Politics and Hypocrisy

McCain Mishaps

I wrote extensively last month about John McCain’s less than stellar flying record in the Navy which included 2 non-combat related crashes and one near crash. The L.A. Times delves a bit deeper into a couple these mishaps and fills in some of the blanks as to the causes.

In 1960 he crashed into Corpus Christi Bay claiming his engine quit.

But an investigation board at the Naval Aviation Safety Center found no evidence of engine failure.

The 23-year-old junior lieutenant wasn’t paying attention and erred in using “a power setting too low to maintain level flight in a turn,” investigators concluded.

In 1961 McCain’s plane hit power lines in Spain causing a blackout.

In his most serious lapse, McCain was “clowning” around in a Skyraider over southern Spain about December 1961 and flew into electrical wires, causing a blackout, according to McCain’s own account as well as those of naval officers and enlistees aboard the carrier Intrepid.

Nowadays the Navy wouldn’t allow someone with his questionable judgment to fly a multi-million dollar aircraft so I guess it’s only fitting that he could be running the country come January.

What’s Wrong With This Picture

While McCain ramps up his campaign of smears towards Obama, yesterday in New Mexico, our markets tumble. There is no better example of that than the picture below which shows the market ticker while McCain continues his hitting on the tenuous Ayers/Obama association.

Why would one example of this be a big deal? Well if you listen to the McCain campaign, they had decided to abandon talking about the economy altogether because they feel they can’t compete on the issue with Obama. Apparently they have realized that all they have left is to try and smear their way into the White House.

Just Call Him Evel

Just like Evel Knievel, it looks like John McCain hasn’t found a stunt that he didn’t like.

Getting trashed in the polls? Just pick an unqualified Dick Cheney in a dress. Got a debate that you are worried about? Tell everyone you are suspending your campaign to help the country out of financial ruin and after throwing a monkey wrench into the process you return with your tail between your legs.

So what can John McCain do now to jump start his mess of a campaign?

In an election campaign notable for its surprises, Sarah Palin, the Republican vice- presidential candidate, may be about to spring a new one — the wedding of her pregnant teenage daughter to her ice-hockey-playing fiancé before the November 4 election.

Inside John McCain’s campaign the expectation is growing that there will be a popularity boosting pre-election wedding in Alaska between Bristol Palin, 17, and Levi Johnston, 18, her schoolmate and father of her baby. “It would be fantastic,” said a McCain insider. “You would have every TV camera there. The entire country would be watching. It would shut down the race for a week.”

When George Bush needed a boost, he had his terror warnings. John McCain has Sarah Palin.

Post Debate Thoughts

Before the debate, McCain spokesmen tried to spin how, against his own earlier comments about suspending his campaign, McCain could attend the debate despite the fact that the bailout plan hadn’t been worked out.

With that in mind, the first thing I noticed during the debate was how McCain skirted that whole issue. That was his first mistake and it killed any benefits he might have gained with the stunt and then Obama made the mistake of not pressing him on it. Much of the rest of the debate was filled with talking points on both sides along with McCain harping on the perceived lack of experience by Obama followed by answers from Obama that showed that the did have at least some knowledge on the subject and McCain trying to hammer home his less than truthful points on Obama’s tax cuts.

Putting the above standard fare aside, 2 points did stick out to me only because they weren’t the usual campaign talking points. The first affects South Dakota and our burgeoning ethanol industry directly and it didn’t take long for locals to catch an off handed comment by McCain that he would end subsidies for ethanol. Ending subsidies would probably all but kill that otherwise unprofitable industry but yet McCain said he would also work to encourage alternative fuel vehicle production by the US auto makers which is currently dominated by E85 vehicles. How would that work?

The last issue that stuck out to me was McCain again touching on his plan to build 45 new nuclear power plants. I mentioned this a few months back and it seems that while he keeps mentioning the issue, he cannot say how he will get around the fact that a license to build such a plant hasn’t been issued since the 1970’s because of regulatory and waste disposal issues and the fact that no one wants a plant built anywhere near them.

Yucca mountain, our only designated waste facility, is years behind schedule and may never open at all and McCain wants to ad 45 more waste generating plants to the 104 we currently have. So where will we store it? Of course my first reaction was one of McCain’s 7 back yards but I digress.

Overall I thought that both candidates had their high and low points, I could sense Obama having problems from time to time getting his thoughts from his brain to his mouth resulting in a few uh’s and um’s and Senator McCain, would it be asking to much to look your opponent in the eye from time to time when addressing him?

In my opinion Obama showed that he isn’t as clueless on foreign affairs as McCain would like us to believe and considering this debate was all about foreign policy, Obama held his own. Of course what I believe doesn’t mean much but it seems I am not alone if the CNN post debate poll can be believed.

Who did the best job in the debate?

Barack Obama 51
John McCain 38

Who would better handle Iraq?

Barack Obama 52
John McCain 47

Who would better handle the economy?

Barack Obama 58
John McCain 37

Your thoughts?

McCain Drinking Game

Now that John McCain is done saving us from financial ruin and has decided to restart his campaign in time for tonight’s debate, the users of Twitter have come up with a neat little drinking game to play while watching McCain and Barack Obama duke it out.

The game tagged #McCainshot is a drinking game in which the participants take a drink each time Senator McCain says “friends” during the debate. While I am sure folks that play the game will get their fill of their favorite beverage, I hear that those that devised the game originally wanted to use “POW” but had to shelve the idea because no one would be standing by the end of the debate…

Speaking of Twitter, they have set up a subsite that constantly scours their database for all tweets referencing the candidates pretty much in real time. It’s an excellent way to track the pulse of the “Twitter Nation” and should be a lively place to monitor during tonight’s debate (which McCain apparently already won).

UPDATE: They have added a new game so that Barack Obama doesn’t feel left out. #obamashot will have you taking a drink each time Barack Obama says the word “change”.

I would strongly suggest that those playing the game either do it at home or bring along a designated driver because having to drink each time that McCain says “friends” and Obama says “change” will result in you reaching .08 BAC quite early in the evening.

Back To The Future

Man is McCain good. The debate isn’t for hours and he has already won.

Did I Miss Something?

John McCain, has decided to attend the debate after all and he is now claiming that there has been “significant progress” in the mortgage meltdown mess. Pretty neat trick Senator considering that you managed to derail a done deal when you submitted a last minute proposal. A proposal that would help your corporate buddies and has resulted in more delays and partisan bickering putting the whole issue in question.

I think I am having flashbacks to the GI Bill debacle, you know the one that McCain was against until it passed and then claimed credit for…

McCain Suspends Campaign

Does anyone else sense some serious politicking at work here? A Senator whom has pretty much blown off every Senate vote in recent memory and has freely admitted that economics isn’t his best subject, suddenly feels the need to drop everything and head to Washington to work on the mortgage meltdown.

Oh and did I mention that there is a debate scheduled for Friday that McCain wants to postpone because of his sudden overwhelming concern (which just so happens to coincide with recent polls). You know that forum where “foot in mouth” McCain would have to answer questions without a script.

But then again I guess the American people don’t really want to hear how the potential next President would deal with the economy would we…

Maybe A Total Press Blackout Is In Order

Maybe John McCain should rethink his unspoken policy of only having surrogates doing interviews. Among countless gaffes, you have Carly Fiorina saying he isn’t qualified to run a company and then there is Tucker Bounds whom hasn’t seen a question yet that he can answer…

Truth In Advertising

One can question the truthfulness of John McCain and more recently Barack Obama’s campaign and a Canadian electronics retailer does just that with one of their online ads.

Having a couple of HD sets myself I can concur with the gist of the ad but like Wilson over at Gizmodo says, the volume should be turned down for the full effect.

And speaking of being truthful, the link above documents some smoke involving the Obama campaign’s possible involvement in a less than truthful viral ad that is currently all the rage on the right. Stay tuned to see if there is any fire.