McCain labels Bush as author of America's greatest moral failure and other musings on Saddleback

[grantcart]

All dressed up and ready to go to Church John McCain remembered his lines and his stories and did himself little damage at the Saddleback exchange.

Warren is to be commended for a fundamentally fair format and neutral demeanor.

Pretty embarrassing when a pastor out performs anchors and pundits at a political discussion. The most interesting question of the night I thought was "what is your greatest and the country's greatest moral failure?". When Obama answered that it was his misspent high school behavior that caused him to drink and do drugs but that the moral failure that he had to face was not the drugs or the drinking but putting himself into the center of the universe and immersing himself into a selfish binge of self pity I was reminded of listening to a wise old pastor or a buddhist monk I know. I wanted to grab that nuclear 'football' and give it to him.

There must be a great deal of relief with McCain's handlers that he didn't let go of the "C" word and that he got all his stories out. Interesting how all of the great moral lessons in John McCain's life occur in a prison camp. It was such a transformative moral experience that when he got home he went on a series of affairs and throws his wife out for a new improved model in what he calls his "greatest personal moral failure".

So his greatest religious experiences were in prison camp and followed by his greatest moral failure. Must be a kind of delayed metaphysical epiphany - kind of a reverse post traumatic stress syndrome, or its all just dressed up and a lie. Religious experiences tend to elevate your moral actions John not help you become a superficial degenerate.

But the real highlight of the night for me was when McCain answered that the greatest moral failure of the country occurred when George Bush told the country after 9/11 to go shopping. He should have called the country to more volunteer activity instead - that was America's greatest moral failing?

Are you kidding me?

Genocide on Native Americans, Kidnapping, Rape and the enslavement of 10 million Africans, Massive bombing of Cambodia, the wholesale destruction of Indochina, the neglect of the poor, the demonization of Americans who are the current target of hatred whether it is the internment of Japanese Americans, those that believe differently or those with different sexual orientation and he thinks that the most terrible thing that this country has done is that after we are attacked we didn't have a perfect response?

So America gets attacked and Bush encourages people to go back to normality and that is America's greatest moral failing.



John McCain remembered his stories and got his little checklist answers out as trained but when he responded on the question of moral failure he showed that it was just a show that he was going to get in as many POW references in as possible because that is the one area in his life that ordinary people are loathe to question or question too deeply.

And when he puts his little thinking beanie on the great historical questions of where this country has been and where it has fallen he showed that he was just a sophomoric hack who unable to work the POW thing in was left to go to the other place that he had been told he must go - that George Bush was the worst President in American history.

POW story check, superficial religious images check, faux confrontation with your own moral abyss check, distancing yourself from Bush check.

John McCain revealed himself as an intellectual fraud that learns his lines but when given a real question requiring real personal examination and introspection the most vacuous inner self pops out.

Make sure that guy never gets the nuclear 'football', or anything else with real power.

[madeline_con]

1. Did the interviewer mean the country's greatest moral failure in its history?

:shrug:

[endthewar]

2. That is how I interpreted the question, but

that's not how the candidates interpreted it. It felt like a trap to get Obama to say 'slavery' at first, but he rephrased the question as to pertaining to his lifetime.

[grantcart]

4. welcome to DU

[endthewar]

9. Let's hope this i.p. address doesn't get tombstoned

I don't want to have to keep changing it. :rofl:

[grantcart]

12. lol

[madeline_con]

6. Yes, I liked the way he offered specificity.

It is such a braod subject. Using the umbrella approach in his reply seemed to both encompass anything we can do for others and strike a personal note for each of us at the same time. I found that quite brilliant, actually.

[endthewar]

8. .

.

[grantcart]

3. whether its entire history or its current existential frame of mind I dont see

the relevance of your point.


I find his point that George Bush's exhortation to return to normalcy as mediocre leadership but how is it a moral defect?

With 18,000 people dying needlessly because they do not have access to health care this year we could just focus on that.

His answer was straight Chamber of Commerce hucksterism - "we are great but we fail because we are not great enough".

It was a contrived answer that was aimed at throwing dirt on Bush because if McCain had been President he would have gotten it all right and the war would have been a brilliant success and American never commits any real moral misdeeds.

It shows clearly that this is a man who is incapable of introspection. Not the kind of guy you want to command the most lethal force in the world, especially when he is known for having a temper.

[madeline_con]

7. There is a significant difference.

One might argue that the genocide of the Native Americans, slavery, or bombing Nagasaki and Hiroshima was our worst moral failure. The experiences and outlook of the person pondering the question would be substantial factors in which one of them, if any, was our worst moment.

I believe what made it relevant is the way both candidates brought it to the present situation of the U.S. at war during an election cycle and what they intend to do to bring about what they consider improvement.

Perhaps they both understood the spirit of the question better than I did.

[cliffordu]

5. RE: "Make sure that guy never gets the nuclear 'football', or anything else with real power."

We're doing the best we can, good buddy. K and R

[grantcart]

11. thanks

[unblock]

10. it's called "pandering"

slimy presidential candidates are not academics who are always eager to follow the truth no matter where it takes them.
they seek to control events and to take all questions as an opportunity to gain votes, or at least not lose votes.

hence, in their minds, a question like "what was the country's greatest moral failure" reads more like "which voting group would you care to pander to and somehow relate it to the topic of america's moral failures".

so mclame might have thought, indian massacres? well, american indians aren't a big voting bloc in swing states, so, pass.
slavery? hah! like i'm gonna get the black vote!
internment of japanese-americans? 2 nuclear bombs over japan? well, the japanese-american vote is not big either, and certainly not in swing states.
...
how about religious conservatives? YES! that's it! that's why i'm here tonight, after all! i need them to come out bigtime in swing states, so i'll kiss their butts by suggesting that bush should have pandered MORE to them and used 9/11 as an excuse! BRILLIANT!

[Top Cat]

13. Goes to show that McCain is a back stabber