To McCain, There Are a Lot of People Who 'Don't Understand'

[babylonsister]

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/beyond/2008/09/to-mccain-there-are-a-lot-of-p.html

To McCain, There Are a Lot of People Who 'Don't Understand'

By David Nather | September 26, 2008 11:01 PM


To those who watched John McCain spend tonight’s debate repeating, over and over again, some variation of the phrase “Senator Obama doesn’t understand,” it might seem like nothing more than a debate tactic — a way of convincing viewers that Barack Obama is too inexperienced to understand complicated foreign policy and national security issues.

At some level, it probably was a debate tactic. (Or a strategy — McCain said Obama didn’t understand the difference.) But it’s also consistent with McCain’s personality as a senator. As much as he was known for his independent streak, McCain also gained a reputation for being condescending and self-righteous with his colleagues at times, a trait that made some Hill Republicans reluctant to support him until it was clear he has won the nomination.

snip//

Lately, the “what you don’t understand” tone has gotten McCain into trouble. In July, when he came under fire for mistakenly suggesting that the surge led to the “Anbar awakening” — in which Sunni tribal leaders turned against al Qaeda in Iraq — McCain, rather than admitting an error, insisted a surge can be “a number of components” and suggested many people don’t understand that.

If so, one of them was Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, who testified in April that the awakening “started before the surge.”

The “Obama doesn’t understand” tactic may still work, if McCain can plant enough legitimate seeds of doubt about Obama’s experience. But it’s also likely to make fact-checkers that much more likely to look for errors McCain himself might have made in his statements.

It’s also likely to make people pay that much more attention to what Sarah Palin does and doesn’t understand. Her debate is coming up on Thursday.

[ladjf]

1. In McCain's mind, he is already the Emperor of Earth, making him

superior to everyone else.

[geckosfeet]

2. A tactic - the overall strategy was to try and discredit Obama with outright

lies and half truths. The level of deception from McLiar was quite astounding. He should be ashamed of himself and his campaign.

Sadly, the uninformed take his BS for reality.

[crazy_vanilla]

3. McCain's is the logic of a bird brain

This was waaaay too obvious a way to brainwash us and it didn't work.

[alsame]

4. He is delusional - he thinks he 'knows' everything, like

"I know how to win wars", "I know how to catch OBL", "I know how to fix the economy". He was doing it last night too, he must have said "I know how to......" a dozen times at least.

Really smart people are aware of the things they don't know. People like McCain are dangerous.