As the Lies Pile Up, McCain’s Former Fans Increasingly Repulsed by the Cynicism

[seafan]

As the Lies Pile Up, McCain’s Former Fans Increasingly Repulsed by the Cynicism

By: emptywheel
Wednesday September 10, 2008

Tweety counts seven times that she has repeated her Bridge to Nowhere line. Meanwhile, as of 2:30 PM, ThinkProgress is up to 27 different uses of this line (including Palin's 8th use of it today).

Meanwhile, one by one, the weight of this evidence has demonstrated to McCain's former fans what a dishonorable, cynical creature John McCain has become. There was Mike Murphy, caught on live mike, admitting that the selection of Sarah Palin was cynical and gimmicky. And Joe Klein, labeling McCain's pro-predator attack on Obama as "one of the sleaziest ads I've ever seen in presidential politics." Even Mark Halperin called last nights piggy lipstick stunt the lowpoint of this campaign.

Sully is just the latest of former McCain fans to grow utterly disgusted with this new cynical creature.

For me, this surreal moment - like the entire surrealism of the past ten days - is not really about Sarah Palin or Barack Obama or pigs or fish or lipstick. It's about John McCain. The one thing I always thought I knew about him is that he is a decent and honest person. When he knows, as every sane person must, that Obama did not in any conceivable sense mean that Sarah Palin is a pig, what did he do? Did he come out and say so and end this charade? Or did he acquiesce in and thereby enable the mindless Rovianism that is now the core feature of his campaign?

So far, he has let us all down. My guess is he will continue to do so. And that decision, for my part, ends whatever respect I once had for him. On core moral issues, where this man knew what the right thing was, and had to pick between good and evil, he chose evil.

(snip)

McCain has demonstrated in the last two months that he does not have the character to be president of the United States. And that is why it is more important than ever to ensure that Barack Obama is the next president. The alternative is now unthinkable. And McCain - no one else - has proved it.

These former fans may well be the biggest threat to McCain's campaign. There's nothing like a lover scorned and no one to better describe the profound depths of McCain's cynicism than to have his former boosters describe their newfound revulsion.

'On core moral issues, where this man knew what the right thing was, and had to pick between good and evil, he chose evil.'

[Samantha]

1. McCain learned a lot from observing Bush*s tactics

and that is exactly why he allows Rove to advise him. Win at all costs - remember?

[curious one]

11. No he didn't watch *'s tactics, he hired all of his men to throw mud at dems.

[ErinBerin84]

2. Jay Carney from Time seems pissed too.

I used to find him pretty pro-McCain on Race for the White House, but that "read my books!" interview just seems to have done it for him (and the McCain advisor being a jerk to him on Morning Joe). Jonathan Alter from Newsweek , even though he is a Democrat, seems to think that McCain is different now too....he has mentioned being behind the scenes at the Saturday Night live show that McCain hosted, and being in the McCain suite when he lost the 2000 SC primar, and spoken in the past about having great affection for him. They are beginning to realize that he is either different, or was always a scum sucker.

[eshfemme]

3. Let's hope so because these people need to be brought back down to reality.

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

4. Grampy's problem is that the lies are so obvious and easily refuted

that even the M$M cannot ignore them. All demoting Olbermann and Matthews did was piss them off, even though it was purely symbolic, and they have both been on the warpath all week. Matthews is no fool, and can read the tea leaves about what Rachel's hiring means. That she is getting great ratings further hammers home this point. And Rachel calls liars liars in the plainest language possible.

I suspect that many of Grampy's former media friends have realized how completely he has whored and debased himself - I had some respect for McCain in 2000 - and in the last two years he has turned his back on 99% of what he said eight years ago. The record is there in video and audio. I think it was Joe Biden who said that the McCain of 2000 wouldn't vote for the McCain of 2008.

[theothersnippywshrub]

5. These former fans should read this.

"Pig" is short for "republican."

Early on in the 2008 presidential campaign, John McCain made a commitment to himself and to the American people to run a dishonorable and dishonest negative campaign. John McCain has fulfilled this commitment with a bizarre and enthusiastic zeal. How republican.

It is bizarre because a man who once rightfully was described as an American hero has become completely anti-American, pompously and royally proclaiming through his campaign spokesmen that no issue important to the American people should be a part of the 2008 presidential campaign. Yes, your Majesty. How very republican.

McCain's enthusiastic zeal for his dishonorable and dishonest campaign is apparent as he stands behind Sarah Palin acting as her Mini-Me while she delivers the canned republican presidential campaign speech full of lies. He stands there staring at her ass, bobbing his head, strangely rubbing his fingers, grinning maniacally, and bouncing up and down like a spastic, organ grinder monkey. He looks very much like an odd blend of Humphrey Bogart describing his search for the missing strawberries in "The Caine Mutiny" and Jack Nicholson breaking through the bathroom door in "The Shining." John McCain has become a sad and pathetic caricature of the typical republican politician. How long will it be until we hear him explaining his "wide stance" or confessing his diaper wearing sins? How very, very republican

Believe it or not, there may have been a time in his professional political career when John McCain attempted to behave honorably and honestly. Of course he has had a few occasional lapses, such as: his first campaign for public office; his greedy and enthusiastic participation in the "Keating Five" criminal bribery conspiracy; his adulterous sexual affair with a woman much younger and wealthier than his then current wife; his devious federal funding through a make believe charity of his favorite lobbyists' lifestyles as he pretended to criticize the wealth and influence of those same lobbyists; his recent hiring of all the lobbyists he could find to run his current campaign for president; his miserable, cowardly, and abject failure to make any attempt to defend his adopted daughter and his then current wife from the scurrilous, foul, filthy, and false negative attacks launched by George W. Bush and his republican party minions during the 2000 republican primaries. . . . And so it goes. Seemingly forever. How very republican. How very, very republican.

Perhaps describing a consistent pattern of behavior as "occasional lapses" is not entirely accurate. Maybe even a lie, unless you are a republican. But I am certain . . . er . . . I am relatively certain . . . er . . . I am somewhat certain . . . er . . . I am absolutely certain . . . yes I am absolutely certain . . . that I think that it may be possible that there may have been a time or two during his professional political career when John McCain attempted to behave in an honorable and honest manner. After all he did ultimately marry the younger and wealthier woman, thereby acquiring some houses, although no one, including John McCain, can remember how many. (Too many houses to count? That must be nice.) But it obviously is theoretically possible, regardless of how unlikely, that there has been an occasion on which John McCain behaved in an honorable and honest manner during his professional political career. Come on ! It's possible. Though not very republican.

I had intended to recount in this narrative some of the particular instances of John McCain's dishonorable and dishonest behavior during this campaign. However, my computer informs me that I have only 4 gigabytes of memory available. Obviously, this is wholly inadequate. However, it is possible to use "the Google," on the "Internets" (if the tubes are working) to identify occasions when John McCain, or one of his spokesmen, has made a public or private statement relating to the 2008 presidential campaign. Each of those statements is an example of John McCain's dishonorable and dishonest negative campaign.

By the way, "pig" is short for "republican."

[vaberella]

6. This is reminiscint to the HRC camp's failure leading to O's success.

This was a great post and it's very reflective of the inverse direction of the Obama camp. While pro-McCain supporters become disenchanted by his tactics, this is what was the downfall of HRC's campaign. So many people were surprised by how dirty she was getting in retaliation to Obama who didn't even follow such tactics and he won the best of them. Obama was already leading, but HRC's methodology aided him along. We're now seeing a similar maneavour by the O camp on McCain and it's working.

This is how he plans to win out and I hope and think he will be successful because as the above author stated..."The alternative is now unthinkable."

[dailykoff]

7. Is Sully Andrew Sullivan?

That guy is in a perpetual state of just figuring it out.

[farmboxer]

8. All Obama Campaign needs to do is show McCain's voting record

over and over and over again, proves McCain is a damned liar over and over and over again! McCain's voting record makes him look like a lying piece of fecal matter, which he so is! Show McCain lying, show his voting record on paper, really shows what McCain is all about, lies, cheating and just anything dishonest. Show voters proof that McCain is a liar! McCain's lies will destroy him, esp. if the MSM will come clean about their man McCain, but then, how can they get out of it?!

McCain is against healthcare, social security, medicare/medicaid, VETS, education, free speech, peace, unions & all working people, McCain is against the truth, issues, against lower gas prices, against solar energy, all alternative energy. McCain is FOR the military industrial complex, oil companies, billionaires/millionaires, war profiteering. big drug companies, ad infinitum, so saith the Pope!

Way too much to post, could go on all night! It is a no brainer! I have been changing people's minds in doctor's offices, at the gas pump, etc. Just show them the truth. There are some hard core idiots who will always vote Republican because their parents were such, etc., but..........SICKO at the doctor's waiting room works. People who go to the doctor hate America's health care system, many have to wait for hours, they want it to change ASAP. Always remember, the Republican corporate owned mainstream news media is for McCain and so many have not gotten the truth. I also leave a copy of "The Nation", etc., tell them to visit DU. Some still believe that Obama will not face the US Flag! They need to hear the truth! McCain is Bush!

[amborin]

9. McCain is just a lying, dishonorable sleeze, who's sold his soul n/t

[dkf]

10. I think they used to believe he was honorable and now they realize his honor was very situational.

Nothing worse than a disillusioned former supporter.