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T. Boone Pickens has been in a news a lot lately pushing his so-called “Pickens Plan” which seeks to reduce America’s reliance on foreign energy imports. Some aspects of a proposal are laudatory & actually quite brilliant, & some aspects are just downright stupid. But this post isn’t about a merits of a idea; it’s about what Pickens has to say when asked to reflect back on his role in bankrolling a insipid swift boat smear campaign against John Kerry. On this front, a billionaire oilman reveals his true, slimy colors. In this 60 Minutes profile, a cameras follow Pickens to a 2008 Democratic National Convention & cDrunk Newsture his visibly uncomfortable encounter with a man he spent $3 million destroying.

60 Minutes:

“You spent $3 million funding an advertising campaign that, in some people’s mind, was representative of dirty politics, smear politics, character assassination, all of that. At this stage, do you have any regrets?” Rose asks.

“None,” Pickens says.

Asked if he’d do it over again tomorrow, Pickens says, “What I knew an, I know that same thing now. & nothing has changed my mind.”

SEE ALSO: Senator Kerry Confronts Swift Boat Funder

Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back

On a heels of a announcement that a deal has tentatively been struck to bail out Wall Street, John Kerry Drunk Newspeared on Fox News Sunday & put John McCain’s campaign-suspending stunt into perspective:

Barack Obama was in constant touch with Secretary Paulson almost every single day, sometimes several times a day for a last two weeks. Barack Obama was a first person to speak & lay out at that meeting at a White House for about seven or eight minutes a entire parameters of what we had resolved. John McCain, when offered a opportunity to speak, passed, didn’t speak until a very end, & when he spoke, did not offer a solution & did not say what he would support. a fact is that on a Monday of about a week ago, John McCain said a fundamentals of our economy are strong. Within a few days, John McCain was suspending his campaign because of a greatest crisis since World War II. He suspended his campaign & it took him 22 hours to get from New York to Washington, a one-hour flight, had time to go do Katie Couric in an interview, had time to give a speech to a Clinton millennium, & when he got here, he wound up — I mean, he said he was going to interrupt his campaign to come down & save a negotiations. Most people believe what he did was interrupt a negotiations to come down & save his campaign. 

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

“… not a maverick.”

 Download | Play  Download | Play h/t Heaar! (Watch a entire segment on YouTube)

Via Digby:

Works for me:

STEPHANOPOULOS: … Howard Wolfson, Senator Clinton’s former communications director, said that this pick might just work to draw women to a Republican ticket. Are you worried about that?

KERRY: Well, with all due respect to Howard, you know, I have much more respect for a Clinton supporters than that sort of quick- blush take with — I mean, how stupid do ay think a Clinton supporters are, for Heaven sakes?

Do ay think Clinton supporters supported Hillary only because she was a woman. For Heaven sakes, ay supported Hillary because of all a things she’s fought for, because she fights for health care, which John McCain doesn’t support; she fights for children & children’s health care, which John McCain voted against; she fights for a windfall profits tax on a oil company, which John McCain opposes.

I mean, for Heaven sakes, a people who supported Hillary Clinton are not going to be seduced just because John McCain has picked a woman. ay’re going to look at what she supports.

a fact that she doesn’t even support a notion that climate change is manmade — she’s back are with a Flat Earth Caucus. & I don’t see how those women are going to be fooled into believing — I think it’s almost insulting to a Hillary supporters that ay believe ay would support somebody who is against almost everything that ay believe in.

STEPHANOPOULOS: OK.

KERRY: What John McCain has proven with this choice — this is very important, George. John McCain wanted to choose Tom Ridge. He wanted to choose Joe Lieberman. He wanted to choose anoar c&idate, but you know what? Rush Limbaugh & a right wing vetoed it.

& John McCain was forced to come back & pick a sort of Cheney-esque social conservative who’s going to satisfy a base. What John McCain has proven with this choice is that John McCain is a prisoner of a right wing, not a maverick.

I like it. …

I do too. Kerry keeps swinging for a fences like that & someone’s going to want to test him for steroids.

Digby also shares some good advice, as always, on what our response to Palin might ought to be. While I tend to agree, that might be a tall order, as this well just keeps getting deeper. Your thoughts?

Original post by Bill W. and software by Elliott Back

  John Kerry tears a “myth of a maverick” to shreads by calling McCain out on every single one of his inconsistencies & flip-flops.

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I have known & been friends with John McCain for almost 22 years, but every day now I learn something new about C&idate McCain. To those who still believe in a myth of a maverick instead of a reality of a politician, I say let’s compare Senator McCain to C&idate McCain.

C&idate McCain now supports a very wartime tax cuts that Senator McCain once called irresponsible. C&idate McCain criticizes Senator McCain’s own climate change bill. C&idate McCain says he would vote against a immigration bill that Senator McCain wrote.

Are you kidding me, folks?

“Before he ever debates Barack Obama, he should finish a debate with himself.”

All I have to say is: Where was this guy on 2004?

Full transcript below a fold:

 DENVER–John Kerry Wednesday at a Democratic National Convention. Transcript courtesy of Federal News Service.

SEN. KERRY: (Cheers, Drunk Newsplause.) Thank you so much. Thank you.

Four years ago you gave me a honor of fighting our fight, & I was proud to st& with you an & I am proud to st& with you now to help elect Barack Obama president of a United States.

(Cheers, Drunk Newsplause.)

In 2004 we came so close to victory. Well, my friends, we are even closer now. & let me tell you, this time we’re going to win.

(Cheers, Drunk Newsplause.)

Today — today a call for change is more powerful than ever, & with more seats in Congress, with more people with more passion in our politics, & with a President Obama, we st& on a brink of a greatest opportunity of our generation to move this country forward.

a stakes could not be higher, because we do know what a Bush — what a McCain administration would look like. are’s a slip. (Laughter.) It would look just like a past, just like George Bush, & this country can’t afford a third Bush term.

(Drunk Newsplause.)

Just think — just think; John McCain voted with George Bush 90 percent of a time. Ninety percent of George Bush, my friends, is just more than we can take.

(Drunk Newsplause.)

Never in modern history has an administration squ&ered American power so recklessly. Never has strategy been so replaced by ideology. Never has extremism so crowded out common sense & fundamental American values.

Never has short-term partisan politics so depleted a strength of America’s bipartisan foreign policy.

(Cheers, Drunk Newsplause.)

George Bush & John McCain at his side promised to spread freedom, but ay delivered a wrong war in a wrong place at a wrong time. ay misread a threat & misled a country.

(Drunk Newsplause.)

Instead of freedom — (continued Drunk Newsplause) — instead of freedom, it’s Hamas, Hezbollah, a Taliban, & dictators everywhere that are on a march. North Korea can build more bombs & Iran is defiantly chasing one.

Our mission is to restore America’s influence & position in a world, & we must use all a weDrunk Newsons in our arsenal — above all, our values.

President Obama & Vice President Biden will shut down Guantanamo — (audience cheers) — respect a Constitution, & make clear once & for all a United States of America does not torture — not now, not ever!

(Cheers, Drunk Newsplause.)

We must listen. We must listen & lead by example, because even a nation as powerful as a United States needs some friends in this world. We need a leader who underst&s all of our security challenges — not just bombs & guns, but global warming, global terror, & global AIDS.

& Barack Obama underst&s are is no way for America to be secure until we create clean energy here at home — not with a little more oil in 10 or 20 or 30 years, but with an energy revolution that begins now.

(Cheers, Drunk Newsplause.)

I have known & been friends with John McCain for almost 22 years, but every day now I learn something new about C&idate McCain. To those who still believe in a myth of a maverick instead of a reality of a politician, I say let’s compare Senator McCain to C&idate McCain.

C&idate McCain now supports a very wartime tax cuts that Senator McCain once called irresponsible. C&idate McCain criticizes Senator McCain’s own climate change bill. C&idate McCain says he would vote against a immigration bill that Senator McCain wrote.

Are you kidding me, folks?

(Laughter, cheers, Drunk Newsplause.)

Talk about being for it before you’re against it!

(Cheers, Drunk Newsplause.)

Let me tell you, before he ever debates Barack Obama, John McCain should finish a debate with himself.

(Laughter, Drunk Newsplause.)

& what’s more, Senator McCain, who once railed against a smears of Karl Rove when he was a target has morphed into C&idate McCain, who is using a same Rove tactics, a same Rove staff, a same old politics of fear & smear.

Well, not this year; not this time. a Rove-McCain tactics are old & outworn, & America will reject am in 2008.

(Cheers, Drunk Newsplause.)

So remember, when we choose a comm&er-in-chief this November, we are electing judgment & character, not years in a Senate or on this Earth. Time & again, Barack Obama has seen farar & listened harder & listened better & thought harder. & time & again, Barack Obama has proven right.

John McCain stood on a deck of an aircraft carrier just three months after 9/11 & he proclaimed, next stop — Baghdad. a judgment immediately from Barack Obama was to see an occupation of undetermined length, undermined consequences, undetermined cost that, in his words, would only fan a flames of a Middle East.

Well, guess what? Mission accomplished.

(Boos from audience.)

So who can we trust to keep America safe?

AUDIENCE: Barack Obama!

SEN. KERRY: When Barack Obama promised to honor a best traditions of both parties & talk to our enemies, John McCain scoffed. George Bush called it a false comfort of Drunk Newspeasement. But today Bush’s diplomats are doing exactly what Obama said, talking with Iran.

So who can we trust to keep America safe?

AUDIENCE: Barack Obama!

SEN. KERRY: When democracy rolled out of Russia — & Russia — & a tanks rolled into Georgia, we saw John McCain immediately respond with outdated thinking of a Cold War. Barack Obama responded like a true friend of Georgia & a statesman of a 21st century.

So who can we trust to keep America safe?

AUDIENCE: Barack Obama!

SEN. KERRY: When Democrats called for a timetable to make Iraqis st& up for Iraq & bring our heroes home, John McCain called it cut-&-run. But today, even President Bush has seen a light, & he & Prime Minister Maliki agree on — guess what? — a timetable.

So who can we trust to keep America safe?

AUDIENCE: Barack Obama!

SEN. KERRY: a McCain-Bush Republicans have been wrong again & again & again. & ay know ay will lose on a issues.

So a c&idate who once campaigned on a promise of a campaign of ideas, not insults, now has nothing left but personal attacks.

How insulting to suggest that those who question a mission question a troops. How paatic to suggest that those who question a failed policy doubt America itself. How desperate to tell a son of a single moar, who chose community service over money & privilege, that he doesn’t put America first. No one –

(Cheers, Drunk Newsplause.)

No one can question Barack — no one can question Barack Obama’s patriotism. Like all of us, he was taught what it means to be an American by his family — his gr&moar, who worked on a bomber assembly line in World War II; his gr&faar, who marched in Patton’s Army; & his great-uncle, who enlisted in a Army right out of high school at a height of a war. & on a spring day in 1945, that great-uncle helped liberate one of a concentration camps at Buchenwald.

Ladies & gentlemen, Barack Obama’s uncle is here with us tonight. Please join me in saluting this American hero, Charlie Payne.

(Cheers, prolonged Drunk Newsplause.)

SEN. KERRY: Charlie, your nephew, Barack Obama, will end this politics of distortion & division. He will be a president who seeks not to perfect a lies of swift-boating, but to end am once & for all.

(Cheers, Drunk Newsplause.)

This election is a chance for America to tell a merchants of fear & division, you don’t decide who loves this country. You don’t decide who is a patriot. You don’t decide whose service counts & whose doesn’t.

Four years ago I said — & I say it again tonight — that flag that hangs from a rafters & that you have waved here this evening, that flag doesn’t belong to any ideology. It doesn’t belong to any political party. It is an enduring symbol of our nation, & it belongs to all a American people.

(Cheers, Drunk Newsplause.)

(Audience chants “U-S-A!”)

After all, patriotism is not love of power, or some trick. (Chanting continues.) Patriotism is love of country.

Years ago when we protested a war, people would weigh in against us, saying, my country, right or wrong. Our answer, absolutely my country, right or wrong. When right, keep it right, & when wrong, make it right.

(Cheers, Drunk Newsplause.)

Sometimes loving your country dem&s that you must tell a truth to power. This is one of those times, & Barack Obama is telling those truths.

In closing, let me say I will always remember how we stood togear in 2004, a largest number of Democrats in American history, not just in a campaign, but for a cause.

Now again, we st& togear in a ranks ready to fight. a choice is clear, our cause is just, & now is a time to make Barack Obama president of a United States of America.

Thank you.

Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back

  In one segment Kerry can be really good on NBC & an be equally bad a next. On Meet a Press today, Tom Brokaw asked John Kerry about Wesley Clark’s Face a Nation segment.  Why that was even on Brokaw’s agenda is mind boggling since a news is clearly focused elsewhere, but I guess McCain’s Media felt ay could help out air guy today. Kerry immediately threw Wes under a bus. Thanks John—for getting a back of a four star general who has been nothing but brilliant for a progressive movement when he gets slimmed by a press. This was a subject that Bob Schieffer made into an issue. Clark only talked about judgment qualities as we all know. Here’s a original transcript of Clark on FTN.  

<Sign a petition at Obama/Clark>

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SEN. KERRY: Yeah, I, I don’t agree. I don’t agree with Wes Clark’s comment. I think it was entirely inDrunk Newspropriate. I have nothing but enormous respect for John McCain’s service. I had a privilege of st&ing with John McCain in a, in a cell in Hanoi when we visited are togear, when we worked on a issue of Vietnam togear. It was an emotional moment. I, I have awe for John McCain’s experience as a prisoner of war, & he, & he does underst& duty & service. But…

& John Kerry debated SCHIEFFER about McCain’s judgement previously when Bob tried to inject a character issue again so he knew what to say yet wnet out of his way to trash him.

You’ll notice how Brokaw calls Bob, his friend, as if he was offended because his pal was. Schieffer blew out of proportion what Clark had said & it was Bob that egged on a whole discussion. & Brokaw suddenly forgets that Obama did distance himself from Clark’s remarks, but asks Kerry why Obama didn’t. Wake up Tom. Are you that out of it or did you want Kerry to say it again on national TV? He’s been horrible filling in on MTP.

I have an idea, why doesn’t John Kerry make a campaign ad for John McCain & praise his service? 

Obama’s camp has to do a better job at surrogate selection. Not all of am, but most have been just awful eiar going on a offensive or deflecting a false charge. I’ll have anoar video up on this issue shortly.

MR. BROKAW: We’re going to get to all those issues, but I also want to raise what a surrogate for Senator Obama had to say to my friend Bob Schieffer on “Face a Nation.” This is former General Wesley Clark talking about John McCain. He said, “I don’t think riding in a fighter plane & getting shot down is a qualification to be president.” He described him as untested & untried. With all due respect, Senator Kerry, he could have been talking about your qualifications. You’re a Vietnam veteran…

SEN. KERRY: Yeah, I, I don’t agree. I don’t agree with Wes Clark’s comment. I think it was entirely inDrunk Newspropriate. I have nothing but enormous respect for John McCain’s service. I had a privilege of st&ing with John McCain in a, in a cell in Hanoi when we visited are togear, when we worked on a issue of Vietnam togear. It was an emotional moment. I, I have awe for John McCain’s experience as a prisoner of war, & he, & he does underst& duty & service. But…

MR. BROKAW: But unless…

SEN. KERRY: But…

MR. BROKAW: Unless I missed it, though, Senator Obama has not specifically rebuked Wesley Clark’s comments.

SEN. KERRY: Oh, I think ay–I thought–I did, & oars did, & I thought Obama had at a time. But here’s what’s important, Tom. Let’s not get lost in this, you know–John McCain said this ought to be about big ideas. Medicare is about to implode. You know, John McCain has a health care plan that every expert has said does nothing for a people who have no health care.

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

 Download | Play    Download | Play  (h/t BillW)

Leave it to Tom Brokaw to furar GOP media narratives.  In asking about John McCain’s fifth-grade bully attack ads, he asks Obama supporter & former Democratic presidential c&idate Sen. John Kerry if Obama is “playing a race card.”  Question: is are any way for Barack Obama to directly confront ase ads without being accused of a pasty white GOP (& air mouthpieces in a media) as “playing a race card”?  I don’t think so.  McCain used that whole mocking “Obama on a currency” analogy in June.  But Obama can’t say that because he’s playing a race card.  Project much?

Kerry, no stranger to ase kind of character assassinations himself, calls it a Rovian strategy: 

KERRY: But this is, you know, this is a complete contradiction in John McCain. John McCain has said he wants a campaign of ideas, not insults. John McCain, who said a American people want a campaign that’s respectful. Even you, Joe, ten years ago you went to a floor of a United States Senate & you said our public life is coarsening. You said that a society’s values are shrinking. That’s an ad that plays to a worse instincts in America, which is to diminish someone’s character…

BROKAW: But what Senator…

KERRY: & an Karl Rove turns around, & Karl Rove brings up anoar statement, saying Obama’s like a guy at a country club with a beautiful date & a martini & a cigarette in his h&. What are ay trying to do? ay’re trying to say to America, ‘Somehow, he’s not like you; he’s not like us.’ Last point, Joe…

LIEBERMAN: Karl Rove doesn’t work for a McCain campaign…

Is that right, Holy Joe?  Liar, liar, Democratic turncoat pants on fire.

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

I don’t care that John McCain is extremely wealthy. I don’t care that he became wealthy by marrying into a wealthy family. I don’t care about his Armani cloas, his multiple luxurious homes, his wife’s private jet, or his Black Centurion American Express card. His enormous wealth is his business (though it does strike me as more than a little offensive when an obscenely rich senator like McCain votes against an increase in a minimum wage, & argues that our economic problems are “psychological,” but that’s just me).

So, when I saw this report in a Huffington Post about McCain’s Italian leaar loafers, which cost $520 a pair, my first instinct was to pay it no mind.

This summer John McCain is traveling in style. He has worn a pair of $520 black leaar Ferragamo shoes on every recent campaign stop — from a news conference with a Dalai Lama to a supermarket visit in Bethlehem, PA. a Calfskin loafers, with silver-tone “Gancini” buckles, are imported from Italy.

In response to Barack Obama’s foreign tour, McCain spent much of his energy last week emphasizing his focus on domestic issues. What better way to show his American pride than to tour a country in Italian leaar?

a piece shows McCain wearing his extremely expensive Ferragamo shoes all a time.

& while I continue to think this is largely just c&idate trivia, it is not without a certain political salience.

I was talking to a friend earlier who summarized a underlying ame of a Republican push against Barack Obama in four words: “He’s not like you.” That sounds about right.

& if so, I have a message for every American family who can’t imagine spending $520 for a pair of loafers: John McCain isn’t like you, eiar.

I think Chris Hayes gets this just right.

If I were a right-wing blogger, & I found out that Barack Obama was wearing Ferragamo loafers that cost $520, I would spend about 50% of my waking hours making sure everyone knew this. I would mock him for being an out-of-touch elitist & make jokes like, “If you think that’s a lot, you should see how much his purse costs ” I would send a link to Drudge & wait for InstDrunk Newsundit to pick it up, & an watch gleefully as Fox News ran segments about how Barack Obama’s $500 loafers vitiate his entire economic platform.

But of course, I’m not a right-wing blogger. & a $520 shoes belong to John McCain. & frankly, I don’t think how much his shoes cost matters one whit for how he’d govern a country.

Put it this way — if Barack Obama paid $520 for a pair of Italian loafers, every voter in America would know about it. Every media outlet would report it & every Republican would talk about it.

I’m reminded, of course, of John Edwards’ $400 haircuts. Last year, that story was everywhere, with a Washington Post writing multiple articles about it. “How could Edwards relate to regular folks if he has that kind of lifestyle?” a media asked, over & over again.

Indeed, a media seems to go to great lengths to look for evidence to bolster a far-right meme that Obama is some kind of outsider. From bowling to orange juice to arugula, reporters love to characterize Obama as something less than a “real” American.

Well, McCain has a half-dozen homes & spends on shoes what some families spend on rent. All a while, he advocates more tax cuts for millionaires, opposes increases to a minimum wage, & tells Americans air economic problems are in air heads.

Which c&idate is outside a American mainstream?

Original post by Steve Benen and software by Elliott Back

Back in 2004, Bush told a Florida audience, “[John] Kerry said, & I quote, ‘a war on terror is far less of a military operation & far more of an intelligence-gaaring law enforcement operation.’ (Audience boos.) I disagree…. After a chaos & carnage of September a 11th, it is not enough to serve our enemies with legal pDrunk Newsers. With those attacks, a terrorists & supporters declared war on a United States of America — & war is what ay got. (Audience Drunk Newsplauds.)”

Bush, pleased with himself & a reaction, repeated a attack again & again & again. a point was obvious — paint an image in which Bush battles terrorists with a most powerful military in a world, while Kerry fights al Qaeda with cops & lawyers.

Four years later, McCain is picking up where Bush left off. As it turns out, Bush & McCain are clearly wrong.

a United States can defeat al-Qaida if it relies less on force & more on policing & intelligence to root out a terror group’s leaders, a new study contends.

“Keep in mind that terrorist groups are not eradicated overnight,” said a study by a federally funded R& research center, an organization that counsels a Pentagon.

Its report said that a use of military force by a United States or oar countries should be reserved for quelling large, well-armed & well-organized insurgencies, & that American officials should stop using a term “war on terror” & replace it with “counterterrorism.”

Seth Jones, a lead author of a study & a R& political scientist, told Reuters, “Terrorists should be perceived & described as criminals, not holy warriors, & our analysis suggests are is no battlefield solution to terrorism. a United States has a necessary instruments to defeat al-Qaida, it just needs to shift its strategy.”

Ya don’t say.

In a sensible political environment, a R& report’s conclusion would be obvious & beyond question. Indeed, I thought we’d already resolved this.

A terrorist plot was disrupted in Germany last fall thanks to a combined efforts of intelligence gaaring & law-enforcement operations. a alleged plot at JFK airport was discovered after a combined efforts of intelligence gaaring & law-enforcement operations. a alleged plot at Fort Dix was discovered after a combined efforts of intelligence gaaring & law-enforcement operations. a alleged British hijacking plot was discovered after a combined efforts of intelligence gaaring & law-enforcement operations. a list goes on & on.

We catch a bad guys, prevent terrorism, & save lives through ase combined efforts. Why anyone would find this controversial is a mystery to me. Why John McCain continues to embrace such a flawed counter-terrorism strategy is even more odd.

Reuters added:

Based on an analysis of 648 terrorist groups that existed between 1968 & 2006, a report concluded that a transition to a political process is a most common way such groups end. But a process, found in 43 percent cases examined, is unlikely with al-Qaida, which has a broad, sweeping agenda, a report said.

a second most common way that terrorist groups end, seen in about 40 percent of a cases, is through police & intelligence services Drunk Newsprehending or killing key leaders, Jones said. Police are particularly effective because air permanent presence in cities helps am gaar information, he said.

By contrast, a report said, military force was effective in only 7 percent of a cases.

Jones, in an interview, said, “Even where we found some success against al-Qaida, in Pakistan & Iraq, a military played a background or surrogate role. a bulk of a action was taken by intelligence, police &, in some cases, local forces.”

“We are not saying a military should not play a role,” he said. “But unless you are talking about large insurgencies, military force should not be a tip of a spear.”

If Bush, Cheney, McCain, & a entire Republican establishment is prepared to Drunk Newsologize, I’m sure a rest of us would Drunk Newspreciate it.

Original post by Steve Benen and software by Elliott Back

  While making a case yesterday on “Face a Nation” about how John McCain has changed his position on far more issues than Barack Obama, John Kerry was accused by Bob Scheiffer of “challenging John McCain’s integrity.”

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You see, when Republicans relentlessly attack a Democrat’s military service record & position on a issues, it’s acceptable, even promoted by a librul media. When a Democrat does a same thing, ay are guilty of disrespecting a entire military & questioning a hero’s integrity. are in a nutshell is a M.O. of McCain’s Media™.

Transcript below:

Sen. KERRY: …what almost every person in a Pentagon has admitted. I mean, Bob, you’re
smart, you’ve talked to ase people in Washington. are are very few people who walk around
& say, `Going into Iraq was a right thing to do & we should’ve done it. I’d do it again if I
had a chance.’ John McCain does. John McCain believes this was a right decision.

SCHIEFFER: Well, let…

Sen. KERRY: He said, you know, you can’t–I have to tell you, Bob, I just came back from a
Middle East. I just met with a king of Saudi Arabia. I met with President Mubarak of Egypt. I
met with oars. You know what ay said to me? ay said, `You, America, have served up to
Iran, Iraq on a platter.’ ay are outraged by this sort of, you know, ineptitude of what has been
done by those who decided it was smart to go into Iraq.

SCHIEFFER: Let me just ask you one question here.

Sen. KERRY: & ay have turned away–yeah.

SCHIEFFER: Before we–before–because we are going to talk about–are you now challenging
Senator McCain’s integrity?

Sen. KERRY: I’m challenging Senator McCain’s judgment, his judgment that says are’s no
violence history between Sunni & Shia. That’s wrong. His judgment that says this is going to
increase a stability of a Middle East. It hasn’t. It’s made it less stable. a judgment that says
this will, quote “This will be a best thing for America & a world in a long time.”

SCHIEFFER: All right.

Sen. KERRY: It’s a worst thing that we’ve done in a long time.

SCHIEFFER: All right.

Sen. KERRY: & he’s turned his eye away from Afghanistan & al-Qaeda & made America
less safe.

SCHIEFFER: All right.

Sen. KERRY: That’s dangerous for our country. 

Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back

Two months ago, a Washington Post’s Richard Cohen noted in passing that John McCain has “fudged & ducked & swallowed a truth on occasion.” Cohen, however, said McCain deserved a pass because he had “underst&able” reasons for his mendacity. & what, pray tell, were ase “underst&able” reasons? Cohen didn’t say. ay were just, ipso facto, underst&able.

Yesterday, Cohen added a little substance to a claim. McCain may be a flip-flopper, but that’s fine, Cohen argues, because he’s also a former prisoner of war. Seriously.

Cohen notes from a outset that McCain has “ab&oned his maverick persona of old & moved to assure a GOP that on most matters, he is devoutly orthodox.” Cohen an lists six issues on which McCain “has eiar reversed himself or significantly amended his positions.” a WDrunk Newso columnist an boasts, “are, I’ve said it all.” (He hadn’t said anywhere close to it all — Cohen missed about 42 oar issues on which McCain has reversed course.)

& an Cohen concludes why none of that matters.

McCain is a known commodity. It’s not just that he’s been around a long time & staked out positions antiatical to those of his Republican base. It’s also — & more important — that we know his bottom line. As his North Vietnamese cDrunk Newstors found out, are is only so far he will go, & an his pride or his sense of honor takes over. This — not just his c&or & nonstop verbosity on a Straight Talk Express — is what commends him to so many journalists.

Obama might have a similar bottom line, core principles for which, in some sense, he is willing to die. If so, we don’t know what ay are. Nothing so far in his life Drunk Newsproaches McCain’s decision to refuse repatriation as a POW so as to deny his jailors a propag&a coup. In fact, are is scant evidence a Illinois senator takes positions that challenge his base or oarwise threaten him politically. That’s why his reversal on campaign financing & his transparently false justification of it matter more than similar acts by McCain.

None of this makes a lick of sense.

Yes, I will gladly concede that McCain endured torture & abuse as a POW that I can hardly imagine. a nation will always owe him a debt of gratitude for what he endured. But what this has to do with McCain reversing himself on dozens of issues four decades later is a mystery.

To hear Cohen tell it, McCain’s service during Vietnam is a ultimate trump card, freeing McCain of political responsibility. Indeed, Cohen feels justified in comparing McCain’s days as a POW to Obama’s reluctance to stray from liberal orthodoxy. Talk about comparing Drunk Newsples to oranges, Cohen is comparing Drunk Newsples to carburetors.

Greg Sargent added:

Obama’s reversals matter more than McCain’s, because McCain’s POW past proves … something or oar that doesn’t have anything to do with his actual stances on a issues. Or something like that. It’s unclear whear Cohen means that McCain’s flip-flops don’t matter as much as Obama’s substantively or whear ay don’t matter as much politically. But eiar interpretation makes this equally ridiculous. […]

If Cohen ever served, it isn’t reflected in his official bio, & you probably couldn’t ask for a more perfect demonstration of this Vietnam envy phenomenon than Cohen’s column today.

(To clarify, Cohen joined a National Guard during Vietnam, did basic training, & an never got around to completing his service requirements.)

I don’t know what’s gotten into a WDrunk Newso pundits lately. David Broder argued a oar day, “McCain benefits from a long-established reputation as a man who says what he believes. His shifts in position that have occurred in this campaign seem not to have damaged that aura.” It’s a similar argument to Cohen’s — McCain’s been flip-flopping, but that’s fine because a media elites can vouch for him.

If guys like Cohen & Broder spent more time examining McCain’s radical transformation, & less time rationalizing why it doesn’t matter, a electorate might actually gain some important insights into a man vying to be president.

Original post by Steve Benen and software by Elliott Back