Ah, John McCain. The maverick. ...Excuse me, the Maverick, capital "M."
He really wanted this to be a clean election. He really, really wanted this to be a campaign about the issues facing America. He really, really, really wanted it to be respectful and substantive, all the way up through November.
Lord knows he tried! But then Barack Obama FORCED him to start throwing buckets of slop and slime.
Poor John McCain had no choice, at all. Obama FORCED John McCain to act like Karl Rove. How?
John McCain himself explains below, in a talk with David "I-Like-Karl-Rove-Because-I've-Eaten-Quail-At-His-Table" Broder.
(more)
The first question I asked John McCain and then Barack Obama was: How do you feel about the tone and direction of the campaign so far?
No surprise. Both men pronounced themselves thoroughly frustrated by the personal bitterness and negativism they have seen in the two months since they learned they would be running against each other.
"I'm very sorry about it," McCain said in a Saturday interview at his Arlington headquarters. "I think we could have avoided at least some of this if we had agreed to do the town hall meetings" together, as he had suggested, during the summer months.
John McCain's behavior is Obama's fault.
John McCain's choices are Obama's fault.
See how that works? Because Obama didn't agree to exactly what John McCain wanted, in the exact format McCain demanded it (mockingly, snidely, disrespectfully -- but that MUST have been Obama's fault too, eh?) John McCain had NO choice at all but to make statements and run ads that:
-- Lied about Obama. (Won't visit our soldiers.)
-- Accused him of being a traitor. (Would rather lose a war...)
-- Race-baited (his picture on a dollar bill? HA!)... then bitched and moaned and whined when Obama mentioned that exact ad.
-- Have made his entire campaign about snotty put-downs of Obama, avoiding issues of substance like the damned plague.
-- Has a campaign manager who talks and acts like an angry, maladjusted 11-year old bickering at the playground.
-- Etc., Etc.
John McCain had NO choice in any of the above. Barack Obama forced him to do it all.
*****
Now here is the serious issue underneath it all:
Let's take John McCain at his word: that his disgusting behavior has been out of his control.
If that's true, then John McCain has does not have the moral character, honor, or integrity to be President of the United States of America.
If John McCain is telling the truth here, then he's just another Dick Cheney / Karl Rove wannabe.
If we take John McCain at his own word, he's a revolting opportunist with no moral core. When he doesn't get his way, immediately, then his much-bragged-about values are flushed right down the toilet.
And like all Republicans, he blames the object of his pathetic, juvenile attacks for making him attack thusly. He takes NO personal responsibility, ever, except when he senses it's good branding that will win him more ass-smooching from the easily-manipulated Broders of the world.
John McCain, by his own admission, does not have any core values. He's a moral blank, and too dangerous to be President.
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(P.S. Not a brilliant diary in itself, but please recommend if you think McCain's dishonorable ways need to be more widely known, and that this story helps. Overton window, etc.)