Why don’t you help us out by coming up with a non-fool reason for him not knowing the difference between Shia and Sunni?
Or the crap about being able to walk safely in Baghdad markets? (I can help you out with the second - he’s a liar.)
Which candidate hates America, in your view?
That’s true. I can’t keep the factions straight either. But I’m just a Joe Schmoe that won’t have to deal with it almost everyday.
Early-stage Alzheimers? I think so, Mccain is exhibiting the classic symptoms of ESA:
-losing eye contact
-excessive eye blinking
-short term emory loss
This guy looks worse than Reagan did! I think he ought to submit to a physical exam.
Hopefully, he picks a younger VP
I don’t have any trouble with it – at least not the broad outlines. It isn’t rocket science.
None. I was just trying to be funny, since I think the ‘Bomb Iran’ sung to Barbaranne was a bit of poor taste, but undoubtedly funny.
I really don’t think its a reflection of some hidden political agenda that disqualifies him from office.
I don’t know which Senate Bill you are refering to, but it itself doesn’t necessarily mean much.
Maybe the Bill was proposed as a “stunt” to raise awareness of some issue. (Like when the Bill submitted by Congressman Rangel to reinstitute the draft, which he then voted against. It was to get the nation talking about the war in Iraq, I think.)
Maybe there was a lot of pork filled amendments that got attached in commitee, and McCain didn’t want to support that pork.
It doesn’t mean he was senile.
I think rattling sabers while your military is stretched to its limit is foolish. I think refusing to speak to people you disagree with is foolish (or cowardly). I think extending Bush’s insane economic policies is foolish. I think comparing the occupation of Iraq to an American presence in Germany is foolish. I think reducing gas prices 18 cents by not repairing roads and bridges is foolish. I think dismissing the concerns of families with loved ones in Iraq as unimportant is foolish. I think not allowing Cubans to visit their families is foolish. I think dressing down the Supreme Court for (barely) safeguarding habeas corpus is foolish. I think inviting the most charismatic and inspirational leader to emerge on the American stage in decades to share the stage with you is foolish. It seems to me that foolishness pours out of him like a toilet with a stuck lift valve.
McCain reverses position on bill
Senile or gutless panderer? Or both.
You left out a third possibility, I think: Listening to his constituents.
That Bill was portrayed as “Amnesty”. Isn’t it possible his office got flooded with phone calls, emails, snail mail, etc., from folks who opposed “Amnesty”?
The following is a small segment from a 2-pager, and strictly anecdotal, but…
“The problem with McCain is that his brain is no longer working. There is something wrong. Many doctor friends of mine hypothesize Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which is consistent with his 5½ years of great stress in prison and which can explain his violent temper, his memory lapses and his frequent mental disconnects. It also is possible that he is suffering mini-strokes, which cause momentary double vision, partial blackouts and confusion, and which could explain why he can say incredibly stupid things, sometimes the same dumb thing several times in one day, without appearing to understand what he just said. Whatever the specific cause, he is not healthy, and mentally he is struggling to hold it together.”
Check it out at
http://www.alternet.org/election08/87225/?page=2
You might want to read the whole article entitled:
**
Obama in a Blowout: The Presidential Election Will Not Be Close**
Panderer then.
There’s a word for changing one’s position to please the ignorant clamorings of the electorate – it’s called “pandering.”
Actually, I was the one who related that one of my wife’s favorite events from her time as a staffer on Capitol Hill was when McCain, unprepped by his staff before a meeting on the floor, began debating against a bill he had cosponsored. For a good while after that, he simply refused to cosponsor bills.
I’ll have to find out what years she was working there and try to nail down the event although I suspect it wasn’t on a headline making piece of legislature. In any event, served as part of her other point, which was that general opinion around the staff on the Hill was that McCain is a good guy and loves his country but he’s not at all sharp and really relies on a crack staff to keep him on point. Take that as the anecdotal FOAF opinion that it is.
Side Note: She also says that she had to work with him when she was with the American Indian Higher Education Consortium and found his office (and McCain) very receptive to speaking with her. On the other hand, she couldn’t even get past Hillary Clinton’s desk receptionist. It always gave her some annoyed amusement when people would speak about how much Clinton worked for minorities when she couldn’t ever get the time of day out of her office in regards to college funding for Native Americans.
I find it amusing that you would call a politician who is representing the will of his contituents a “panderer”.
Other folks might call it “doing his job like he’s supposed to”. 
The debates should be fun.
In all honesty, what I worry about from a McCain Presidency isn’t so much McCain himself (who, as wrong as he is on policy issues these days is still the least objectionable of all his GOP altearnatives), it’s that he’s going to drop dead or become incapacitated and we’ll suddenly be stuck with some tool like Romney or Tim Pawlenty in the Whitehouse (and you know all those VP shortlisters on the Republican side are just licking thir chops with the knowledge that they have a decent shot at having to make that tragic succession. They’re probably already practicing their grave, humble but determined, fiercely-holding-back-the tears facial expressions in the mirror as we speak. Even if McCain survives his term, they know he’ll probably step down and give them the nom in '12).
What he’s supposed to do is think for himself and do what he thinks is right, regardless. That’s what republican (small r) government is supposed to be about. Direct democracy is mob rule.
Nope. Sorry. I respectfully disagree.
Assuming his electorate is wrong about the Bill, it’s his job to explain it to them.
If he is unable to do so, he should represent his constituents. Why should he override them?
That seems a little elitist, to me.
“You folks are stoopid. And smelly, too. Since I know what’s better for you, I shall vote whatever I think is best anyways. Now go wash those stinky bare feet, you sister-porking illiterate proles.”
I think it’s proper for a representitive to vote on legislation in regards to the best interests of your constituents, assuming that there hasn’t been a direct “will of the people” expressed. Since a lot of legislation is routine, and there isn’t practical to fly back and get his constituents involved in the decision making with each and every piece of legislation, I understand that this illustrates the benefits of a “representitive democracy”.
But in the case we’re talking about here, his constituents were very aware of the Bill, and there was time for him to engage his constituents in debate (call it “educating the voters”, if you will). To then override his constituents, in this example, leaves out the “representitive” part of “representitive democracy”, IMO.
McCain changed his position solely to help himself get nominated for President, not for any high-minded principle other than sheer, personal careerism. His flop on immigration reform is as pure an example of political pandering as you’re ever going to find, except for maybe his flops on tax cuts, torture and the “surge.”
[hijack] He could do what Joe Biden does to make his life easier and just steal speeches from MP’s in the Labour party. [/hijack]
I’m a McCain supporter and even I worry about his age. It’s amazing that my John McCain impersonation is eerily similar to my angry old man impersonation. I have listened to him do Q and A that he has done on talkradio and I don’t really hear any senility or Alzheimers there. I think he misspeaks like we all do and he may not know the difference between Shiite and Sunni, but that is what his advisors are for.