How Rich Do You Have To Be To Own Ten Homes?

Pastor Rick gave Obama and McCain the same questions Saturday night at the Saddleback mega-Church. Even though McCain, who managed to evade the "cone of silence," had an opportunity to hear the questions as they were being asked of Obama, he must have not thought the one through where Pastor Rick asked him to define "rich." Obama had explained that to pay for the functioning of government-- the international eradication of slavery Pastor Rick and his followers are clamoring for and the extending a hand that the least among us needs like Jesus was urging at one time (a time when Republicans were going by the name "Romans")-- it would be immoral to keep charging it to our children and grandchildren, the way the Republican Party does. He admitted that under his tax plans, people making over $250,000 a year would get a slight tax increase (while the vast majority of Americans-- those making under $150,000 a year-- would get a tax decrease. Like most Americans, Obama thinks that the wealthy need to start paying their fair share again. McCain may think the same, but he defined the "rich" as someone with more than a $5 million annual income. That might be because in the rarefied world he married into, people own their own jets and... well ten to thirteen homes. McCain's immense wealth is reflected in his voting record, a voting record that has helped drive up the deficit, unemployment, health care costs, the price of gasoline, and inflation, while driving down the dollar, the real estate market, the stock market, and the American standard of living.

Our pals at Brave New Films did this great video that shows what a hypocrite and lying sack McCain is. I wonder why Pastor Rick didn't ask him about camel's getting through the eyes of needles.



Meanwhile, Jack Cafferty's analysis of McCain's shallow and pandering performace at the Rick Warren show sums it up better than anyone else I've read.

Russia invades Georgia and President Bush goes on vacation. Our president has spent one-third of his entire two terms in office either at Camp David, Maryland, or at Crawford, Texas, on vacation.

His time away from the Oval Office included the month leading up to 9/11, when there were signs Osama bin Laden was planning to attack America, and the time Hurricane Katrina destroyed the city of New Orleans.

Sen. John McCain takes weekends off and limits his campaign events to one a day. He made an exception for the religious forum on Saturday at Saddleback Church in Southern California.

I think he made a big mistake. When he was invited last spring to attend a discussion of the role of faith in his life with Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, McCain didn't bother to show up. Now I know why.

It occurs to me that John McCain is as intellectually shallow as our current president. When asked what his Christian faith means to him, his answer was a one-liner. "It means I'm saved and forgiven." Great scholars have wrestled with the meaning of faith for centuries. McCain then retold a story we've all heard a hundred times about a guard in Vietnam drawing a cross in the sand.

Asked about his greatest moral failure, he cited his first marriage, which ended in divorce. While saying it was his greatest moral failing, he offered nothing in the way of explanation. Why not?

Throughout the evening, McCain chose to recite portions of his stump speech as answers to the questions he was being asked. Why? He has lived 71 years. Surely he has some thoughts on what it all means that go beyond canned answers culled from the same speech he delivers every day.
He was asked "if evil exists." His response was to repeat for the umpteenth time that Osama bin Laden is a bad man and he will pursue him to "the gates of hell." That was it.

He was asked to define rich. After trying to dodge the question-- his wife is worth a reported $100 million-- he finally said he thought an income of $5 million was rich.

One after another, McCain's answers were shallow, simplistic, and trite. He showed the same intellectual curiosity that George Bush has-- virtually none.

Where are John McCain's writings exploring the vexing moral issues of our time? Where are his position papers setting forth his careful consideration of foreign policy, the welfare state, education, America's moral responsibility in the world, etc., etc., etc.?

John McCain graduated 894th in a class of 899 at the Naval Academy at Annapolis. His father and grandfather were four star admirals in the Navy. Some have suggested that might have played a role in McCain being admitted. His academic record was awful. And it shows over and over again whenever McCain is called upon to think on his feet.

He no longer allows reporters unfettered access to him aboard the "Straight Talk Express" for a reason. He simply makes too many mistakes. Unless he's reciting talking points or reading from notes or a TelePrompTer, John McCain is lost. He can drop bon mots at a bowling alley or diner-- short glib responses that get a chuckle, but beyond that McCain gets in over his head very quickly.

I am sick and tired of the president of the United States embarrassing me. The world we live in is too complex to entrust it to someone else whose idea of intellectual curiosity and grasp of foreign policy issues is to tell us he can look into Vladimir Putin's eyes and see into his soul.

George Bush's record as a student, military man, businessman and leader of the free world is one of constant failure. And the part that troubles me most is he seems content with himself.

He will leave office with the country $10 trillion in debt, fighting two wars, our international reputation in shambles, our government cloaked in secrecy and suspicion that his entire presidency has been a litany of broken laws and promises, our citizens' faith in our own country ripped to shreds. Yet Bush goes bumbling along, grinning and spewing moronic one-liners, as though nobody understands what a colossal failure he has been.

I fear to the depth of my being that John McCain is just like him.