I wouldn't support McCain for President for a lot of reasons, but that would not be one of them. As for the average Republican believing Kerry, consider the source. They didn't believe him in 2004, I doubt they will believe him now.
They'll just say that Kerry is trying to smear McCain with the biggest insult possible - Democrat.
Maybe, but the stories have been coming from a bunch of sources for a couple of weeks now, and I haven't seen a denial. If he stood up and said it was all a filthy lie, people might believe him, but he doesn't seem to be going there.
LB has a crush on Kerry, so this may seem more of a sharp stick to her. Agree with Becks and TLL. Hell, I'm not sure I believe Kerry.
Have you guys been seeing all the other stories, about his negotiating a possible switch in party affiliation right before Jeffords flipped? (And you should see the picture of Kerry in a heart-shaped frame I ripped out of Tiger Beat back in 2004. I still keep it hidden in my geometry notes.)
There's a man whose face would actually fill a heart-shaped frame.
Contrary to appearances, I don't enjoy annoying LB; one thing we have in common is a high opinion of Kerry that seems to be unusual here.
If McCain had contacted Kerry, why the hell didn't Kerry take him up on it?
Also, I think the immediate and jeering pushback McCain got over his "I stroll through beautiful peaceful Baghdad as though it were an idyllic summer's day in Iowa" jaunt is more of a sign than this. McCain has a handful of national-greatness types in his corner, but his real base has always been the press, and he's lost them.
Have you guys been seeing all the other stories, about his negotiating a possible switch in party affiliation right before Jeffords flipped
I don't doubt any of that, at all. I doubt that he approached Kerry about possibly becoming a VP.
I think GOP's perception of McCain as their Lieberman has already doomed his campaign, but far more damaging than the Kerry thing is his recent Dukakis tank moment.
why the hell didn't Kerry take him up on it?
Because the man's a Neanderthal with blood dripping from his fangs? Presumably they'd have to reconcile their public positions on the issues to some extent, and I can't see how Kerry could have done that without going some places he substantively didn't want to go.
I can't see how Kerry could have done that without going some places he substantively didn't want to go
Told you she had a crush.
Because the man's a Neanderthal with blood dripping from his fangs?
I had some policy disagreements with him, but really, Kerry's not that bad.
You know, even calling it a Dukakis tank moment understates it. Let alone what it says about McCain's cluelessness, the sheer imperialism of the moment is breathtaking: McCain strutting through a market in an occupied city with a company of soldiers guarding him from the people...
And I think that sort of crack about Kerry's appearance is beneath you. For shame!
I like Kerry, and I don't think even Republican partisans hate him so much that whatever he says must be false. The 2004 brainwashing process was more geared toward making them think he was a weak loser than making them think he lied all the time. Maybe if the all-powerful Hitlery, or the hilarious liar Algore, was saying this, it could be used as a point in McCain's favor, but that won't happen this time.
McCain's people approached [Kerry] in 2004 about running on the Democratic ticket as VP
It wasn't a secret that McCain wanted the position. I remember a Kerry/McCain "unity" ticket getting talked about by the pundits and bloggers at the time. I'm fairly certain that I heard this story at the time, too.
I haven't seen this even mentioned on the rightwing blogs I read. They're really good at managing information.
I remember a Kerry/McCain "unity" ticket getting talked about by the pundits and bloggers at the time.
Maybe Kerry is making a mistake here by assuming that David Broder or Cokie Roberts or somebody was "one of McCain's people". An understandable mistake, of course.
. I remember a Kerry/McCain "unity" ticket getting talked about by the pundits and bloggers at the time. I'm fairly certain that I heard this story at the time, too.
I saw that as a move by Kerry's camp, not McCain's. There's probably data on this, but I think McCain polled better than Kerry at that point.
What is so damning about this story to me is not that he considered being Kerry's VP but that he afterward soldiered on as a loyal Bush supporter when he knew that Bush was a grave threat to the nation and the military he claimed to love so much. The only explanation of this that makes sense to me is naked ambition -- he wanted to preserve his viability for 2008.
McCain is the one person who could have prevented Bush's election in 2004. If there is a Hell (see the atheism thread below), McCain belongs there next to Ralph Nader.
McCain lost when President Bush gave him the surge he asked for. He wasn't supposed to actually go through with it. McCain can't say that, no, what he meant was a 5URG3!!1!. So he has no choice but to declare mission accomplished.
What's weird is that he actually went over and gave everyone evidence of how absurdly dissimilar the Baghdad market is to a pleasant stroll to Whole Foods. Why didn't he just say this, over and over, and let the press carry his water for him?
I think McCain lost when he kissed Bush's ass and begged forgiveness, to be honest. Conservative Christians were never going to forget that the guy showed signs of breaking ranks, so there was never anything he could have done to get them on his side. Once he publically went on hands and knees to Bush and Rove, he was doomed with independents and moderates.
But yes, now he's really done. Not so much because of the Kerry revelation, I think, as the war. Armsmasher nails it: I don't think he thought the surge would actually happen, and now that it has, he's hitched his star to the unreality inside the Bush Bubble. That can't have been a happy moment for him walking across that market: if he's got an ounce of political intelligence left, he must have been thinking, "Man, I am so FUCKED!"
Because the man's a Neanderthal with blood dripping from his fangs?
Neanderthals were pretty cool by middle palaeolithic standards. If I was American I'd vote for a Neanderthal over McCain any day.
McCain isn't just dead; he's the deadest man in Deadonia. Or, his campaign is. Whatever.