The solution for the war in Iraq — by John McCain

May 24, 2006

Jason Horowitz reports in the New York Observer that John McCain met with an exclusive audience of very wealthy Republicans in New York late last week, shortly after getting booed relentlessly at the New School’s commencement ceremony. The students weren’t terribly impressed, but apparently McCain “saved some of his best material” for the elite crowd that gathered behind closed doors in the back of the Regency Hotel.

In a small, mirror-paneled room guarded by a Secret Service agent and packed with some of the city’s wealthiest and most influential political donors, Mr. McCain got right to the point.

“One of the things I would do if I were President would be to sit the Shiites and the Sunnis down and say, ‘Stop the bullshit,'” said Mr. McCain, according to Shirley Cloyes DioGuardi, an invitee, and two other guests.

Oh, so that’s what we need from the Oval Office. I’m sure the Iraqis will find this immediately persuasive and lay down arms thanks to the power of McCain’s personality and his desire to see the two sides get along. Somewhere, Bush is slapping his hand against his forehead, saying, “Why didn’t I think of that?”

Or, as Brendan Nyhan put it, “So honest! So bold! What an innovative diplomatic concept! If only John McCain were president, we’d have peace in Iraq!”

It’s worth noting, however, all sarcasm aside, McCain’s audience ate this up. DioGuardi, the wife of former Republican congressman Joseph DioGuardi, said McCain was “fantastic” and has “a vision for what should happen to this country.”

Maybe it was the profanity that sealed the deal.

Maybe, like Nixon, he has a “secret plan” for ending the war in Vietnam.

Getting Shiites and Sunnis to “Stop the bullshit” shows very little awareness of the history of either group, not mention their relation to the Kurds and the complex sub-groupings within each.

  • “Maybe it was the profanity that sealed the deal.”

    Maybe… but what color was the koolaid in the punchbowl?

    Seriously though….

    The whole problem with Iraq is that some Americans continue to believe (noblese oblige) that they can make Iraq better.

    What makes McCain’s folly so much worse is that he saw his country get its ass kicked in Vietnam.

    Apparently he STILL need to see his country get its ass kicked in Iraq too…

    And that my friends is both sad and stupid…

  • That first sentence didn’t come out the way I intended. Should have been “Maybe he has a ‘secret plan’ for ending the war in Iraq, comparable to Nixon’s ‘secret plan’ for ending the war in Vietnam (which we lost and were driven out of).”

    I also forgot to mention that McCain, increasingly, is becoming more and more of a puffy marshmallow. His acknowledged valor seems to have long ago “gone with the wind” – his wind.

  • Someone should ask McCain if he would have said the same thing if he could’ve sat down North and South Vietnam.

    He’s really turned himself into a true Bush Republican: patronizing, arrogant, and derogatory towards what he obviously doesn’t understand.

  • Unfortunately, McCain that big, strong, leader-maverick type of guy will only cause more turmoil and torment by giving them this ultimatum. Loosely translated: One can no more find accord in Iraq than one can stop a bull from shitting.

  • He’s become agitated and senile. Definate signs of old age. He’ll be in Iraq in his bathrobe yelling at all the kids to stay off his lawn.

  • And perhaps it’s time to sit McCain down and tell him this: You can lead a bull to water but you can’t stop him from shitting. This would no doubt inspire him to declare that our troops should be withdrawn by December.

  • I miss Scottie McGibberish already.
    Reporter: Has the President considered asking the Shiites and Sunnis to “stop the bullshit”?
    Scottie: As you know, it’s our policy to not comment on ongoing bullshit.

  • What does this say of the intelligence of the wealthy audience?
    I know you can’t buy love, I guess the same is true for smarts.

  • So McCain wants to tell the Shia and Sunnis stop the الهراء . This concludes the Arabic lesson for today.

  • “What does this say of the intelligence of the wealthy audience?”

    I’ve a feeling, BuzzMon, that what excited the wealthy was how he planned to further line their pockets after eight glorious years of getting richer and richer under Bush. I don’t think it was his vision for Iraq that had them so enthused. Remember, the meeting was
    behind closed doors, where the real action takes place. The “bullshit” is what they feed to us peons. You know, democracy,
    freedom, all that stuff.

  • Which Sunnis? Which Shias? It’s not like there’s some monolithic leadership in either camp. And what about the Kurds? And what “bullsht” are you talking about? The insurgency? The political infighting? What?

    I know McCain was just trying to generate a get-tough sound bite, but you make a statement like that and not follow-up on it leaves you looking real stupid.

    This over-simplificatoin of Iraq is why the situation over there is getting worse and worse.

  • LBJ didn’t want to hear anything more about that coup shit in South Vietnam back in 1964 either. Needless to say, Ho Chi Minh couldn’t have cared less about that.

  • Buzzmon:

    With regard to your question, have you ever noticed there is an inverse ratio of IQ to bank balance with Republicans? I mean, when was the last time you met a smart, wealthy Republican??? Probably about the same time you met a smart, wealthy bank robber, since the job specs are the same for them.

  • I just found a new site with some really cool features. Anyone can post news, and you can rate, tag, and add to the stories.

    If you go to PoliSpeak.com you can sign up for an account. It seems like it could be really cool if they had more people adding content.

  • The BS comment sure has folks atwitter. Though sad at it’s core, it is brilliant. This will make the news for days, McCain will appeal like crazy to the NASCAR crowd as well as anyone who uses the language. Which, by the way, is about all of us. Of course it stokes the folks too. The right often seem to go off by a trigger of some sort. Thier just beginning to wind them up with BS like this. McCain should have been discounted for many reasons before now, but the big turning point in my mind is, him kissing Fallwell’s ass after calling him an agent of intolerance.

  • sit the Shiites and the Sunnis down and say, ‘Stop the bullshit,’

    Ahha, the Daddy Party!

  • sit the Shiites and the Sunnis down and say, ‘Stop the bullshit,’

    My question,

    Or what?

    We’ll leave? Isn’t that what you say we shouldn’t do?

    We reinforce? Where are you going to get the troops?

    We’ll nuke Baghdah? (hopefully after evacuating) Seems extreme.

    We execute all your political leaders? Does he have the guts to try?

  • If you want to see just how stupid stupid Republicans are – or perhaps how desperate they are – go here:

    http://thinkprogress.org/2006/05/24/delay-colbert/

    Tom DeLay is featuring the Stephen Colbert interview with Robert Greenwald about Greenwald’s movie on DeLay, which the Delay-ed IQ folks apparently think is a conservative takedown of Greenwald and the movie.

    Did these folks not hear about Colbert’s performance at the White House Press Corpse dinner???????

    What part of satire do people in Washington D.C. fail to get?????

  • As much as this has already been commented on by several people here, I just have to ask again:

    How can people who are so rich be so retarded?

    McCain got what he wanted out of his audience, which was lots of money. This brilliant strategy of his will vanish from the media by tomorrow unless he keeps repeating it. Which would surprise me very much because he should know better, but you never know.

  • #17sit the Shiites and the Sunnis down and say, ‘Stop the bullshit,’

    Ahha, the Daddy Party!

    Don’t make me come back there!

  • This will appeal to those who went gaga over Bush in a flight suit moment which is all if not most of the GOP and it’s zombies.

  • Osama Bin Distractin
    The day after the first national poll showed that 70 million Americans support a new 9/11 investigation, and 55% of Americans disapprove of the way in which the media has covered questions surrounding 9/11, what does the mainstream media do?

    They covered the poll, and apologized for their terrible coverage of the evidence that 9/11 was an inside job or allowed to happen on purpose! Finally, it only took them 4 and a half years, but they’ve finally started reporting the truth!

    Uh … no. Instead, all of the major networks are ignoring the poll and instead running a story about how Osama directed 9/11. Specifically, the top story at all of the MSM websites is something like “Osama bin Laden says Zacarias Moussaoui had nothing to do with the 9/11 terrorists attacks”, that Osama directed the 19 hijackers on exactly what to do, and crazy old Moussaoui wasn’t one of them.

    How convenient of Osama to distract attention away from the poll. What a helpful chap. It doesn’t matter that the Osama videos about 9/11 are fake, according to scientists and top Bin Laden experts, or that he is dead, according to Israeli intelligence, Pakistani intelligence, and other sources.

    And whether or not he’s dead, it doesn’t matter that the CIA met with Bin Laden 2 months before 9/11. And Walter Cronkite, America’s most trusted newsman, must have really lost it when he said of a previous Bin Laden tape:

    http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2006/05/osama-bin-distractin.html

  • McCain is starting to remind me of “The Wizard of Oz.” Remember that scene where Toto pulls back the curtain, and everyone finds out that “The Great and Powerful Oz” is just a wimpish little snake-oil peddler with a really neat gizmo-machine?

    First, McCain was StraightTalkMan. Then it was FalwellMan. Now, he’s trying to become NascarMan. All we need now is Toto—and McCain can become NoWhereMan….

  • Now, let’s be honest. Telling the Shia and Sunni to sit down together and cut the bullshit may be laughable, but it is a far more rational and innovative approach than the Bushies ever had, or will have. And we may as well live with it, because the Dems can’t find their butts with both hands.

  • From abcnews.com:

    “Bin Laden on the Move; New Sightings in Pakistan”

    With a headline like that, I’m waiting for some shaky, grainy 16mm film of a walking 6′ 4″ tall Arab man who turns and looks at the camera, then tromps away into the wildenrness of the Khyber Valley

  • McCain may only need Toto to become “NoWhereMan,” but he is already “The Fool On the Hill.”

  • Well, since McCain isn’t the prez yet (thank God) why doesn’t he start by going to the White House and telling W, “Stop the bullshit.” And then he can get settle the irretractable differences on the House ethics committee by sitting them down and saying , “Stop the bullshit.” And then he can get Congress back on track by sitting down the Repub and Dem leadership and saying , “Stop the bullshit.” Wow! Utter one phrase and problem solved. If only McCain had the balls to start his leadership at home first before tackling Iraq … or maybe he’s only uttering, in his words, “bullshit.”

  • what is this guy smoking he should know its not that easy he should cut the bullshit

  • I think that John Mccain is just like Bush! He’s evil, crazy, and oblivious. He’s evil because he wants innocent people (American troops) to stay and fight in Iraq!!! Several Americans are fighting and dying in this pointless war (which Bush started) and Mccain wants to finish off where Bush left off! We need a president who will bring the troops out of Iraq and back home! Wars don’t solve anything.

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