A question of credibility

September 9, 2007

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), this morning:

“Americans are sad, they’re frustrated, they’re angry, and they want out. And I understand that; there were four years of failure under Rumsfeld. As you know, I spoke out early on, in November of 2003, saying that strategy was doomed to failure.”

McCain, in December 2003:

“This is a mission accomplished. They know how much influence Saddam Hussein had on the Iraqi people, how much more difficult it made to get their cooperation.”

McCain, in March 2004:

“I’m confident we’re on the right course.”

McCain, in December 2005:

“I do think that progress is being made in a lot of Iraq. Overall, I think a year from now, we will have made a fair amount of progress if we stay the course. If I thought we weren’t making progress, I’d be despondent.”

When war supporters like McCain wonder why they have credibility problems when it comes to Iraq policy, this might offer a hint.

Easy. They’re talking to themselves. The comprehensive “surge” report in WaPo by Ricks, DeYoung, et al. ends with the damndest paragraph about how good Bush feels.

“The trip energized Bush and his team. Even Gates said he was more optimistic than he has been since taking office. While the secretary had been ‘cagey’ in the past, a senior defense official said, ‘he’s come to the conclusion that what Petraeus is doing is actually more effective than what he thought.'”

This isn’t about Bush having seen something which gave him good reason to feel optimistic. No. It’s about Bush being among temporarily cheering crowds, among supportive underlings. Of course he feels good! He excludes everything from vision which would make him feel bad! Ditto McCain. Why oh why was a whole generation brought up to believe self-esteem was everything? All it means is that you wind up being the only person who esteems you while all around you people are screaming and banging their heads against the wall.

  • Politicians can be so obtuse, here it is translated so we can all relate:

    McCain, in December 2003:
    “Monkeys are flying out of my butt!”

    McCain, in March 2004:
    “Hordes of monkeys are flying out of my butt, but I’m confident my butt is OK!”

    McCain, in December 2005:
    “The monkeys are building a bridge! The monkeys are building a bridge! Look at those damn monkeys!”

    Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), this morning:
    “I have a fine bridge to sell to the American people!”

  • The Italian economist/sociologist Vilfredo Pareto argued that nothing a politician says should be taken seriously since everything a politician says is designed either to question the power claimed by others or to buttress one’s own claim to power. The specific content of political utterances is merely window dressing for their real objective: hooray for me and screw you.

    Most politicians have learned the verbal sleight of hand it takes to at least pretend they’re working in the public interest. McCain is almost a textbook example of exactly what Pareto was talking about.

    Based on long centuries of experience, the Italians have a saying: whenever you see a politician or a priest, throw a rock.

  • McCain is insane and is getting worse at covering it up. At the debates he smugly, and with that authoritarian smirk, told Romney in his typical condescending manner…”The surge is working…not apparently working …it is working…”
    Not ‘apparently’ working? Excuse me but if something is ‘apparently’ working it means it ‘is’ working. But it was the manner in which McCain said it as if Romney didn’t know what he was talking about, using the comment like a slap in the face, and then stood back with that stupid self satisfied superior grin on his face…Geez, the man is insane.
    Withdrawing the troops means surrendering to our enemies? What a shame…McCain’s insane.
    Not one death or person murdered at Guantanamo…DUH?…they take them to secret sites to torture and kill them or ship them back to countries they know will torture and kill them. What the hell are these people talking about?

    America must maintain its “honor”. Preemptively attacking an occupying a country based on lies which caused the deaths of nearly a million innocent people, thousnads of Americans killed and wounded, Millions displaced and homeless, without food, water, shelter, or power…we have raped, robbed, pillaged, tortured, murdered, and destroyed the infrastructure of another country and are covered in a cloud of shame and this idiot is talking about maintaining our “honor”??? What the hell are these people talking about??

    These are intelligent men…suffocating on the lack of oxygen present in their rectums and refusing to pull their head out of the area. These people should be kept as far away from government as is humanly possible

  • That McCain… what a maverick! I bet he even used a salad fork. (Colbert rules).

    I’m glad that Carpetbagger has picked up the mantle from the legendary Billmon, of doing good homework and pulling together a series of quotes that tell the story better than any prose could.

  • Rampstrike no longer has credibility—he traded it for something called “cretinbility.”

    Well, no…that’s not quite right. He traded it for a handful of beans alleged to be magical….

  • This just mystifies me.

    When McCain started bucking up our chimp-in-chief, I figured he was angling for two things: support from the “Pioneers” and defense industry money.

    McCain’s fundraising has been really crappy so neither has appeared to be the end result of his Iraq cheerleading. But he keeps doing it in spite of what seems to be ample evidence.

    I’m currently under the impression Senator McCain is gung-ho about the war because he’s insane. That’s not a pejorative, it’s the most reasonable conclusion for his actions I can manage.

    Like believers in UFOs and Elvis sightings, McCain believes the war in Iraq is going well despite desperate, failed attempts to gather significant evidence supporting his case. There’s no shaking this guy from his faith.

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