Friedman calls McCain a ‘cynical’ candidate who thinks Americans are ‘bloody stupid’

August 13, 2008

It’s probably safe to say John McCain is losing the NYT’s Thomas Friedman.

John McCain recently tried to underscore his seriousness about pushing through a new energy policy, with a strong focus on more drilling for oil, by telling a motorcycle convention that Congress needed to come back from vacation immediately and do something about America’s energy crisis. “Tell them to come back and get to work!” McCain bellowed.

Sorry, but I can’t let that one go by. McCain knows why.

It was only five days earlier, on July 30, that the Senate was voting for the eighth time in the past year on a broad, vitally important bill — S. 3335 — that would have extended the investment tax credits for installing solar energy and the production tax credits for building wind turbines and other energy-efficiency systems.

Both the wind and solar industries depend on these credits — which expire in December — to scale their businesses and become competitive with coal, oil and natural gas. Unlike offshore drilling, these credits could have an immediate impact on America’s energy profile.

Senator McCain did not show up for the crucial vote on July 30, and the renewable energy bill was defeated for the eighth time. In fact, John McCain has a perfect record on this renewable energy legislation. He has missed all eight votes over the last year — which effectively counts as a no vote each time. Once, he was even in the Senate and wouldn’t leave his office to vote.

Despite McCain’s negligence, he’s running TV ads during the Olympics, showing a wind farm full of spinning turbines, the exact same energy McCain would not vote to support.

Without directly using McCain’s name, this led Friedman to suggest a certain candidate “cynical,” and thinks “Americans are so stupid — so bloody stupid — that if you just show them wind turbines in your Olympics ad they’ll actually think you showed up and voted for such renewable power — when you didn’t.”

Friedman isn’t always my cup of tea when it comes to foreign policy, but I can’t help but notice that when it comes to energy policy, the NYT columnist seems very unimpressed with the presumptive Republican nominee.

Today, Friedman hammered McCain on his negligence on alternative energy. In July, Friedman mocked him and his party for his coastal drilling canard.

Republicans have become so obsessed with the notion that we can drill our way out of our current energy crisis that re-opening our coastal waters to offshore drilling has become their answer for every energy question. […]

Republicans

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, by mindlessly repeating their offshore-drilling mantra, focusing on a 19th-century fuel, remind me of someone back in 1980 arguing that we should be putting all our money into making more and cheaper IBM Selectric typewriters — and forget about these things called the “PC” and “the Internet.” It is a strategy for making America a second-rate power and economy.

And in April, Friedman excoriated McCain (and, in this case, Hillary Clinton) for the ridiculous notion of a “gas-tax holiday” over the summer months.

It is great to see that we finally have some national unity on energy policy. Unfortunately, the unifying idea is so ridiculous, so unworthy of the people aspiring to lead our nation, it takes your breath away. Hillary Clinton has decided to line up with John McCain in pushing to suspend the federal excise tax on gasoline, 18.4 cents a gallon, for this summer’s travel season. This is not an energy policy. This is money laundering: we borrow money from China and ship it to Saudi Arabia and take a little cut for ourselves as it goes through our gas tanks. What a way to build our country.

When the summer is over, we will have increased our debt to China, increased our transfer of wealth to Saudi Arabia and increased our contribution to global warming for our kids to inherit. […]

The McCain-Clinton proposal is a reminder to me that the biggest energy crisis we have in our country today is the energy to be serious — the energy to do big things in a sustained, focused and intelligent way. We are in the midst of a national political brownout.

It’s hard to gauge the size of the Friedman voting bloc; I suspect it’s fairly small. That said, Friedman is very influential in the political media and DC establishment, and his obvious disappointment with John McCain’s energy policy may help drive home a simple truth: the presumptive Republican nominee doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

I think Friedman is a clueless idiot, but so are the political pundits who take their cues from him. So, good.

  • Great post, but responding to the headline, Americans are bloody stupid…bloody being the key word.

  • Thank you Thomas Friedman for noticing and writing what the DFH bloggers have been saying for a LONG time.

    Gee whiz, have the Traditional Media bobbleheads figured out that reality exists even when they ignore it? Did they wake up to the fact that many of us notice that and tell people about them ignoring reality?

    Nah.

  • Why don’t we see ads from the Obama side showing the McCain hypocrisy on energy. We have Exxon John web videos, but nothing in the television media. What is his camp waiting for? Letting McCain set the debate is a dangerous thing.

  • Friedman: The fact that Congress has failed eight times to renew them is largely because of a hard core of Republican senators who either don’t want to give Democrats such a victory in an election year or simply don’t believe in renewable energy.

    Bravo. Definitely bears repeating.

  • As Freidman allowed the coining of the “Freidman Unit (approximately 6 months) to come into popular use he did himself a great diservice. Was he wrong about the assumptions of success and costs? Absolutely! Did he come back to the conclusion that he was wrong? Absolutely! He is not my favorite cup of tea either but when he is correct he doesn’t mind putting it out there for discussion. If he just points out McCain/Republican inconsistencies (read inanities) he’ll be doing the US a Profiles in Courage type service.

  • The big question is, are the people in charge of advertising in the Obama campaign paying attention? Do they have the smarts to see that this is a huge indicator of McCain’s unfitness to be president and should be exploited? Probably not. Obama could save a lot of money and hugely improve the quality of his ads if he’d just hire the Jed Report.

  • Ah, I see. Some taxi driver must have pointed out to Tom “I-have-a-unit-named-for-me” Freidman that McCain’s energy policy stinks. Good for that taxi driver.

    As for myself, I will personally never be able to trust Tom “Suck.On.This.” Freidman’s judgment – or the information he spouts in his columns – again without an independent verification. His consistent wrongness in the face of all evidence has shown me that he’s not a very critical thinker about much of anything, really. Even where I agree with him I distrust his analyses now because he’s proven himself to be so willing to look ignore evidence to arrive at the conclusion he wants to arrive at.

    But there are folks in the media who trust his judgment, and folks outside the media who seem to think he’s a “deep thinker”. So hey, if he can convince those folks that McCain is a worthless empty suit more power to him.

  • Just means that Tommy stuck his finger out to check the wind. It’s blowing to the “left”.

  • So, um, where’s Obama’s ad making this point? With disappearing windmills, as the voiceover talks about McCain’s failure to endorse an extension and how that will lead to more oil imports?

  • Are you serious?

    I can’t imagine that Friedman EVER, EVER considered voting for McCain in 2008.

    What makes you think that he ever was considering supporting McCain?

  • “Friedman is very influential in the political media and DC establishment…”

    In the Hans Christian Andersen fable, it only took a small boy to point out that the king was naked, but the corporate media seem unaware of the blogosphere.

    If an idiot like Friedman is capable of causing the corporate media to notice that “Maverick” McCain has become and old, tired empty suit, then Friedman has risen to the level of a useful idiot.

  • the presumptive Republican nominee doesn’t know what he’s talking about.


    I think you may be wrong there, Steve. The Republican nominee knows exactly what he’s doing and what he’s (not) talking about. He’s lying, plain and simple. He’s lying about his position on energy independence just like he lied about his non-support of the veteran’s bill. And Obama and the MSM haven’t called it what it is.

  • I’m a big fan of Friedman, and this makes me like him more.

    These comments have confirmed what I had assumed, on a blog like this I’m certainly in the minority in supporting globalization.

  • Is “cynical” a euphamism for “BIG LIAR”?

    Why is nobody call John McCain a LIAR when he tells so many LIES?

  • Best take-down of gas-tax holiday yet. Sharp writing too:

    This is not an energy policy. This is money laundering: we borrow money from China and ship it to Saudi Arabia and take a little cut for ourselves as it goes through our gas tanks. What a way… etc.

    A coherent energy policy has three (not two as I said earlier) components [if I may be allowed to substantiate for a moment]: production, efficiency, and conduct.
    Production and efficiency are measurable, definable and easily understandable, Not so ‘conduct’. Conduct is the mother of all political slippery slopes. Rare is a politician who can tell people to tighten their belts and get away with it. But for Americans, especially, stupid and otherwise, that would be the very best starter pack for a collective energy strategy. Free market economics is showing the way, but belt-tightening is de rigueur. And, actually, it’s fun.

  • These comments have confirmed what I had assumed, on a blog like this I’m certainly in the minority in supporting globalization.

    Hey, way to bring the non-sequitur. Apparently while you were globalizing, you missed young Tom’s consistent, reality-defying, imperialist support and “justification” for the Iraq war. Try not to be blinded by the brilliance of the Volvo and the olive tree, or whatever that dizzyingly deep analysis was.

  • Friedman says, “That this [a Manhattan-like alternative energy project] is what this election should be focusing on. Everything else is just bogus rhetoric designed by cynical candidates who think Americans are so stupid . . . ” I don’t think one should conclude that he’s happy with Obama’s solution, and only excoriating McCain. He’s written many columns recently on this issue, and the thrust is that we need big solutions to big problems like the climate change/energy crunch, and we’re not getting them.

    I understand the cynicism Friedman evokes after his stubborn refusal to admit Iraq was a catastrophe, but that doesn’t mean he can’t get something right, and he’s firing on all cylinders on this issue, at a time when the media is so focused on campaign trivialities that they could bury Obama in November.

  • Again you liberal wimps miss the point. Foremost, we need to reduce or eliminate our dependence on foreign oil.

    The best alternative is actually not off-shore drilling. We need to put a major effort into converting shale oil into petroleum products. The Green River Formation has an estimated 800 Billion barrels of recoverable oil – about 3 times the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia.

    More than 70% of the Green River Formation is on federal land in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. The patriotic citizens of these republican states are not as selfish as their coastal counterparts and will willingly let this land be razed for the oil content.

    If more Americans were aware that a solution to foreign oil dependence is available, we could start a landslide of public support that would even further cower you liberal wimps.

  • In this column, Friedman seems to rely not on opinion, but facts: McCain’s voting (or non-voting) record demonstrates his hypocrisy on the issue of alternative energy development. If the facts are accurate, then let’s give Friedman credit for the column, while retaining the right to criticize any of his future “taxi driver from Mars” predictions and opinions. McCain’s position on energy reminds me of Joe Libermann’s position on Iraq: say one thing to get reelected; then stick it to those who voted for you. Wouldn’t a McCain-Libermann ticket be great?

  • Please let’s put the oil shale/ tar sands idiocy to bed. Aside from the water requirements (which are substantial, and will necessitate purification afterwards), there is the fact that the energy required to process each barrel barely makes it worth doing in the first place, even if one ignores the cost of attempting to restore the mining sites, roads, pipelines and such.

    These ideas are in the same vein as the “drill here, drill now” now solution in this respect. It is the height of irony that Hon. Sen. McCain derides the tire gauge idea (leaving alone the calumny that this is Hon. Sen. Obama’s “entire” energy policy). To the degree that this would be humorous, it is actually a dig at Senator McCain’s policy ideas (“drill here, drill now” is much more his entire energy policy) because Americans keeping their tires at the proper pressure, and regular maintenance, would actually provide more energy that drilling, without any risk to the environment (assuming proper motor oil disposal, et cetera) and would take less energy to achieve, and get their faster, and still have that oil for the future. It is a crying shame that we would insist on extracting such a useful energy and polymer source at a time when we utilize it so inefficiently.

  • posted by Pointy-Headed Republican
    Again you liberal wimps miss the point. Foremost, we need to reduce or eliminate our dependence on foreign oil.
    Damn near eight years of GOP petroleadership has led to a quintupling of moneys sent to petroproducers.

    We need to put a major effort into converting shale oil into petroleum products….

    More than 70% of the Green River Formation is on federal land in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming.

    The best estimate of energy returned for energy invested is 30% for Shell’s in situ process. Unfortunately, such a process requires vast amounts of water – something not in abundance where shale is found. Even were water to be magically created in these semi-desert regions, the carbon increase and wrecking of Rocky Mountain beauty would be everlasting.

    The patriotic citizens of these republican states are not as selfish as their coastal counterparts.

    Ultimately, since it’s federal land, the decision is a federal one. That hasn’t stopped the local citizens, especially the ranchers so dependent on water, from objecting to shale fracture.

  • I’m sure McCain is losing a lot of sleep because little Tommy Friedman from the NY Slimes doesn’t like him. I bet McCain was just waiting for the Slimes to endorse him. This is such a non-story. Just another lib columnist throwing crap in the air to see where it lands.

  • im glad to see the republican point of view espousing the nationalization of the global oil companies, because we all know that the oil we drill within our borders should stay within our borders. and im so glad too that he touts the unselfishness of the “republican” states, ha ha ha. i also suppose he thinks that shale oil is sweet crude that just bubbles to the surface and is really cheap, clean and effortless to get out of the ground.

    friedman is wrong about a lot, but his view on energy policy are mostly right, but not always.

  • From a late friend who was born in the backwods of Missippi, “Even a blind hog finds an acorn every once in a while”

  • If the Democrats in the Senate are smart (highly doubtful) they will schedule another vote on the clean energy tax credit as soon as Congress reconvenes. And if the Republicans filibuster, let the filibuster continue and make a big issue about the fact that the Republicans are obstructing clean energy.

  • Friedman is anything but liberal but even he is not blind to the McCain hypocrisy. “I support wind power by never voting for it”.

    Republicans are using Off-Shore drilling as an energy policy because they know dems like all other rational people are against it for the obvious reason that it won’t change a thing for consumers…so they yell and scream for it as some saving grace so they don’t have to admit they have no energy policy. A big distraction when we need solutions…butwhat can we expect from the Katrina birthday boy. Just pathetic

  • So McCain is ” .. a ‘cynical’ candidate who thinks Americans are ‘bloody stupid’ ..”.

    And what, exactly, is the matter with that?

    Thanks to the likes of Friedman it has proven to be been the formula for success in recent Presidential elections

  • It is quite unfortunate that everyone is calling the “presumptive Republican nominee,” the Honorable Senator Phineas T. Bluster (R-Exxon) a liar merely because he wouldn’t know the truth if it slapped him up-side the head with shovel. Cut the old duffer some slack, he’s too busy trying to remember which of his 8 houses he’s supposed to go home to tonight to bother with a troublesome topic such as truth and accuracy on anything. After all, he just backed down the Russkis with his powerful York, PA, speech thanks to his lobbyist/foreign affairs advisor. He can’t stay on top of everything.

  • Hello… American are bloody stupid. Cynical politics work. Have you seen the polling on off-shore oil drilling? People are so uninformed that this stuff often works. Remember all those ridiculous amendments to ban gay marriage in 2004? Why wouldn’t you assume the electorate is bloody stupid? I am no longer surprised by these things. Taking the time to try and explain the nuance about energy policy (or any other issue) and what would be a sober, honest and long-term solution to people who are just gonna be reading Brittney Spears stories is bound to be frustrating and fruitless. People have way too much faith in our fellow citizens. They prove time and time again that they are “bloody stupid”.

  • McCain does thing Americans are bloody stupid. That is what happens when you assume everyone is just like you.

  • Friedman isn’t always my cup of tea when it comes to foreign policy, but I can’t help but notice that when it comes to energy policy, the NYT columnist seems very unimpressed with the presumptive Republican nominee. — CB

    It’s really nothing to do with McCain; as you saw, he was equally harsh on Clinton, when she was spouting nonsense on the gas-tax holiday. It”s that Friedman’s personal bee in the bonnet is energy policy (and independence). He’d been beating that drum *for years* (including clling on higher taxes on gas, to lower consumption long term and to generate more money for public transportation support short term). In fact, I thought it was his designated niche in NYT and I was flabbergasted when he started applying himself to cheering for Bush’s “stay the course” in I-wreck.

    I suspect that, while his thoughts on energy crisis are his own, his ideas on foreign policy are coming straight from AIPAC. That could be one reason why he’s “not your cup of tea” when talking on the latter. And why so many readers here — who only remember him as the “Unit Friedman” — think he’s a total loon and a tool. On energy, he’s neither; there, he’s both sensible and passionate.

  • John McCain recently tried to underscore his seriousness about pushing through a new energy policy, with a strong focus on more drilling for oil, by telling a motorcycle convention that Congress needed to come back from vacation immediately and do something about America’s energy crisis. “Tell them to come back and get to work!” McCain bellowed.

    Sorry, but I can’t let that one go by. McCain knows why.

    OMG… is that Friedman actually using the term “serious” ironically?

    How tragic, all the unserious people in the blogosphere appear to have finally corrupted his mind.

  • Tom Friedman lives in a 11,000 sq ft house outside the Beltway; his colleague in the NYT quoted a $9 million dollar abode. Do you think he uses geothermal energy or solar panels in his house? ?Hypocrite.

  • “Tom Friedman lives in a 11,000 sq ft house outside the Beltway; his colleague in the NYT quoted a $9 million dollar abode. Do you think he uses geothermal energy or solar panels in his house? ?Hypocrite.”

    It is not hypocritical for rich people to actually live well.

    Is Al Gore also a hypocrite?

  • All that matters is that mccain is plain dumb. C’mon you don’t even know how many houses you own? Sad. In addition, McCain thinks he’s some kind of ‘Maverick’. Obama obviously isn’t, but atleast he doesn’t claim to be one.

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