Republican John McCain has maneuvered himself into a political dead end and has five weeks to find his way out.
The forces of history that are driving the Chinese miracle, the Islamic fundamentalist revolution, the ascension of Europe to a position of near equality with us, the leftward lurch in Latin America and other massive changes in our world wait for no country. You either deal with the changing world or you watch as the panorama slides by, waking up a decade later wondering "What happened?" Right now, these forces of history are working against the United States. Can we adapt and make the right decisions that will keep us strong, safe, and pre-eminent in so many things?
If you are honest with yourself, you will agree that neither John McCain or Barack Obama have the ideas, the courage, or the foresight to bring us through to the other side of this epoch safely and still the dominant military and economic power on the planet.
-- RICK MORAN
Whether or not the Republican presidential ticket wins in November, Alaskans are already living in McCainistan.
The great insight of the Palin VP choice is that huge chunks of American voters no longer even demand that their candidates actually have policy positions; they simply consume them as media entertainment, rooting for or against them according to the reflexive prejudices of their demographic, as they would for reality-show contestants or sitcom characters. Hicks root for hicks, moms for moms, born-agains for born-agains. Sure, there was politics in the Palin speech, but it was all either silly lies or merely incidental fluffery buttressing the theatrical performance. A classic example of what was at work here came when Palin proudly introduced her Down syndrome baby, Trig, then stared into the camera and somberly promised parents of special-needs kids that they would "have a friend and advocate in the White House." This was about a half-hour before she raised her hands in triumph with McCain, a man who voted against increasing funding for special-needs education.-- MATT TAIBBI
So the latest spin is that Palin's problem wasn't a shocking ignorance of the issues, but that she was being "too scripted" by the McCain campaign. This is a pretty laughable bit of science fiction, an attempt to bend the fabric of reality, by reciting the problem backward, In fact the whole reason that Palin was "too scripted," is because she is shockingly ignorant of the issues.-- TA-NEHISI COATES
Is it even possible to unpack this? McCain-Palin is all for equal pay for equal work in theory, they just don't want to pass any new laws that will let you do anything to get it. And of course, they're all for enforcing existing laws which, in the case of Lilly Ledbetter, demonstrably didn't help her achieve equal pay for equal work. But Palin can't support a law that would have remedied the situation, because she claimed it would "turn into a boon for trial lawyers who, I believe, could have taken advantage of women" by, you know, use them to get rich by filing a large number of very small claims that turn out not to be merited.
Given the way he's run his campaign, I'm convinced [McCain] would authorize any attack he thought would work. I think the reason we haven't seen the Wright card played yet is that McCain and his advisers are genuinely not sure how it would go over. Could it scare some voters away from Obama? Certainly. Could it look like an overt appeal to racism and generate a backlash, especially among the media? That's also a distinct possibility.-- THE ANONYMOUS LIBERALIn the closing moments of the presidential debate last Friday, John McCain said something that now seems particularly ironic. He told the folks at home that he’s ready to lead; in fact, “I’m ready to get at it right now.”
But the problem is that, in his eagerness to “get at it,” to demonstrate his alleged political leadership skills by riding to the rescue in the Wall Street crisis, he came up with nothing. He raised the bar on his own performance by touting himself as the ultimate high-stakes problem solver, and he wound up solving nothing. In his attempt to score political points for his candidacy, to show that he can indeed excel on the economic front, he wound up damaging himself politically.
Over the past five days, he has failed at every standard that he set for himself. He said he was suspending his campaign in order to return to
Washington, where he would use his skills to work out a deal, and that he would not debate Barack Obama on Friday unless that deal was done. His people raised expectations that such a deal, thanks to his participation, would indeed be done; as spokeswoman Kimmie Lipscomb put it, “We’re optimistic that Senator McCain will bring House Republicans on board without driving other parties away, resulting in a successful deal for the American taxpayer.” But in the end there was no deal, so McCain simply ignored his own ultimatum and flew down to the debate. -- DICK POLMAN
Palin is tough as nails. She will bite the head off a moose and move on. So, no, I don't feel sorry for her. I feel sorry for women who have to live with what she and her running mate have wrought.
Much has been written about McCain's multiple personality disorder over course of this campaign season, most notably among the pundit class and their visible sense of betrayal at what has become of the former straight-talkin’ maverick.
Very little, on the other hand, has been said about consistent and steady persona of Obama. He's been criticized — from the left and the right, for being too sharp or too passive, too this and not enough that — and he's just remained unfazed through it all, sticking to his gameplan and projecting the same sense of self. And I'm not talk about just going back the campaign season. You watch or listen to interviews of him from 4 years ago, when he was running for senator, of him in action as a state legislator from 10 years ago, and even before he entered politics back in 1995. Same guy.
-- SEBASTIAN
Cartoon by Tom Toles/Universal Press Syndicate
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