July 26, 2008
The Questions: John McCain Edition
Ah, the presidential race. It’s endless fun with its constant distractions from the real issues facing the country and its focus on style over substance and who can frame whom as what. Election time is months and months away so there’s still plenty of time for more gaffs and blunders. There’s also plenty of time for everyone to learn more about the two major party candidates. In that spirit I’m dusting off my keyboard to present a batch of questions I’d love to see put to Republican champion John McCain.
Sure he’s noted as a war hero and a straight talker who bucks his party. But in reality he’s as much of a slippery political figure as anyone else, and as he’s aligned himself more and more behind the failed ideas and actions that even Our Fine President is starting to abandon. So here we go with a series of questions and comments for the right wing’s favorite septuagenarian.
Why do you talk about your opponent Barak Obama so much instead of elaborating on your own great qualities?
As Obama’s world your has commenced this past week I’ve noticed a sickening two-pronged effort on the part of McCain and his campaign. First he and his surrogates complain about how much attention the press is paying to Obama and the trip, then they go ahead and constantly point out what’s wrong with everything Obama says and does on the road while visiting locales themed to match Obama’s foreign destinations.
Mr. McCain, if you’re serious about convincing people to vote for you, maybe you should let them get to know you. Instead of trying to tell us what Obama really means or how confused you think he is, why not focus on yourself. It looks a bit pitiful to be caught up in trying to redefine your opponent’s message instead of clearly defining your own.
And along that line of thinking…
Could you please clearly define what comprises this “victory” in Iraq you keep promising to deliver?
In your efforts to categorize Obama’s promise to scale back and end the occupation, you love to call his strategy a plan for defeat. However, you never quite get around to saying what victory would mean and how you would deliver. Unless you can lay out just what conditions equal victory for a foreign occupation, your promises are empty rhetoric, and I think the country is ready for a bit more substance from the next president. But to continue along this line of thinking…
Can you reconcile the seeming contradiction between your repeated insistence that the troop surge has been a huge success and your unwillingness to create a timetable for ending the occupation?
Unless I’m completely wrong, the surge you so strongly supported was a strategy designed to bring about that elusive, undefined victory. So, if it’s been this unmitigated success, we should be bringing the troops home forthwith. Yet for some reason you don’t see things that way. I think anyone considering voting for you should demand a sound explanation of how the surge has worked, but brought an end to our occupation of Iraq no closer to reality.
OK and lastly, I’d like to ask you a few questions about a handful of substantive gaffs you’ve made along the campaign trail.
First, can you finally explain the difference between Sunni and Shiite Muslims and the significance of this difference in terms of international terrorism?
On numerous occasions you’ve made substantial errors about this issue, and it’s kind of an important one. If you can’t tell the difference between the various factions at play in the world, it seems you won’t be able to effectively lead the nation. Oversimplification of complex realities has been a problem we’ve faced under Our Fine President and your track record does little to convince me you’d do a better job of dealing with the nuances of the international scene.
Second, do you know the results of the fall of the Soviet Bloc, and just who are our allies and enemies?
Referring to countries that haven’t existed for some time not only makes you seem old, but also displays a further lack of understanding of the realities of the foreign policy that you play up as a strength. It’s embarrassing and could be forgiven much more easily if you’d only refrain from repeating the same mistakes again and again.
OK, and finally, why do you insist on trying to spin away a factual mistake by recasting historical fact rather than admit a simple misstatement and move forward?
McCain’s recent assertion about the previously mentioned surge and its relationship to the Anbar Awakening was simply incorrect. The Iraqi factions turned on al-Qaida in Iraq before the start of the surge plan and insisting you know different is insulting as it assumes a lack of intelligence among the electorate and makes you seem more and more like Our Fine President with his penchant for ignoring reality rather than admitting any errors.
John McCain, any time you feel like addressing any of these questions I’d be happy to publish your answers. Thanks from your humble AptCoot.