McCain constantly named-dropped names he seems to have just memorized that morning--

[tblue37]

After one of the 2004 debates, SNL did a debate skit in which Will Ferrell, as Bush, tried to prove that he could handle foreign leaders' names, because he had previously been mocked for his ignorance about such things.

In the skit, Ferrell/Bush constantly named-dropped the most obscure and tongue-twisting names of all sorts of low-level officials of this or that country, no matter what the question. It was as though someone would ask you, "How are you today?" and you would respond, "Well, just this morning I was talking to Kataskayanka Bieliisjiewskinsky, the third deputy subsecretary of parking meters in the eastern province of Lower Slovenia and she said. . . . "

Am I the only one who noticed that McCain did just that last night? It's as though he was trying to prove that he was the guy more in command of foreign policy issues because he could sling the difficult to pronounce names of this, that, or the other official of this, that, or the other difficult to pronounce country.

At one point he even flubbed the pronuncation of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's name because he was trying so hard. Just as in the Will Ferrell debate skit, though, he looked like he was desperately trying to prove himself with names he had memorized from flashcards and practiced pronouncing just that morning.

[Wickerman]

1. I noticed that, too

How many times did he stumble over Ahmadinejad self-correcting? I was almost embarrassed for the old codger.

[1corona4u]

9. Not "almost", it was embarrassing...

for him...

[Wickerman]

11. yeah, but it was almost for me, I can't work up any empathy for him n/t

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. Indeed. He also worked in calling himself "Maverick". Deplorable performance...

whereas we saw our next president doing us all proud last night!

[ecstatic]

8. Exactly! A true maverick wouldn't need to toot his own horn nt

[sickinohio]

3. I noticed that too

When he said a couple of the names, his action said to me "look at me" "I can say the names that W couldn't pronounce" "aren't you proud of me?". That was my instant thought.

[vaberella]

4. I've never heard so many name droppings and history statements EVER. n/t

[ecstatic]

10. Yeah he was bringing up stuff from the 1800s...

Normandy... WW2... I don't wanna hear that sh1t! Talk about here and now!!!

[alsame]

5. One of the pundits last night mentioned the fact that most of the

name-droppings and personal stories were references to the past and it made McCain seem like he was living in the past rather than presenting a vision for the future. (I was flipping channels post-debate, so I don't remember who said this, but it was right on.)

[moondust]

6. A creature of cronyism.

I thought McCaint's whole career was the product of business-as-usual Republican cronyism. :shrug:

[ecstatic]

7. Yep. And the "watch Ukraine" line... He was SO proud of that

:eyes: Some hack must have told him to be sure to slip that in before the debate. :eyes: