John McCain: The Opacity Of NOPE!

In this historic election year, the people have a choice of unprecedented clarity. The presidential candidates for 2008 offer a uniquely stark contrast of policy and vision. One has embraced a theme of hope that is inspiring millions and setting a new course for national renewal and unity. He has ignited a grassroots revolution of citizen activists committed to bringing change to an arrogant, unaccountable, dishonest, and incompetent government.

The other is John McCain.

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In contrast to Barack Obama’s campaign of optimism and hope, McCain offers a vision that is squarely focused on obstacles. Its opaque negativity fairly precludes it from even being described as a vision at all. It might be more accurately expressed as The Opacity NOPE!

Peace? Nope. Health care? Nope. Fair trade? Nope. Tax equity? Nope. Choice? Nope. Environment? Nope. Get the idea?

McCain’s concentration on what CAN’T be done poses a challenge for his candidacy. A recent poll by the Pew Research Center shows that McCain trails Obama on most of the issues that voters rank as their top priorities. That may explain why the poll also shows that 75% those who have an unfavorable opinion of McCain, do so because of his political views. Only 54% cite that reason for Obama. McCain has saddled himself with a campaign that touts his alleged foreign policy experience in an election year where majorities of Democrats (65%), Independents (61%), and even Republicans (57%), want the next president to focus on domestic issues, a category that favors Obama. Even on the war in Iraq, voters are swinging toward Obama, who has gained eight points in just one month, moving into a statistical tie with McCain.

The negativity of McCain’s record of public service stands as affirmation of the tenor of his present pursuit of the presidency. Documented examples of an acutely abusive temperment include encounters such as the following:

  • “Fuck you…This is chickenshit stuff.” Directed at Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in an immigration debate.”
  • “Only an asshole would put together a budget like this…I wouldn’t call you an asshole unless you really were an asshole.” Directed at Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) while marking up legislation.
  • Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) to McCain during a debate on MIA’s: “Are you calling me stupid?” McCain: “No. I’m calling you a fucking jerk!”

That’s how McCain treats fellow Republicans. However, if you are the teenage daughter of a Democratic president, expect to be treated with something McCain regards as humor:

“Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno.”

In one masterful stroke, McCain insulted an innocent and impressionable young girl, the Attorney General, the First Lady, and the President. This should not surprise anyone, because McCain frequently describes himself as “the worst nightmare” of Democrats, as well as many others:

The problem for America, should John McCain become president, is that his self-identification will become a self-fulfilling prophesy; that McCain will manifest the nightmare he is so fond of invoking. And with his comments in the public record indicating that he is “fine with” keeping troops in Iraq for a hundred years, and that he thinks it would be fun to “bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran,” it isn’t much of a leap to presume that his commitment to a national bad dream is genuine.

Therefore, it is incumbent upon the American people to take up the call that John McCain so generously volunteers. We must rally around the anthem that defines the course of true progress. When McCain comes calling for our votes we must reflect back on him the only answer that will deliver us from the dreadful future he promises. We must summon our courage, steady our resolve, and stare into the face of pessimism and futility, and in a certain, unyielding voice – Just Say NOPE!


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7 thoughts on “John McCain: The Opacity Of NOPE!

  1. Either I’m getting more cynical or election cycles are getting more depressing because it’s getting harder and harder for me to motivate to vote.

    Holding my nose with both hands I voted for Hillary in the primaries. The lady’s problems are legion but then there’s the other two guys.

    Maybe my problem is I get POTUS 08 on XM and overdosed on primary coverage. I’ve heard so many stump speeches I feel like I’m on all the campaign staffs. Yet, after all the saturation of coverage I still don’t get Barrack Obama.

    Take health care, one of my top 2 or 3 issues. Without batting an eye, the man runs a campaign as if he and Hillary have equal passion on the issue. Yet, I can still remember candidate Obama standing before a crowd telling them he had no clue about health care and he was asking them what he should do. Flush with cash, he’s since been able to hire a consultant to draft a plan.

    Does he really care about health care reform?

    Not to worry. He’s going to be the great uniter.

    One thing comes through loud and clear listening to all the insiders and campaign staff. The Obama staffers outright hate Hillary Clinton. This is more than just healthy competition between campaigns. Obama’s own wife came out and said she’d have problems supporting Hillary for president. It’ll be interesting to see if Hillary will be able to muscle or maneuver her way onto the ticket as VP because Obama’s reportedly privately choking on the notion.

    My point is Obama and Co. can’t even get along with a Democrat with few ideological differences. Wait until he meets the Republicans in Congress and things get a little hot (likely much hotter than him vs. Hillary). Do you really think Barrack will feel like leading a chorus of “Kumbaya”?

    Then you have to ask yourself if he’s a uniter why did he attend a church for many, many years preaching black liberation theology? It’s a white versus black divisive philosophy. For example, James Cone said, “Theologically, Malcolm X was not far wrong when he called the white man ‘the devil.'”

    Okay… okay… but he’s determined to get us out of Iraq quickly. Well, that’s until pressed on the consequences when he’s not so much in a rush.

    Now before you run off and label me an Obama basher, note I’m leaning towards voting for the guy because I’m opposed to McCain on some very key issues. However, the main problem with Obama is the ‘experience thing’ though not as it’s covered on the news. I’m less concerned with his lack political experience as my lack of experience with him. So I’m left speculating as above.

    He sounds inspirational like Kennedy because he hired a speech writer from the Kennedy administration. That’s Obama’s hallmark. He makes great prepared speeches. But he reminds me of a former co-worker who gushed about non-specific “change” like it was a great thing. Change is inherently neither good nor bad. It depends upon its nature. Getting fired is career “change”. Want some of that change?

    Reading speeches is easy (well not so much for Bush). Yet, when confronted by McCain to do town hall style debates where they meet actual people Obama, the great uniter and leader of the common man, declined. He prefers the Lincoln-Douglas style debates (Let’s hope not. The format was one spoke uninterrupted for an hour, the next for an hour and a half, followed up by the first speaker getting 30 minutes of rebuttal.)

    Barrack’s greatest strength is we have no experience with him so he can run his mouth and say anything. Maybe he will live up to all his self-promoting hype. Like the deodorant ad I just saw proclaiming if I use it beautiful women will be crawling all over me. But what alarms me is I’ve heard the man get carried away by the moment and the endless stream of promises make me suspect his grand dreams are just too cavalier over-promises.

    • Wow. Where do I start?

      Does Obama really care about health care? Who cares as long as he does something about it, even if it’s just signing the bill that comes to him from Congress?

      Does Obama really hate Clinton? Who cares if he has a difficult relationship with his most recent political opponent? That doesn’t reflect in any way on his relationships with anyone else. And if he patches things up with Hillary, which he seems to be doing, it speaks to his ability to unite. Personally, I don’t want a Kumbaya chorus with Republicans in Congress. I want to kick their butts.

      And I couldn’t care less about all the crap that is spread around concerning his church. Do really think he is harboring a secret plan to launch a race war from the White House?

      And you are severely trivializing Obama’s political experience and skill by attributing it all to a speechwriter. He reminds you of Kennedy because they have much in common, including short political resumes, charisma, and an ability to grasp where the people are. He was impressing audiences long before this campaign and any speechwriters he’s recently hired.

      And if you still feel that you have no experience with him after 18 months of this campaign, and bruising scrutiny by the press, I don’t know what you’ve been paying attention to instead.

    • are you all kidding yourselves with this we don’t know him …stuff! how many politicians have you done lunch with? give me a break! the guy didn’t just walk in off the street and yell into a reporter’s mike “hey i wanna be president!” we know him as well as we know most jr. senators… better!; where he lived every year of his life, broken home, religious pref( though some pretend otherwise ), arugula and on and on. face it. some people have to look themselves in the mirror and admit they have some biggoted tendencies. keep blaming obama for reveling them or overcome them. but grow up and take resposibility for your emotions is my advice, cause win or lose this genie is out of the bottle and there is no getting him back in. there will be women, hispanics,asians, jews, agnostics…who have and will rise to higher and higher positions of leadership in this country. choose based on the evidence, the facts, the audio and video tape, not propaganda, fear-mongering, and other whisper campaigns. were are adults in a new century not grade schoolers in centuries past. we’ve worked with and for people of different backgrounds and they did no worse than the “traditional” co-worker/boss.

  2. I hate John McCain, but the Janet Reno joke is absolutely hilarious.

    • Can’t agree with you on that. It is insensitive in the extreme to target an innocent young girl with jokes about her appearance at a time in her life when she is fraught with the anxieties of adolescence. And it is despicable to launch such an attack as a means to hurt her political parents.

      I hope that if you had a teenage daughter you wouldn’t find it acceptable if someone joked about her being ugly just so they could get at you.

  3. Thanks for buying into the Obama Hope vs McCain Fear doctrine! Makes it easier for me to write you off as an arrogant liberal with no real understanding of the world you live in.

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