And whatever it was he was ripped off. I know McCain's war chest seems more like a glove compartment compared to Obama's but still, buying your campaign playbook from the loser of the last race doesn't make any sense. It would be like plagiarizing last year's Laker's strategy when it was your team's turn against the Celtics.
It really seems that the only voting bloc McCain is courting these days is that of the Angry Old Man.
Not since the NAACP convention has McCain made a single non-vituperative comment about Obama. Instead, McCain's answer to "Yes, we can," seems to be "HEY YOU KIDS. GET THE HELL OFF MY LAWN!"
Before this campaign I always had a bit of a soft spot for McCain, the lone Republican to stand up to the Bush disaster. Two years ago I assumed the two nominees would have been McCain and Hillary and although I would have voted for Hillary, I didn't really think there would be that big of a difference.
Well, that well of good will has long-since dried up. Much has been made of McCain's scurrilous contention that Obama is a traitor who would rather lose the war than a political contest, but it was McCain's reptilian smile after delivering the line that sent a chill down my spine. I've seen him charming and light on the Daily Show but it really seems that the main substance flowing through his veins these days is hate. How else to explain the ad his camp is running now saying Obama would rather play basketball than visit wounded troops? If that came from some rich right wing nut I would have just shrugged it off but to hear, "I'm John McCain and I approve this message" at the end was a shock. When George Bush and Karl Rove spread the rumor that McCain had an illegitimate black baby they at least had the good sense to cover their asses with plausible deniability.
(This from the man who obstructed the latest GI Bill, and seems willing to cripple our own armed forces, watch al Qaeda reconstitute and the Taliban retake Afghanistan, all so he can tell himself that we won the war in Iraq.)
Senator McCain, a friendly hint from the opposition: instead of trying to get us to believe that a calm, charming, educated man is actually craven, ignorant and traitorous, try telling Americans how you'd plan on righting this listing ship of state.
