If You Vote For McCain-Palin... Pick Your City

And get ready for a draft... because, like Pat Buchanan said, McCain "will make Cheney look like Gandhi."



Yesterday we mentioned that out of 22 countries polled about the U.S. election, residents in 22 of them thought Obama was the best choice for president. If you follow my travel blog at all, you probably know when I'm not blogging, I'm in Afghanistan, Myanmar, Argentina, or Thailand, Morocco, Sri Lanka or... on the road to Timbuktu. Early in Bush's first term I fell off a mountain in Cappadocia. We met some kind simple peasants down at the bottom of the mountain. They didn't speak much English but they knew enough to say "Bush no good." It was pretty much the reaction we got from people everywhere in the world we went for the past 6-7 years. After 2004 it got much worse-- because people thought Americans were idiots... or complicit.

Sympathy wore thin-- real thin. Sometimes I sensed real hostility. I lived overseas for seven years. I travel overseas every year at least a couple times. I see fewer and fewer Americans abroad these days.

Today's Guardian picked up on the same phenomena I've been noticing and Jonathan Freedland warns that it could get much worse if Americans are foolish enough to opt for a third Bush term. And reading his column gives you the distinct idea that people in Britain-- who have Obama over McCain by a wide margin-- may be more informed about our presidential politics than many of us are!

If Sarah Palin defies the conventional wisdom that says elections are determined by the top of the ticket, and somehow wins this for McCain, what will be the reaction? Yes, blue-state America will go into mourning once again, feeling estranged in its own country. A generation of young Americans - who back Obama in big numbers - will turn cynical, concluding that politics doesn't work after all. And, most depressing, many African-Americans will decide that if even Barack Obama-- with all his conspicuous gifts-- could not win, then no black man can ever be elected president.

But what of the rest of the world? This is the reaction I fear most. For Obama has stirred an excitement around the globe unmatched by any American politician in living memory. Polling in Germany, France, Britain and Russia shows that Obama would win by whopping majorities, with the pattern repeated in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. If November 4 were a global ballot, Obama would win it handsomely. If the free world could choose its leader, it would be Barack Obama.

The crowd of 200,000 that rallied to hear him in Berlin in July did so not only because of his charisma, but also because they know he, like the majority of the world's population, opposed the Iraq war. McCain supported it, peddling the lie that Saddam was linked to 9/11. Non-Americans sense that Obama will not ride roughshod over the international system but will treat alliances and global institutions seriously: McCain wants to bypass the United Nations in favour of a US-friendly League of Democracies. McCain might talk a good game on climate change, but a repeated floor chant at the Republican convention was "Drill, baby, drill!", as if the solution to global warming were not a radical rethink of the US's entire energy system but more offshore oil rigs.

If Americans choose McCain, they will be turning their back on the rest of the world, choosing to show us four more years of the Bush-Cheney finger. And I predict a deeply unpleasant shift.

Until now, anti-Americanism has been exaggerated and much misunderstood: outside a leftist hardcore, it has mostly been anti-Bushism, opposition to this specific administration. But if McCain wins in November, that might well change. Suddenly Europeans and others will conclude that their dispute is with not only one ruling clique, but Americans themselves. For it will have been the American people, not the politicians, who will have passed up a once-in-a-generation chance for a fresh start - a fresh start the world is yearning for.

And the manner of that decision will matter, too. If it is deemed to have been about race-- that Obama was rejected because of his colour-- the world's verdict will be harsh. In that circumstance, Slate's Jacob Weisberg wrote recently, international opinion would conclude that "the United States had its day, but in the end couldn't put its own self-interest ahead of its crazy irrationality over race."

Even if it's not ethnic prejudice, but some other aspect of the culture wars, that proves decisive, the point still holds. For America to make a decision as grave as this one-- while the planet boils and with the US fighting two wars-- on the trivial basis that a hockey mom is likable and seems down to earth, would be to convey a lack of seriousness, a fleeing from reality, that does indeed suggest a nation in, to quote Weisberg, "historical decline." Let's not forget, McCain's campaign manager boasts that this election is "not about the issues."

Of course I know that even to mention Obama's support around the world is to hurt him. Incredibly, that large Berlin crowd damaged Obama at home, branding him the "candidate of Europe" and making him seem less of a patriotic American. But what does that say about today's America, that the world's esteem is now unwanted? If Americans reject Obama, they will be sending the clearest possible message to the rest of us-- and, make no mistake, we shall hear it.

And part of that message will be that an unending barrage of media-debunked lies-- several a week in fact-- is the new yardstick of America's failed-- post-dumbed down-- experiment with democracy.

Does McCain's Military History Qualify Him To Be President? The Deceptions Of Joe Lieberman

It isn't likely that a widely discredited Washington insider who was thrown out of his own party by Connecticut voters will persuade many Democrats or independents to vote for his closest crony and fellow deranged warmonger, John McCain. Ironically, the outgoing Republican Rep. in Maryland's first congressional district, Wayne Gilchrest, endorsed conservative Democrat Frank Kratovil over neo-fascist GOP candidate Andy Harris. That will have a great deal more impact than Lieberman's distorted presentation of his buddy McCain. "Distorted," you ask? Well I'm glad you did because I'd like to lay out some facts for you that counter Lieberman's most egregious lies from last night.

1- “When others were silent, John McCain had the judgment to sound the alarm about the mistakes we were making in Iraq.”

Just last april ago McCain said "No one has supported President Bush on Iraq more than I have.” And during a March 2008 interview on the Mike Gallagher Show, McCain stated, “no one has supported President Bush on Iraq more than I have,” apparently a line he liked repeating a lot last spring when he was hoping Republicans would make him their nominee. I haven't heard him say it recently though. You? And we he visited O'Reilly at Fox on March 18, 2003 he was even more blunt and to the point saying he would have handled Iraq exactly as Bush had and that he didn't have even one Bush move he disagreed with. "Nothing. The president has handled this, in my view, skillfully.”

2- In one of his frequent nasty attacks on Obama last night, Lieberman lied, "In the Senate he has not reached across party lines to get anything significant done, nor has he been willing to take on powerful interest groups in the Democratic Party."

In actuality Obama and far right Republican Tom Coburn (OK) worked together in 2006 to pass a landmark bill creating c “Google-like” database for the public to search details about federal funding awards. It passed unanimously and Coburn said "I consider Barack a friend. He's a liberal. He's not ashamed of it. What we agree on is that things should be transparent." The same year, Obama worked with Indiana Republican Richard Lugar to pass legislation to keep weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists, the Cooperative Proliferation Detection Act, which was passed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously on May 26, 2006 and was eventually incorporated into the Department of State Authorities Act of 2006 and signed into law on January 11, 2007. It wasn't the first time Obama had teamed up with Lugar. In 2005 they worked together to pass an amendment to fund research for hybrid/flex fuel vehicles. Then in 2006, Congress passed a Veterans Affairs Committee bill which included several provisions originating in Obama’s SAVE Act (S. 1180) and Homes for Heroes Act (S. 3475). Obama worked with two Republican colleagues on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, Senators Larry Craig and Richard Burr, on the legislation. This year, Obama worked with Senators McCaskill (D-MO) and Bond (R-MO) to pass several provisions from their “Dignity for Wounded Warriors Act” into law. The legislation improved standards at military medical care facilities. The new law would require the Secretary of Defense to establish a set of standards for military medical care facilities and oversee compliance with those standards by a specific deadline. Finally, the new law would require an annual report to Congress on the conditions of those facilities. The provisions would improve health care services and health care tracking for service members, and would require post-deployment, face to face mental health screenings for returning service members within 30 days.

3-"When others wanted to retreat in defeat from the field of battle, when Barack Obama was voting to cut off funding for our troops on the ground, John McCain had the courage to stand against the tide of public opinion and support the surge, and because of that, today, our troops are at last beginning to come home, not in failure, but in honor!"

Last month, the extremely pro-McCain A.P. denounced this oft-repeated McCain campaign canard as "misleading." It's "misleading" because its a deliberate lie. “The ad's most inflammatory charge-- that Obama voted against troop funding in Iraq and Afghanistan-- is misleading. The Illinois senator consistently voted to fund the troops once elected to the Senate, a point Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton made during the primaries when questioning whether his anti-war rhetoric was reflected in his actions.” The Annenberg Public Policy Center’s factcheck.org wrote, “Prior to the sole 2007 vote cited by the McCain campaign as justification for this ad, Obama voted for all war-funding bills that had come before the Senate since 2005, when he was sworn in." Obama said in a statement, “This vote is a choice between validating the same failed policy in Iraq that has cost us so many lives and demanding a new one. And I am demanding a new one. We must fund our troops. But we owe them something more. We owe them a clear, prudent plan to relieve them of the burden of policing someone else's civil war. We need a plan to compel the Iraqi people to reach a political accommodation and to take responsibility for their own future. It's time to change course. I opposed this war in 2002 precisely because I feared it would lead us to the open-ended occupation in which we find ourselves today. This President has led us down a disastrous path and has arrogantly refused to acknowledge the grim reality of this war, which has cost us so dearly in lives and treasure. After he vetoed a plan that would have funded the troops and begun to bring them home, this bill represents more of his stubborn refusal to address his failed policy. We should not give the President a blank check to continue down this same, disastrous path. With my vote today, I am saying to the President that enough is enough. We must negotiate a better plan that funds our troops, signals to the Iraqis that it is time for them to act and that begins to bring our brave servicemen and women home safely and responsibly.”

4- “They are worried about their homes, their jobs, and their businesses; they are worried about the outrageous cost of gas and of health insurance…”

In a CNN debate on Jan. 30, 2008 McCain said, “I think you could argue that Americans overall are better off, because we have had a pretty good prosperous time, with low unemployment and low inflation and a lot of good things have happened. A lot of jobs have been created.” McCain voted against the 1993 Economic Plan, which largely eliminated the federal budget deficit and created 22 million new jobs, resulting in the lowest unemployment in 30 years, the highest home ownership in history, the fastest and longest real wage growth in over three decades, and a budget surplus.

5- “I have personally seen John, over and over again, bring people together from both parties to tackle our toughest problems we face-- to reform our campaign finance, lobbying and ethics laws, to create the 9/11 Commission and pass its critical national security reforms, and to end the partisan paralysis over judicial confirmations.”

On January 18, 2007 The Hill reported that after sponsoring reform legislation that included a “requirement for grassroots lobbying coalitions to reveal their financial donors,” McCain did an “about-face” on the issue in the run-up to his 2008 presidential campaign, caving to conservative pressure and voting against the provision in 2007. It was “strongly opposed by groups such as the National Right to Life Committee, Gun Owners of America, and the American Civil Liberties Union…McCain’s past allies in battles to reform government…were surprised to discover his position had changed.”

6- “If John McCain was just another go-along partisan politician, he never would have led the fight to fix our broken immigration system...”

McCain didn't even support his own immigration reform legislation when the right-wing base started howling. Jesus' General summed it up best:



If you felt like there was a wave of sleaze washing over you when you watched Lieberwhore lie his old ass off last night, let me suggest you take a look at this four minute video of a fellow POW of McCain's who, unlike Lieberman, has no aspirations to run the country. Phillip Butler just wants to show that, despite McCain, many veterans do believe in actual straight talk. Here's the real story about why someone who knows John McCain thinks it would be a catastrophe to have this disingenuous and reckless old man capture the presidency.

He's not cut out to be president of the United States":

Is John McCain Too Reckless To Lead?

Ron Paul supporters welcome the Hate Fest to St Paul

The theme of the St Paul HateFest seems to have shaped up into a two-tiered outreach:
1- Obama is not ready to lead
2- Obama is _______ (fill in anything a reactionary or bigot hates most)

The giveaway? The spate of vicious, false, negative, fear-mongering campaign ads, all approved by Karl Rove and his boy McCain. As McCain backers Lieberman and Miss Lindsey point out in today's Wall Street Journal, Obama's goal of world cooperation and peace are virtually the opposite of McCain's vision of global anxiety and war.

Yesterday I went to see the doctor for my annual physical. I'm deathly afraid of needles but the nurse who always draws my blood, Svetlana, I trust so thoroughly that I am never afraid. Remembering that Stalin's daughter is named Svetlana and that Stalin was from Georgia, I asked the nurse for her thoughts on the tense situation there. The normally mild-mannered, good-humored and witty intellectual let loose with a stream of invective that shocked me... and all directed at McCain and his Neocon lobbyist/advisor Randy Scheunemann. Svetlana doesn't read blogs but she was well aware that the Neocons goaded Saakashvili into taking rash action against South Ossetia to instill fear in Americans, who, they hoped would then turn to what the Republicans seem to think is a "proven" foreign policy expert. (Somehow being held captive in a North Vietnamese prison makes McCain, a bumbling idiot who has never gotten anything right regarding foreign policy, an "expert" in their minds.)

I didn't ask Svetlana if she's a citizen or not, so I don't know if her rage at McCain's cynical, self-serving and extremely dangerous interference in her old country would turn into another vote against him. But I did notice her frustration that the U.S. media-- particularly the cable Infotainment industry-- has completely distorted what is going on in the Caucasuses.

Ilan Goldenberg at Democracy Arsenal has come up with a good response for the Obama campaign to this Republican line:

John McCain. He was a cheerleader for George Bush and Dick Cheney's war in Iraq. He has said we should bomb Iran. He's willing to get into major escalations with China and Russia. He thought war with North Korea was inevitable. He even called Germany and France our "adversaries." Is that who we want leading our country? John McCain too reckless to lead.

Mississippi conservative Republican Senator Thad Cochran explained why he wouldn't vote for McCain during the GOP primaries. He said that "the thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me." Cochran has known McCain and worked with him for decades. Like many of his less outspoken colleagues, he knows how reckless McCain is and how unfit he is for the presidency.

And, although Cochran is far from alone among Republicans who fear that McCain has the wrong temperament to be president, and is a danger to America because of his rashness, more Republicans oppose him because of what they see as his shaky moorings on lifestyle issues. Today Robert Novak dragged himself from his deathbed to warn McCain about picking another irrational warmonger, Joe Lieberman, as his running mate. He says Lieberman is McCain's first choice. The only thing stopping him is the veto power the religious right has over GOP politics, especially over anything the thoroughly distrusted McCain wants to do.

Reports of strong support within John McCain's presidential campaign for Independent Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman as the Republican candidate for vice president are not a fairy tale. Influential McCain backers, plus McCain himself, would pick the pro-choice liberal from Connecticut if they thought they could get away with it.

...McCain's top strategists argue that the Bush coalition that won the last two presidential elections is dead and must be replaced by a new one that extends to the left, as Lieberman would. Bush strategists disagree, asserting that McCain is getting around 90 percent of the old Bush vote and can win the election with a few moderates added in.

They claim 90% support from the Bush coalition but that is very optimistic, pie-in-the-sky thinking. Unless he picks Mike Huckabee or another figure the evangelicals are enthusiastic about-- Mitt not being The One-- he'll be lucky to be claiming 80% of the Bush coalition in two weeks.

A group of Michigan social conservatives who support former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee threatened Thursday to abandon Republican nominee John McCain, upset that McCain's vice presidential choice may not reflect their anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage positions.

The uproar came after a pair of meetings Wednesday-- while McCain was campaigning here-- in which his campaign hoped to strengthen its support with religious conservatives. Huckabee supporters said they were especially upset at word that, at a meeting in Birmingham between McCain and a small group of conservative activists, a top McCain ally had floated the possibility he'd pick a running mate who is for abortion rights.

"We are totally done with McCain at this point," said Debra Mantey, one of the organizers of the other meeting, in Saginaw. She said she and many others in the group will refuse to help McCain's campaign unless Huckabee is on the ballot, or given the keynote address at the GOP convention.

One has to wonder if Debra Mantey (or even Phyllis Schafly) will be all over the media next week the way that flaming asshole Sacha Millstone, the irrational Clinton delegate from Boulder, was this week. Somehow, I doubt it. And even if McCain, who seems hell bent on picking almost anyone but Huckabee as his running mate, manages to set things straight with the Huckabee folks, what about the Ron Paul contingent? Who do you think Ron Paul, who is pointedly not being invited to speak at the Republican Hate Fest, is aiming this ad at? It will run on a hundred televisions every 8 minutes throughout the Mall of America during the Republican Convention down the road. And that's not a few dozen post-menopausal, spoiled and self-entitled old yentas whining about not getting their way.

THAD COCHRAN (R-MS) PROBABLY WOULDN'T BE INVITED TO JOIN McCAIN CABINET-- EXPOSES McCAIN'S DARK, VIOLENT NATURE

There have been a spate of reports from fellow members of the House and Senate and from other people who have worked with McCain over the years that his temperament-- and especially his hot temper and nasty nature-- should make voters ponder long and hard whether or not he is really qualified to be president. Today the debate erupted again. Mississippi Republican Senator Thad Cochran was famously quoted saying "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me." Today Cochran recounted another story about what the Arizona Republic has called McCain's "volcanic temper." Basically Cochran, who claims he has witnesses, let lose with the story of McCain "roughing up" a Nicaraguan diplomat in 1987. Although Joe Lieberman is expected to run to Fox News as soon as he gets back from the junket to Colombia and Mexico to swear that he knows McCain for 100 years and McCain would never do anything like that, McCain has already released a statement basically saying Cochran is a liar. (In McCain World, everyone is always a liar-- except Lindsey and Holy Joe. His whole career has been marked by catastrophes of his own making that are always everyones' fault but his own-- from his abysmal record at the Naval Academy to crashing up half a dozen planes and killing hundreds of American sailors to the Keating Five Scandal.) He sneared at the mention of Cochran's name at a press conference today

McCain grabbed the Nicaraguan by the shirt and lifted him out of his chair. McCain says he's never liked the Sandinistas but denied that the incident Cochran described ever happened. "[T]here was never anything of that nature. It just didn't happen," McCain told reporters, feigning calm.

I can't imagine Cochran would make it up-- they are running on the same ticket in November-- but McCain's camp immediately started leaking smears about Cochran being an earmarks abuser. Now I'm wondering if McCain has these violent psychotic episodes and doesn't remember them afterwards. He has always vehemently denied them all, from fighting and belittling profession women to bullying a clod like Rick Renzi, and then gone on to seek revenge.

Here's what Senator Cochran told the Biloxi Sun Herald:

"McCain was down at the end of the table and we were talking to the head of the guerrilla group here at this end of the table and I don't know what attracted my attention. But I saw some kind of quick movement at the bottom of the table and I looked down there and John had reached over and grabbed this guy by the shirt collar and had snatched him up like he was throwing him up out of the chair to tell him what he thought about him or whatever...

"I don't know what he was telling him but I thought, 'Good grief, everybody around here has got guns and we were there on a diplomatic mission.' I don't know what had happened to provoke John, but he obviously got mad at the guy... and he just reached over there and snatched... him."

SOMETIMES HE DOESN'T EXPLODE IN VIOLENT TEMPER TANTRUMS


Sometimes he just gets angry and gives people the evil eye. Like when a reporter asked him the very legitimate question of how his Vietnam experiences prepared him for the White House. Jon Soltz of VoteVets.org has the whole story.

PARSLEY ESCALATES HIS WAR WITH McCAIN... BUT HASN'T EXACTLY ISSUED A FATWA AGAINST HIM YET

This was a very bad week for McCain; everything went wrong, especially all that lobbyist stuff that finally broke into the mainstream media. And between that and the scary cocktail of mind-altering drugs he takes daily, he flipped out when the majority of Republican senators abandoned him and voted for the GI Bill, helping Obama and Hillary pass it with a veto-proof majority. He struck out blindly, first at Senator Obama and then at the Christian conservatives who he had wooed so assiduously for the last year. He threw first John Hagee and then Rod Parsley under the bus... and rather unceremoniously. He rejected both of their endorsements and made some pretty rude comments about them and their (admittedly loopy) beliefs.

Hagee, who he called "crazy," withdrew his endorsement but on Friday Parsley said he would let his endorsement of McCain stand. He changed his mind today

The pastor of World Harvest Church, in the Canal Winchester area, issued a statement almost identical to one he had sent late Friday night, but with one key change: the addition of the sentence “Therefore I withdraw my endorsement.”

Spokesman Gene Pierce wouldn’t shed light on Parsley’s decision, saying only “this statement is a clarification on (Friday’s) statement.”

McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, rejected the Columbus pastor’s endorsement after holding on to it for nearly three months. Parsley has criticized Islam, calling it inherently violent and saying it is “the anti-Christ religion.”

McCAIN, REJECTED BY HIS SENATE COLLEAGUES, VICIOUSLY LASHES OUT AT SENATOR OBAMA

The overwhelming veto-proof approval of the bipartisan GI Bill is being looked at by the media as a slap in the face for Bush. And it was. But a far worse message was delivered-- by his Republican colleagues-- to John McCain. He was close to psychotic today when he found that the final tally, 75-22, had more Republicans voting with Obama and Clinton than with him. He had personally appealed to the Senate caucus to hold together on this and not let the Democrats make him look like an idiot. With the exception of a bunch of Bush Regime dead-enders and his own yippy-yappy gay South Carolina lapdog, the Republicans in the Senate caucus abandoned him in droves-- especially the ones who are up for re-election in November. They have all seen the value of his coattails writ large after the special elections in Illinois-- where he staked all his prestige on Oberweis-- and in Mississippi, where every single Republican household got an automated phone message from McCain. When Obama gently criticized McCain for trying to force fellow Republicans into filibustering a popular measure to give veterans a fair shake, McCain exploded in paroxysms of venomous psychosis. Before we go over his mental breakdown, here's what he was reacting to:

"I respect Senator John McCain's service to our country. He is one of those heroes of which I speak. But I can't understand why he would line up behind the president in opposition to this GI bill. I can't believe why he believes it is too generous to our veterans. I could not disagree with him and the president more on this issue. There are many issues that lend themselves to partisan posturing, but giving our veterans the chance to go to college should not be one of them."

McCain treated that like a declaration of war, which is exactly how he treats anyone disagreeing with him about anything. On a day when all the newspapers were talking about how his campaign is overrun with crooked lobbyists whose sleazy clients are paying them to get his favors, and on a day when McCain denounced the religious right again and severed his relationships with Reverend Hagee and Reverend Parsley, two avatars of modern day Republicanism, and on a day when the Senate voted overwhelmingly against him on an issue he (quite disingenuously) claims to be an expert on, McCain just lost it, lashing out at Obama and showing the two-bit thug side of his personality he is always trying to keep under wraps.

"It is typical, but no less offensive that Senator Obama uses the Senate floor to take cheap shots at an opponent and easy advantage of an issue he has less than zero understanding of... Both Senator Webb and I are united in our deep appreciation for the men and women who risk their lives so that the rest of us may be secure in our freedom. And I take a backseat to no one in my affection, respect and devotion to veterans. And I will not accept from Senator Obama, who did not feel it was his responsibility to serve our country in uniform, any lectures on my regard for those who did. Perhaps, if Senator Obama would take the time and trouble to understand this issue he would learn to debate an honest disagreement respectfully. But, as he always does, he prefers impugning the motives of his opponent, and exploiting a thoughtful difference of opinion to advance his own ambitions. If that is how he would behave as President, the country would regret his election."

UGLY! I wonder how many Republicans who have to run with him on top of the ticket are starting to feel some buyer's remorse about now. Many senators were embarrassed and one GOP solon said it was the most vicious personal public attack he had every heard in his 18 years in the U.S. Senate. McCain seems to be coming apart-- the campaign hasn't really even begun and he's already unhinged. But everyone knows, especially his wife (who he publicly called "a cunt") that he's on a hair-trigger.

As usual Obama was cool, calm and collected in his response to McCain's personal nastiness.

"I am proud to stand with Senator Webb and a bipartisan coalition to give our veterans the support and opportunity they deserve. It's disappointing that Senator McCain and his campaign used this issue to launch yet another lengthy personal, political attack instead of debating an honest policy difference. He should know that this is not about John McCain or Barack Obama-- it's about giving our veterans a real chance to afford four years of college without harming retention. Senator Webb's bipartisan bill will do this, and the bill that John McCain supports would not. These endless diatribes and schoolyard taunts from the McCain campaign do nothing to advance the debate about what matters to the American people."

JOHN W. McCAIN-- YES, EVEN WORSE THAN GEORGE W. BUSH

One of the impressions I walked away with after a briefing at the DNC where polling data was shared with journalists and bloggers was that most Americans have vague impressions about McCain but that the "maverick" and "moderate" hype hasn't sunk in, regardless of how heavily pushed it has been by his allies in the Inside-the-Beltway media. Sycophants like Broder and Tweety can swoon over him all they like, but most Americans are still wondering who he is. An extensive page one story in today's Washington Post, one that was apparently kept away from Broder, goes a long way towards helping at least their readers to understand who the real John McCain is.

The Post writer, Michael Leahy, could have saved himself a lot of time and effort by reprinting Cliff Schecter's brilliant new book, The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don't Trust Him-- and Why Independents Shouldn't, but fortunately he used enough of Schecter's research and ideas to make the piece worthwhile. He starts with a well-documented scene of an angry and obviously deranged McCain attacking Iowa Republican Senator Charles Grassley at a Senate committee meeting. This particular time it only amounted to the much disliked McCain-- disliked by his Senate colleagues (except pathetic bottom feeders like Lieberman and Miss Lindsey)-- cursing, pushing and shoving, ever the high school spoiled bully. Later Leahy gets to Schecter's revelation about how McCain and fellow Arizona wingnut, Rick Renzi, actually got into a punch out (although, here too McCain's lobbyists swear up and down that it was just pushing and shoving and that no punches were thrown; witnesses say otherwise).

Since the beginning of McCain's public life, the many witnesses to his temper have had strikingly different reactions to it. Some depict McCain, now the presumptive Republican nominee for president, as an erratic hothead incapable of staying cool in the face of what he views as either disloyalty to him or irrational opposition to his ideas... Former senator Bob Smith, a New Hampshire Republican, expresses worries about McCain: "His temper would place this country at risk in international affairs, and the world perhaps in danger. In my mind, it should disqualify him... "I've witnessed a lot of his temper and outbursts. For me, some of this stuff is relevant. It raises questions about stability... It's more than just temper. It's this need of his to show you that he's above you-- a sneering, condescending attitude. It's hurt his relationships in Congress... I've seen it up-close."

And, then of course, there are the Lieber-men and others hoping to benefit from a McCain presidency, the ones who will say anything to cover up for him no matter how dangerous his instability and vindictiveness could be for America. Of course when is the last time anyone with a bit of credibility claimed that Lieberman gave a crap about America (or for Connecticut; Lieberman is all about Lieberman... and the Likud Party).

That temper has followed him throughout his life, McCain acknowledges. He recalls in his writings how, as a toddler, he sometimes held his breath and fainted during moments of fury. As the son of a naval officer who was on his way to becoming a four-star admiral, McCain found himself frequently uprooted and enrolled in new schools, where, as an underappreciated outsider, he developed "a little bit of a chip on my shoulder," as he recalled this month.

During a campaign stop at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, the most famous graduate of the Class of 1954 opened a window on what swirled inside him during his school years. "I was always the new kid and was accustomed to proving myself quickly at each new school as someone not to be challenged lightly," he told students.

"As a young man, I would respond aggressively and sometimes irresponsibly to anyone who I perceived to have questioned my sense of honor and self-respect. Those responses often got me in a fair amount of trouble earlier in life."

He defied authority, ridiculed other students, sometimes fought. The nicknames hung on him at Episcopal mocked his hair-trigger feistiness: "Punk" and "McNasty." Hoping to emulate his father and grandfather, also an admiral, he went on to the Naval Academy, where his pattern of unruliness and defiance continued, landing him near the bottom of his class. "I acted like a jerk," McCain wrote of the period before he righted himself to become a naval aviator, a Vietnam POW and eventually a career politician.

The trajectory of his temper, studied ever more intently as his White House ambitions took shape, includes incidents from his years in the House and in the Senate, leading up to the early days of his current presidential campaign. In 2007, during a heated closed-door discussion with Senate colleagues about the contentious immigration issue, he angrily shouted a profanity at a fellow Republican, John Cornyn of Texas, an incident that quickly found its way into headlines.

The ugly truth that no one in the media wants to get into, though, is what this temper and anger and feeling of being unfettered by the rules that govern the rest of us has led to one catastrophe after another in McCain's life, including half a dozen "accidents" involving plane crashes, one of which killed over 100 American sailors and destroyed tens of millions of dollars in planes. There is always, always, always an excuse, no matter how many times he would screw up-- and he was never to blame, even if the only constant in every single instance was... John McCain, the guy who didn't follow any rules. McCain: "In all candor, as an adult I've been known to forget occasionally the discretion expected of a person of my many years and station when I believe I've been accorded a lack of respect I did not deserve." Always the self-righteous asshole.

The Inside-the-Beltway media has always excused McCain's outrageous behavior and, in fact, tried to help him turn it to his own advantage, painting him as a kind of "Im-Angry-As-Hell-And-I'm-Not-Gonna- Take-It-Anymore kind of guy. Leahy is right on cue: "McCain has built much of his appeal, especially with independents, as the fiery maverick willing to defy both parties. His tempestuousness has girded him in high-stakes confrontations, especially against Republican conservatives who regard his occasionally moderate stances as proof that he has sold them out." And no one ever mentions, even when they report the facts, as Leahy does today, that McCain's howling angry and bully-boy attitude is very frequently directed towards women. He's the Senate's worst misogynist, especially if he senses he can frighten a woman into backing down.

Anyone who wants to see if it's possible for a worse president than George Bush-- with a possibility for even worse outcomes, ought to seriously consider voting for his political heir, John McCain. Everyone else... well, start by watching this new ad from our friends at the DNC:

SHOULD McCAIN'S VIOLENT TEMPER DISQUALIFY HIM FROM THE PRESIDENCY?

In general I'd say yes. But some of the specifics are less than convincing. So what if he routinely humiliates women as a matter of normal operating procedure? Some women love being humiliated. You know that whole flap about calling his wife Cindy a "trollop and a cunt" for pointing out his thinning hair in front of some newspaper reporters? Maybe she deserved that and maybe she should be happy he didn't slug her. After all, he does slug people. I mean when he really flies off the handle, like when someone points out his age-- which he's apparently even more sensitive about than his baldness. But here, too, I'm not all that concerned. I mean... so he and Rick Renzi slapped each other a few times. So? Rick Renzi is a pompous dick and he certainly deserves to be beaten up. McCain should have punched him around every day.

In fact the only part of this story I don't understand, is why McCain and Renzi got so close. I mean as Renzi distinguished himself as one of the half dozen most corrupt members of Congress, McCain actually became closer and closer with him and eventually-- on the eve of his indictment-- made him co-chair of the McCain presidential campaign. What I know I can count on, however, is Cliff Schecter explaining the bizarre nature of the Republican candidate for president. He's been doing it online and now he's doing it in his hot new book, The Real McCain, which I just pre-ordered. After all, I want to understand a man who flies off the handle-- he said he had had a stressful day-- and calls his wife a "cunt" in front of a roomful (or busful) of people and expects to be elected president of the United States. As for having a punch-out with Congressman Renzi... well, that's easier to understand, even if it isn't the kind of behavior we expect from a U.S. Senator, let alone a president.

McCAIN: STAY THE HELL OFF MY LAWN OR ELSE!

"The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."

No, that isn't a quote from Hillary or Obama. In fact it isn't from one of McCain's opponents or even from a Democrat. It's from a close colleague of over thirty years, another right-of-center Republican, Thad Cochran, the senior senator from Mississippi. Cochran told the Boston Globe his feeling that McCain-- who has since been pressured into endorsing him-- is unfit to be president, and especially Commander-in-Chief, is based on his temperment. "He said he has seen McCain's temper fly too often in committee hearings or on the Senate floor... During McCain's 2000 campaign, his hometown newspaper, the Arizona Republic, published an editorial saying that the country should be warned about McCain's 'volcanic' temper." McCain has one of the filthiest potty mouths in Congress and there have been more complaints about him cursing out fellow senators than about anyone in modern history-- and usually Republicans like John Cornyn (R-TX), Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA). (Thad Cochran, a former cheerleader, has a really lovely singing voice too and you should check out this little song of his.)

Even at Fox, which has begun full-time shilling for McCain, it is news when McCain doesn't lose his temper or threaten or curse someone out. Media Matters reports on a Fox Special on McCain acting like a normal person for a change:

On Special Report, Brit Hume aired a report by Carl Cameron about Sen. John McCain keeping his temper in check when the microphone did not work during a donor's conference in Florida and later when he was hit on the head by a TV camera. At the end of the report, Cameron stated: "McCain makes no bones about blowing his stack occasionally and having a temper. A campaign has the capacity to test the temperament and character of a candidate. If today was a pop quiz, you got to say McCain passed." Hume replied: "Yeah, with flying colors I'd say, under the circumstances."

Today, though, the media isn't reporting how calm, cool and collected McCain is. Instead they're pointing to his "testy"-- some would say bullying-- exchange with NY Times writer Elisabeth Bumiller on his campaign plane. You can watch much of it and read the whole transcript at Crooks & Liars. When McCain was a young man he was universally known as "Punk" and "McNasty." Punk had a different meaning back in the 1930s than it does now but you can definitely see where the "McNasty" comes from by reading his exchange with Ms. Bumiller:

“Senator, can I ask you about Senator Kerry. I just went back and looked at our story, the Times story, and you told Sheryl Stolberg that you had never had a conversation with Kerry about being about vice president...”

McCain testily replied, “Everybody knows that I had a private conversation. Everybody knows that. That I had a conversation. There’s no living American in Washington-- that knows that, there’s no one.”

Bumiller: “Okay.”

McCain: “And you know it, too. You know it. So, I don’t even know why you ask.”

Bumiller: “Well, I ask because I just read…”

McCain: “You do know it. You do know it.”

Bumiller: “Because I just read in the Times in May of ’04 you said….”

McCain: “I don’t know what you may have read or heard of, I don’t know the circumstances. Maybe in May of '04 I hadn’t had the conversation…”

Bumiller: “But do you recall the conversation?”

McCain: “I don’t know, but it’s well known that I had the conversation. It is absolutely well known by everyone. So do you have a question on another issue?”

Bumiller: “Well can I ask you when the conversation was?”

McCain: “No. nope, because the issue is closed as far as I’m concerned. Everybody knows it. Everybody knows it in America.”

Bumiller: “Can you describe the conversation?”

McCain: “No, of course not. I don’t describe private conversations.”

Bumiller: “Okay. Can I ask you…”

McCain: “Why should I? Then there’s no such thing as a private conversation. Is there (inaudible) if you have a private conversation with someone, and then they come and tell you. I don’t know that that’s a private conversation. I think that’s a public conversation.”

Bumiller: “Okay. Can I ask you about your (pause) Why you’re so angry?”

McCain: “Pardon me?”

Bumiller: “Nevermind, nevermind.”

McCain: “I mean, it’s well known. Everybody knows. It’s been well chronicled a thousand times. John Kerry asked if I would consider being his running mate.”

Bumiller: “Okay.”

McCain: “And I said categorically no, under no circumstances. That’s very well known.”

The 2004 New York Times piece in question ends in this way: "If Mr. McCain is offered the vice-presidential spot, people close to Mr. Kerry say, the request will come from the candidate himself and not through the campaign's vice-presidential vetting process."

"Asked if Senator Kerry had made such an offer, Mr. McCain said no without hesitation. But asked if the two men had ever discussed it, even casually, he paused for a moment. 'No,' he said finally. 'We really haven't.'"

Now perhaps the reason McCain was so unhinged and argumentative today goes beyond just his nasty personality and the embarrassment of begging Kerry to give him the VP nomination. Looks like he stepped into another pile of crap, right after his embrace of anti-Catholic bigot Jon Hagee. This time he's in bed with one of the most extremist lunatic-fringe organizations in America, Tim LaHaye's Council for National Policy. He's courting this group of dangerous miscreants in New Orleans-- which is where he was flying when he started snarling at poor Elisabeth Bumiller. Fox and the Moonie Times first reported McCain's closed door secret session (no press allowed) with the radical extremists today. (Fox says the session, or at least part of it, will be videotaped and shown to ordinary Americans.) Some of the lobbyists who run McCain's campaign are members of the whacko far right group and he may have been talked into this imprudent meeting by one of them and lashed out at Brumiller in anger. Or maybe he was just reacting badly to some of the advance press on the meeting:

The depth of disaffection from Mr. McCain among prominent members of CNP is so strong that some are already questioning the group's bona fides.

"It will say more about the state of the conservative movement than it does McCain," a veteran CNP member said. "If he is accepted at CNP, this will mark the official end of the conservative movement as we knew it."

Like some other members of the narrow coalition of radicals McCain has been assembling, the Council for National Policy (CNP), is extremely bigoted, especially towards Catholics and gays. Like Hagee, Lahaye insists Catholicism is a "false religion" and often runs his mouth off about how popes are "antichrists". Although this secretive organization guards it's membership list closely, it has been confirmed that among the members are familiar right wing names like Dobson, Weyrich, Coors, Wayne LaPierre of the National Riffle Association, Richard Viguerie, Mark Mix of the National Right to Work Committee and Grover Norquist. Talk about getting fleas from who you lay down with!