracking persona is cutting at times, self-deprecating at others, and always amused by the political process swirling around him. Even in his pursuit of the White House, the candidate has — sometimes to the dismay of his handlers — managed to keep his sense of humor.

As he campaigns through the densest media thicket in American history, it’s become clear that McCain hasn’t acquired the layer of polish that produced, for instance, Ronald Reagan’s gentle, oft-repeated jokes and Bill Clinton’s colorful, folksy yarns.

McCain’s humor, by contrast, makes him the political counterpart of the radio host Don Imus (whom he has defended): It’s sharp, unrehearsed and, at times, way, way over the line. This cycle, he’s drawn winces, and worse, for everything from a joking reference to domestic violence to a now-notorious little ditty about bombing Iran. Earlier in his political career, the Arizona press reported that he’d cracked a rape joke that would now probably end any politician’s career, a joke his aides then and now say he doesn’t recall making.

Read the whole article here.

by Ana Marie Cox

Greg Sargent rightly points out that Hillary is not the only front-runner whose negatives suggest otherwise: Hillary Clinton: Definitely would, 27%; Would consider, 26%; Definitely would not, 45%

John McCain: Definitely would, 12%; Would consider, 39%; Definitely would not, 47%

Read the whole article here.

by Venicia Gray, Digest Viewpoints Editor

Honestly, I have nothing against older Americans who have seen what the nation has to offer and has a fair opinion on where it is going. I respect veterans of all wars and opposing opinions. In the upcoming election, the next leader of the free world needs to be someone who has the ‘know-how’ and gusto to face such pressing issues such as the war in Iraq, the economy and national security.

The next leader of the free world needs to be someone who can withstand being called harsh names, and have the ability to take criticism from supporters and opposition alike. They should possess the charisma of the late John F. Kennedy and the compromise Abraham Lincoln. The forty-fourth president of the United States needs to be someone who can move with the times as the leader of the most powerful country in the Free World.

If, for any reason you thought John McCain was the one for the job, I’m here to tell you: he’s not.

Read the whole article here.