Of course they share a philosophy: the child-of-privilege incurious fuckup philosophy that things should and will be done for the princes of this world.

McCain was in Iowa today. He will be in Pennsylvania most of this week. He keeps saying patently stupid things. Is there a chance that he is actively trying to lose this election?

How appropriate, McCain campaigned in Waterloo, Iowa this morning. The Anchorage Daily News was meanwhile endorsing Barack Obama.
More popcorn please.

I suppose it could be an "energize the base" approach, but a little late.

Reminds me of watching a football game where a team down 21-0 late in the 4th quarter is running off tackle. When criticized by one commentator the other says, "well you have to establish the ground game." To which the first guy replied, "I think they've established that it's going to be pretty difficult."

In the future, when psychologists are studying election campaigns, the McCain campaign will be considered the most interesting case study.

Has anyone stopped to think: maybe, just maybe, McCain is putting 'Country First'

Polls show Sarah Palin's selection has been more polarizing than Bush and the GOP brand. Intently driving this home late in the election has hurt the republicans chances (Bachmann et. al.) in congress as well.

A call to the nation: 'Us or Them' and it appears the country is choosing 'Them'.

The need for unity in this country couldn't be greater. Sacrifices will need to be made. The reality that republicans want to fight, not just with the democrats, but internally as well is completely depressing. Who is up for this fight?

It doesn't seem to be enough to pull out a win this time around.

Where's Bin Laden when I need him?

"Is there a chance that he is actively trying to lose this election?"
Cap and Gown at 1:58 PM

I've been thinking along the same lines myself. A friend mentioned awhile back that he thought McCain was throwing the election because he was pissed about Palin being pushed on him. Who knows? Without some kind of evidence this line of thinking is a black hole, but if one were to design the perfect campaign for sinking authoritarian conservatism, I don't think one could do a better job than McCain. Or maybe it's a complex interweaving of ambition, resentment, character flaws, and who knows? somewhere deep inside a true devotion to country, a soldier's existential commitment to and love for his nation. Whatever else is true, McCain does come from heroic stock. Perhaps a creative mind could write the story of a wayward soldier's redemptive moment, where he truly served his country as noone else could, or could even imagine. Perhaps.

Yes, Obama is just like Bush, who is a socialist, who McCain voted with 90% of the time.

??????

I, too, have speculated that McCain has been engaged in a strategy of poisoning the well against the Republican party. I can think of several reasons he would do it: first, he's vindictive. He never had much of a chance going into the election thanks to the monumental fuckup that has been the Bush presidency. His chance of winning pretty much evaporated when Hillary lost the nomination fight and his chances for running the standard-issue Republican 60's culture war campaign died. He was royally ratfucked by Bush and the party in 2000 and forced to grovel to Bush, Falwell, and others later to get back into the semi-good graces of the "base" - who he actively despises. That can't have gone down easily. A loss in this election brings him several things: an unveiling of the massive corruption of the guy who fucked him in 2000, which would not have been possible if he won, thanks to the political fallout that would fall on him too; a ratfucking of the Christianist base who has never liked him and participated in fucking him in 2000 - after this election, the party has a choice: stick with the fundies and become further marginalized, or kick their asses out of the party.

It's a kooky theory, I agree, but it actually starts to make sense when you examine it. It's hard to imagine anyone running this incompetent of a campaign by accident.

Senator Jeckyl and Mr. McHyde might not need to worry about losing the election; he's got the Bush DoJ already working for him, trying to impede the electoral process in Ohio, and the GOP Lie-O-Matic is running at Ludicrous Speed. They're trying to go with an expanded version of the '06 Corker/Ford race in Tennessee---remember that one?

McCain's just not all that bright. Not super-dumb, but far too prone to saying dumb stuff just because he likes how it sounds.

Tom Brokaw is a wimp. He asked McCain how he felt about Rush calling Powell's endorsement all about race. McCain ignored the question offering a litany of all the secretaries of state plus the generals and admirals endorsing him. Brokaw didn't ask for an answer and by ignoring the question McCain was endorsing the race issue.

I wonder if McFool will agree with Bush on this:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27389245/

Yep---we just attacked a village in Syria, folks....

At this point in the campaign, McCain has gone all-in on gathering the votes of the willfully ignorant and those looking for any excuse to avoid voting for the abortionist black guy. To do that, he's generating a huge rhetorical fog, dripping from a web of lies, distortions and vague platitudes, all intended to give these voters some pretext to hang their votes on.

It's not about truth, or making sense, or reasoned argument, or factual evidence. It's about mythic stories, or as Colbert would say "truthiness."

Sadly, there are plenty of voters who are looking for a big bowl of that swill.

I disagree with a commenter above who says that McCain comes from heroic stock. Nope--he comes from military stock, and the two are not necessarily correlated.

Were he truly from heroic stock, he'd have waged a more honorable campaign.

Every time I turn on the tube I see either John McCain or Sarah Palin.

Where's Barack Obama?

McCain is just being mavericky. Sure, it's easy to bash on Bush at this point, so John SIDNEY McCain is taking the opposite tack: cozying up to Bush again. They'll probably be engaging in another enormous man-hug sometime in the next week.

McCain = Bush in so many areas, including fuzzy mindless recycled patriotic refrains,
echoes of lies and false platitudes, warmongering, and secrecy/deception:

Let's not forget:
McCain's May '08's medical records/health data "release comes with certain caveats that were missing from his previous disclosure. Rather than allowing full and open access to all interested media organizations, McCain is releasing some of his records to a select group of reporters who “can neither photocopy nor keep the documents”; they will only “be allowed to take notes from the records.”

McCain’s handpicked reporters will have to scribble fast, but the senator may change his mind before they finish... during a campaign event in Columbus, Ohio, McCain promised that his "administration will set a new standard for transparency and accountability." The May "holiday weekend document dump suggests that McCain may continue Bush’s secretive ways.

The Huffington Post noted: “Notably absent from the list is the New York Times. Could this have anything to do with [who] wrote the paper’s controversial article about McCain’s ties to lobbyist Vicki Iseman?"

From the thinkprogress wonk room archives.

Jennifer, nice prose "a ratfucking of the Christianist base". I almost snorted beer.

Castanea, McCain does come from Heroic stock, he just doesn't live up to it. His father and grandfather are rightly remembered as great men both. McCain has pissed on any chance of him adding to that legacy.

Its like our current incumbent. Makes you almost think his dad was a good president. Almost.

For all the GenXers out there, sung to the tune of "Conjunction Junction:

"Projection, jections, McCain's infection.
Attacking Obama for things only John's done..."

"'Us or Them' and it appears the country is choosing 'Them'."

Are you quoting McCain? Cuz to me I'm one of us, not them.

How 'bout you?

"somewhere deep inside a true devotion to country, a soldier's existential commitment to and love for his nation."

See, here's where you and the 'common wisdom' are wrong. He has ALWAYS put himself first. He cooperated with the enemy and ever stand he has taken since has been to try to make himself seen as an 'honorable' man. But he's unable to restrain his selfish, petulant, angry persona and his impulsive side has shown most clearly in his selection of Palin.

He's toast. He's done, stick a fork in him. Whether he wins or not, his reputation is in tatters, as it deserves to be.

"Every time I turn on the tube I see either John McCain or Sarah Palin.

Where's Barack Obama?"

That's entertainment!

Barack is too calm and reasonable.

OT, but speaking of Colorado, the local media here in Denver is estimating the crowd at Obama's rally here this afternoon to be 100,000...more than the number at Invesco Field for his acceptance speech! I was up in Ft Collins today for the rally at CSU, and so far I've heard estimates of anywhere from 25K-50K.

It was good to see that Tom Brokaw found time to show McCain being hauled out of that Hanoi lake in 1967. "Forty-one years ago today". Oh me, oh my, how time do fly.

To the rest of the world, "journalists" like Brokaw are just a joke.

A new ironic Palin cartoon at the Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part 3 blog: "ItsAllMcCainsFault.com" (no. 2 in a series).