Posts Tagged ‘John McCain’
I cried during the memorial for Ted Kennedy
Yes I remember vividly the weekend of Nov 22, 1963 beginning around 1 PM on Nov 22, a Friday. I was living in Ste. Foy QC then and working for IBM Canada Ltd. But I didn’t think that much about the death of Ted Kennedy. Until I heard that CNN was televising the complete memorial event without commercial interruptions. Yes, I had a few drinks while sitting and viewing the event. But it didn’t take long before my eyes filled with tears as my mind was sucked in to all those events around the Kennedys.
Most of what was said during the memorial were recollections of a very vivid character who left deep impressions of friendship with so many people, on the political left and the right. The depth of his relations with his second wife, Vickie, surprised and touched me a lot. John McCain showed how ungraceful a character he really is, while Orrin Hatch couldn’t have been more endearing. I was moved by almost every eulogizer, even with Joe Biden‘s contribution.
There were many references to Kennedy’s passion about Health Care Reform in the US. Yes the event had a strong pro-reform coloration.
However, I feel the cold light of a new day and feel that I must copy in words that set a quite different tone about some of Kennedy’s political discourse in the past:
It is nice and good that Kennedy was able to restore a sense of decorum and gentlemanly behavior when it came to a whole host of other legislative battles, but when it came to the Bork nomination, his sense of propriety, decorum, and fair play were sorely lacking. Those who wonder how American political debate became so coarse, so unrefined, and so demagogic, ought to look at Kennedy’s speech on Bork as a catalyst for the national descent into a prolonged political shouting match.
Click on this link to read the Opinionater in the NY Times about this very negative part of Kennedy’s political record.
But the whole picture of Ted Kennedy is completed by this story and final opinion from David Frum, a fair minded right wing pundit:
Then came 9/11. Among the murdered was the brave and brilliant Barbara Olson. Ted asked some friends to help with the deluge of messages of condolence, and my wife Danielle volunteered for the job. Among the letters: a lengthy handwritten note by the senator so elegant and decent, so eloquent and (fascinatingly) written in so beautiful a hand as to revolutionize one’s opinion of the man who wrote it. It did not dishonor by ignoring or denying the political differences between the two families. It fully acknowledged them – and through them expressed a deeper human awareness of shared mortality, pain, and grief. Not all chapters of his life revealed it equally, but the senator was a big soul, and in his last years, he lived his bigness fully … Rest in peace, leader of the liberals.
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- Has the politics of friendly rivals died? (seattlepi.com)
- The New Ted Kennedy? (dailykos.com)
- Kennedy Memorial Service In Boston: VIDEO Highlights (huffingtonpost.com)
Trashing Gov. Palin after GOP defeat

Image by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com via Flickr
In my mind the most striking phrase being bandied about in reference to Palin’s VP candidacy is ‘WASILLA HILLBILLIES LOOTING NEIMAN MARCUS’.
The sense of this, especially HILLBILLIES LOOTING rings true for me. Every time I saw her on TV she seemed dumb and dumbfounded and then unblinkly strident uttering a string of inanities about all subjects. I sensed it obvious that she knew little about the world outside of Alaska and was amazingly incurious about it all.
There is little doubt in my mind that she is unblinkingly ambitious with vague designs on the highest office in the US.
I think that if the right wingnutery within the GOP have their way and put her forward as a “legitimate” candidate for 2012 that they will doom the GOP to deep doodoo! I hope that they are successful in this attempt.
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Now it’s the right wing press who’s quibbling about Gov. Palin’s role in this campaign

Image by Getty Images via Daylife
The byline says “If she is so awful, why did McCain pick her?” Politico’s Roger Simon goes on this way!
John McCain’s campaign is looking for a scapegoat. It is looking for someone to blame if McCain loses on Tuesday.
And it has decided on Sarah Palin.
In recent days, a McCain “adviser” told Dana Bash of CNN: “She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone.”
Imagine not taking advice from the geniuses at the McCain campaign. What could Palin be thinking?
Also, a “top McCain adviser” told Mike Allen of Politico that Palin is “a whack job.”
Maybe she is. But who chose to put this “whack job” on the ticket? Wasn’t it John McCain? And wasn’t it his first presidential-level decision?
And if you are a 72-year-old presidential candidate, wouldn’t you expect that your running mate’s fitness for high office would come under a little extra scrutiny? And, therefore, wouldn’t you make your selection with care? (To say nothing about caring about the future of the nation?)
“Let Sarah be Sarah” and let the chips fall where they may!

Image via Wikipedia
After reading a Robert Draper blog post it seems amazing to me that there are still commentators out there who wonder why McCain campaign operatives are still struggling to “manage” la Palin. Why was it considered necessary to do that in the first, and second, place?
McCain, whose body language and facial reactions don’t hide very many of his own doubtful internal reactions to what she says and how she says it on many videos, repeats his mantra that she is great and her record complements his so well. Who is he kidding?
Christopher Hitchens says it so well when he describes her as a ” proud boastful ignoramus”! I would add “singlemindedly ambitious” and unblinking in her readiness to take advantage of all opportunities thrust on her.
For his part I believe McCain is willing to do and say anything to win this election, his last hurrah! But I feel pity for him, especially when I see how physically awkward he is on stage with his own wife. Because of this obvious situation it is sad and ironic that her personal fortune has been the most constant support in his political quest and he can’t even show natural affection for her.
Is this a case of his blind ambition leading him from an awkward connection with his wife to just another one with his VP running mate?