John McCain pulls a Jules Winnfield on Obama. "Say 'absolutely right' again. SAY 'ABSOLUTELY RIGHT' AGAIN!"
Senator John McCain (R-MAVERICK) has a very good chance at winning this presidential election if he does one thing, and one thing alone. And that would be to stop running any kind of political advertisement whatsoever. All they ever do is bite him in the ass.…
Article comments
26 - Dave Nalle
I think debates are enormously valuable for those ignorant of the candidates, their characters and their beliefs. For those with some familiarity they're predictable if the candidates are good at their jobs or irritating if the candidates don't debate well.
Dave
27 - Silas Kain
Hey, Matt, I just realized that the title of this piece: "McCain Condemns Obama For Agreeing With Him Thrice." is quite provocative. Are you subliminally trying to tell us that Obama is the Anti-Christ? As I recall St. Peter denied Christ three times as Christ predicted. Careful, Mr. Sussman, the Falwellians may recruit you for their blog. I'm going back to worshiping the Greek Gods. They're so much more fun.
28 - Cindy D
RE #26
Ah yes irritating. I marched off to bed halfway through, grumbling all the way.
29 - Lisa Solod Warren
Sorry, PETI, but if a "large portion of AMericans think we should not talk to our enemies" then they are wrong. We simply must talk to our enemies.
And whether or not the surge worked, the reasons we got into Iraq were wrong, McCain was behind a false ware, and there is no "winning" this war.
It is not a left or right point of view; it is a moral point of view. Bush strong armed, falsely, the AMerican public into a false war, which caused hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives, thousands of AMericans lives, has made Iraq vulnerable to Iran, made terrorism worse, left Afghanistan open to the Taliban resurgence, and Obama was right to point that out again. If we can't go back and undo the past, we can make damned sure the next president doesn't make another bad decision and then compound it, then claim with a surger that we are WINNING a war that has completely destryed a country that we must now use our soldiers to occupy (rather than sending them elsewhere where they are really needed) and rebuild with our money, which is also needed elsewhere.
If you call that winning a debate, then the AMerican people deserve what they get.
30 - Silas Kain
We simply must talk to our enemies.
We don't talk to our enemies. We just elect them to Congress and let the lobbyists do the talking for us.
If you call that winning a debate, then the AMerican people deserve what they get.
Lisa, no truer words have been written except for maybe Genesis according to Sarah Palin. Oops, did I say that? I really do like Gov. Palin. Haven't quite figured out if I could handle her in Washington because she's such a departure from what we've got there now. Hmmm. That may just be a good thing! I'll have to call Martha Stewart and see what she thinks.
Lisa, I find myself sharing your point of view as stated above. I guess that's another item I'll mention to Martha to see if she thinks that's a "good thing" as well.
31 - Lisa Solod Warren
See if Martha will give you her recipe for chocolate chip cookies that need 175 ingredients and take 4 days to make. That is one of my favorites but I somehow misplaced the recipe; although how I did that, as it was 15 pages long, I don't know:)
32 - Silas Kain
Good Lord, Lisa. Have you considered just buying some Chips Ahoy? Surely it would be much better for the environment!
33 - Lisa Solod Warren
We don't do no stinkin' store bought cookies here:)
My Goodness, I just realized that I must start my Hannukah Bush (do hate to use that word) decorations this very minute. Hannukah may be late this year but it is only 3 months away. Gotta fly! So many Martha magazines to read. How WILL she keep her publishing empire afloat AND be VP. Oh, I forgot. WOMEN CAN MULTITASK!!!
34 - Silas Kain
I must fly as well! Time to watch Meet The Press and lose my voice while screaming at Tom Brokaw! Lord, I HATE Sundays.
35 - Lisa Solod Warren
It was already on it our time zone. NOT their best effort. Don't bother.
36 - Dave Nalle
He had David Axelrod on. That automatically makes the show not worth watching. Axelrod alone ought to be enough to sink Obama's campaign.
Dave
37 - Lisa Solod Warren
And the McCain spokesman was better?
38 - bliffle
Sounds like I needn't view the DVR recording I made of the debate.
39 - Cindy D
We don't talk to our enemies. We just elect them to Congress and let the lobbyists do the talking for us.
ROFLOL @ Silas
40 - Dave Nalle
And the McCain spokesman was better?
Well, he shaved his head instead of having a stupid walrus mustache. That's something.
Dave
41 - pleasexcusetheinterruption
Sorry, PETI, but if a "large portion of AMericans think we should not talk to our enemies" then they are wrong. We simply must talk to our enemies.
And whether or not the surge worked, the reasons we got into Iraq were wrong, McCain was behind a false ware, and there is no "winning" this war.
It is not a left or right point of view; it is a moral point of view. Bush strong armed, falsely, the AMerican public into a false war, which caused hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives, thousands of AMericans lives, has made Iraq vulnerable to Iran, made terrorism worse, left Afghanistan open to the Taliban resurgence, and Obama was right to point that out again. If we can't go back and undo the past, we can make damned sure the next president doesn't make another bad decision and then compound it, then claim with a surger that we are WINNING a war that has completely destryed a country that we must now use our soldiers to occupy (rather than sending them elsewhere where they are really needed) and rebuild with our money, which is also needed elsewhere.
If you call that winning a debate, then the AMerican people deserve what they get.
You don't have to convince me Lisa, but that's not how this debate will be perceived.
And McCain is right that it doesn't matter anymore whether it was right to go in or not. The question is what do we do now, and he has been very effective in arguing the surge is working, Obama agrees with him and looks naive for opposing the surge at first. And like I said, only 39% of America trusts Obama on Iraq more than McCain.
Obama can win a few points by pointing out McCain's error in backing the war originally, but McCain can win just as many judgment points pointing out Obama opposed the surge and was 'surprised beyond his dreams' when it worked.
Also McCain made a strong argument that there IS a way to win the war. Obama was ineffective at arguing that Iraq is not vital to our security interests. He did a great job arguing that it WASNT vital, but he was so in the past he didn't prove that it still isn't vital and that it's OK to just walk away from the mess.
You're not differentiating between your world outlook and how this will be perceived. Not everyone sees the world the way you do Lisa, including me to some extent, although I'd say we hold similar views.
42 - pleasexcusetheinterruption
I think debates are enormously valuable for those ignorant of the candidates, their characters and their beliefs. For those with some familiarity they're predictable if the candidates are good at their jobs or irritating if the candidates don't debate well.
Dave
They also make for good drinking games. And generate lots of advertising revenue. Anything else?
43 - Dave Nalle
Well, like I said they help me go to sleep in my recliner in the living room.
Dave
44 - Lisa Solod Warren
PETI
If the American public still believes that this is about WINNING a war, which isn't really a war, then I told out little hope that they understand even a little who will actually be the best man to run this country.
45 - El Bicho
We'll see how the polls shake out, especially with independents, but I only see people giving McCain a win in the debate if they are his supporters, they are against Obama, or they are unaware of the subjects and events.
To me it was a draw, which is a positive for Obama to look like McCain's equal. They each had good moments, but most McCain's attacks were as weak as some of his botched jokes. He needs to hope that people know as little about Iraq as he appears to.