Archive for the ‘John McCain’ Category
Palin: Didn’t Know Africa Was a Continent
November 6, 2008I’m truly amazed by the reports coming out of the McCain campaign. Now, according to the New York Times, McCain’s advisers admit that they were blind-sided by Sarah Palin’s lack of knowledge and reluctance to prepare for interviews. The reporting of Carl Cameron of Fox News goes even further, saying the Alaska governor did not realize Africa was a continent:
We’re told by folks that she didn’t know what countries that were in NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, that being the Canada, the US, and Mexico. We’re told she didn’t understand that Africa was a continent rather than a country just in itself … a whole host of questions that caused serious problems about.
It’s true that in the wake of a failed campaign there’s always going to be finger pointing. I’m sure Palin feels that Team McCain is attempting to throw her under the bus: the ill will was clear when McCain permitted Tina Fey to take a shot at his running mate over her 2012 ambitions with him on set.
At some point, however, blame has to be assigned at the ticket’s top. As soon as McCain picked Palin, I suggested it would be a disaster for the Republicans.
To me, it’s a desperate and reckless pick. The Republicans seem to be ready to throw away their best argument, experience, for the novelty of somebody new.
Given the all but nonexistent briefing of Palin, we now know how true that was.
The issue all these aides, Palin and McCain himself need to confront is how did they let this happen? Aides owe a duty to their principals to give them their best advice and then their loyalty. McCain had an obligation to the country to select a running mate ready to be president. And Palin had a responsibility to herself and to her country to decline a top post if she knew she wasn’t prepared for it.
EDIT. I’m adding a quote I’ve subsequently located from an anonymous McCain aide describing Palin’s $150,000 shopping spree: “A “Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast.” Note that when members of the Blue-Coastal Media and blog community made similar comments around Labor Day, they were dubbed culturally-biased and anti-feminist by the pro-McCain forces.
McCain Town Meeting in New Hampshire
November 3, 2008Here are some thoughts on John McCain’s 11th hour town meeting in New Hampshire:
- McCain appears confident, loose and, oddly given his appearance on Saturday Night Live last night, well-rested.
- His advance specialists have failed him. There’s a guy yawning and nodding off directly in the shot just next to McCain.
- It’s hard for me to believe that McCain’s presence in New Hampshire, where he has always been popular, will outweigh the tremendous field resources Barack Obama’s campaign has unleashed in New Hampshire this weekend.
- McCain better finish up soon. The New England Patriots play the Indianapolis Colts tonight.
Finally, while I endorse the idea of McCain’s appearance on Saturday Night Live, I was stunned to see him stand cheerily by as Tina Fey stuck a knife into Sarah Palin and her 2012 ambitions and twist it.
Another Reason Why the Economy is So Bad for John McCain
October 11, 2008
Republicans, traditionally, embrace the free market. Today the news is all about how the seven leading industrialized nations are agreeing to collaborate to solve the economic crisis; Secretary Paulson has announced that the United States government is prepared to take positions in the largest banks.
The news that everyone is talking about represents a tremendous amount of government intervention, something that would have been unthinkable even a few months ago. The plan involves government on a scale unrivaled since the Era of Franklin Roosevelt, and it is being backed, supported and promoted by a Republican president.
Unless McCain is ready to take the unprecedented action of reorganizing his campaign around Calvin Coolidge libertarian economic principles (the ones that lead to the first Great Depression) he has no political play on the most important issue of the day. That McCain has never given economic issues any serious thought compounds his problem.
With leaders around the globe returning to a Keynesian — even Galbraithian — approach to solve economic problems, voters, understandably, will turn to the political party that believes in government intervention into many areas of life, the Democrats. That’s the tide that McCain, even with his laudable resume, is up against.