John McCain

McCain's preacher problem makes Obama's pale in comparison

Filed under: John McCain

In watching the ever-widening flap about Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama, I've been stunned that the mainstream media has effectively ignored John McCain's relationship with John Hagee -- a pastor who is at least as inflammatory, and whose endorsement McCain actively sought.

A full litany of Hagee's offenses against sanity would fill the blog with non-Strib content, and nobody wants that. So I'll summarize: thinks Catholic church is whore of Babylon, metaphorically "drinking the blood of the Jewish people,"; thinks Hurricane Katrina was the fault of gay Americans; thinks the pope is like Hitler.

The New York Times' Frank Rich has noticed, and writes a terrific column about it, using the episode as a jumping off point to a broader conversation about race in the GOP.

Now, if someone will only write about Rod Parsley, I'll be mildly sated.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at May 6, 2008 5:56 AM | Comments (0)

 

The hawk's hawk gives McCain two talons up.

Filed under: John McCain

Remember John McCain tacitly receiving the endorsement of George W. Bush on the White House lawn several weeks back? Good gravy that was awkward. It looked like this:

As McCain works tirelessly to win over skeptical and often hostile conservatives, discomfiting alliances are starting to look like the norm. Lately, John Bolton (the patently hawkish and admirably mustached former U.N. ambassador) is shouting McCain's hard line foreign policy credentials from the mountaintop (I'm picturing one of those mountains with the apocalypse bunkers built into it).

Here's what Bolton had to say in a commentary piece by Bloomberg's Albert R. Hunt:

On Iran, McCain "takes a harder line than the Bush administration,'' Bolton says approvingly and expresses confidence that as president he would take a tougher stand against North Korea than what he considers the erratic Bush posture.

On Russia, Bolton -- the hardest of hardliners when he was in the Bush administration -- says McCain "takes an even harder line than I do. He wants to toss them out of the G-8. He is not about to be pushed around by an assertive Putin.''

Some of the so-called Republican foreign policy "realists,'' who reigned during the administration of the president's father, hope this is mostly campaign rhetoric; as president, they argue McCain would revert to a more multilateralist, less-confrontational approach.

Bolton says they're daydreaming. He has no problems with McCain's praise for Henry Kissinger, the quintessential Republican foreign policy figure: "Kissinger is a plus now.''

Kissinger. Yikes. Whoever is driving that Straight Talk bus ought to get a newer map.

Posted by Jeff Severns Guntzel at April 15, 2008 11:08 AM | Comments (0)

 

McCain shrugs off Secret Service: Bravery or campaign stunt?

Filed under: John McCain

The top political story today is that McCain doesn't have Secret Service protection.

Word comes from Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan, who told a Congressional committee that the Arizona senator never asked for protection.

"Statutorily, he is not required to take protection," Sullivan said when asked about McCain's security during a hearing on the agency's budget. "As far as an actual request, we have not gotten one. We have no involvement at this point."

A request from McCain seems unlikely anytime soon, however.

The two-time presidential candidate has said he does not want Secret Service protection, fearing it would interfere with his brand of intimate campaigning among voters. McCain also has said he'll try to last as long as he can without it.

"I've never done it. After we won New Hampshire in 2000, they really tried to get us, but we said no," McCain said last November while campaigning in Concord, N.H. "It's an invasion of your ability to have contact with voters."

Now, I'm pretty sure this is meant to evoke toughness. You know, McCain don't need no stinkin' Secret Service. Mofo survived a tiger cage.

But here's what it evokes in me: John McCain is really, really old. So old that he doesn't bother with Secret Service protection cause an agent can't jump in the way of a heart attack. So old that death within the next four years is practically inevitable, assassin or no. So old that the scare of an assassination attempt is as likely to kill him as the bullet.

Do we really want a president that is almost guaranteed to die in office? A president who recklessly disregards his personal safety (and by extension, the country's) by daring an assassin to take a shot at him?

Posted by Kevin Hoffman at April 4, 2008 10:11 AM | Comments (3)

 

Is John McCain smarter than a fifth grader?

Filed under: John McCain

John McCain, the self-proclaimed foreign policy guru and best candidate for president of the United States, apparently has very little understanding of the situation on the ground in the Middle East.

As Cameron W. Barr and Michael D. Shear of the Washington Post report:

McCain said it was "common knowledge and has been reported in the media that al-Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran, that's well known. And it's unfortunate." A few moments later, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, standing just behind McCain, stepped forward and whispered in the presidential candidate's ear. McCain then said: "I'm sorry, the Iranians are training extremists, not al-Qaeda."

Such a blunder puts any Bushism to shame. If only McCain remembered that al-Qaeda in Iraq is composed of mostly Sunni Muslim extremists, with Shiites and U.S. forces often being the targets of their attacks.

Iran, on the other hand, is ruled by Shiites and the country supports a Shiite-led government in Iraq. For months, the U.S. has asserted that Iraq Shiite militias have been training and obtaining weapons in Iran to further their cause.

Perhaps old man, maverick McCain needs to learn when to keep his mouth shut. And, perhaps, the Democrats need to capitalize on these senile moment. Talking Points Memo put out an interesting clip calling McCain's perceived strengths his Achilles heel.

Monday, McCain reconfirmed his commitment to the war, the same war that he says he’ll fight for 100 more years if necessary when elected president, taking a dig on his potential Democratic opponents:

I don't know if it's naiveté or what the problem is, but they're dead wrong when they say we should leave Iraq.

Now, if calling their potential ignorance into question isn’t just the perfect example of the pot calling the kettle black, I don’t know what is.

Posted by Beth Walton at March 26, 2008 12:13 PM | Comments (0)

 

Will McCain win Washington state? Mais non

Filed under: John McCain

When I moved to Washington state in almost 10 years ago, my cousin's husband asked me about what my friend up there did for work. He worked for Boeing, I replied. "Oh, of course," said my cousin's spouse. "Everyone up here works for Boeing."

When John McCain tubed a major contract for Boeing that ended up going to European provider Airbus, the Northwest was outraged. McCain's political opponents have produced the following video, which is amusing on multiple levels.

The French take a lot of static from various sources, which is sometimes well-deserved, sometimes utterly undeserved. Regardless, it's funny to see the right-wing bugaboo of Pierre the Heavily-Accented Frog be used against one of them.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at March 25, 2008 8:47 AM | Comments (0)

 

"You helped this happen..."

Filed under: John McCain

If the Rev. Wright videos are going to be bouncing around the ether and onto our television screens for the foreseeable future, might as well get this one in the mix: Rev. Jerry Falwell in conversation on the 700 Club with Pat Robertson--just two days after the 911 attacks and one day before Wright's now famous "chickens coming home to roost" remarks.

Here you go:

And here's a transcript:

JERRY FALWELL: And I agree totally with you that the Lord has protected us so wonderfully these 225 years. And since 1812, this is the first time that we've been attacked on our soil and by far the worst results ... God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve.

PAT ROBERTSON: Jerry, that's my feeling. I think we've just seen the antechamber to terror. We haven't even begun to see what they can do to the major population.

JERRY FALWELL: The ACLU's got to take a lot of blame for this.

PAT ROBERTSON: Well yes.

JERRY FALWELL: And, I know that I'll hear from them for this. But, throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say "you helped this happen."

PAT ROBERTSON: Well, I totally concur

John McCain famously called Falwell and Robertson "agents of intolerance." As the shoe-in nominee for the Republican Party in 2008, he's said he no longer believes that to be true, and even delivered the commencement address at Falwell's Liberty University last year.

Like it or not, Barack Obama will no doubt be answering for Wright's words for as long as his campaign lasts. Will McCain have to answer for his pastor connections?

Stephen Colbert handled this issue with typical efficiency this week...

Posted by Jeff Severns Guntzel at March 21, 2008 12:26 PM | Comments (1)

 

Should McCain choose a black VP?

Filed under: John McCain

No matter who wins the Democratic nomination, John McCain will also be competing against a Historical Moment. Either it will be the first woman nominated or the first African American, versus a guy who looks like he'd fit right in with the framers of the Constitution.

Which is why some Republican pundits are urging McCain to select a VP of color, or ideally, the twofer known as Condi Rice.

In an op-ed published in today's New York Times, William Kristol puts forth a list of untraditional choices, including one pube-hair loving Supreme Court Justice:

Perhaps the most obvious way McCain could upend the normal dynamics of this year’s election would be a bold vice presidential choice. ... He could persuade the most impressive conservative in American public life, Clarence Thomas, to join the ticket.

The most impressive conservative in American public life?! That's heady praise for a man whose greatest accomplishment seems to be keeping his yap shut for two years straight.

Meanwhile, in this New Yorker column, Henrik Hertzberg suggests Condoleeza Rice as a VP choice that would allow McCain to have his base and eat it too:

If McCain really wants to have it all—to refurbish his maverick image without having to flip-flop on the panderings that have tarnished it; to galvanize the attention of the press, the nation, and the world; to make a bold play for the center without seriously alienating “the base”—then he can avail himself of a highly interesting option: Condoleezza Rice.

Of the two, I think Condi is the better choice, both individually and demographically. But the funny thing about such speculation is that it shines a spotlight on how old, white, and male the Republican party continues to be compared to Democrats. I mean, can't the Republicans find a Conservative African American without having to poach the one from the Supreme Court? What's Carlton from Fresh Prince of Bel-Aire up to these days?

Posted by Kevin Hoffman at March 10, 2008 3:30 PM | Comments (1)

 

Bush will endorse McCain tomorrow

Filed under: John McCain

Like the clingy ex-girlfriend who just won't stop showing up at your office, Bush is going to officially endorse John McCain tomorrow. The least popular president in modern history has already been told once by the McCain campaign to keep his support more or less on the down-low. But I suppose it would kind of look silly if the outgoing Republican president didn't give the party's nominee the expected kiss of death imprimatur.

Even Bush's home-state paper the Dallas Morning News says this is befuddling from a strategy perspective. True, Bush remains popular among conservatives, but the true hard core are never going to turn out for McCain anyway, and getting shackled to the heinously unpopular "war president" is just going the alienate the independents to whom a McCain candidacy is designed to appeal.

Bill Clinton used to use the Doobie Brothers' "Takin' It To the Streets" as his anthem. I have a feeling tomorrow's song for McCain is going to be "Don't Stand So Close To Me."

Posted by Jeff Shaw at March 4, 2008 10:54 PM | Comments (0)

 

McCain embraces Harry Potter hater

Filed under: John McCain

John Hagee has many disturbing traits -- his feelings that the Catholic church represents the Antichrist, that New Orleans had it coming from Katrina, and his open hatred of gays -- but John McCain's favorite preacher has another kooky belief that might present greater problems. He thinks Harry Potter is a tool designed to bring kids into the occult. Hell hath no fury like a Rowlingite scorned.

Mike Huckabee is dismayed that he didn't get the nod from Hagee, arguing that his principles are closer to the wingnut minister's. But be fair, Huck -- are you willing to go on video spewing unhinged anti-Catholic bigotry?

In case you're scoring at home, Democrats must scramble to denounce vile kooks like Louis Farrakahn (even if they've done so many times in the past, and are in no way affiliated). Republicans must scramble to get endorsements from vile kooks, and can proudly take the stage with them. As usual, Glenn Greenwald has the goods.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at February 28, 2008 7:06 PM | Comments (1)

 

Is John McCain an illegal alien?

Filed under: John McCain

The New York Times is reporting this morning that questions are being raised about whether John McCain is a "natural-born citizen" and thus eligible to hold the office of President of the United States.

McCain was born on a military base in the Panama Canal Zone, where his father, a Navy officer, was stationed. Because he was not born in one of the 50 states, there is some question whether he qualifies as "natural born" as it was defined in 1787.

From the article:

Mr. McCain’s citizenship was established by statutes covering the offspring of Americans abroad and laws specific to the Canal Zone as Congress realized that Americans would be living and working in the area for extended periods. But whether he qualifies as natural-born has been a topic of Internet buzz for months, with some declaring him ineligible while others assert that he meets all the basic constitutional qualifications — a natural-born citizen at least 35 years of age with 14 years of residence.

Most legal scholars seem to think this is a red herring, and I'm inclined to agree, but the campaign is taking it seriously enough that they've hired a former soliciter general to prepare a detailed legal analysis.

Posted by Kevin Hoffman at February 28, 2008 10:09 AM | Comments (6)

 

Straight Talk Express derailed by deposition

Filed under: John McCain

Newsweek is giving the lie to McCain's claim that he never carried water for anybody from his alleged mistress' firm:

Just hours after the Times's story was posted, the McCain campaign issued a point-by-point response that depicted the letters as routine correspondence handled by his staff—and insisted that McCain had never even spoken with anybody from Paxson or Alcalde & Fay about the matter. "No representative of Paxson or Alcalde & Fay personally asked Senator McCain to send a letter to the FCC," the campaign said in a statement e-mailed to reporters.

But that flat claim seems to be contradicted by an impeccable source: McCain himself. "I was contacted by Mr. Paxson on this issue," McCain said in the Sept. 25, 2002, deposition obtained by NEWSWEEK. "He wanted their approval very bad for purposes of his business. I believe that Mr. Paxson had a legitimate complaint."

Here's the deposition from 2002:

Q: "Do you know were they got the information?"

McCain: "No. But I would add, I was contacted by Mr. Paxson on this issue."

Q: "You were?"

McCain: "Yes."

Q: "Can you tell us what you said and what he said about it?"

McCain: "That he had applied to purchase this station and that he wanted to purchase it. And that there had been a numerous year delay with the FCC reaching a decision. And he wanted their approval very bad for purposes of his business.I said I would be glad to write a letter asking them to act. But I will not write a letter, I cannot write a letter asking them to approve or deny, because then that would be an interference in their activities. I think everybody is entitled to a decision. But I can't ask for a favorable disposition for you."

Q: "Did you speak to the company's lobbyist about these matters?"

McCain: "I don't recall if it was Mr. Paxson or the company's lobbyist or both."

Q: "But you did speak to him?"

McCain: "I'm sure I spoke with him, yes."

Which doesn't seem to jibe with this statement from McCain:

"No representative of Paxson or Alcalde and Fay discussed with Senator McCain the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proceeding regarding the transfer of Pittsburgh public television station (WQED) to Cornerstone Broadcasting and Cornerstone Broadcasting’s television station (WPCB) to Paxson. No representative of Paxson or Alcalde and Fay personally asked Senator McCain to send a letter to the FCC regarding this proceeding."

But the McCain camp is sticking with its guns in this denial to Newsweek:

"We do not think there is a contradiction here," campaign spokeswoman Ann Begeman e-mailed NEWSWEEK after being asked about the senator's sworn testimony five and a half years ago. "We do not have the transcript you excerpted and do not know the exact questions Senator McCain was asked, but it appears that Senator McCain, when speaking of being contacted by Paxson, was speaking in shorthand of his staff being contacted by representatives of Paxson. Senator McCain does not recall being asked directly by Paxson or any representative of him or by Alcalde & Fay to contact the FCC regarding the Pittsburgh license transaction.

Posted by Kevin Hoffman at February 22, 2008 4:27 PM | Comments (2)

 

McCain Mistress Bombshell! UPDATE

Filed under: John McCain

The New York Times is leading with a report suggesting John McCain had an inappropriate relationship with a female lobbyist:

WASHINGTON — Early in Senator John McCain’s first run for the White House eight years ago, waves of anxiety swept through his small circle of advisers.

A female lobbyist had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, visiting his offices and accompanying him on a client’s corporate jet. Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself — instructing staff members to block the woman’s access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity.

When news organizations reported that Mr. McCain had written letters to government regulators on behalf of the lobbyist’s client, the former campaign associates said, some aides feared for a time that attention would fall on her involvement.

Mr. McCain, 71, and the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, 40, both say they never had a romantic relationship. But to his advisers, even the appearance of a close bond with a lobbyist whose clients often had business before the Senate committee Mr. McCain led threatened the story of redemption and rectitude that defined his political identity.

Both McCain and Iseman deny that they had an affair, but this is sure to give momentum to Huckabee, who suddenly looks smart for staying in till the bitter end.

By the way, this is McCain's "O" face:

UPDATE: And it's not the first time. The current Mrs. McCain started out as a mistress:

Skousen also notes that "McCain cheated on his first wife after she had a severe accident. He then divorced her and married his multi-millionaire mistress, whose daddy bought McCain a spot in the Congress."

More damning details about the first affair and the potential future first lady:

McCain was immediately dazzled and spent the event chatting her up.

"She was lovely, intelligent and charming, 17 years my junior but poised and confident," McCain wrote in his 2002 book, Worth the Fighting For. "I monopolized her attention the entire time, taking care to prevent anyone else from intruding on our conversation. When it came time to leave the party, I persuaded her to join me for drinks at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. By the evening's end, I was in love."

McCain recalls that both he and Cindy initially misled each other about their ages. McCain made himself a little younger, and Cindy made herself a little older. They found out their real ages when the local paper published them. McCain was 43, Cindy 25.

"So our marriage," McCain cracks, "is really based on a tissue of lies."

Emphasis added to point out the blinding irony. Back to the tape, here's where McCain dumps his old lady for a hot new model:

McCain needed a divorce from Carol, his wife of 14 years from whom he was separated. After McCain's dramatic homecoming from Vietnam, the couple grew apart. Their marriage began disintegrating while McCain was stationed in Jacksonville. McCain has admitted to having extramarital affairs.

"If there was one couple that deserved to make it, it was John and Carol McCain," author Robert Timberg wrote in John McCain: An American Odyssey. "They endured nearly six years of unspeakable trauma with courage and grace. In the end it was not enough. They won the war but lost the peace."

In February 1980, less than a year after he met Cindy, McCain petitioned a Florida court to dissolve his marriage to Carol, calling the union "irretrievably broken."

His wife's take? McCain was suffering a midlife crisis (which makes this latest possible affair his late late life crisis):

She did briefly address her divorce to Timberg: "The breakup of our marriage was not caused by my accident or Vietnam or any of those things. I don't know that it might not have happened if John had never been gone. I attribute it more to John turning 40 and wanting to be 25 again than I do to anything else."

So then McCain marries his mistress a mere month after divorcing his wife. Also, note that the groomsmen including Gary Hart(!):

In April 1980, the judge entered a default judgment and declared the marriage dissolved.

A month later, McCain married Cindy in Phoenix, where the couple would move. The wedding party included a couple of McCain's high-profile friends from Washington. Sen. William Cohen was the best man. Sen. Gary Hart was a groomsman.

Monkey business, indeed.

Posted by Kevin Hoffman at February 20, 2008 9:17 PM | Comments (10)

 

McCain to Bush: It's Not You, It's Me.

Filed under: John McCain

Word from John McCain's campaign is that the presumptive nominee is asking the President not to appear too often at campaign rallies. Lay low, the logic goes, and he won't bring down his fellow Republican with that 30ish approval rating.

How does one go about asking a sitting president to stay away? We've obtained an exclusive letter from McCain to Bush that reveals how the candidate is navigating these tricky political waters.

CITY PAGES EXCLUSIVE!!1! MUST CREDIT CITY PAGES! MUST USE EXCLAMATION POINTS!

The Hon. George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear George,

We've had some good times together, haven't we, over the years? There's no easy way to say this. I just need some more space right now.

It's not you, it's me. It's about my needs. Specifically, me needing to have a presidential campaign without the 200-pound millstone of being associated with the least popular president of modern times.

Our relationship has had its rocky, times, to be sure. Like when your lackeys ran a race-baiting primary campaign by spreading false rumors that I had fathered a black child out of wedlock. But I forgave and forgot. When you used fringe figure J. Thomas Burch to malign my image among fellow war veterans, I turned the other cheek.

(Well, OK, I actually ran ads asking if they wanted "another president in the White House that America can't trust." Boy, it's a good thing for you that voters weren't ready to hear "straight talk" back then, right?)

I kid! Bygones.

The irony of this being a "Dear George" letter from a guy named John is not lost on me. If you look up "irony," it will not be lost on you either. Probably.

You'll always be a part my life. In my own way, I'll advance your legacy as president. Why do you think I want to stay in Iraq for anywhere between 100 and 10,000 years? It's out of honor and respect for what we once had, and the war we created together. As a team.

You never know: maybe you and I will have another opportunity to start an armed conflict someday. After all, radio stations still play our song sometimes. Ah, memories!

For now, though, let's just be friends. Of course I still respect you. Can we hug it out?

Sincerely,

John

Posted by Jeff Shaw at February 18, 2008 11:48 AM | Comments (1)

 

Parody of Obama video featuring McCain

Filed under: John McCain

Remember the Barack Obama "Yes We Can" video that's drawn rave reviews and churned out pageviews? Unsurprisingly, there's a new parody of it out now. Surprisingly, it's well worth your time.

Mostly I smile at but quickly turn away from these one-off parodies. Once you get the joke, what's the point of watching the full 90-second video?

Occasionally, though, such a parody manages to approach or even surpass the original. This is one of those occasions. Splicing together clips of John McCain's utterances on the topic of Iraq, this movie manages to be entertaining and skewer its subject satirically all at once. Well worth every second invested.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at February 11, 2008 12:17 PM | Comments (1)

 

Speech review: John McCain

Filed under: John McCain

Dear God, not the "Mac is Back" chant again. This makes my eyelid twitch.

McCain seemed to have more energy tonight than in previous speeches, but still had the "I'm reading this off the teleprompter verbatim" problem. At least they didn't send him up there with a piece of paper to fumble with as in previous primaries, but the only time he seemed to get off his prompts was when he talked about his mom. What is it with moms in tonight's speeches?

Though McCain was more fluid and poised than in past speeches, he still had the "squint and look confused" problem when he'd stare out at the teleprompter during a portion he didn't have memorized.

The more I see this man speak, the more I see an older version of Bob Dole. The elder statesman who has earned respect in many circles -- and raised hackles in others -- but will never be president.

CNN cut away from McCain in mid-speech to go to Barack Obama. A better programming decision hasn't been made since they canceled "Cop Rock."

Posted by Jeff Shaw at February 5, 2008 10:38 PM | Comments (0)

 

Conservatives vs. McCain

Filed under: John McCain

The long knives are out. Rush Limbaugh says he'd rather see a Democrat in the White House than McCain. Laura Ingraham refuses to vote for the man. Ann Coulter would (allegedly) rather endorse Hillary. Count James Dobson out of the supporter category, too.

This is more than just garden-variety opposition, and it's not just jockeying for position to push a more-favored candidate. This is entrenched "no-way" sentiment, and it extends to numerous Republican legislators past and present.

"The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine," Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), also a senior member of the Appropriations panel, told the Boston Globe recently. "He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."

What does it all mean?

Even if McCain wins tonight, you have to discount considerably his chances in the general election. The right's greatest success has been in mobilizing the hard core of the Republican Party's conservatives, and if those folks don't turn out to vote in the general, that's trouble.

GOP strategists argue that McCain has appeal among independents, and maybe that's true, but that's not how Republican candidates win elections. John Kerry crushed George W. Bush among independents, but Bush won anyway. And most of the people that made that happen will stay home rather than vote for John McCain.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at February 5, 2008 4:31 PM | Comments (0)

 

Spoiler alert: McCain's going to win

Filed under: John McCain

Not that I want to dampen enthusiasm for tonight's spate of primaries, but polls indicate that John McCain has it made. Talking Points Memo had a breakdown earlier in the week showing why this is the case, and little has changed since then.

Of course, if the Giants can beat the Patriots, anything can happen, right?

Posted by Jeff Shaw at February 5, 2008 10:48 AM | Comments (0)

 

Is McCain too old? UPDATED!

Filed under: John McCain

Anna Quindlen's latest column in Newsweek asks whether John McCain is too old to be president. If elected, McCain would be 72 by the time he took office, making him two years older than Ronald Reagan was when he began his first term. While Quindlen is by no means the first to raise the issue--McCain famously smacked down a kid who inquired about it with the retort, "Thanks for the question, you little jerk."--the lede of her column makes a nice point about the toll the office of president takes on even the young and healthy:

Here's my unscientific theory about the presidency: it ages a person in dog years. Each year in office is roughly equivalent to seven years in the life of an ordinary citizen. I base this on before-and-after photographs of the occupants of the Oval Office, who frequently look as though they've spent their time in captivity, being beaten with sticks.

That brought to mind this truly horrifying YouTube clip, which may provide a preview of what President McCain will look like in Year 4:

UPDATE: Now comes word, via the Washington Post, that in order to get a much-needed loan, McCain had to take out a special life insurance policy in case he kicked the bucket before getting elected.

By last November, John McCain's presidential campaign was broke. To survive, he offered his fundraising lists as collateral for a $3 million line of credit from a local bank. But obtaining the loan required an unusual extra step: He had to take out a special life insurance policy in case he did not survive the campaign.

So what's our insurance policy if McCain dies after inaugeration? This might be the most important vice-presidential selection in history.

Posted by Kevin Hoffman at February 1, 2008 7:17 PM | Comments (2)

 

Hispanics put McCain over the top

Filed under: John McCain

It's been conventional wisdom that John McCain's support for immigrants could cost him the Republican presidential nomination, because it put him on the "wrong side" of the party's base. Now comes the surprising news from Simon Rosenberg that it might in fact do the opposite:

According to the exit polls Mitt Romney and John McCain tied 33% to 33% among the 89% of the Florida Republicans who voted last night who were not Hispanic. Among Hispanics, who where 11% of the Florida GOP electorate last night, the vote was 54% McCain, 24% Rudy and 14% Romney. So it was the vote of Hispanic voters who put John McCain over the top in Florida, and gave him the most important win of his fight for the GOP nomination.

Thus, John McCain, the candidate who championed immigration reform, may have had the nomination delivered to him by those Hispanic voters he has been fighting for. And Romney, who has led the anti-immigrant crusade in the GOP field this year, saw this strategy explode on him - as it has virtually every other Republican who has invested in it - last night.

Meanwhile, Rolling Stone has an article reporting that top Republican strategists are terrified that the xenophobia gripping the party could backfire in a major way:

Exploiting the spasm of xenophobia that has taken hold of the GOP base helped Huckabee win Iowa — where entrance polls found illegal immigration the primary issue among the party's voters. But top Republican strategists are petrified that pandering to a narrow band of nativists will ruin the GOP's future with the nation's fastest-growing bloc of voters. This November, Hispanic turnout is expected to jump by fifty percent over 2000, with more than 9 million Latinos predicted to cast ballots. "I have never seen an issue where the short-term interests of Republican presidential candidates in the primaries were more starkly at odds with the long-term interests of the party itself," Michael Gerson, former White House senior policy adviser, wrote recently.

Grover Norquist, a top ally of Karl Rove, believes that the "vicious" rhetoric by GOP candidates could prompt Hispanics to flee "in droves" to the Democrats. "Talking about a strong border is one thing," Norquist says. "It's when you get into enforcing the law — which means deport — that you lose people's votes. Oddly enough, people resent the idea that you might throw their mother out of the country."

Posted by Kevin Hoffman at January 30, 2008 2:18 PM | Comments (6)

 

Exit polls: race between McCain, Mittens too close to call

Filed under: John McCain

The polls are just about to close in Florida, but this isn't close to being over.

The first wave of leaked exit polls are within the margin of error, with John McCain and Mitt Romney running neck and neck. Rudy? A cooked goose. Huck? A flattened squirrel.

Absentees are a third of the total vote, and the National Review is hearing that Romney is ahead among those.

Exit polls have been unreliable in the past, but assuming for a moment these numbers are accurate -- McCain is ahead now, but Romney is leading with those votes left uncounted by the exit polls, which are significant.

I guess what I'm saying is, we don't know any more who is ahead than before you started reading this post. So hang in there.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at January 29, 2008 7:03 PM | Comments (0)

 

McCain is no Obama

Filed under: John McCain

As Paul Demko points out in the previous post, John McCain just gave one of the worst victory speeches I've ever heard. He walked in to the Rocky theme and the excitable crowd interrupted him several times with chants of "Mac is back!" (which at first sounded like "Pack his bags!"). He started off with a joke alluding to Bill Clinton's "comeback kid" victory, saying that though McCain is too old to be called a kid, "tonight, we sure showed 'em what a comeback looks like!" But after that, McCain seemed to fall apart, reading from an obviously written speech and several times stammering through language that clearly wasn't his own.

"The don't send us to Washington to stroke our egos," McCain intoned, "but to keep this beautiful (long uncomfortable pause as he squints at the text) beautiful?, blessed country safe, prosperous and proud." Working this theme, McCain got lost in his double negatives and pronoun confusion, saying of voters: "They don't help a single family realize the dreams we all dream for our children, that don't help a single displaced worker find a new job ..." Then McCain again struggled with the text, saying, "I seek the nomination of our party to restore that trust, to return our property--our party to the principles that have never failed Americans."

Where Obama promises "the audacity of hope," McCain's most rousing line was, "We are the makers of history, not its victims."

Posted by Kevin Hoffman at January 8, 2008 9:03 PM | Comments (1)

 

John McCain is really old

Filed under: John McCain

That was one long, marginally-coherent victory speech from John McCain. He seemed rather old and befuddled. For a guy whose reputation is built on speaking his mind, McCain appeared incapable of producing a single unscripted thought.

Posted by Paul Demko at January 8, 2008 8:29 PM | Comments (0)

 

CNN projecting McCain will win New Hampshire

Filed under: John McCain

I'm always baffled at how they're able to predict these things with so few precincts reporting, but CNN is calling it for McCain:

With 16 percent of Republican precincts reporting, McCain had 37 percent of the vote. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was second with 28 percent, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, the winner of last week's Iowa GOP caucuses followed with 12 percent.

Keep in mind that McCain won New Hampshire in 2000, but ultimately lost the nomination thanks to some Bush strategery, as chronicled by Matt Snyders here.

But it may set up McCain as the anti-Huckabee and turn it into a two-man race.

Posted by Kevin Hoffman at January 8, 2008 7:53 PM | Comments (0)

 

Huge Democrat turnout could hurt McCain

Filed under: John McCain

Drudge is reporting a huge Democratic turnout in New Hampshire:

EPIC TURNOUT FOR DEMS -- We Are Out of Ballots!

Secretary of State is making runs to Seacoast – Hampton, Portsmouth – and Southern Hillsborough – Pelham, Nashua – to bring extra democratic ballots. Many towns are reporting shortages... Developing..

(and you know it's true because he has a flashing siren on it).

This DailyKos diarist is reporting the same phenomenon.

While this bodes ill for the Republican Party as a whole, it could be particularly bad for John McCain. He's counting on independents to help put him over the top, and it looks like they're breaking for the Dems, most likely swept up in Obamamania.

Posted by Kevin Hoffman at January 8, 2008 1:02 PM | Comments (0)

 

Zogby: Obama, McCain with big leads in New Hampshire

Filed under: John McCain , John McCain

The last Zogby poll numbers are out in advance of tonight's New Hampshire primary, and Barack Obama leads Hillary Clinton by 13 points (John Edwards is even further behind). Some of Hillary's advisors are even starting to wonder about whether it would be worth it to fight on the face of such a defeat. This is interesting to ponder given Eric Black's minimization of the New Hampshire hype.

Zogby shows a less dominating, but still significant advantage for John McCain on the Republican side, with Mitt Romney within striking distance and Mike Huckabee a distant third. This is how the playing field looks for tonight.

I used these numbers because I'm one of those polled by Zogby (not for New Hampshire, obviously, but for national issues). If you've got other numbers, let's see 'em.

Also, it looks like turnout is expected to be huge. Start your countdown and fire up your ulcer medication, the next dozen or so hours could get interesting.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at January 8, 2008 11:01 AM | Comments (0)