Rev.Wrong

Since this is a political year in which guilt by association is fair game; And since Barack’s former pastor has been the constant grist of the last two months of the media cycle, can we please give equal time to the colorful cadre of religious charlatans that John McCain elects to share the stage with? For instance, Rev Rod Parsley of Columbus’ World Harvest megachurch. He has some very interesting thoughts on American history and our national duty to slay the infidels. All this guy needs is a limp and cave.

John the Baptist?

There’s been a lot of discussion about where Barack Obama goes to church. But not as much about the GOP presumed nominee, John McCain. These days, McCain attends a Southern Baptist Church in Arizona. When he’s attending church. He’s not a member, however. John and his children have not bothered to join or get baptized. Or walk the aisle. Or fill out the card. Or do any of those things that make a Baptist a Baptist. This, after 17 years of their association with the Arizona megachurch. Which is smart. After all, you never know what your pastor might blurt out in mid-homily. Yup, deniablity. It’s a politician’s best get-out-of-jail free card. At least, until the cock crows.

Flip Flopper

Nobody likes those. Just ask John Kerry.

McCain closes the gap

In a recent poll, John McCain has closed the 10-point gap between himself and Barack Obama. Now, if he can only close the gap with himself.

Off the trail and into the danger zone

This was where I thought John McCain might just win this election. As General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker came before the US Senate, I thought John is going to look good. Very good. After all, he has just spent the last week on the campaign trail reminding Americans that a precipitous drawn-down of troops would be foolhardy. And now we have Dave Petraeus in those hallowed halls recommending a 45-day halt to the modest drawn-down that the Administration had promised us. McCain was golden. And he certainly looked the part: calm, even-tempered, but tough––a warrior. That was, until he tried to get the General and the Ambassador to talk about the imminent threat of al-Qaeda. Well, a threat, sure. But not the biggest bogeyman in the region. But they are a threat? Sure. Sorta… They were really trying to give McCain the answer he wanted. He was “Mr. Surge,” after all. But McCain would not let go. He keeped on blabbing about al-Qaeda, like it was the key to this war. The word that strikes terror in the heart of John Q. Public. And then, he did it. He called them Shi’a again. Doooh! Solider Johnny fumbles the globe, once more. Not good. Then Senator Clinton steps to the plate. She is cool, articulate and forceful. This is when I start thinking: This may not be where McCain shines, this may be the forum where the junior senator from Illinois is going to look very…um…junior, I think is the word. I bite my lip hard. My palms begin to sweat. Finally, it’s Obama’s turn. No speechifying is going to save the boy tonight. This is where we see if he is truly a match for these two seasoned Senators. And this is where we got to see Obama at his best. No flowery prose. No retrofitting stump speech bullet points. Instead, a respectful, but tenacious, line of questioning concerning the metrics of success. The question that no one has answered for the past five years. A question that few have even asked. And a question that betrayed something I had yet to notice. Obama has actually thought this thing through. He actually appears to have a plan. A messy one, no doubt. But a plan, nonetheless. And it was pretty clear that this big-eared rookie had just won the day.

Loaded

Okay. Is it just me or does this blue-collar, populism of Hillary Clinton’s receive a little blow back when we learn that she and Bill cleared $109 million over the past six years. I mean, saying you are going to help the hard-working poor prevail against the filthy rich seems to work better if you don’t happen be filthy rich. Of course, the Clintons do represent that segment of the dirty, stinking rich who are asking the government to increase their tax burden; And I guess that counts for something. But class-warfare rhetoric seems to work best when the bad guys aren’t ones making the speeches.

Context

The Easter season is a a good time to reflect on the importance of context. On Friday, a nailed-up Jesus looks pretty helpless. On Saturday, a dead-in-the-grave Jesus looks pretty hopeless. But on Sunday….my, my. Sorta like when you take the time to watch the excerpted sound bites of Jeremiah Wright’s sermons in their actual sermon. When you hear the pastor’s message in its actual context. When you hear what the Reverend is actually saying. And who he is actually quoting. My, my. You see, it wasn’t a sermon full of hatred and violence. It was, in fact, a sermon AGAINST hatred and violence. Funny, the difference context makes. Funny, how FOX News doesn’t seem to care much about context. Funny, how 2,000 years after Christ’s resurrection, some people are still more interested in crucifying than in rising again.

Cuisinart politics

In case you’ve forgotten just how scary outspoken black visionaries can be, a helpful staffer with the McCain campaign has put together this handy YouTube video. Through a series of slap-dash edits and artful juxtapositions, we see candidate Obama not saluting flags, not wearing patriotic label pins and not disowning his audacious pastor. But surely, there’s more. To make the articulate, smooth-talking Obama sound… you know… a little more foolish and awkward (think: President Bush in any given interview), McCain’s editorial whiz kid has sliced and diced the video to make the calm, collected Barack appear to stutter and stammer like some tongue-tied Max Headroom wannabe (think: the current president on any given day). Stir in a liberal amount of Reverend Wright getting all John the Baptist on our ass. Top off with an incendiary clip of the Black Muslim leader, Malcolm X (he even looks like Obama!). And serve. Translation: White people, be afraid. Be very afraid. Sadly, the inventive McCain staffer was voted off the island. Not to worry, the Clinton Campaign can certainly use and enterprising fellow like this. And don’t think they haven’t.

Got experience?

On the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war, it is an appropriate concern that the next US president have the right experience, the right knowledge and the right judgment to be Commander-In-Chief. Arguably, the president we got 7 years ago could have benefited from a little more seasoning, a little better grasp of international affairs. So it is a bit alarming when one of the candidates currently running for the highest office in our country seemed to believe that Iran is busy training al-Quaeda. This candidate, in fact, was emphatic about this so-called intelligence. It was, to quote them, “common knowledge.” If anything the American electorate has learned over the past five years it is to be highly skeptical of politicians who begin their sentences about the Islamic world with the words: “It is common knowledge.” It was sentences like these that assured us that it was common knowledge that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. It was common knowledge that Saddam was in some way behind the events of 9-11. All such knowledge turned out to be dead wrong. 4,000 American lives dead wrong. But perhaps the most perplexing thing about this week’s statement concerning al-Qaeda and Iran is that this presidential candidate obviously confused Sunnis with Shiites. Iran is Shia and al-Qaeda is Sunni. These guys hate each other. Iran isn’t training al-Qaeda, they are trying to exterminate them. This, if you will forgive the phrase, is sort of “common knowledge.” And a candidate that is this inexperienced, this uninformed, this befuddled, is clearly not ready to occupy the Oval Office. Perhaps, they could use a few more years of seasoning. You think? The funny thing is, the candidate that made this curious error, was John McCain. The guy with all the experience. The guy–– who like current guy––got things dead wrong.

GOP terror tactics

Peggy Noonan had it right. John McCain could actually be a quite formidable candidate if he would simply think before he speaks. The latest example of his propensity to just blurt things out was this Friday, when he told the crowd of supporters that he was afraid that al-Qaeda may be planning new attacks to sway this election. This would be classic GOP fear-mongering except that he was implying two very curious thoughts. The first is that the terrorists are pulling for the Democrats. This is very curious, given the main reason we haven’t had a terrorist attack on US soil since 9-11, is that the current President has made killing Americans infinitely easier. He has put them within spitting distance. Thank you, Mr. Bush. You’ve saved al-Qaeda the trip. He has also helped increased recruitment for the terrorist cause by putting boots on the ground on sacred Islamic soil. Which, for those who actually have been paying attention, is the real reason that Osama bin Laden hates the US. We keep desecrating their land with our military bases. So, in fact, the military policies of the Republicans have proven a boon to terrorism. So I don’t see Osama pulling for the Democrats. Not by any stretch of the imagination. The second implication in Senator McCain’s remarks is that a terrorist attack on America would somehow hurt his bid for Commander-In-Chief. This is almost laughable. Such a tragedy would play right into his hawkish strengths! It would be exactly the thing that would make American’s pull the McCain lever. So, on second thought, maybe this isn’t an example of McCain shooting from the lip. Maybe this guy is a Rovian genius! Maybe Peggy has pegged the old boy all wrong.