McCain literally sticks to the script on Iraq

November 20, 2006

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) stuck to the script yesterday during an appearance on ABC’s This Week, repeating his desire to see more troops sent to Iraq. What’s interesting, however, is that McCain seemed to need his notes quite a bit to get through the discussion.

Take a look and count how many times McCain looks down to read his talking points over the course of the minute.

Now, I can appreciate the fact that the war is complicated, but George Stephanopoulos was simply asking McCain to discuss his own position on troop deployment. Shouldn’t the senator, who believes he should be president, be able to talk about his approach to the war, and his plan to send thousands of additional troops, without literally reading talking points?

McCain’s of the age where Reaganism, er, I mean Alzheimers, could be starting to kick in.

Like I said when it was annnounced that Ronnie the Ray-Gun had Alzheimers: “how could they tell?”

  • If you watch McCan’t really, really close, you’ll see a repetitive quiver-jerk type of movement that can only be replicated by a muppet with the puppeteer’s hand stuffed up its rectum. So it’s probably obvious that McCan’t is following someone else’s script in all of this.

    Anyone care to guess who’s operating this particular muppet?

  • Good catch – I counted 8 lookdowns, one nose-touch and one forehead touch. Classic body language of “dispassionate insincerity”.

  • Alas, the melanomas have reached some vital part of his brain.

    I feel ashamed to say that I once thought if we had to have a Republican president, McCain might not be so bad and certainly would have been 400 times better than the gibbering baboon in power now.

    Live and learn.

    And I really think reporters/interviewers need to do the following when someone says “We need to send in more troops”:

    * Sieze the speaker by the collar.
    * Shake him once or twice to get the brain working.
    * Scream “Where will we get these soldiers?” down his ear.
    If the person can give a coherent answer move to question two:
    * Is there enough equipment for them?
    If coherent answer received:
    *How long will it be before they could get to Iraq?
    and so on. If the speaker fails to answer a question he should be chased from the studio by large, hungry rottweilers.

  • McCain is becoming the son that W. never had. The torch is passing to the next generation of Bushite and John McCain is dutifully working to fulfill the wishes of the father. Like proud parents, W and Rove must be looking on from the stands and saying, “That’s my boy! I taught him how to play this game!”

  • Shouldn’t the senator, who believes he should be president, be able to talk about his approach to the war, and his plan to send thousands of additional troops, without literally reading talking points?

    For what it’s worth even Bush can do this without talking points…

  • Yes, McCain is sending all the classic body language signs of lying, but I wonder if that is picked up by the misinformed middle. In addition to the signs mentioned, I noticed lots of blinking, too. But he still sounds a lot more believable and intelligent than Bush.

    I know, Bagdad Bob sounds smarter and more honest. But think about this now and be scared later: Bush was elected twice (or came close, anyway) and he never sounded half as intelligent as McCain. The best thing about McCain is his long track record of flip-flops, which can be used effectively against him. But in order to knock down McCain’s mythical honesty, we will need Dems to learn to play hardball.

  • Actually, McCain had to use notes because Bush was practicing with the headset for next spring’s hearings. Same idea, though.

  • Republican family tree:
    *
    *
    House of Saud
    *
    *
    House of Bush and Cheney
    *
    *
    The Republican Congress
    *
    *
    John McCain

    The McCain apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

  • That was bordering on comical when he went into the full-fledged fidget, look at notes, wipe brow to pretend I’m not looking at notes, look at notes again, perhaps they’re not noticing that I’m looking at my notes so I’ll look again….

    Ok, it crossed the line of comical and went straight into “Uhh, he’s serious?” land.

  • Hmmmm, can you imagine him trying to debate with Hillary or whoever in the Presidential debates and having to look at his notes constantly. Of course, he can always wear a receiver like W did.

  • If you think he’s awkward now ; wait until the spring of 08. If the troop level at that time is still 140.000 you will see all manner of linguistic contortions from him and any other presidential hopeful who is stay the course or send more troops. The wingnuts might help them win the primaries but they can forget about the general election. If push comes to shove, watch McCain flip flop again. I sincerely hope Hillary has to take a stand too.

  • “A girl got a pet goat. She liked to go running with her pet goat. She played with her goat in her house. She played with her goat in her yard. But the goat did some things that made the girl’s dad mad. The goat ate things. He ate cans and he ate canes. He ate pans and he ate panes. He even ate capes and caps.”

    …woooowww, man!

    …that’s so heavy!

    …the goat, dig, the GOAT is EVIL-DOER!!!

    ………………………………………………………..

    On the other hand, I just googled the wrong title by mistake and got MY LITTLEGOAT. Here’s an excerpt:

    And once when she looked up in her grief, a woman was standing beside her, who said, “Why art thou weeping, little Two-eyes?” Two-Eyes answered, “Have I not reason to weep, when I have two eyes like other people, and my sisters and mother hate me for it, and push me from one corner to another, throw old clothes at me, and give me nothing to eat but the scraps they leave? To-day they have given me so little that I am still quite hungry.” Then the wise woman said, “Wipe away thy tears, Two-eyes, and I will tell thee something to stop thee ever suffering from hunger again; just say to thy goat,

    “Bleat, my little goat, bleat,
    Cover the table with something to eat,”

    and then a clean well-spread little table will stand before thee, with the most delicious food upon it of which thou mayst eat as much as thou art inclined for, and when thou hast had enough, and hast no more need of the little table, just say,

    “Bleat, bleat, my little goat, I pray,
    And take the table quite away,”

    and then it will vanish again from thy sight.”

  • If he’s already using notes for a position he should know cold then he’s in trouble. If he runs in 2008 he’ll be 72 years old. Believe me (I’m 64) he may not be able to hold up and may have big trouble during the primary season.

    Ronald Reagan ran at age 69
    William Harrison at age 67
    Dwight Eisenhower at age 62

    None of those men faced 24 hour cable news (CNN launched in June 1980, but a much smaller percentage of homes had cable in those days and CNN didn’t really have a major impact until the Gulf War). Harrison ‘stood’ for office. Surrogates did the campaigning. It was considered crude for a presidential candidate to stoop to campaigning. Eisenhower faced very few primaries and didn’t really have to stay constantly on the road until after the convention. The convention picked the candidate in those days. Even at that, television coverage was spotty and candidates did most campaigning by train with a flight now and then.

    The meat grinder that candidates have to go through today may well be too much for a 72 year old even if he’s in first rate physical AND mental condition. Speaking from some experience those two conditions are absolutely connected.

    Consider that he would have to be on the trail from about late summer 2007 onward. As a sitting Senator he would have to make at least some appearances in DC to go with everything else. Neither Reagan, Harrison nor Eisenhower held public office in the years they first ran for president.

  • I think by now, it’s fairly obvious that Sen. McCain will not run for president in 2008. I’m sure he knows that the american public would not elect a 72 year old as their commander and chief. As for referring to his notes……Sen. McCain is aware that ANY slip of the toung is amplified in the press like it was coming through Hendrix’s Quad Marshall amplifiers!
    It was his full intention to “Stick to the Script on Iraq.” Mccain is an independent now, and if world events occour that lead him over to the Republican party, I don’t believe that makes him a “flip-flopper.” Sen. McCain is a great american and a true patriot! It makes me wonder how some smug commenters here would do in the Hanoi Hilton!

  • it seemed to me more like he was figuratively sticking to the script. i didnt see it literally stuck to him at any time.

  • obviously he hasnt smoked enough godblossom / recently i read that there is something in marijuana that will prevent alzheimers / hooray / i am safe / and i am 73 and i wdnt want to be president anyway

    • Comments are closed.