After closely following the mainstream media’s superficial coverage of the presidential campaign, I’m not surprised that much in Rolling Stone’s damning new portrayal of John McCain’s life and career isn’t widely known.
The piece feels like a hatchet job but only because the sheer volume of negative information is so shocking. I’ve read some of it elsewhere but mostly in bits. To see it aggregated in a single piece is jaw dropping. Read More
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Reading for me is breathing. A good story, fiction or non-fiction, is among life’s wonders. I like fiction because it opens another world and allows me to inhabit it. I like non-fiction because if well done, it illuminates truths otherwise beyond my reach.
All this brings me to Sarah Palin. The story she told at the GOP convention and reinforced by McCain and his staff is compelling in a superficial way. Buzz words such as hockey mom and reformer and maverick create a pleasing picture that people long to embrace.
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In the 21st century, nations don’t invade other nations.
So proclaims John McCain. His short-term memory loss is, well, disturbing. Maybe Iraq doesn’t count. More disturbing are his efforts to interject himself into an international crisis for political gain. But then again, one of his top foreign policy advisers, Randy Scheunemann, was until recently a paid lobbyist for Georgia. Like McCain, he also was an energetic proponent of invading Iraq.
McCain and George Bush’s ties to Georgia run deep. And now comes speculation that Karl Rove may have a hand in what’s unfolding. Would anyone be surprised if it’s true?
I watch and listen to McCain closely. I’m baffled that someone who spent years as a prisoner of war, was tortured and confessed to crimes he didn’t commit, appears so eager to see our nation go to war — again.
At any moment I expect to see McCain rip away his face, a mask behind which lurks Dick Cheney.
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Many people want simple answers to complex situations. They don’t care that the truth is a many layered thing, defying reduction to slogans and sound bites. What’s happening in Iraq is a crucial example.
With that prelude, I recommend two commentaries on the U.S. troop surge, an issue that John McCain muddles and twists for political gain. If only he would read the commentaries. They’re online here and here, but the man who could be president doesn’t know how to use a computer.
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Sometimes the best insight and analysis of the day’s news comes from anonymous “readers” who, like me, devour our favorite blogs with unbridled fervor. Here’s a nod to just such a person, who takes on President Bush and John McCain for their attacks today on Barack Obama for his willingness to talk to Iran’s president. Imagine that — the audacity to talk to adversaries. (Remedial history 101: Reagan met with Gorbachev, Nixon with Mao during the Cold War).
Don’t wait for the mainstream media to dissect Bush or McCain’s words with such illuminating precision. It will never happen. (Courtesy of Talking Points Memo, one of my favorite sites.)
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