Brutal.

To Gollum.

Well, I hate McCain as much as the next human, but this is kinda silly. Just because he played a certain repulsive character in a movie because of his physical/emotional resemblance to said character, doesn't mean he actually IS that character. Come on. This is a distinction a 7-year-old could make. He's an ACTOR. That's all.

you know, this could give him his next career! Perhaps he could understudy for the inevitable Broadway musical version.

I bring you my love.

Every moment
I try to remember
the light af
an hidden report,
when my memory
outshines, when
your love disappears....

Francesco Sinibaldi

Loved the way Jon Stewart's crew treated McCain's roaming moment.

You can see it here:
http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2008/10/word_war_ii.html

It begins at about the 7:30 mark:

"Has anybody seen my dog? Mr. Puddles. Mr. Puddles."

I interrupt this comment for a bit of pedantry. Gollum was a hobbit, perverted by the ring. And a hobbit he remained, although barely recognizable as such. In no way did he resemble a troll.

Actually, the Daily Show did it first. And did it better, too.

As Jon Stewart pointed out the other night, this comparison is really unfair to McCain. Gollum was an old man, twisted and corrupted by his quest for ultimate power.

Jon Stewart did the McCain as gollum thing first.

Jon Stewart got there first:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/daily-show-mccain-gollum

Gollum? Craig Ferguson begs to differ.

Start at 1:40.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=186776&title=Clusterf#@k-to-the-Poor-House---Bailout-Bill-Passes

nasty liberalses...we hates them...

If McCain is Gollum, then what does that make Palin---the McMordor Candidate?

Well---at least we're not insulting the piggies any more...and it does explain why all those McCainiacs in Bethlehem looks like a mindless herd of orcs....

But now McCain is suddenly on tape diffidently admonishing some of his followers for saying stuff they pretty much pulled straight from his campaign ads. So I guess that means... I don't know what it means, actually. For the guy who's big advantage was that he was supposed to be the "known quantity" in this race, he seems to be working really hard to turn himself into a Man of Mystery who will do anything, launch off in some new and unexpected direction at the drop of a hat.

He has spent the last couple of weeks steering his campaign in this direction. But suddenly he's looking in the papers and seeing that he has quite deliberately and diligently turned the Straight Talk Express into the Hate Talk Express. How did that happen, he wonders. Time to hang another U-ey! he concludes.

Meanwhile, the rest of us get to watch the angry old guy cussing and trying to back his battered Greyhound out of that narrow little blind alley he's in and be really really really happy we're not on that bus.

You saw Jon Stewart's joke, right? When the bailout bill passed the senate, Stewart played a clip of McCain's contradictory statements (made in the same interview, mind you!) about the bill, followed by a picture of Golum and Stewart hissing, "We loves the bill! We hates the bill! We loves the bill!"

Here is McCain as Gollum, complete with a drawing, from 1 1/2 years ago.

http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2007/04/17/Opinions/John-Mccain.A.Man.Divided-2845911.shtml

If McCain is Gollum, then what does that make Palin

Shagrat in lipstick and heels.

During that last debate, while he was wandering around the stage, you almost expected to hear him start muttering: "We wants it. We needs it. Must have the precious." -- Gail Collins (via Steve Benen)

That's all he was saying: "must have the precious". And those nassssty liberalsss transsslated it into "horssseshit"... Shame on usss all!

Rep. John Lewis nails it -- from the Washington Post:

John Lewis Condemns GOP Campaign Tactics
By Shailagh Murray
The Washington Post

Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, a Civil Rights-era leader, condemned GOP campaign tactics as "sowing the seeds of hatred and division," drawing an immediate and angry response from Sen. John McCain.

Although McCain and his Republican running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, have toned down their rhetoric against Sen. Barack Obama in the past day, Lewis warned of "another destructive period in American history" if the negative attacks from both the candidates and their surrogates don't cease.

"As one who was a victim of violence and hate during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, I am deeply disturbed by the negative tone of the McCain-Palin campaign," Lewis said in a statement. "Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse."

The veteran Democrat even invoked one of the most divisive figures in recent U.S. history. "During another period, in the not too distant past, there was a governor of the state of Alabama named George Wallace who also became a presidential candidate. George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama," said Lewis.

He warned, "As public figures with the power to influence and persuade, Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are playing with fire, and if they are not careful, that fire will consume us all. They are playing a very dangerous game that disregards the value of the political process and cheapens our entire democracy. We can do better. The American people deserve better."

McCain hit back hard with this statement: "Congressman John Lewis' comments represent a character attack against Governor Sarah Palin and me that is shocking and beyond the pale. The notion that legitimate criticism of Senator Obama's record and positions could be compared to Governor George Wallace, his segregationist policies and the violence he provoked is unacceptable and has no place in this campaign. I am saddened that John Lewis, a man I've always admired, would make such a brazen and baseless attack on my character and the character of the thousands of hardworking Americans who come to our events to cheer for the kind of reform that will put America on the right track.

"I call on Senator Obama to immediately and personally repudiate these outrageous and divisive comments that are so clearly designed to shut down debate 24 days before the election. Our country must return to the important debate about the path forward for America."

Well, at least McCain has made it clear that he considers attack ads, and statements from Palin and other surrogates, that accuse not only Barack Obama but Michelle Obama of being terrorist sympathizers to be "legitimate criticism of Senator Obama's record and positions".

And McCain has made it clear that in his mind, the enraged brownshirts screaming "terrorist" and "kill him" at his and Palin's rallies are just "cheering for the kind of reform that will put America on the right track".

Meanwhile, as long as McCain is demanding that people denounce stuff, perhaps he would care to publicly denounce Rush Limbaugh for telling a national audience of millions that Barack Obama is an "Arab", as that woman at McCain's town hall told McCain to his face, on TV, in full view of the American people.

I am saddened that John Lewis, a man I've always admired, would make such a brazen and baseless attack on my character[...] -- John McCain, via Secular Animist, @ 18:06

That's nothing compared to the scads of Republicans and moderates who are saddened that John McCain, the man they had long admired, etc...

for the benefit of the non-geek:

LOTR = "Lord of the Rings"

Oh, and *good on Lewis* for calling it as it is. The Palin/McCain duo has become a suppurating boil on the arse of humanity and it needs to be lanced and cleansed before it can begin to heal. Nor does Obama have any need to disassociate himself from Lewis' comments; they're nothing but the truth.

Obama, meanwhile, is remaining as classy as always and even acknowledged McCain's backing off a bit from the whip-'em-into-frenzy tactics. Without mentioning that the same tactics continue to go on everywhere else, except in McCain's direct presence:

http://tinyurl.com/4cda4q

"cheering for the kind of reform that will put America on the right track".

That "reform" has been written about before, in a nasty little book entitled Mein Kampf---and that "right track" would be laden with cattle cars, each packed to standing-room-only capacity with "untermenschen."

Arbeit Macht Frei, y'all....

Palin reminds me of the evil fascist 'Dolores Umbridge' character in Harry Potter (the one who gains complete control of the school).