Photo illustration: Evan Robinson, Group News Blog
John McCain likes to present himself as a truth-telling Maverick who isn't afraid to buck the system or fight the people in Washington DC. He wants you to believe that he has principles, he stands by them, and he'd never, ever, tell you a lie for his own benefit.
But that's just a concocted image. Always has been, always will be. John McCain is either a liar, an opportunist, or so senile that he can't remember what he said from day to day and year to year. He's so unreliable that his own campaign has said that what John McCain says isn't to be taken as official policy of the campaign.
Yes, you heard that right. John McCain does not officially speak for John McCain.
A relatively simple search of the Intartubes will find numerous times when McCain vacillates, backtracks, contradicts himself, says he never said something he just said, and generally fumbles around reality and the truth with all the facility of a drunken leprechaun who's broken his leg, has crutches that aren't the same length, whose shoelaces are tied together, wearing sunglasses so dark he can't see where he's going, at night, on ice.
At Saturday's We The People event in Seattle, Rachel Maddow pointed out that the Democratic Party seems to have an identity problem. They self-identify as "not that!" (where that is the Republican Party's rush to shred the Constitution, commit illegal acts inside and outside the U.S., engage in wanton imperial adventures contravening international law, and ... like that). Rachel believes that the Democratic Party needs it's own identity.
So how about Intellectual Honesty and Consistency for a start? John McCain wavers in the wind. He got his ass kicked in 2000 by a vicious libel spread by George Bush's surrogates, but he embraces George Bush in 2008 when trying to get nominated. He's been tortured and says it's wrong, but he votes to allow the U.S. to torture prisoners.
This election is not just about Barack Obama. It's about John McCain and Barack Obama. And John McCain does not deserve to lead the United States. It's that simple.
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