McCain - putz or puzzle

For many people, John McCain is a putz. A few, however, remain unsure.

What is clear, however, is that John McCain is a puzzle. A puzzle is perplexing. A puzzle is defined by uncertainty and indecision.

John McCain is perplexing. John McCain is exemplified by uncertainty and indecision.


1. Joshua Holland described a recent CNN Situation Room discussion between Wolf Blitzer and Foreign Policy Analyst, Fareed Zakaria.

"One of the policies they touched on was McCain's proposal to kick Russia out of the G8." Obama thinks it best to keep Russia involved and McCain wants to give Russia the boot.

Again, McCain just doesn't get it. "The G8 is an organization that functions on a consensus basis. Therefore Russia itself would have to vote 'yea' to any plan to boot Russia out of the group. Therefore, McCain's proposal is batshit insane, and Obama's feelings about the matter are irrelevant."


2. Way back in 2000, George W. Bush said he thought Czechoslovakia should be a campaign issue because he realized his opponent, John McCain didn't know there was no Czechoslovakia.
"A guy gets up and quizzed me [on world leaders] ... but John McCain says something about the 'ambassador to Czechoslovakia [there's a Czech Republic and a Slovakia], but yet it didn't make the nightly national news."

During a Republican debate last fall, McCain said: "The first thing I would do is make sure that we have a missile defense system in place in Czechoslovakia and Poland, and I don't care what his objections are to it."

About three months ago, say May 2008 or so, McCain swore he would "work closely with Czechoslovakia" on missile defense.

July 2008. At a press conference. McCain said: "I was concerned about a couple of steps that the Russian government took in the last several days. One was reducing energy supplies to Czechoslovakia. ..."

That couldn't happen, of course, because Czechoslovakia doesn't exist!


3. Steven Benen at The Carpetbagger Report tells how on July 15, 2008, McCain gave a speech to the National Council of La Raza. Following his comments, a young woman asked whether he would support the so-called "Dream Act (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act), which gives undocumented young people a chance to earn U.S. citizenship by going to college or enlisting in the military.

"McCain didn't hesitate to endorse the legislation."

Benen says that's the right thing to to: "The Dream Act should be a no-brainer: 'Roughly 65,000 children graduate each year from high school into a constrained future because they cannot work legally or qualify for most college aid. These are the overlooked bystanders to the ferocious bickering over immigration. They did not ask to be brought here, have worked hard in school and could, given the chance, hone their talents and become members of the homegrown, high-skilled American work force. The bill is one of the least controversial immigration proposals that have been offered in the last five years.'"

Unfortunately, says Benen, McCain "neglected to mention that he already promised conservative activists that he opposes the Dream Act, and would have voted against it had he shown up for work last fall."

The ironic part of all this is that when he addressed the Latino National Council of La Raza, he ended his message with, "I do ask for your trust."

As Benen says: "The man is just shamefully dishonest. McCain co-sponsored the Dream Act, then refused to vote for it, then promised to oppose it, then promised to support it."

Trust?


4. Vincent Rossmeier at Salon.com reminds us that McCain isn't sure about what he thinks about gay adoption. He told The New York Times, "I don't believe in gay adoption." Last Tuesday his campaign said that wasn't quite right, he really does believe in gay adoption or at least he believes that whatever the individual states say about gay adoption is what he really believes.

Jill Hazelbaker, McCain's director of communications, sent a statement to Andrew Sullivan at the Atlantic in which she said old John might have been "clearer in the interview in stating that his position on gay adoption is that it is a state issue."

You'll notice, however, that "I don't believe in gay adoption" is not hedged by any states' rights nonsense.


5. This from Alex Koppelman at Salon.com. John McCain spoke at a town hall in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He said this:

"I won't bluster, and I won't make idle threats, but understand this -- when I cam commander in chief, there will be nowhere the terrorists can run and nowhere they can hide."

As Koppelman noted, "...that sounds, actually, exactly like bluster."

It also sounds, exactly, like da Bush. My god, can we possibly stand another dingbat saying the same kinds of things, blustering in the same inane way, in the White House?

Furthermore, as Koppelman points out, there are terrorists all over the Middle East and Africa -- in numerous countries. Is he going to attack Saudi Arabia? Pakistan? Lebanon? Is he going to send troops to Sudan, or how about Algeria where "Islamic militants are experiencing a resurgence?"

So much for not "blustering."


6. Joe Sudbay at Americablog.com reports:

"After months of saying additional troops were not needed in Afghanistan, McCain changed position Tuesday and called for an additional three brigades -- or roughly 15,000 troops -- to be sent to the country. It was unclear if those troops would be redeployed from Iraq or come from NATO forces."

Flip-flop!