McCain’s Lies Are Getting Increasingly Desperate
Now he’s saying that Barack Obama also suspended his campaign when John McCain did:
“[Bush] didn’t ask me to suspend my campaign,” said McCain. “I suspended my campaign — as did Senator Obama — to come back to Washington because the President had told me that we were in a world financial collapse. That’s why I did what I did. I always said that consistently.”
It’s true that Obama went to Washington to join McCain, Bush, and congressional leaders for a White House meeting on the crisis, which, according to multiple accounts, was engineered by McCain. But unlike McCain, Obama never announced he was suspending his campaign. Quite the opposite, in fact: After McCain’s announcement, Obama said he still planned to show up for the presidential debate that Friday, arguing that a president needed to be able to do two things at once.
Asked whether he remembered things the way McCain did, Steve Hildebrand, who ran the Obama campaign’s field operation, told TPM: “Nope. We proceeded directly ahead, pointing out along the way that McCain was incapable of doing two things at once.”
33 Responses to “McCain’s Lies Are Getting Increasingly Desperate”
And Obama still hasn't suspended his campaign, despite being in office over a year, LOL.
Sounds like someone other than McCain is getting desperate, what's the purpose of this post?
I agree McCain is wrong, but how does this show desperation? What does he have to be desperate about?
A lie indicates there is a purposeful intent to deceive. If that's the case here, as opposed to McCain simply being wrong, I fail to see what he gains from such “desperation.”
McCain basically totally and completely screwed the pooch on this issue and I remember it well. Thank you for providing an excuse to vent
McCain was coming off of a very upbeat Convention. Palin had been nominated electrifying a Republican base that had heretofore been unenthusiastic about McCain. McCain's big closing speech had contained a key part about the perils of federal spending, music to the ears of many Republicans after years of Bush profligacy. He thumped and pumped and swore up and down that he had the courage to stop the spending. Any budget busting bills weren't going to get by John McCain's iron fisted Veto Pen, nosiree, count on it done deal. Between Palin and his hardnosed stand on spending, he actually went up over Obama in the polls after trailing him most of the summer.
Next thing ya know, John McCain is literally freaking out on television, running about the barnyard like a recently decapitated chicken, suspending his whole campaign to go back to DC in this 'historic hour' to work toward the passage of the largest federal spending bill in history. And demanding Obama join him. Obama did not; he reacted exactly as Kathy said he did in the OP.
He lost a staggering amount of support among conservatives from the inept way he handled the issue. And made Obama look calm, cool, collected, and actually like less of a big spender than McCain.
And it got worse. McCain railed and swore up and down that he would put an end to pork. The TARP failed to pass the first time around, and it was laden down with massive amounts of pork. And McCain voted for it anyway, and what's more boasted (sic) about how proud he was of it after all the pork, bacon, and rinds it could hold!!
(Oooooowwwww, I've got a headache remembering all that. Thank you for tolerating my tale of woe, agony, and lamentation. Now who's for another heapin helping of Schadenfreude, courtesy of DaMav? It…. burrrrnss!)
KK. Once again, one of your famous incorrect headlines. You have enough prestige and credibility so that you don't need to stoop this low again. Try again.
LOL, I don't know how you could bear to type all of that but maybe it had purgative value. I know it was as painful for me to read and relive it as it must have been for you to write it.
Not sure if McCain's issues are related to approaching senility or a desire to revise history, but he sure isn't improving with age. I see him as one among many senators who cling to power long after he should have retired.
To embarrass McCain voters. How red is your face right now?
LOL, Dagoat, people like you are so funny.
Okay, I'll explain it.
This shows desperation because it's such an obvious lie, even more obvious than his others.
What he has to be desperate about is that he is running for re-election as U.S. Senator from the state of Arizona and he is up against a Tea Party candidate, J. Heyworth or something, who is very likely to win.
Put another way, you could say he's been making increasingly desperate attempts to win the electoral favors of the residents of Arizona.
Literal thinkers ask such easy questions. Feel free to ask more if you need to.
Andy, I'm trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. If he's “simply wrong,” then he's either stupid or senile. I'm assuming he can remember back a little over a year ago well enough to know that Obama did not suspend his campaign.
Tell me you really, sincerely believe it's credible to believe John McCain could actually be remembering wrong about whether Obama suspended his campaign. I have a closet full of cheap paperbacks I'd like to sell you for $50 apiece.
Come to think of it, though, he's stupid and/or senile either way. Because all of us were there, too, and apparently McCain thinks we don't remember, either.
McCain basically totally and completely screwed the pooch on this issue and I remember it well. Thank you for providing an excuse to vent
Oh, DaMav, thank YOU for not telling me you don't understand why it couldn't be such a simple mistake and why I would think it's desperate of him to make just a simple mistake and just forget that Obama didn't suspend his campaign.
Lord knows, we disagree on a lot, but I appreciate this island of sanity and common sense.
You have enough prestige and credibility so that you don't need to stoop this low again.
Thank you, dduck! What a nice compliment.
Fortunately, you have no prestige and no credibility (with me, at least), so I don't need to try again.
Meanwhile, the real issue is,
“under fire in a GOP primary for his support for the bailout”
Under fire from whom, opposed by whom? which if I were Kathy, I'd then accuse Kathy of supporting.
(Of course, if Kathy really believed the other guy were then guaranteed to lose to the Dem, she'd do it.)
“Palin had been nominated[,] electrifying a Republican base that had heretofore been unenthusiastic about McCain”
Actually, many of us non-partisans were intrigued and more the first few days. Unlike the Obama cult worship and groupie-fest, the swoon wore down to reality in only a week or so, rather than a year and a half.
“He lost a staggering amount of support among conservatives from the inept way he handled the issue.”
And he handled what? Supporting, not opposing, the bailout. That cost him a lot, I am certain.
It wasn't just his final position on the issue, it was the way he handled the whole thing. Look, I opposed the TARP but I recognize that I was part of a small minority at the time. A lot of people I respect disagreed with me on it, but few of them were not deeply troubled by the whole process..
But McCain didn't just support it, he acted like a cheerleader. And the irony of going from “no more federal spending, I'm going to pull out my veto pen and demand the kind fiscal discipline we need” position to a gung ho “hold everything, we've got to pass this gigantic budget busting spending measure or we're all gonna die” was frankly disgusting. Then when he actually boasted about how proud he was to get it passed by larding it up with pork on the second vote — yikes.
I will always deeply respect McCains military service to our country. But he should have retired about ten years ago. Unfortunately it seems more likely that he is going to win his primary and then the general election. He still has some good things to say but overall the country and the Republicans can do a lot better than McCain.
Last I checked…McCain is up for election this year….
this is probably why he is rewriting history, but hey, the old guy jokes…totally funny…and really old…
I doubt the average american even remembers which state McCain is from…so McCain is probably correct in thinking he can rewrite history.
OK thanks Kathy, I don't follow AZ politics that closely.
That's real productive and objective. Just like you stated to dduck below, I don't see any objectivity in your writings, there is no gray in your world.
What surprises me in your passion for this subject when “who really cares about this issue”? There are much bigger lies being spewed by every politician out there that actually impact our lives, this does not.
Let the voters of Arizona decide if they want him back and put your extreme one sided opinions to maybe more important issues?
Fortunately, you have no prestige and no credibility (with me, at least), so I don't need to try again.”
Predictable response, but still a lousy headline.
Calling someone, essentially, a desperate liar is giving them the benefit of the doubt?
Tell me you really, sincerely believe it's credible to believe John McCain could actually be remembering wrong about whether Obama suspended his campaign.
I don't know, I can't read the man's mind, can you? Logically, though, it doesn't seem to do much for McCain to intentionally lie about something that is so easily fact-checked on a subject that's barely relevant today, if at all. What does he have to gain?
KK LIES- sometimes, in her headlines, most often through obfuscation and an insulting and demeaning overuse of words in her comments. Gray is for moderates. Black and white for KK and her acolytes.
Calling someone, essentially, a desperate liar is giving them the benefit of the doubt?”
It's also character assassination. I suppose all the other liars are not desperate.
” A lot of people I respect disagreed with me on it, but few of them were not deeply troubled by the whole process.”
We're going to see (more of) this with health care reform the rest of this week and next week. Some of them will even find it hard and might even admit it, but they'll want it nevertheless or believe it's necessary or that it's going to happen, anyway.
“And the irony of going from “no more federal spending, I'm going to pull out my veto pen and demand the kind fiscal discipline we need” position to a gung ho “hold everything, we've got to pass this gigantic budget busting spending measure or we're all gonna die” was frankly disgusting.”
I didn't like that (or the TARP), either. What bothered me even more was how some votes were won or changed — the “sweeteners.” I was on the road in Michigan late at night or very early in the morning, outside Grand Rapids, at the time (I posted something about this at least once on this site when it happened) and the callers on a radio show were as disgusted as I was: “Now we know the price of a Congressional vote.” Or as you noted when discussing McCain's disturbing role in the selling process:
“how proud he was to get it passed by larding it up with pork on the second vote”
Where I'm an outlier was that I honestly wasn't put off by the “suspension of the campaign” part. To me it didn't hurt him all that much. It was done to direct attention to the bailout (yes, admittedly in hindsight, perhaps primarily from McCain's campaign, instead, intentionally; again, I didn't view his situation or him as that bad at the time, or for doing it), in my view, and I was concerned about the bailout, not his campaign. It also was a challenge of Obama to see if he was aloof or out of touch. (Obama didn't suffer for it; it was logical to continue the campaign. It's after the election that Obama and his people have demonstrated so often being out of touch with the world outside their walls, or amateurish if or when not inept.)
I realize most people viewed the central issue than as the suspension and what it said about him and his campaign and their prospects. I heard a lot about that on the radio when on the road at that time. I was in the real minority on this issue, I realize. I honestly thought it was no big deal, just a PR stunt associated the bailout (the real issue, in my view) rather that it being the major campaign tactic you and most others view and assess it.
“the Republicans can do a lot better than McCain”
Yes, they can, and so can and should Washington. Get rid of the fixtures (and downsize tremendously).
Term limits and then [gasp] setting priorities and sacrificing or ending the things that no longer should be.
(It'll happen in an uglier way eventually, around 20 years from now, when the Era of (true) Limits can't be avoided or postponed any longer.)
Now, to be fair. Let's hear from you the same speech about what Obama has done since he's actually been in office? I have no gripe with your argument on McCain and Tarp, but please, not take the same argument to Obama, Pelosi and Reid!
seems like we are in substantial agreement on this issue — interesting points; I recall listening to much the same discussion at the time. Seems like the air just went out of the balloon. That's how it felt.
What??? Me, criticize Teh One??? (genuflects, burns incense)
heh, stick around, you'll see plenty of it. This thread just happens to be about McCain. I call 'em like I see 'em.
“Seems like the air just went out of the balloon. That's how it felt.”
McCain was campaigning for the Presidency, and with the bailout question, was representing the GOP and GOP policy. When he said he'd go for the bailout, well, it was Dems Lite (and DC Fixture) and 2008 to me was going to be like 2006. (Vote Dem to punish the GOP?)
I agree with your take on it…the campaign suspension was a bit of an eye roller, but not a big deal in and of itself. And if he'd gone to DC to do something constructive at that point it would have still had the element of schtick to it but it would've been fine.
My take on this current 'lie' (oh, the outrage! LOL) is that he did face some embarrassment on his failed stunt and has since tried to spin it that Obama did the same thing since Obama also went to DC to be involved. The Obama camp, then and now, rejected that characterization but it's nothing new or particularly noteworthy that the spin was attempted in order to save face.
“this current 'lie' (oh, the outrage! LOL)”
Next the commenters will be provoked by McCain's (disabled?) gestures, or by his facial or other expressions.
Or his hair style, or what he wore.
Or his hair style, or what he wore.
”
Yup. there's bloood in the water. We seemed to have moved from calling him a multiple liar, desperate or not, to senile, misunderstood, recharacterizer, etc. Progress, I say. Stop the impeachment, pull down the noose. This is a BS subject.