Posted on 09/13/2008 8:48:08 PM PDT by chuknchez
McCain's Right ArmBy John Batchelor. posted on September 12, 2008 at 10:05 PM
September 1968
After a year of starving and abusing 32 year old John McCain, no medical attention, abandonment and isolation in a windowless cell at the North Vietnamese Potemkin Village of a prison called the Plantation, the sadistic boss of the camp, Major Bai, called "Cat" by the POWs, ordered that the torturers break the admiral's son and force him to sign a confession. It was September, 1968. John McCain's father, John S. McCain, had become admiral of the Pacific Fleet the summer before, and the son's refusal to accept early release, and give the enemy a propoganda item, had angered Hanoi. Now John McCain the son was to pay for his resistance. The torturers started by rebreaking his left arm. Then he was trussed in ropes and beaten every two or three hours. According to the definitive Naval Institute Press volume on the POWS, "Honor Bound: American Prisoners of War in Southeast Asia, 1961-1973," this sadism continued for four days. He resisted and weakened. Finally he signed the confession. Forty years later, this act of courage and then retreat still bothers John McCain, and he mentioned it movingly in his acceptance speech to the Republican Convention on September 4. What also stays with John McCain is the damage to his arms. When he was released in 1973, (left, returning to US care) his right arm was two inches shorter than his left. He cannot lift his arms above his breast. He cannot comb his own hair. And he is not dexterous enough to type at a keyboard.
The Obama-Biden Campaign is in Meltdown
This meltdown explains how it is possible for the Obama-Biden campaign to issue, on the eve of Hurrican Ike that will dominate the news for twenty-four hours, the most cynical and stupid of webads that attacks John McCain for not being in the economy enough to use the internet. The webad is the worst of postures-- it is snide:
"1982, John McCain goes to Washington," an announcer says over chirpy elevator music. "Things have changed in the last 26 years, but McCain hasn't. He admits he still doesn't know how to use a computer...
Meltdown
Perhaps the webad writers were unaware of John McCain's disability (left, at the Plantation before the torture, 1968). Perhaps they skipped the detail that John McCain depends upon Cindy McCain to type his e-mail messages. Perhaps it just does not make sense, to a campaign headed by the fresh-faced forty-something David Plouffe, that there are men walking around who have been tortured and permanently disabled by the enemy. Perhaps, as I have been told by my best Democratic Party source, the Obama-Biden campaign is in meltdown, there is no single message, there is no unity, there is no vision, and so separate but equal parts with lots of cash but not much learning are just wandering off the trail. My professionals, Fund, Ververs, Charen, Avlon, Johnson, West, Crowley, McTague, Levine and Whalen will address the strange disintegration of the Obama-Biden campaign on Sunday 14. The question will be, Was 9-11-08 the day (right, the two candidates at Columbia University on Thursday 11) that the Democratic Party panicked that Obama-Biden was not working for either winning the White House nor for holding the Congress?
You forgot, not that it really matters, the seeing-eye-dog...
the infowarrior
Hey Obama!
“Lend me your blackberry to figure out while you go fly this A4”...
Due to Obama’s Harvard education and his speaking skills it is up to Obama to not only win big but absolutely show McCain to be an over the hill rube.
I believe that McCain has already won and only needs to show up and be himself.
Given enough space Obama will hang himself with his narcissistic arrogance.
I almost expected Michelle to be wearing a boga.
I thought McCain dealt with this problem back in 2000 so says the Boston Globe.
I’m so over this election. Let’s get it on already!
He’s no fan of white people and women and especially a white woman named Shrillary but I think Obama is pretty much nadless. That wife of his is the one that put the kibosh on Hillary.
Obama's campaign is turning into a huge fuster cluck.
Perhaps it's just that Obama hates this nation that much...
Meltdown? Don’t get cocky, folks. Many a big fight in any arena was lost when the front-runner lost respect for the opposition, slacked off, and got beat in the last seconds.
Hilarious. I wish I was a fly on the wall when Obama “talked” to his staff the other day after the “McCain can’t email” fiasco.
It would be wise for Senator Obama to clean house, but the problem is that he really doesn't have any good options for outside help if he fires AKP&D.
Instead, I suggest that he take over the whole campaign management. President Carter was a master of micro-management, and I think it would serve us all well if Senator Obama could demonstrate the same facility. He could even demonstrate his executive abilities such as by personally booking flights, arranging venues, and maybe getting out there to personally hang light and sound equipment.
Maybe he could even do a photo-op or two in the cockpit, just to show that he is as competent with aircraft technology as, say, the McCain/Palin ticket.
There’s another active thread today about Axelrod & Co having only run campaigns in safe blue areas, and having no clue how to deal with a real Republican race or middle America. This is all to the good ;)
If Obama gets into office (Lord, Save Us), will we have 4 years of Michelle Obama policies, added to policies set forth by the media, code pink, dailyKos, Chicago gangsters...
This man won't stand up to an American terrorist, he wont’ stand up to Iran (insert your choice of terrorist nation) and won't stand up to his own wife, yet he says he's the best choice to protect the homeland?!?!
What universe am I living in?
“If Rove’s the architect, Axelrod must be??????”
The imploder?
Axelrod & Co have shown they know how to win Democrat nominations and elections in blue cities and states. Axelrod himself said they hadn’t expected Pailn and she wasn’t on anybody’s list. Where were they? Anyone who follows FR knew who SP was and that she was widely discussed among conservatives.
The Axelrod team is just not ready or equipped to deal with a competitive national election. They counted on the far left that comes out for Dem primaries. They counted on Bush’s low popularity numbers. They counted on high body counts out of Iraq. They counted on the failure of the surge. They did not count on a smart, articulate, conservative mom out of Alaska upending their mojo.
Let's for a minute think that most everything coming out of Obama’s camp is from the mind of Axelrod.
No drilling - when Americans want drilling at an overwhelming 90+%.
Low popularity numbers for Bush - The Senate is around 9-13%, the House a bit higher but pathetic.
Deaths coming out of Iraq - The surge worked, now on to Afghanistan.
Palin - as much as her name was batted around on conservative/Gop blogs, when Newt himself mentions her months ago, she should have been on their radar.
I'm very happy the Obama campaign has Axelrod running it, or should I say, running it into the ground.
I laugh everytime I see that knucklehead.
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