Why Does John McCain Piss Me Off So Much?

...It's a question I ask myself. What is it about his candidacy that makes me see red?

I guess that it's really about disappointment. A year ago, I could easily have seen myself voting for John McCain. He is, after all, a genuine American war hero; he's a very likable public figure, capable of rare self-deprecation; he had shown an ability to learn from his own mistakes (can you say "Keating Five?") by co-authoring campaign reform legislation; he had refused to pander to the crazy religious right, correctly calling them "agents of intolerance;" he had been more pragmatic than doctrinaire on numerous policy positions, including climate change and progressive taxation.

But, in the last year, much about John McCain has changed for the worse; the man has turned against much of what made him worth believing in. He started taking his economic outlook from the Republican orthodoxy (in the persons of Phil Gramm, et al) rather than from Main Street; he began kowtowing to the likes of Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and James Dobson; he abandoned policy for personality, honesty for obfuscation, straight talk for double talk.

As a proud independent, I have been let down by the Senator. Look, I understand the reality that he had to win the Republican nomination, and honesty doesn't fit into that equation. But these seemingly endless inconsistencies make me wonder if John McCain has any beliefs at all.

And that's something I can't waste a precious vote upon.

Identity Politics Or Bust!

One need not wonder what John McCain was thinking when he named MILF Sarah Palin as his running mate. It is as utterly transparent as it is insulting.

In the aftermath of Joe Biden's announcement as the Democratic vice presidential candidate, it was mildly amusing to watch members of the right-wing media feign sympathy for the plight of poor, poor Hillary Clinton. After nearly two decades of using her as one of their favorite punching bags, did they now truly feel that Senator Clinton had been unfairly slighted? I think that both you and I know the answer to that question.

And now, with the choice of Palin, we see what all those distributed talking points were leading up to: The GOP believes that cranky, stridently Clinton-supporting PUMAs* will now flock to the Republican ticket because, like Hillary, Alaska's first-term governor happens to have a vagina. That is, apparently, all it takes -- never mind the fact that Palin has roughly the same worldview as Strom Thurmond.

Once, not long ago, John McCain didn't believe in pandering to identity politics. But how quickly things change. I sincerely hope that those who are targets of McCain's cynical maneuverings still have enough of their wits about them to know when they are being treated like idiots -- and to be appropriately angry.



*PUMA = Party Unity, My Ass

Panderers To The Left Of Me! Panderers To The Right!

Perhaps you've heard: Oil and gasoline prices are rather high. And no one really has a way to change that fact. Fortunately, though, our political class does have a method by which they hope to make me feel better about it: Pandering.

On the left, the Democratic congressional majority, in recent months, brought oil company executives before them for an utterly unilluminating inquisition. In an attempt to provide the illusion of doing something, both the House and Senate used those hapless execs, and the "evil corporations" they head, as verbal punching bags for a couple of days in the spring. And the end result? Nothing.

On the right, our Republican friends in congress have recently given us a new slogan: "Find more. Use less." In other words, drill and conserve. For people who supposedly cherish the "magic of the market," the GOP seems to have absolutely no grasp of market economics. Reduce demand? Sure. Makes sense. Unfortunately, though, the decreasing prices that would result from increased supply would, logically, serve as a perverse incentive against that goal.

Even The Decider, moron that he is, has likened our thirst for oil to the jones of an addict. So are Republicans telling us that the best way to wean a junkie off heroin is to supply him with even more heroin, at a cheaper price?

And candidate McCain's take on the high price of fuel? In a new campaign ad, he tells us that it's all Barack Obama's fault. (Wow! Obama has that kind of power? We'd better elect him President; if he gets pissed at us, there's no telling what kind of havoc he might wreak!)

I'm tired of being pandered to, from left, right and center. So why don't you all just shut up, go about the real business of governing, and stop the empty theatrics? And stop treating me like an idiot!