Posted August 21st, 2008 at 2:12PMSen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in an interview Wednesday that he was uncertain how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own.
“I think — I’ll have my staff get to you,” McCain told Politico in Las Cruces, N.M. “It’s condominiums where — I’ll have them get to you.”
The correct answer is at least four, located in Arizona, California and Virginia, according to his staff. Newsweek estimated this summer that the couple owns at least seven properties.
Remember when McCain said $5 million was the point at which “rich” applies? I would add not knowing how many houses you own is also a pretty damn good indicator.
Do we want this guy answering a 3AM phone call at the White House and not knowing which house he’s in?
But to be fair, it seems as if McCain’s wife is the primary breadwinner in the family… (And he’s already publicly said that he doesn’t understand economics. Economics, adding up your properties… McCain is too much of a “maverick” for math.)
Maybe I’m just being mean now. No, wait, now I remember how Kerry was lambasted for his rich wife four years ago. Gee, that guy had an impressive military career too. Where’s the Bomber Veterans for Truth group? *
But in all seriousness… Is it too much to hope for that McCain continue to make a fool out of himself, by himself?
On a bit of a tangent, CBS News has posted this Nation piece written by Robert Scheer, which I can get behind (for the most part):
The world according to John McCain is one in which America is triumphant at home and abroad thanks to the Bush legacy, rolling to victory internationally and mastering its domestic economic problems. If daily news, like reports of the ten French soldiers killed by a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan and the US government’s imminent nationalization of much of the American mortgage-lending industry, would seem to deny such a rosy scenario, then that only shows skeptics lack the courage that sustained McCain as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
There you have it encapsulated, the McCain campaign for President, an irrational mélange of patriotic swagger and blindness to reality that is proving disturbingly successful with uninformed voters. How else to explain the many millions of Americans who tell pollsters they prefer a continuation of Republican rule when so many of them are losing their homes to foreclosure and the nation is devastated by out-of-control military spending?
The economy is in a downward spiral, the national debt is at an all-time high, the dollar is an international disgrace and inflation in July had the steepest rise in twenty-seven years, driven by oil prices fivefold higher than when George W. Bush invaded the nation with the world’s second-largest petroleum reserves.
Big bonus points for using melange.
* EDIT: All I can say is “LOL” for this gem: Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain. When are these guys going to get the publicity the swiftboaters got (and are again this year)? Liberal media my ass.
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Comment Sections In ’08
It struck me awhile back how the now ubiquitous comment section at the end of articles on virtually every website is a recent phenom. It wasn’t that popular even four years ago during the last presidential cycle. This got me thinking on the purpose and impact of these comments. Is anyone ever swayed by a comment posted on a news site? The potential is there to have thoughtful replies, but to date I’ve seen nothing but partisans spewing vitriol, whose idea of clever is to invent nicknames of candidates – “McSame,” “Nobama.” There are occasional sane and levelheaded posts, but these are the exception to the rule.
At face value no one ought to pay any attention to this drivel. But subconsciously it must devalue the conversation, the same way any attention on non-issues does. I tend to read the first page or two of comments on articles I’ve read, but now I’m wondering whether or not this is just polluting my mind.
There are people who pay close attention to these comment sections. You can watch rivals sniping one another, jumping from article to article. Never in a way that might sway anyone, always combative. What’s the point? It seems even more dubious than a blog like this one. The one result – that I can come up with – of comment sections during this election year is to reinforce images we’re already getting from the media (mainstream or otherwise), the candidates, and pop culture. If levelheaded comments are rare, original ones are nonexistent.
So they buoy negative campaigning, and little else? Here’s a case of technology letting us down – or (more likely) vice versa.
This post had Andy Rooney written all over it. Bleh. I apologize in advance.