John McCain News, John McCain Pictures

We really dodged the bullet when we overwhelmingly rejected this man in fall of 2008.

Untrue. But then it’s not like this guy is a major political figure who should know these facts. And he certainly didn’t come second in an election to be the commander-in-chief…

What’s that?

But you probably knew this already.

Indeed, McCain’s practice of misrepresenting facts to draw artificially evenhanded conclusions has proven quite useful. For example, after seeing the 2009 film Brothers in which a soldier returning with post-traumatic stress disorder attacks his own family, McCain concludes that Hollywood portrays soldiers in ‘a negative light.’ She asks ‘Why Does Hollywood Hate Our Troops?’ and argues that public would be better served to witness ‘heart-wrenching tales of heroism.’ Conveniently, she skips over the fact that many movies depict soldiers heroically. But acknowledging this would make her thesis ridiculous and jeopardize her agenda.

Perhaps a testament to the role she sees for herself within the GOP, McCain also weighs in on the power of online marketing. After posting a link to a campy video called ‘Just Tax,’ she glorifies the use of multimedia propaganda. A parody of Lady Gaga’s ‘Just Dance’ video, ‘Just Tax’ establishes Obama’s economic plan as a debt-ridden ploy to tax the citizen and slash defense. Ignoring data that finds Bush’s tax cuts as the most responsible for current deficits and that the current administration has not cut the defense budget or raised taxes, a determined McCain eagerly advises conservatives to take note of the video’s ‘easy, simple explanation’ of the left’s plan to ‘tax us out of debt.’

Obama drinks McCain’s milkshake.

Oh sweet lord, grab the popcorn. Of course, McCain’s problem is that birthers are a strong part of the GOP base that votes in primaries. This may help J.D. Hayworth more than anything. (via)

John McCain sent out a fundraising email today (he never sent one appealing for aid for Haiti as President Obama and the DCCC did) making a big harumph about the increase in the debt ceiling:

Our national debt has reached an all-time high of $12.4 trillion dollars as a result of the astonishing expansion of big government under President Obama. And now, Congressional Democrats want to raise our national debt ceiling by an additional $1.9 trillion. This is unconscionable.

Of course in 2003, John McCain voted in the affirmative to raise the debt ceiling. Why? Well, the president at that time was a Democrat.

That’s John McCain’s response to questions about whether Sarah Palin was fully vetted.

I mean, not like the choice of the person a heartbeat from the presidency is important or anything.

Wow, did we dodge a bullet by not electing that incompetent.

I’m always bemused by this type of analysis of the 2008 election from the right. In the piece Dan Riehl tries to argue the case that Palin was mismanaged by the McCain campaign, and as if they had only let Sarah be Sarah she might have saved the effort.

Bull.

While Palin energized some of the conservative base in a way McCain never could, she also solidified in the minds of many independents the idea that it would be insane to have John McCain anywhere near 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (and for any liberals not energized already by the Obama campaign, Palin had a Bush-style effect in kicking our butts into gear — she still has this effect). The minute Palin was outside of the stage-managed world of the convention, it became clear just how stupid she was, and the sort of Jerry Springer style drama she had lived in in Alaska. Her fumbling of the easiest questions asked of a presidential or vice presidential candidate – seriously, how hard charging is a question about what newspapers and magazines you read – reinforced earlier frames from the Obama campaign about McCain’s unsuitability for the Presidency.

People were inclined not to vote for John McCain, and for any voters out there whose opinions could be swayed, the choice of Palin became a concrete example of why they shouldn’t. They were willing to take the gamble on Obama, because the chaos of McCain/Palin was far too scary.

But conservatives now hold up Sarah Palin the way they hold up conservatism. We are now told that our previous, very conservative president didn’t fail due to his conservatism. Conservatism is never at fault. And in their eyes neither is Sarah Palin. Her incompetent answers, her wacky positions on policy, her inability to engage on any level resembling a serious public leader, in their eyes is not a flaw of any sort. For them, America failed Palin, not the other way around.

And if she runs in 2012 and the inevitable landslide loss for her comes, America will have no doubt failed Sarah Palin again. Thank God.

UPDATE: As is if to prove my point, Palin argues that to crack down on a nuclear Iran we have to do something about “Iraq”.

Hey, Fox News reported it, so it must be TRUE.

John McCain just doesn’t like net neutrality, and in order to show this McCain has introduced legislation that would effectively hand the keys to big business. Of course, as his campaign last year showed, John McCain barely understands what an Internet is, let alone give us the confidence that he knows how it should – or shouldn’t – be legislated.