The following sequence of events caught my attention during the last couple of days:
On September 29, during an interview with ABC News’ Ron Claiborne, John McCain denied that he had blamed Obama and the Democrats for the bailout implosion and then had called for an end to the finger-pointing in the very next sentence.
According to TPM Election Central:
Ron Clairborne: Senator, you said that now is not the time to fix blame, but to fix the problem, but you said almost in the same breath that the democrats, including Senator Obama are responsible for the, the rescue plan falling apart.
John McCain: No, actually I said yesterday very clearly right before the media [that] it’s time not to fix the blame, but to fix the problem. We need to sit down together republican and democrat. We don’t have [to] inflame the situation today. History will judge who was to blame, and who wasn’t…
TPM Election Central continues:
When asked whether he blamed Dems and Obama for the bailout collapse yesterday, McCain said “no.”
But yesterday McCain said: “Senator Obama and his allies in Congress infused unnecessary partisanship into the process.”
As for McCain’s claim to ABC today that “history will judge who was to blame,” the McCain campaign released an ad today that … blamed Dems and Obama.So yesterday McCain blames Obama and Dems while calling for no more fingerpointing. Today he denies having blamed them while releasing an ad blaming them.
The untruths are getting almost too convoluted to track at this point — it’s a bit like being trapped in a falsehood fun-house or something.
It is not the first time that McCain has denied that he has said or done something that is clearly in the public record.
While I do not like McCain’s philosophy, policies, and past record, I do not believe that the Senator would intentionally misrepresent the facts—I even hate to use the “L” word in his case.
Although I am not quite as senior as Senator McCain is, I do have my “senior moments,” when I totally forget things that I have said or done—sometimes even one hour ago. I blame this on the “G.O. syndrome,” that inescapable period in the lives of most of us when we are just “Getting Old” and start losing our keys, a little bit of our memory, and sometimes even our temper.
I would like to attribute John McCain’s forgetfulness to this G.O. syndrome, and I hope it doesn‘t get worse, especially if he is elected to be our next President.
It would be very embarrassing for our President to forget what he had discussed in private and in confidence with some world leader. Moreover, it would be quite tragic, if such a misunderstanding would lead to the temper-tantrum by a person who has his finger so close to the you-know-what button.
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.