John McCain seems determined to delve the lowest levels of stupidity. Just when we think his campaign and his statements can't get any more ridiculous, he finds a new motherlode of idiocy to mine:
Economic growth may have fallen into negative territory*, but there's at least one company that's doing very well: ExxonMobil's third quarter profits totaled $14.83 billion, the best quarter any U.S. company has
ever had.
Like practically everything else, this has campaign implications. The AP
reports, "Republican presidential candidate John McCain seized on reports of record oil company profits Thursday to criticize Democratic rival Barack Obama for favoring tax breaks for the oil industry."
That's not a typo or an editing error. The McCain campaign saw ExxonMobil's record-breaking profits as grounds to go after Obama for support tax breaks for Big Oil.
Honestly, how does one respond to something like this? By pointing out the $1.2 billion tax break McCain wants to give to ExxonMobil? By
noting the $4 billion in tax breaks McCain supports for America's largest oil companies? By highlighting the fact that McCain's energy policy reflects Big Oil's wish list? By reminding folks of McCain's abysmal record on alternative energy solutions? By mentioning that McCain's campaign is being run and financed by lobbyists for the oil industry?
I know it's fashionable in Republicon circles right now to accuse your opponent of everything that you yourself do, but this is just insane. Batshit. Fucking. Insane.
This supreme idiocy may be explained by the following tidbit:
It's probably fair to say conservative columnist George Will has been thoroughly unimpressed by John McCain of late. He's blasted McCain for "behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high." Will has lamented McCain's "dismaying temperament." He's described McCain as "childish," "shallow," and suffering from a "Manichaean worldview."
And today, Will labeled McCain "John the Careless," citing among other things, McCain picking Sarah Palin for the GOP ticket because he eemed to believe "never having attended a 'Georgetown cocktail party' is sufficient qualification for the vice presidency."
The column is worth reading, but this is the paragraph that stood out for me:Palin may be an inveterate simplifier; McCain has a history of reducing controversies to cartoons. A Republican financial expert recalls attending a dinner with McCain for the purpose of discussing with him domestic and international financial complexities that clearly did not fascinate the senator. As the dinner ended, McCain's question for his briefer was: "So, who is the villain?"
This is amusing, but it's also important. McCain's appreciation for policy complexities doesn't exist. Maybe he's impatient, maybe he's easily confused, maybe both. But McCain not only prefers to see the world
as black and white, good guy vs. bad guy, he needs this dynamic to make sense of current events. Subtleties, nuances, and depth are inconvenient, and therefore dismissed.
A man who would be president cannot - let me repeat this, cannot - reduce complex issues to "hero" and "villain." The world doesn't work that way. If you insist on simplifying to this extent, you're going to end up with four more years of Bushian dumbfuckery, in which those who don't agree 100% with America end up dumped in the Axis of Evil bucket, problems can't be solved, partisanship reaches ridiculous and deeply damaging levels, and the country suffers. We do not need another high-functioning moron in office. I have my doubts as to whether the words "high functioning" can even be applied to the McCain/Palin ticket.
We saw this kind of judgement go horribly awry in Iraq, and it's still damaging us today:
The United States and Iraq are currently engaged in “tense” negotiations regarding the future of the U.S. military presence in Iraq after the U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year. Just yesterday, the Iraqi Cabinet proposed changes that the U.S. has yet to approve.
But now, CQ’s Jeff Stein reports that according to NBC investigative reporter Aram Roston, former Iraqi exile Ahmed Chalabi — the White House’s favorite Iraqi in the run-up to the Iraq war — has been helping the Iranians stand in the way of the agreement:Roston calls Chalabi a “key figure” in Iranian efforts to scuttle the status-of-forces agreement that is under fierce negotiation between Baghdad and Washington.
“He is seen more and more by the U.S. as a foreign agent, an Iranian agent,” Roston told me by telephone from Mexico, where he is vacationing. What Chalabi says is “equated” with the Iranian position on the status-of-forces agreement,
Roston said, which it opposes.
Chalabi told Iran’s state media last month that the U.S. wants secret
military bases in Iraq and Stein notes that yesterday, a Shiite newspaper in Baghdad featured his opposition to the security agreement. In fact, last May, U.S. officials cut off all contact with Chalabi because of “unauthorized” contacts with the Iranian government.
This ratfucker has close ties to - who else - some of McCain's most important advisors: Charlie Blackand Randy Scheunamann. They decided he's not a villain, therefore he's a hero, and therefore they got completely snowed by a con man.
And this is judgement we can believe in? I don't bloody well think so.
No more simplistic fuckwits in charge of America. Please. We can't survive another four years of this ignorant dumbfuckery.
Actually, I'm quite impressed by Chalabi. To have been exposed as con man waaay back when the U.S. first tried to set up an interim government, and to still keep the U.S. government, the McCain camp, and Iran on the hook for so long (when you know he's undoubtedly told Iran as many lies per month as he has the U.S.) -- wow.
ReplyDeleteHe must be just breathtakingly brilliant at telling people what they want to hear. Pity we have to share the same planet with him.