Author: Greg Saunders

The foolishness of this John McCain “gaffe”, to use the media’s favorite understatement, should terrify anyone who actually thinks the commander-in-chief should have a basic understanding of the wars we’re fighting :

Sen. John McCain, traveling in the Middle East to promote his foreign policy expertise, misidentified in remarks Tuesday which broad category of Iraqi extremists are allegedly receiving support from Iran.

He said several times that Iran, a predominately Shiite country, was supplying the mostly Sunni militant group, al-Qaeda. In fact, officials have said they believe Iran is helping Shiite extremists in Iraq.

Speaking to reporters in Amman, the Jordanian capital, McCain said he and two Senate colleagues traveling with him continue to be concerned about Iranian operatives “taking al-Qaeda into Iran, training them and sending them back.”

Pressed to elaborate, McCain said it was “common knowledge and has been reported in the media that al-Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran, that’s well known. And it’s unfortunate.” A few moments later, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, standing just behind McCain, stepped forward and whispered in the presidential candidate’s ear. McCain then said: “I’m sorry, the Iranians are training extremists, not al-Qaeda.”

Wow. If foreign policy is supposed to be the area in which McCain is an expert, I’m terrified of what he might do to the economy.

Also, I should point out that Bob Harris passed the “commander-in-chief test” five years ago. Maybe if John McCain spent less time kissing the press’ asses and more time studying, he’d understand why the Iraq war is a colossal clusterfuck. More importantly, he might start to understand why the “surge” isn’t “working”.

Double Yikes :

Reports in India of a miraculous image of the Virgin Mary in the sky have led about 50 people to blind themselves by staring at the sun.

The visions are said to appear over the former home of a hotel owner in the Kottayam area in southeast India, The Daily Telegraph reported. One hospital in the district reported 48 patients had been admitted with burned retinas since last week, the British newspaper reported.

Another brilliant video from the maker of Barack OBollywood :

Please tell me I’m not the only one who saw this :

…and was thinking of this :



“Meet me in Ohio. Let’s have a debate”

Since the race is all but decided on both the Democratic and Republican sides, here’s a few random things that have been going through my mind :

– It’s funny how quickly conservatives are so quick to jump on Michelle Obama for a relatively innocuous statement. If the right-wing really wants to drag the candidates’ wives into the mud-slinging, let’s start a conversation about how John McCain’s wife is a former drug-addict who was investigated by the DEA for stealing drugs from a non-profit organization. Do they really want to go there?

– This business about Obama’s “pledge” to opt for public matching funds is silly. If he opts out, it’ll be a story for 2-3 days and then die. If he opts-in, he kneecaps himself for the general election at a time when he’s sure to raise millions of dollars more than McCain. What Obama needs to do is publicly criticize McCain’s smarmy plan to use public funds to bail out his campaign in case he didn’t get the nomination and insist that when it comes to the spirit of the law, Obama’s the one on the side of the angels here. John McCain is self-righteously trying to take the moral high ground by seeking taxpayer money to match the contributions of his lobbyist and corporate pals while Barack Obama raked in the cash by getting small dollar donations from more than a half a million ordinary Americans. So which campaign has a claim to the mantle of “publicly funded”?

– In 1992, the Clinton campaign’s mantra was “It’s the economy, stupid”. This year, I think the Obama campaign’s should be “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”. It’s hard to listen to McCain speak in the future tense and take it seriously when the man has no new ideas. Even worse for McCain, when late-night talkshows are already joking about him like he’s Mr. Magoo, you know he’s in for a rough nine months.

– Finally, is it just me or does McCain’s candidacy lack a coherent raison d’être? Hillary Clinton is the hyper-ambitious former first lady who wants to continue where her husband left off. Mike Huckabee is the conservative regular fella who wants to do save our nation from moral decay. Barack Obama is the inspirational guy who wants to bring people together to Change™ the nation. John McCain? He seems to be this year’s “I’ve been around Washington forever and it’s my turn to run for President” guy. Maybe he’ll have more luck with “Vote for me, I’m really old.” than Bob Dole did, but I wouldn’t bet on it.