Notes On The Candidates

[poliphilo]

They say old soldiers make peace-loving politicians because they know first-hand how horrible war is, but this doesn't seem to apply to McCain, who has already- and he's not even in the White House yet- threatened to go to war with Russia.  Maybe this is because his military service involved flying above battlefields, not slogging accross them.

I'll say this for Palin: she hasn't pulled strings or called in favours to keep her son out of her holy war.

As for Obama, he's supposed to be hugely intelligent, right? So why in the world did he make that crack about the pig and the lipstick when he- or his minders- should have known that the GOP attack dogs would be all over it? The more I see and hear of him, the flimsier he seems to be.

Comments

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

I can't believe I'm defending John McCain, but...his military service didn't only involve flying above battlefields, it involved several years (5 or 6, I forget) as a POW, being tortured on a regular basis to the extent of permanently damaging his body. That being said, I can't account for his attitude towards war. It's not from disengagement, that's for sure.

"Lipstick on a pig" is a common expression (particularly in Washington, where this happens so frequently), and I believe that Obama was speaking off the cuff. The accusation that he was speaking about Palin is ridiculous to the extreme.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I would suggest that the experiences of a POW are very different from those of an infantry soldier.

Maybe Obama was tired, maybe he was on auto-pilot- but by using that phrase at that time he handed his enemies a stick to beat him with.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

Yes, it went without notice by the media when McCain used it in reference to Hillary Clinton. But then, Republicans get away with a lot that Democrats are not allowed to do (Swift-Boat campaigns, etc.)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

And yet they're forever complaining about the liberal media...

[sovay]

I can't believe I'm defending John McCain, but...his military service didn't only involve flying above battlefields, it involved several years (5 or 6, I forget) as a POW, being tortured on a regular basis to the extent of permanently damaging his body.

What perhaps distresses me most about McCain's war record was the discovery that while a prisoner of war in Vietnam, he broke under torture and signed an anti-American confession: and yet continues to advocate the present torturing of captured terrorists etc. on the grounds that it will yield valid and accurate information. He should know better.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

He broke under torture, did he? They're keeping that well hushed up.

I'm not blaming him. I'm sure I'd break under torture too.

[sovay]

They're keeping that well hushed up.

Like everything else in this campaign, it appears to be well-documented; and by virtue of being true, rendered completely irrelevant.

I'm not blaming him. I'm sure I'd break under torture too.

Yes. That isn't what distresses me. Whether it's Stockholm syndrome or simple expedience, however, his present position very much does.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I was boggling so much over the information about McCain signing that "confession" that I failed to register the second- more important- part of your comment.

Torture is criminal and barbaric- and if McCain backs its use, those adjectives apply to him as well.

[jenny_evergreen]

In fact, he said nothing even remotely to do with Palin; he was clearly and specifically talking about Bush and McCain's military policies. It was a pathetic attack, frankly not up to the Republicans usual skills. (And not the first one...I don't know what's up with them, but it makes me happy.)