McCain

Although my standards have been so lowered by the current administration that I find myself believing that Hillary (lacking as she is in any moral integrity) would be a considerable step forward from what we have at the moment, I can’t share the view some people hold that John McCain would likewise be a better president than Bush. That, for me, is where “anyone but Bush” breaks down.

Apart from the obvious fact that Bush and McCain hold many policies in common, both men seem seriously out to lunch. Bush is notoriously prone to malapropisms and gaffes, and then there’s his now famous outburst that sounds like the rantings of a deranged despot:

“Kick Ass! If somebody tries to stop the march of democracy, we will seek them out and kill them! We must be tougher than hell! Our will is being tested, but we are resolute. We have a better way. Stay strong! Stay the course! Kill them! Be confident! Prevail! We are going to wipe them out! We are not blinking!”

(Page 350 of “Wiser in Battle: A Soldier’s Story”, by LTG Ricardo S. Sanchez with Donald T. Phillips, Harper Collins)

This of course makes McCain’s “Bomb, bomb Iran” pale into insignificance, thereby undermining my case, but on the other hand the senator has an extensive track-record of being utterly clueless. Witness this helpful summation:

Then there’s his recent and embarrassing attempt to argue with a reporter about who is the ultimate arbiter of power in Iran — Ahmedinejad or Ayatollah Khameini (clue: the Ayatollah gets to pick who can run for office). McCain was just as clueless there as when he claimed that the Shia Iranians were training the Sunni Al Qaeda to go into Iraq, presumably to kill the Iranian’s Shia allies, which makes no sense even if you don’t think about it much. Or when he claimed that he was able to walk around in Baghdad without protection and without body armor when video footage shows him closely surrounded by US troops and wearing bulky body armor (although arguably that was a simple lie — akin to Hillary’s “sniper fire” pseudo-recollection — rather than him simply getting his facts mixed up).

Now I’m not one to argue that McCain is unfit to be president because he is too old — individual capacities at any given age vary enormously and there are people far older than McCain who have razor-sharp minds — but it strikes me as being quite possible that McCain is entering a phase of significantly diminished mental ability.

For those interested, there’s an entire site now devoted to Things younger than Republican Presidential candidate (oh, and did I forget to mention war hero?) John McCain. These include San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, penicillin, and Nylon.

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