Jonathan Chait: A McCain Presidency Wouldn't Be So Bad
By John Amato Wednesday Jul 23, 2008 3:00pmAnd he's supposed to be a lefty pundit. Sometimes I think we need to clean out the whole crew.
As for his substantive views, they do (now) closely resemble Bush's. Yet the upside to a candidate who changes his philosophical orientation as often as McCain is that he could always switch back. While I certainly wouldn't recommend that anybody go so far as to vote for him on that basis, it still offers some grounds for hope. The Bush presidency is like being married to a sociopath. A McCain presidency would be more like being married to a drug addict -- however badly he behaves, he could always sober up.
Say, what?
Liberals tend to view the press's love affair with McCain as a wildly unfair act of bias. They have a point. On the other hand, they should take some heart in the fact that McCain obviously cherishes the approval of the mainstream (and even liberal) media. His accessibility to the press and public is something small-d democrats should cheer. McCain has conducted interviews with very liberal publications like Grist...read on
We should love him because he's nice to the MSM. Please make it stop. A flashback to an old Digby post reveals much more wankery.
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Bribery.
I was talking to Buffy, and she thinks this guy is, in her words, "a mainstream media poopy head and is probably secretly dating
George Stephanopolous".
How can you argue with a Slayer?
As they say in Aruba: Wanky, wanky, wanky.....
What can I say: Republicans and inbred conservatives everywhere are allegedly voting/not-voting for crap, with the reach-around provided by the MSM, so there’s dumbness in the air! And even after I earthquake-proofed the hutch in the dining room, I, like Obama, still get no respect or credit. I can definitely relate, as hardcore under-appreciation emanates, whereas various nimrods are in the process of being struck stupid, snatched bald-headed, and we really don’t even need to address their insensitivity issues. McCain was granted that coveted title by the MSM just the other evening, as he fumbled his way through yet another PR disaster, I suspect through a fog of designer bourbon and leftover pain medications, and yes, it had something to do with the last 8 years of the GOP’s unsound financial accounting practices, soon-to-be jerked driving privileges, and militantly stubborn navel gazing, even for chickenhawks.
Yes, liberals are monsters, hate all families, and, ah, f##k it, hate all grade school nuns too, so f##k it (MSM approved clean edition!). Oh yeah, now I remember, liberals would also like to tell the MSM to stop propping up McCain’s fractured dictatorship of victimization and second rate drama tactics. At that time this was all going down, I was compelled to ride off into the sunset barely grasping leather embossed ape-hangers on my metal monster machine to the poorly recorded strands of Dave Allan & the Arrows “Blues Theme”(He played a Moserite I heard). But like I said, my chemical composition at the time wisely prevented me from further cadaver destruction.
When in such a state I’m vaguely reminded that the MSM are a bunch of greasy guys kind of swarming and brown-nosing all about Mickey, and they appear to have forgotten their antiperspirant that morning; I hope they wash their hands before lunch. People speak to me of the difficulties in living in the good ole USA nowdays, and yes, I do agree they really exist, but imagine the B.O problems at CBS, CNN, Fuchs, etc...
The essence of my being presently: this sucks and that sucks. No exit, no choice, and my resale value is nil. Great.
Oh lordy, send stronger Balm of Gilead – this shit ain’t cutting it. Should I inquire of Muffy down at the Crow’s Nest?
Maybe this is the beginning of the blowback to the blowback of encouraging McCain to bow out of the race. It would be better if it weren't started by an identifiable "liberal" source, but then that would have more general appeal than, say, a narrow minority voice like, er, Limbaugh, whose large audience can be depended upon to remain inert in proportion to their vocal activity. It's complicated, what can I say. But it works like this: the GOP stalwarts begin looking for a replacement while simultaneously convincing McCain that he's setting the party back a good 16 years, at least. Then, start planting the seed that actually, McCain is more formidable to the Democrats than is apparent. Then revive McCain's cand...ah fuck it, the guy's toast and so is the party. VIVA LA LIBERACION! VIVA AMERICA!
McCain 2000 wasn't that bad McCain 2008 sold out hard.
that, my friends, is some serious codependent thinking.
The funny thing is whilst boosh is trying to be a modern-day Lincoln when he's not Truman, mccain will inevitably try to be Eisenhower. The closest we got to an Eisenhower today is Wesley Clark.
And was Eisenhower ever a prisoner of war?
Noooo...
The slacker.
I suppose he could be drinking the kool-aid.
I have to ask, Wouldn't milk and cookies be better?
Someone bought and paid for this chimp. It's time to ask him to turn in his badge and parking pass.
"Liberal Media" my ass. I quit taking anyone seriously if they think the corporate media is liberal. I would like to know what media he's talking about, so that I can watch it and read it.
Look, one show on television, one network on the radio and a handful of columnists doesn't make it a movement or the majority. The blogosphere isn't part of that media (yet), so that doesn't count. I'm pretty sure it's pretty even if you count both sides (or all sides), so it still doesn't count.
To steal a phrase:
Teh Stupid...IT BURNS!!!
"As for his substantive views, they do (now) closely resemble Bush’s. Yet the upside to a candidate who changes his philosophical orientation as often as McCain is that he could always switch back. While I certainly wouldn’t recommend that anybody go so far as to vote for him on that basis, it still offers some grounds for hope. The Bush presidency is like being married to a sociopath. A McCain presidency would be more like being married to a drug addict — however badly he behaves, he could always sober up. ..."
(Cover ones mouth, as if sneezing...)
Pseudo-sneeze: Blow job! Blow job! (ala "Animal House")
Even as an analogy, the drug addict comment makes no sense. Drug addicts can't just 'sober up', they are physically addicted to the drugs that they take.
In all honesty, McCain will probably be slightly better than Bush if somehow he managed to become president, just like most random people you meet on the street would make a better president than Bush. However, is that low we want to set the bar, to judge whether a candidate is better than worst president to ever disgrace the oval office? And why do we need an article telling us that McCain is slightly less horrible than Bush is?
McSame loves the MSM and Hitler owned a dog.
Here's a classic line from Chait's piece: "Yet, somehow, I still feel some pangs of affinity for the old codger."
So now, we're giving free passes for McCain's stupidity because he's OLD? Fuck you, Chait, I'm nearly as old as dirt, but at least I'm still cool.
Robert Byrd, who has a helluva lot more of his marbles than McCain, I would classify as a respected elder statesman. I would classify McCain as a Nasty Old Fart. And if any veteran thinks of voting for McCain because he supports the military, I would say you are seriously deluded.
Yes, MSM loves Mickey, and Hitler had a dog. What's not known, is that Hitler's dog, like Mickey, has no nose.
How do they smell?
Awful.
Sorry.....
'philosophical orientation' LOLZ!!1!11! this guys rant is a philisophical orientation on 'how to pretend mcCain isnt a lapdog for special interest.'
Mcsame campaign slogan "settle for less all over again."
I have lived separately with both a drug addict and a sociopath and i have to say that at least the sociopath's behavior was predictable. Despite many "attempts," the addict never sobered up. There is also the risk of developing empathy for the doddering old addict and becoming the enabler. i REALLY hated those wee hour side trips into the projects.
No, a McBush Presidency wouldn't be so bad, it will be cataclysmic. Poor old guy can barely keep his mind going. After the ignorant bush crime family that's all America needs, a McBush crime family following in the tiny footsteps of the WORST president in US history. You neocons are idiots.
Has this idiot forgotten that the next President may decide how the Supreme Court leans for the next 20 years?
The marriage analogy sort of fits, since he isn't a natural born citizen and is ineligible for the presidency, but is running--- like his being married made him ineligible to marry Cindy, but he did so anyway.
Check out McCains facebook page....
http://www.facebook.com/johnmccain
Pretty much indicates madness assuming that McSame would be better than bush. How is an whore better than a idiot if they are both violent criminals to begin with?
they are criminals. there is no mistaking the conclusion. where is the argument? where is the opposing point of view on criminality?
The author is clearly been purchased, or has lost it's mind. What else can you determine if it openly favors someone known to be a criminal?
Is this guy for real?
I have news for you America. Elect McCain and we(aka the rest of the world) will cut you loose. Even though Obama is part of the establishment he is something new.
McCain is like a drunk?"he can always sober up"? I don't know about anyone else but I've done some pretty stupid things when I've been drunk and not remembered the next morning.
Grandpa simpson can't rememberwhat he had for supper last night
Wow.
I suppose because we have a do nothing Congress we Americans should condescend to these low expectations.
This is what 8 years of the Bush administration will do to you. A sociopath is worse than a drug addict. Hmmm.
CAlI @ 5:
A popular myth that's really the only explanation for the closeness of the polls (well, that and good old fashioned American racism).
McCain's been an angry, hate filled, elitist, radical right-wing bigot and pig his whole life. 2000 was an act, there's no hint of McCain being a "Moderate" anywhere in his history or voting record.
Brad @ 21:
the First Congress in 1790 passed a measure that did define children of citizens “born beyond the sea, or out of the limits of the United States to be natural born.”
If one of the parents is an American citizen at the time of birth, that person is a natural born American citizen.
(Barry Goldwater, who was born in Arizona when it was a territory, was a natural born American citizen)
There are many things to hit him with, but not this.
I can't remember how long ago it was when I decided that life was to precious to waste a second of it reading the luke warm swill of Jonathan Chait.
Thanks for reminding me of my own good my judgment.
Barbara @ 27:
Why Senator John McCain Cannot Be President: Eleven Months and a Hundred Yards Short of Citizenship
Chait's got a bad case of battered American citizen syndrome. Snap out of it. Don't settle for a shit sandwich.
McCain: If I'm president, it won't be as bad as you think.
Yeah, that would be inspiring as hell, wouldn't it?
Oh sure! A McCain presidency wouldn't be bad, It would be disasterous! Jesus! Watching MSM telling us,the minions, just how close it is! Mmm... I'm not so sure. Remember in 2006 when the pundits were sure Repugs will hold on to both the House and Senate? Yeah, they know what they are talking about. Some even suggested my own Senator Santorum would prevail. Ha! He lost by over 15 points. So lets turn off MSM, go outside and grill some burgers.
WHO?
From sociopath to drug addict. WoW! What a choice. When America has drown in pollution, economic disaster, $10 a gallon gas, zero health care, failing infrastructure and the 100 year war, will we still be a nation of whiners in need of a psychological boost? Let's just put a psychopath in the White House, you know, one who could start a nuclear war and just get it over with.
Or maybe we could elect some leaders instead of politicians and see what happens. Nah that would be too easy.
this guy is from TNR! lefty my arse!!!!
pissed off patricia @ 31:
ROTFLMBBAO!
That's pretty lame. As with anybody, the measure of a person isn't what they say, but what they do and what they choose. McCains doings and choosings don't impress me. For that matter, neither do Obama's.
why are you talking to me this bullshit?
stop fuckin lyin to me!
McCain is what we DONT need right now, he is stuck in the past with old ideas that didn't work then and will not work now. McCain is stuck in a cold war mindset that is the same as Bushs, Military-industrial complex over everything. Do you trust this man to promote civil rights, protection of the workers, rebuilding of the infrastructre, fixing our health care system, or shoring up social security? Anybody that says yes is in either great denial or already on the USS Kool-Aid. I think that Obama is the best chance that we have had to reunite this great country, with all of its faults it still rocks, into something that we ALL can believe in. McCain will continue the polocy of hate, fear, divisence, and war that has torn this country into a western hemisphere version of Yugoslavia. This the time for all of us to stand as one to block the people that want what is only good for themselves instead of what will make all of us, as Americans, move forward to create a better place for all.
Now I realize why my marriage failed -- I married a horrible person (sociopath), when I should have gone for a drug-addict. Then, everything would have been OK.
Does anyone know, is a heroin addict a better or worse spouse than a coke head? I'm going to avoid a meth addict -- the mouth is a problem for me. (I know, I know, that makes me an elitist.)
Note: remind me to never read anything by Chait again. Oh, wait, I quit doing that a long time ago.
Yes, vote for a man who has changed his opinions over and over again. He might go back to good ones! Or he might go back to good ones and then go back to bad ones. How freaking scary is that?
The man clearly just has no backbone as far as politics goes.
Brad @ 29:
My husband, who was in the Navy at the time, was stationed in Scotland. There, in 1970, in a Scottish hospital (not on base) his daughter was born. Are you saying that she and all others who born to an American citizen but in a different country are not native born citizens - or is just John McCain.
There are so many other things to get him with instead of the fact that his father, while serving his country, was in the Panama Zone and that is where John McCain was born.
If this is the case, then no military personal will dare go overseas if his spouse is with child for fear that the child will not be a native born American citizen. Also, since I was in the Navy, I would have only wanted to be stationed in the US for fear of my child's status as an American.
I'll consider this drivel when the republicans put forward a presidential candidate who wasn't raised swaddled in privilege and who didn't graduate at the bottom of his class and whose ethical and intellectual bonafides are not worse than those of the general population.
Barbara @ 42:
When I was Stationed in Germany in the late 80's, I knew of several people who went back to the states to have their kids on advice from legal office, to avoid just this misunderstanding. Yes your child is an American, but some people will never look at them as such,sad but true.
Up until now I had never heard of Johnathan Chait. But then, I don't watch the TV.
Nada @ 17:
Or how about, "possibly maybe not quite as bad as Bush?"
Carl Gordon @ 3:
Giver her my best, Carl.
". . .however badly he behaves, he could always sober up."
Being a member of a twelve-step group for the last eight years and having worked in geriatric care for the last thirty, I can tell you that senility does not work quite the same way as sobriety. The former is irreversible.
Why should we care what Jonathan Chait says? Seriously? Isn't he the editor of The New Republic? It has a circulation of 45-60k. who cares. He doesn't even rate a post.
Oh yeah, and the New Republic supported the Iraq invasion. Again, who cares
Chait is a ringer. The Corporate Media is full of self-proclaimed Liberals whose sole purpose is to convince the American public that Conservatism isn't the threat to Democracy it really is and that the Democratic party is leaning too far to the left. They are ritually deployed to marginalize any real opinion from the left and keep it out of the public eye. It's an age old game of limiting the parameters of political debate to ideas that don't threaten the interests of the established elite.
As far as the Bush regime, or the so-called neocons, go, they represent nothing more than typical Conservatism as it always has been. It's not that the Bush regime is incompetent, they have been enormously effective in implementing a Conservative agenda. It's that Conservatism looks like incompetence and malfeasance when put into practice.
hey look what i found in my dictionary!
"putz: n. jonathan chait"
I sort of felt this way about McCain myself....
Back in the year 2000.
Yeah, maybe if the Bush years hadn't a happened, the Republican party might still have some credibility, especially with social moderates and fiscal conservatives (that follow the math laws) like myself.
But BushCheney has completely destroyed any semblance of the notion that the GOP is about anything related at all to "conserving" much -- not taxpayers' money, not natural resources, not the Constitution, not accord with America's allies.
Probably already been said, BUT WITH FRIENDS LIKE THIS FOOL...and according to MSNBC and CNN the "race is tightening up" despite the wonderful week Obama has had...so what's that about? Why isn't he beating this old geezer like a limp punching bag???
liberal pundits like Chait are a large reason this country is in the mess that is. before Bush was elected in 2000 they assured us a compassionate conservative Presidency would not be so bad. after he was appointed, they told us with such a divided vote he would govern from the center. we can only be sure that if a commentator like Chait predicts something, anything, there is no chance of his being right.
Did you even read the article? Or have you become such a political hack that anything that strays from the party line has to be attacked? That is just as bad as say....Bushies
Did I just hear Papa Bear's head explode?!
If being tortured for 5+ years by the North Vietnamese makes McCain qualified to be the nexy U.S. president then there are more than 250 current and former Gitmo detainees from Afganistan who are qualified to be the next Afgan president. MZ
okay, I ain't gonna vote for McSame - not a chance. But Chait's comparison point is right on. Every time the Decider has said "bi-partisan" he's meant, "do it my way m*****F****rs!" Every time he's said "Compromise" he's meant "Vote for My Bill, D**S**ts, and you can ride on m' plane with me to the signin'" Every time he's said "reach across the aisle" he's meant "to strangle one uh them DFH Democrat Party guys." McCain has vacillated and jumped back and forth on soooooo many issues in the last 8 years that its really tough to figure out what the hell he stands for. Things are sooo messed up right now that even that kind of uncertainty is incrementally better than the destructive-path clarity offered by eejit-boy and his evil Dick, who have run the ship of state aground.
What can I say. I actually linked to the whole article and read it.
Holy cow. The part you quoted is nothing compared to the rest of it. He is saying that even though he recognizes how bad MCain is as a candidate, he still likes him because he remembers him fondly from 8 years ago. ? and even though he is just like GW, there is still the "possibility" that he'll be less bad.?
OK. That's just crazy.
One positive thing about a McCain presidency: it would be the absolute final nail in the coffin of the bullshit "Reagan Revolution."
Otherwise, I got nothin'
Rusty Shackleford @ 61:
I do agree that McCain would finish off the job that Reagan started. However, it could potentially be the nail in the coffin for the country as well. We're on an unsustainable path.
Chait is one so called liberal that can kindly STFU. He doesn't speak for me.
....If your're brain-dead..........................JD
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