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In Georgian crisis, McCain refers to himself as president

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It was obviously a slip of the tongue, but it was a gaffe that underscored an important point: John McCain seems to think he’s already the president.

Standing behind a lectern in Michigan this week, with two trusted senators ready to do his bidding, John McCain seemed to forget for a moment that he was only running for president.

Asked about his tough rhetoric on the ongoing conflict in Georgia, McCain began: “If I may be so bold, there was another president …”

He caught himself and started again: “At one time, there was a president named Ronald Reagan who spoke very strongly about America’s advocacy for democracy and freedom.”

Another president? As in

, President McCain harkening back to one of his presidential predecessors?

Now, truth be told, I don’t much care about a verbal slip-up like this. The point, however, is that, after weeks of palaver about Barack Obama being “presumptuous,” John McCain has taken this week to play Pretend President, in large part because he felt like the conflict in Georgia gave him a good excuse to do so.

In this case, it goes well beyond referring to himself as the president, and includes near-constant direct discussions with a foreign head of state during a military conflict, and dispatching campaign surrogates to a war zone.

“We talk about how there’s only one president at a time, so the idea that you would send your own emissaries and really interfere with the process is remarkable,” said Lawrence Korb, a Reagan Defense Department official who now acts as an informal adviser to the Obama campaign. “It’s very risky and can send mixed messages to foreign governments…. They accused Obama of being presumptuous, but he didn’t do anything close to this.”

The extent of McCain’s involvement in the military conflict in Georgia appears remarkable among presidential candidates, who traditionally have kept some distance from unfolding crises out of deference to whoever is occupying the White House. The episode also follows months of sustained GOP criticism of Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, who was accused of acting too presidential for, among other things, briefly adopting a campaign seal and taking a trip abroad that included a huge rally in Berlin. […]

But McCain and his aides say his tough rhetoric on the Georgia crisis, along with his personal familiarity with the region, underscores the foreign policy expertise he would bring to the White House.

But does it underscore policy expertise? There’s a difference between being engaged and being knowledgeable — McCain is working the phones and pretending to be a head of state, but what is it, exactly, that he’s contributing to the diplomatic process? He can exclaim, “We’re all Georgians now,” but is the depth of his understanding of the geo-political dynamics? McCain can probably find Georgia on a map, but what has he done this week that suggests he knows what he’s talking about?

Josh Marshall made the case the other day that this argument is largely backwards. McCain is proving himself a leader; he’s proving himself a presumptuous nut who longs for the days of Cold War simplicity.

[W]atching John McCain speak about the Georgian crisis … should deeply worry anyone interested in a sane US foreign policy — or the safety of their children. One arch joke from the earlier part of this decade was that the one good thing about the neocons obsession with getting into a war with Iraq was that it distracted them from their much bigger obsessions — ratcheting up Cold Wars with China and/or Russia.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/208137.php

The people that are pulling McCain’s strings are the people who want to push us into a new Cold War with the Russians — and ironically and a bit improbably with the Chinese too. But the Russians are probably more willing to oblige us since their power remains limited to oil reserves and military power. In other words, they’re people McCain’s folks can understand and vice versa.

McCain is going out of his way to cast this as a replay of 1938 and 1939. Is it really in our interest to get into a renewed Cold War with Russia right now? Do we have the military resources for a proxy/advisor war in the Caucasus at the moment? Should we find ourselves in the situation where the Russians want to reassert their sway in Eastern Europe, we would have some very serious and consequential decisions to make. But this just is not that. The key is that McCain, both in terms of policy and temperament, wants to court that result.

It’s sort of funny when he’s just an unhinged senator. But think for a moment where we’d be if this man were president right now, as he may well be in six months. This man takes the counsel of the people who got us into the Iraq War. On foreign policy, he is in league with the people who were so extreme they’ve now largely been kicked out of the Bush administration. People like John Bolton and others like him.

It’s beyond Obama or political strategy or dinging McCain on this or that policy.

This man is simply too dangerous and unstable to be president.

Comments

  • Tom Cleaver

    says:

    He’s not being any more ignorant than the other two members of the Triumvirate of Dunces on this issue. Yesterday Bush announces that we’re going to rebuild and re-equip the Georgian military, and Obama wants to throw gasoline on the fire by fast-tracking their membership in NATO.

    I just loooooove bipartisan moron stupidity.

    If any one of these three foreign policy ignoramuses would take 30 minutes to get a briefing from someone who could explain to them the past 1,000 years of history in the southern Caucasus, the last thing in the world they would be doing would be mucking around there.

    But who am I kidding besides myself. Had the Democratic quarterwits who got us into Vietnam taken the trouble to get that 30-minute briefing from Bernard Fall about Vietnamese history, we’d have known they were the last people we wanted to fight. Had any Bush or Clinton gotten the briefing about Sunni-Shia politics and history, we’d have stayed well away from Iraq (in fact, GHW Bush got at least part of that briefing, which is why he wasn’t as stupid as his son).

    It’s the American way: why take the time to discover the facts when you can run off half-cocked and really screw the pooch???

  • Roddy McCorley

    says:

    They accused Obama of being presumptuous, but he didn’t do anything close to this.”

    Uh, Mr. Korb? When “presumptuous” is used to describe Obama, it means “black.” You should know that, having been part of the Reagan administration…

  • howard

    says:

    tom, you’re kidding, right? you don’t really think, at this late date, that american electoral politics is driven by a desire to get policy matters correct, do you?

    as for steve’s general comments, let’s face it: mccain will not be accused of being presumtuous. he won’t be called out for running his own foreign policy. he won’t pay a price for his lack of intellectual coherence.

  • Dennis-SGMM

    says:

    Like many Republicans, McCain made his bones during the Cold War. For them it was a nice, binary time, free of nuance and the complexities of religion, history and culture. Them = Bad. Us = Good. Any oppressive dictatorship could be supported as long as it was anti-Communist. Any democracy, no matter how legitimate, could be overthrown for not being anti-Communist.
    Is it any wonder that these simplistic dolts yearn for the “good old days”?

  • burro

    says:

    Excellent interview this AM on NPR:

    http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93619409

    Analysis
    Georgia Conflict’s Effects On U.S.-Russia Relations

    Morning Edition, August 15, 2008 · Russian troops are still blocking entrance to the city of Gori in war-battered Georgia. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice holds talks Friday in Georgia. George Friedman, the head of Stratfor, a private intelligence company, talks with Renee Montagne about the future of U.S.-Russia relations.

    The U.S. is low on options and McBush wants to go back to 2000 and make believe there’s a nice surplus and a well stocked military sitting around with nothing much to do. I’m sure he thinks he could have done a far more magnificent job than that little pissant Shruby and it’s time for a do over but this time with a real Bear instead of this Middle East fiddling around.

    The guy who isn’t putting country first is McBush. His fantasy of playing CIC before he bites the big one is compromising whatever glimmer of global awareness and American well being he might have.

    Shruby had to prove he was better than his father and McCain is anxious to show how a real badass does it after an unworthy marionette got to hold the reins for 8 f**king years, (can you believe this shit???). These guys are very, very screwed up.

  • RonChusid

    says:

    Another amusing factor in this is that the right wing blogs are often quick to accuse Democrats of violating the Logan Act. They did it with Kerry, and after Obama’s foreign trip some right wing bloggers came up with an argument that he somehow also violated the Logan Act. There is far more to get upset about in McCain’s actions here than in anything Obama said during his foreign trip.

    Of course this double standard is to be expected. I’ve never seen right wing bloggers show concern for Nixon’s meddling in Vietnam in 1968 or Regan’s meddling in Iraq in 1980. While I don’t expect to see politicians of either party prosecuted for violation of the Logan Act, the next time someone accuses a Democratic candidate of this, we have yet another case of Republican meddling to throw back at them.

  • Tom Cleaver

    says:

    Howard (#4) asked: tom, you’re kidding, right? you don’t really think, at this late date, that american electoral politics is driven by a desire to get policy matters correct, do you?

    Of course not. Going back to the undelared war with France in 1793, it’s traditional for Americans to not have a clue what’s going on past the 3-mile limit.

    That doesn’t mean I won’t point out that the guy who was “right about Iraq” has already made the wrong move on the major foreign policy issue of his coming administration, guaranteeing we will continue to be the World’s Biggest Fuck-Ups when it comes to actually acting in our national interest.

  • Mag7

    says:

    The worse part about the Georgia mess is that it’s already lost. Putin waited for his chance and he got it when stubborness fueled by McCain’s staff opened the door. McCain is not even president and the US taxpayers are going to shoulder yet another reconstruction caused by GOP meddling. Wanna bet Blackwater gets in there soon? Haliburton will be managing the refinery on the Black Sea too. But the two other provinces are now Russian again.

    I pray to God Obama gets in and keeps Gitmo occupied with the hundreds of corporate military-industrial scum we have currently.

  • rufus starr

    says:

    Apparently you guys didn’t get the memo. Only black guys who don’t know their place can be presumptuous. Duhhh. Only old white guys can be “presidential” and have “gravitas”.

  • OkieFromMuskogee

    says:

    This is lame. When I read the quote, I first assumed he meant “another president” besides George W. Bush.

    But concerning McCain’s direct involvement in the conflict in Georgia: “There’s a difference between being engaged and being knowledgeable.”

    There certainly is.

    Roddy @ #3: When they call Obama “presumptuous” it doesn’t just mean “black.” It means “uppity ni***r.”

  • howard

    says:

    tom, you’re welcome to call ’em out; i’m merely pointing out that dumbness often has nothing to do with it. people take positions to get elected or remain popular, which, frankly, is a pretty smart thing to do if you want to exercise power.

    so some people (let’s say john mccain) are just plain dumb; other people (let’s say barack obama) so desperately want to win that they are willing to sell out intelligence.

  • Steve

    says:

    More than five years of war in Iraq, coupled with our six-year campaign in Afghanistan, and compounded by the profit-skimming that’s shipped critical material and ordnance from Europe for both of these theaters—rather than buying new stuff—has gutted America’s capabilities to wage war on the European continent.

    Russia knows this.

    Our illustrious civilian command structure in the Pentagon has moved to eliminate the Air Force programs for countering a full-press military cyberattack—which is exactly how Russia managed to sweep so far into Georgia before the Georgians knew what was hitting them (Russia “crashed” the Georgian defense communications network just before their incursion began).

    Russia knows that, too.

    Western Europe is only a couple of months away from needing additional oil and LNG for heating and power production, and almost all of Europe’s land-based fuel supply now comes through Russia, or regions controlled by Russia, or regions in sympathy with Russia.

    And—Russia knows that, as well.

    So when John McI’m-In-Charge-Here (and I thought Al Haig was a doofus) decides to bluster the Unted States and NATO into a protracted series of military operations against a resurgent Soviet behemoth, we’ll get to see something that we’ve never seen before: Russian T-90 tanks rolling down the Kaiser Wilhelmstrasse.

    Because if the McPhony-President gets us into a shooting match with Russia now with the gutted condition we’re in, it’ll take the Red Army about six weeks to reach Berlin.

    And that’s if they hold up the advance just long enough to say “pretty please with sugar on top.”

    I doubt they’ll do that….

  • The Answer is Orange

    says:

    McCain is proving himself a leader;

    I assume you meant “isn’t,” and I’d have to disagree. He’s proving himself a leader cut from the same cloth as the pResident. Rattle those sabres! Snort and beat your chest! Run away your tail between your legs when you realize the guy you’re yapping at could crush you like a bug!

    I haven’t been following this as closely as I should but did Bush (or McCain) try to claim VICTORY when Russia announced its cease fire?

    And Steve @ 13, thanks for the Haig flashback.

  • PJ

    says:

    He might as well have fun playing the president on TV, because I have a feeling that is as close as he is going to get to the Oval Office. (I am of course knocking really hard on the closest piece of wood.) I wonder what all those soldiers who are leaning toward Obama think of John McCain telling them they are Georgians now. I know the posturing is designed to make him look presidential, but most people are not stupid. The voters McCain needs – particularly the families of kids from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and other so-called “swing states” who joined the army because there was nothing else for them to do – may not be able to afford to send their children to college, but that doesn’t mean they can’t recognize a pig in a poke when they see one.

  • Fast Eddie

    says:

    McCain: Hey, you! Young Pootin guy! Get offa my neighbor’s lawn.

    Putin: (short pause) Or what?

    (long, long, long pause)

  • Racer X

    says:

    No comment needed, except to say the crazy people really love John McCain…

    “His statements have been very presidential,” said John R. Bolton… “These are the kinds of things that the president should have been saying from the beginning.”

    IOW, even the lunatic Bush isn’t as crazy as McCain is.

    There’s your scary thought for the day.

  • Alex

    says:

    I wouldn’t normally recommend an article by Pat Buchanan but his piece at Real Clear Politics is exactly 180 out from McCain / Bush reaction to Georgia. Buchanan calls it “Saakashvili’s blunder” and speaks ill of “Bush, Cheney and McCain” and “Western hypocrisy”.

  • The Answer is Orange

    says:

    No way Steve. After Haig’s moment of triumph, whenever a teacher left the room we would all leap up and scream “I’m in charge!” They’d pointed the incident out to us, so they had to put up with it.

    Yes. I was educated by liberals and hippies, why do you ask?

  • Chad

    says:

    I just love your guy’s hypocrisy. Obama has called himself the President too. So what’s your point? Obama lies too, so what’s your point? You make it sound like that whenever McCain does it, it’s a huge deal, but when the annointed one does it, it’s not. In other words, Obama’s shat doesn’t stink to you.

  • 2Manchu

    says:

    I don’t know if the Obama campaign would go this far, but now might be a good time to run a new “Daisy” ad.

  • Keori

    says:

    Has McCain gotten the memo that Putin is now Prime Minster of Russia and Dmitri Medvedev is President? Or is he still thinking that Putin is the President of Germany?

    Steve, we need to ask which McCain campaign advisors have financial ties to the contracting companies who will be producing and installing the missile defense shield in Poland and Czech Republic. At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, it’s highly unlikely his lobbyist advisor involvement in resurrecting an Eastern European Cold War is limited to Scheunemann. (Republican Cold War fetishists looking to profit off making their 1980’s fantasies come true? Say it can’t happen!)

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080814/wl_afp/polandusczechmissilemilitarydealtusk_080814181750

    And has McCain gotten the memo that it’s the Czech Republic and not Czechoslovakia anymore?

  • JS

    says:

    Old McCain is as crazy as a coot, he keeps talking about Russia invading Georgia, forgets the bit about Georgia invading South Ossetia, most likely with his blessing, after all, he talks to the loose cannon pres there every day.

  • fasaha

    says:

    McCain is certainly confused, and also presumptuous. More important to me, though, is what the hell he’s telling the Georgian president and whether it’s the same or different from what GWB is telling them.

    He’s NOT the president. And as inept as the Bush Administration is, I prefer ineptness in single doses–not comingled with random inept ideas brought in off the street.

  • Patrick

    says:

    That confused old man needs to drop out of the race now. It is time for cooler heads to prevail. John McCain would rather start a war with Russia than lose an election.

  • 2Manchu

    says:

    I don’t know if someone has mentioned this, but didn’t Ariel Sharon raise a shitstorm between the Israelis and Palestinians before he became prime minister in 2001?

    Another old fart wingnut trying to stir the pot.

  • joey

    says:

    Opening the door for Blackwater and KBR to rob the American Treasury again in some kind of reconstruction effort while the militray-media-industrial complex profiteers big time by supplying weapons. And the meida gets the American voters to sing chorus.
    I wish Obama’s campaign message was “This Stops Now”. The build up to war enriches the war profiteers while getting the rrest of us killed or economically deprived.

    Same old game…different playground.

  • toowearyforoutrage

    says:

    Now we know why John McCain’s negative ads all ask:
    “Barack Obama: Is He Ready to Lead?”

    Cuz’ McCain sure-shootin’ is! And how! Alexander Haig is raising an eyebrow at him.

    Slow down there, “Ace”! Doncha think maybe you might wanna be ahead in the polls first?