George W. Bush works very hard to keep in shape. I don’t think McCain found much in the way of ‘love handles’.
But at least McCain demonstrated that he knows how to show the love. Barack Obama probably doesn’t have any love handles, either, but is there any reason to treat him like this?
So Obama crossed over into enemy territory.
He walked over to where McCain was chatting with Republican Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida and Independent Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut. And he stretched out his arm and offered his hand to McCain.
McCain shook it, but with a “go away” look that no one could miss. He tried his best not to even look at Obama.
Finally, with a tight smile, McCain managed a greeting: “Good to see you.”
Obama got the message. He shook hands with Martinez and Lieberman — both of whom greeted him more warmly — and quickly beat a retreat back to the Democratic side.
Was John McCain raised in South Africa? Was he taught that black people have germs? What’s his problem? There’s a reason that the prevailing opinion in the Senate is that John McCain is a world-class jerk. It’s because he acts like a jerk to his colleagues on a regular basis. Barack Obama didn’t need to come over and say hello. He did it to be a stand-up guy and to show some bipartisan attitude during a bipartisan vote in the Senate.
John McCain is hurting his chances with his petulance. I’m sure he’s seen the focus group feedback from the debate. It’s clear that he lost more because of his disposition than his arguments. Yet, he still can’t make the needed adjustments. He’s still acting like a punk.
If memory serves, even W. was exceedingly gracious to Kerry (and reciprocated by Kerry) after one of the debates 4 years ago. Graciousness is what you do as a politician to make people feel better about the system.
As I said elsewhere – McCain is getting hammered for acting cold and disrespectful and not looking at Obama during the debate. And instead of changing his attitude a bit for the cameras, he doubles down and stays with it.
That suggests to me that it’s not only not an act, but that he’s not capable of acting. That’s odd to see in a professional politician. Usually faking emotion is one of those baseline levels of political ability that all pols who stay in office for a long period of time seem able to do. (I’m too young to remember Nixon – was he like this? Did he come across as someone perpetually angry with his opponent in his races? That’s the comparison I keep hearing – Nixon – but I don’t know how much of that is real and how much is because Obama/McCain has a lot of the same superficial dynamics as Kennedy/Nixon).
John McCain, keepin’ it real. Real bitchy.
Well, there’s no reason to feel good about the system, so maybe McCain is doing us all a favor.
Repeated in column dated today by Joe Klein.
And what Klein says about Obama seems valid:
McCain is uncomfortable with his
disgusting, dishonorable conduct,
his lying campaign eats at him.
In knifing Obama, McCain can’t give a direct look.
Hey BooMan?
John McSame doesn’t like anybody who doesn’t think John McSame is the greatest, most awesome person in the room where John McSame currently is at any given time.
When John McSame encounters a person who does not think John McSame is the greatest, most awesome person in the room, he turns into an angry, pissy old man.
Period.
That remind’s me of this song:
From McCain’s POV, Obama invaded his space, towering over him with his brilliant smile and good looks, his sharp mind, daring once again to call him “John” as tho they were friends instead of bitter rivals. Obama’s mere presense ignited McCain’s hatred of his own small, scarred and twisted body, his unreliable, confused brain, his uncontrollable rage over his literal short-comings. Being an egomaniac, he naturally projects his self-hatred onto the man who reminds him of it.
McCain coworkers hate the guy for this simple reason. He is a total Ahole.
It must be because McCain has few, if any, real peers. < cough, cough >
Sullivan asks:
Until Inauguration Day, who to believe?
Personally I don’t give a damn about McCain. I just hope little doses of reality like this will shock Obama out of his “bipartisan” fantasyland.
Petulance, my ass!! Mccain is a racist and that’s all it is. When it comes to even the basics of cordiality, Mccain can’t overcome his racism. A blogger recently provided a transcript from several Black sailors who served in the navy with Mccain and their consensus is that he was openly racist in his attitude when dealing with African American sailors, and I doubt the years have mellowed him.
Mccain thought that when he impulsively ran down to the Lorraine Motel on the anniversary of Dr. King’s murder, that this rainy photo op would attract Black voters to his candidacy. It never entered his imagination that he would wind up being opposed by a Black man in the race for president.
Let’s not put more lipstick on this particular pig! He is a product of the military upper officer corps elite who at the time of his service maintained hard core racist attitudes both on and off duty. There is nothing in Mccain’s resume to even remotely suggest that he has any respect, friendship or even tolerance for American Negroes. Finally, just because he adopted a brown child from some foreign land does not change how he feels about American Negroes. In his eyes she may be brown, but she’s not a Negro!
In my estimation the incident described in this blog shows that Barack still does not have his degree in racial “Street Smarts”….
It is not necessarily a sign of racism when someone who is in general a rotten, ungracious jerk is also rotten and ungracious to a black person. On the contrary, it would be more racist if he were pleasant and affable to a black man when he is a jerk to everyone else.
“In my estimation the incident described in this blog shows that Barack still does not have his degree in racial “Street Smarts“
So, what would you consider a sign of “racial street smarts”? Obama showing himself to be as big an a** as McCain is? Or perhaps trying to exceed McCain in bad behaviour? I hardly think so. I think Obama has shown excellent racial street smarts – not to mention political and just plain human street smarts – by displaying his superior manners and temperament. Looks like his mama brought him up right, and it shows.
Having been on the receiving end of one of McShames shit storms, I managed to turn it around and jam it up his ass so far that he couldn’t even squeak.
This happened on the Island of Bora Bora in French Polynesia over a decade ago at Bloody Mary’s Resturant where he and his wife were having dinner. I introduced myself to him and called him Captain (his permanent rank) and it really ticked him off for some reason. He came back at me with the “My Friend” I am a Senator and should be addressed as one! To which I replied, that I was a retired Navy Chief, and I called em as I saw em and he was and would always be a Captain, and as it was the last position that he held honorably (?), I would continue to use it.. Also I asked him about the wet start, and the deaths of 130+ sailors on the USS Forrestal and he exploded. He told me if I didn’t shut my mouth, he would see that I was deported from the islands and returned to the United States for a civil suite, or whatever… I calmly explained to him that it might not go down as he liked, as I was a French National, and a Citizen of French Polynesia and he was the guest and not acting very guest like. and if push came to shove that a trip to the Gendarmerie might just fit into his plans, except I would be filing the complaint and we would see who left the island first.
He stood there swearing and calling me every thing that he could think of and I just laughed at him and told him that he didn’t mean shit to anyone down there, and also I knew that he had been transferred off the Forrestal the following morning for his own personal safety and that the entire navy at the time knew of it.
I personally went looking for him the following day and he ran to his bungalow rather than carry on the conversation further. I really wanted him to try something as I was planning on seeing that he finally got his just rewards for his crimes in the service, I knew nothing about the Keating Affair at the time. I still would like to see him get his just desserts.
Just this old chief’s 2¢