(NOTE: If Democratic candidate Barack Obama had made even a few of these many gaffes, bobbles, hobbles, stumbles, bumbles and brain freezes (or are they simply "senior moments"), he would have been excoriated by the conservatives. But, as with George W. Bush, a free pass is given to the Republican who is totally clueless!)

October 5, 2008 -- Reacting to continued deterioration in their polling numbers, today the McCain-Palin campaign announced that it was "turning the page" on the U.S. economy, and would try to swing the election dialogue toward Barack Obama's "character issues."
So much for John McCain's early campaign season promise to not engage in character attacks. Just another broken promise by another broken politician.

October 2, 2008 -- Today the U.S. Senate approved the vaunted $700 Billion finance sector bailout plan, though the bill had ballooned to over $800 Billion, with the addition of multiple levels of "pork" projects and tax-cuts designed to win over reluctant House Republicans. Obama spoke on the Senate floor in support of the bill. McCain declined to offer any floor speech. Both McCain and Obama voted for the both. BUT... only hours after his vote, on MSNBC McCain seemed to urge President Bush to veto the bill! Asked about the pork in the bailout bill, McCain said, "We've got to stop this by vetoing these bills that come across the president's desk. It's insanity. It's a waste of tax-payers dollars. Until we stop it, and it goes on, until we get a president who will veto these types of bills."
So McCain's "leadership" on this all-important bailout bill issue amounted to "suspending" his campaign (which he really didn't), saying he was rushing to Washington (which he didn't), attending the Bush meetings (where he said almost nothing), showing himself utterly impotent at swaying his House Republican colleagues (including even his own Arizona representatives) to vote for the bill, then refusing to declare anything about the bill in Senate deliberations, then voting for the bill, only to at last suggest that George W. Bush should veto the bill. That's what McCain and the Republicans call strong leadership? Any rational person would call that careening befuddlement.

September 30, 2008 -- Today, in an interview with the Des Moines Register, John McCain bristled at a reporter's assertion that his campaign hadn't been "100 percent truthful". McCain sneered "I've always had absolute 100 percent truth, and that's been my life of putting my country first. And an assertion that I've ever done otherwise I take strong exception to."
But apparently McCain is conveniently forgetting how he was not 100 percent truthful just in this recent campaign (we'll put aside for a moment the Keating Five, and the Confederate flag, and the Evangelical Christian issues of the more distant past). How about claiming over and over again that "Obama will raise your taxes", when Obama has stated very clearly that we will cut taxes for 95 percent of American households (is he calling Obama a liar)? How about his oft-chanted mantra that Sarah Palin, "Killed that Bridge to Nowhere", when it has been proven definitively that she did no such thing, but rather campaigned for the bridge. What about his ridiculous claim that Palin knows "more about energy than probably anyone else in the country"? These are just a few of the instances when McCain not only hasn't been 100 percent truthful, but was flat out lying.

September 30, 2008 -- Today, in an interview with the Des Moines Register, John McCain said (yes he really said this), "If I were dictator, which I always aspire to be."
What is it with Republicans and their longing to be dictators? You'll remember George W. Bush also pined that, "A dictatorship would be a lot easier. As long as I'm the dictator."

September 29, 2008 -- Today, the federal financial crisis bailout bill failed to pass because not enough House Republicans supported it.
The bill hadn't passed yet, and McCain actually never really suspended his campaign; he kept running ads, and he and running mate Sarah Palin continued to make television appearances. So much for that blustering and posturing. McCain carried so much weight and influence, his persuasive abilities were so sharp, he wasn't even able to sway the votes of his own Arizona congressional memmbers, who all voted against the bill.

September 26, 2008 -- Today, John McCain had to flip-flop once again, and headed for the debate in Mississippi, a day and a half after saying he was suspending his campaign and wouldn't debate until the federal Wall Street bailout legislation was passed.
The bill hadn't passed yet, and McCain actually never really suspended his campaign; he kept running ads, and he and running mate Sarah Palin continued to make television appearances. So much for that blustering and posturing.

September 25, 2008 -- Today, John McCain met with President Bush, Treasury Secretary Paulsen and Congressional leaders to discuss the $700 Billion federal bailout. Barack Obama also attended the meeting. Despite Obama repeatedly asking, "What do you think about the plan, John?", McCain said little at the meeting, and would not commit to supporting or opposing the modified bail out plan. Obama implied that the meeting was probably a waste of time, and that bringing "presidential politics" into the fray was less than helpful. The bailout plan was facing opposition from House Republicans, and no agreement had been reached. Obama added he would be in Mississippi for the debate tomorrow.
John McCain to the rescue! He rushed to Washington D.C. to set everything right. Well, maybe not. He doesn't seem to have a clue what to do. He won't say he's for the bailout plan. He won't say he's against. He doesn't seem to have much to say. He doesn't seem to carry much weight with his fellow Republicans. So what was this latest political posturing about? Political posturing!

September 24, 2008 -- Today, John McCain said he is "suspending my campaign", and heading back to Washington, D.C., to huddle with President Bush and other Republican leaders to discuss the $700 Billion government bail-out of the U.S. banking system. He also said he would not show up for the first scheduled presidential debate, scheduled for September 26, two days from now, in Oxford, Mississippi, unless the bail-out bill has been passed. Barack Obama responded by saying he would show up ready to go for the debate in Mississippi, that capable committee leaders in Congress were hammering out an agreement and did not need distractions from the presidential campaign, and that, at any rate, presidents must be able to handle more than one crisis at once.
McCain throws yet another "Hail Mary" to change the game while polling shows his and Sarah Palin's approval ratings are dropping precipitously. He is not showing leadership here, just revealing more of his blustery, shoot-from-the-hip, tempestuous and poor judgment! The voters of the United States, especially with this financial crisis looming, want and need the presidential debates far more than they need John McCain grandstanding in Washington. As it turned out, McCain did not "rush back" to Washington, but hung out in New York, appearing on CBS News (after lying to David Letterman by saying he had cancel that appearance to get back to D.C.), and didn't bother to head for Washington until the following morning.

September 23, 2008 -- Today, John McCain admitted he had not found the time or inclination to read the Bush Administration's $700 Billion plan to rescue the economy. "I haven't had a chance to see it in writing," he explained to an interviewer.
The plan is now three days old, and available to any Congressional member. Moreover, it's an entire three pages! $700 Billion of the taxpayers' dough on the hook -- the largest bailout in world history -- and McCain hasn't bothered to read three pages! This a glaring example of McCain putting the McCain Campaign first, not Country First.

September 18, 2008 -- Today, John McCain fumed, "The chairman of the S.E.C. (currently Christopher Cox) serves at the appointment of the president and in my view, has betrayed the public’s trust. If I were president today, I would fire him."
Oops... one small problem. The president cannot fire the S.E.C. chairman. Did you know that? I didn't know that! But we're not running for president, now are we? John McCain is running for president. He's been in Washington for 26 years. He's a Washington insider. He should know that the president can't fire the chair of the S.E.C. John McCain didn't know that. He wasn't kidding when he said he really doesn't know much about how the economy works. So far, McCain's response to the financial crisis has been blustery and panicked overreaction. Did you expect anything else?

September 16, 2008 -- Today, John McCain demonstrated again how pathetically little he knows about financial matters or the economy. "Too many firms on Wall Street have been able to count on casual oversight by regulatory agencies in Washington. There are so many of those regulators that the responsibility for oversight is scattered, unfocused and ineffective. Among others, we’ve got the SEC, the CFTC, the FDIC, the SPIC and the OCC.
The "SPIC"? Earth to McCain! There is no agency known as "SPIC". That does happen to be a very derogatory term for latinos. Maybe he was thinking of the "SIPC", but that is not a regulatory agency. Who knows what he was thinking. A senior moment? Or just plain dumb?

September 15, 2008 -- At a rally in Jacksonville, Florida today, John McCain finally changed his tune with regard to his oft-repeated mantra that "the fundamentals of the economy are strong." With an avalanche of bad news emanating from that "strong economy", McCain now says the American economy "is threatened," and later in his speech admitted, "it's a crisis." He added, "We've seen self-interest, greed, irresponsibility, and corruption undermine these hardworking American people."
John McCain was the last one to realize what dire straits the country is truly in... and he still hasn't figured out that it was the Republicans, and one John McCain, who fostered the "self-interest, greed, irresponsibility and corruption" he now decries.

September 10, 2008 -- Today, John McCain claimed that Sarah Palin "knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the country."
Oh, my freakin' God! We are left with three possibilites here. Let's take them one at a time. 1) Sarah Palin really does know more about energy than anyone in the country. More than all the people who have spent their careers and have multiple advanced degrees in their particular energy subjects. And remember McCain said the word "energy"... so we must assume that she is an expert on not just oil, but natural gas, nuclear, solar, geothermal, wind, coal, tidal, and every other form of energy that generates electricity and power. Those guys (and gals) with Ph.D's on their walls, and with 40 years of experience and study... pshaw... that's nothing compared to being governor of Alaska for 20 months and being married to a guy who works part-time on the North Slope! OK, all who believe this is actually true, stand up. And report to the nearest insane asylum. 2) John McCain actually believes this to be true. OK, McCain.... YOU report to the nearest insane asylum. And, BING!, the probable true answer: 3) John McCain actually believes you are stupid enough to believe this statement is true. If you prove him correct, please... report to the nearest insane asylum.

August 29, 2008 -- Today, John McCain announced Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate. Palin has served as governor of the one of the least populated states in the union for only 20 months. After months of hammering Democratic candidate Barack Obama (who has 12 years of state or national service) as being "inexperienced" and "not ready to be commander-in-chief", McCain has selected one of the least experienced politicians in the country. Now that's a colossal flip-flop even for the world-champion flip-flopper!

McCain only met Palin six months ago, spending less than one hour with her at the Governors Conference. This week he brought her to Arizona, and the two met for just the second time before McCain annointed her his running mate. Unbelievable! There is no conceivable way that McCain truly knows this person... and now he is selecting this self-described "hockey mom" to be "a heart-beat away" from becoming President of the United States of America.

Is this another bone-headed decision by McCain? You bet. In fact, this may be McCain's worst decision ever... and that's saying a lot! Sarah Palin has less than two years experience at the state or national political level... as governor of a state with a smaller population than 11 U.S. cities! Is Sarah Palin really the best Republican in the entire United States to serve as McCain's VP? If so, WOW! This party really is in shambles.

"Country First"? Hardly. McCain claims to be a moderate and wants to reach across the political aisle, and then he chooses one the most radical right-wing Christian conservatives in the nation? That's sure to further polarize the nation. This is cold-blooded political maneuver designed simply to appearl to the wacko Christian right and to women, two demographic groups McCain was having trouble with.

As a Pentacostal, Sarah Palin will be very welcomed by the Radical-Right Christian fringe. In her run for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska (a non-partisan position), she brought rabid Hard Right Christian and Republican issues and tactics to the fore, highly politicizing and polarizing the small community, which had never seen the likes of it before. She has no use for gays and lesbians, whole-heartedly supporting a constitutional amendment against gay marriage (which would be the first and only constitutional amendment restricting the rights of a class of citizens). She believes creationism should be taught side-by-side with evolution in the science classroom (even though the former is pure religious dogma and the latter is proven scientific theory). She is against abortion, under any circumstance, even in the case of rape, incest or to protect the life of the mother. As mayor, Palin tried to pressure the town librarian into banning books she decided weren't in keeping the with the radical Christian ideology she promotes. That was before she, herself, bore a special needs child. She also slashed funds for preventing teen pregnancies, which was also before she found herself with a pregnant teen. She is a rabid anti-environmentalist, supporting drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, opposing listing polar bears as an endangered species (that might cost the oil companies a dollar in profit), and as governor has circumvented federal law (and even the will of the people of Alaska) by supporting aerial hunting of wolves and bears.

Fiscal conservatives should be afraid, very afraid of Sarah Palin! Though she campaigned as a "fiscal conservative", during her six years as mayor she increased expenditures over 33%, slashed property taxes, but still managed to raise taxes overall by 38% (primarily through a regressive sales tax that taxed even food). As mayor, Palin inherited no debt, but left the town with a debt of $22 million!

McCain has a well-deserved reputation as an opponent of "earmarks" (pork projects), but then he goes out and brings in the "Pork Princess" for his running mate! McCain touts how Palin "killed" the "Bridge to Nowhere", the $230 million boondoggle that Alaskan Republican Senator Ted Stevens tried to foist upon the American tax-payers. But wait! Turns out Palin was for the bridge -- running on a "Build the Bridge" platform for governor -- before she was against the bridge, turning against the project after the national uproar had ensued (though she hasn't given the U.S. taxpayers' money back). As mayor, Palin slashed taxes for the citizens of Wasilla, then she took trip after trip to Washington to hijack YOUR tax dollars!... coming home with over $27 million from citizens in places like Alliance, Nebraska; Topeka, Kansas; Montgomery, Alabama; Kissimmee, Florida, and other communities all over America. That's over five thousand dollars of YOUR money for every person in Wasilla, Alaska. That's world-class porking! Sarah Palin was great for Wasilla, but bad for America.

McCain, Sarah Palin... rack it up as yet another pathetic excuse for a candidate... brought to you by the same folks who gave us Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Joseph McCarthy, Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Dan Quayle, Alberto Gonzalez, Harriet Miers, Michael Brown, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and of course, let us never forget, the worst president ever, George W. Bush.

Click Here For More On Sarah Palin, The Princess of Pork

July 22, 2008 -- Today, while Barack Obama was speaking to throngs of enthusiastic crowds in Europe, John McCain told reporters in New Hampshire, "Apparently Sen. Obama, who does not understand what’s happening in Iraq or fails to acknowledge the success in Iraq, would rather lose a war than lose a campaign."
In all seriousness, this is an absolutely despicable comment. This is pure Karl Rove, scum-bag rhetoric. With this one sentence, McCain is challenging Obama's patriotism and character. That is below-the-belt, and absolutely uncalled for. This is flat wrong, on so many levels. First and foremost, it is completely untrue, and McCain knows it. He may still believe that the Iraq War was a good idea, but only a tiny minority of Americans share that view. Most are solidly on-board with Obama's perspective. The Iraqis, themselves, have recently supported Obama's plan for an American withdrawal by 2010. Even Mr. Decider, George W. Bush, has hinted at accepting such a time-table. So McCain stands alone on Iraq, still clinging to a belief that it's A-OK to stay there for 100 years. Yet still he dares to question Obama's intelligence, perception and patriotism. Obama has done nothing to deserve such a slimy accusation. Thus far, Obama has been magnanimous in praising his opponent's character and patriotism, but now McCain goes for the low-blow. McCain proves that, far from bringing the country and world together, he is willing to further divide the nation by using such blatant scare tactics. Indeed, as is often the case with conservatives... what they rail against the loudest is what they, themselves, are pandering. In this case... it is crystal clear that it is John McCain who would rather lose the country than lose an election. "America First"... hardly. We can have NO respect for this type of posturing... the worst type of dirty politics.

July 22, 2008 -- Today, John McCain announced on ABC News, "We have a lot to do, particularly given the situation along the Iraq-Pakistan border."
Hmmm. Does McCain truly not realize there ISN'T any Iraq-Pakistan border!

July 14, 2008 -- Today, at a news conference in Phoenix, Arizona, John McCain explained, "I was concerned about a couple of steps that the Russian government took in the last several days. One was reducing the energy supplies to Czechoslovakia."
Alas, poor Mr. McCain is just a wee bit behind the times... like 15 years behind the times! The nation of Czechoslovakia was disbanded in 1993, when it split into the two separate countries of Czech Republic and Slovakia.

June 30, 2008 -- Today, answering a variety of questions from pool reporters while campaigning in New Mexico, John McCain discussed the situation in Darfur, "We can't right every wrong and achieve every laudable goal. How can we bring pressure on the government of Somalia?"
Unfortunately, even if we get Somalia to cooporate, it won't help the situation in Darfur, which is in Sudan.

March 25, 2008 -- Today, on CNN John McCain proclaimed at a news conference that "Americans are not getting the full picture of the progress being made in Iraq. There are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through those neighborhoods, today. And General Petraeus go out there almost every day in an unarmed Humvee."
CNN correspondent Michael Ware, who has been in Iraq as a war correspondent for four years, had this to say, "I would certainly like to bring Senator McCain up to speed if he ever gives me the opportunity. Senator McCain's credibility now on Iraq has now been left out, hanging to dry. To suggest that there is ANY neighborhood in this city where an American can walk freely is beyond ludicrous! I would love Senator McCain to tell me where that neighborhood is, and he and I can go for a stroll. And to think that General David Petraeus travels this city in an unarmed Humvee... in the hours since Senator McCain said this, I've spoken to military sources, and there was laughter down the line.

A week later, McCain DID go to Baghdad and walked "freely" through a Baghdad neighborhood. Take that, CNN! Of course, on his walk through the Baghdad neighborhood, McCain wore a bullet-proof vest and was accompanied by 100 American soldiers, ten armoured Humvees and three Blackhawk helicopters.

March 18, 2008 -- Today, at a press conference John McCain repeated his gaffe of the day before, claiming once again that, "Well, it’s common knowledge and has been reported in the media that Al Qaeda is going back into Iran and is receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran. That’s well known and it’s unfortunate. "
Actually John, no. There is no such thing as Al Qaeda in Iran. You see, John, Al Qaeda is a Sunni terrorist group, and Iran is a Shia theocracy. They don't like each other. It is very frightening that you Republicans have such little knowledge of the actual divisions within Islam. In the War on Terror, it would probably be very important to understand who the actual terrorists are. But then, it's never really been a real "war on terror" has it? The invasion of Iraq was never about terrorism. It was all about oil.

January 16, 2008 -- Today, on a CBS interview John McCain admitted, "The worst advice that I've given to myself was when the Confederate flag was flying over the state Capitol in South Carolina and I decided that I would say that's not an issue that I should be involved in, that it's -- should be decided by the people of the state of South Carolina. I knew that it was a symbol that was very offensive to many people, and afterwards I went back and apologized. But it was, needless to say, by saying that I wouldn't have anything to do with an issue like that was an act of cowardice. I said it for all the wrong reasons. For ambition. Sure."
Well, we give him credit for coming clean... but it still speaks volumes about his very poor judgment, as well as his blind ambition and his willingness to say anything to get elected.

January 3, 2008 -- Today, at a townhall meeting in New Hampshire John McCain answered a citizen's question about President Bush saying that America may have to stay in Iraq for 50 years... "Maybe 100! We've been in Japan for 60 years, we've been in South Korea for 50 years or so. That would be fine with me. I hope it would be fine with you."
Ai-Yi-Yi! So all in favor of staying in Iraq 100 years, stand up! OK... we acknowledge the oil companies not only standing up, but cheering loudly.

-- Rusticus