| GREG-STRANGE.COM |
"If you haven't found something strange during the
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
PROVIDING SUBSTANTIVE COMMENTARY ON THE
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
McCain's "Straight Talk" Express Derails in Michigan
So much for the conventional wisdom which said that the thing
people liked so much about John McCain was his propensity to
deliver "straight talk" even when it was stuff nobody wanted to
hear. Straight talk is supposed to be a good thing because it's
another way of saying honest talk and honesty is a rare thing
among politicians and therefore McCain is good.
But a funny thing happened in Michigan, which has the highest
unemployment of any state in the union. Mitt Romney
promised voters he would do everything humanly possible to
help their situation while McCain, on the other hand, with
some of the most sobering straight talk imaginable, basically
said sorry, folks, but those jobs that have disappeared with the
decline of the local auto industry ain't coming back so you best
stop whining and just get used to it.
Apparently Michiganders aren't quite as quirky or accepting of
the maverick senator's straight talk as their New Hampshire
cousins and their basic response, electorally speaking, was to
tell him to take a long walk off a short pier.
It would be sort of like going to the North Slope of Alaska and
telling the indigenous coastal villagers that because of
uncontrollable, runaway, anthropogenic global warming, their
villages, along with their culture and very identity, will soon
fall into the sea and that while he, if elected president, will do
everything he can to fight global warming, it's too late for them
and they best start seeking out higher ground elsewhere.
Actually, he did say something along those lines, but let's leave
that discussion for another time. It's not just all the searingly
honest and brutal straight talk that makes McCain such an
inappropriate Republican nominee for president. It's the fact
that on most issues other than the war in Iraq and national
defense, he's not really conservative.
Okay, time for the obligatory caveat that I like McCain and
have the highest respect for his service to the country. Now,
here's a little straight talk about why his nomination as the
Republican presidential candidate would potentially be a
disaster for the party.
McCain-Feingold. McCain-Kennedy. McCain ____ (insert
name of most despised liberal here). The straight-talking
maverick senator has a tendency to go along with policies that
seem straight out of the Pelosi/Reid playbook and are such that
no self-respecting conservative would be caught dead doing.
Here's the short list of issues on which he has been on the
wrong side: immigration, campaign finance, Bush tax cuts,
drilling in Anwar, global warming, Gang of 14, Guantanamo,
terrorists' rights.
Straight talk is one thing, crazy talk is another. For all I know,
McCain may be right about jobs in Michigan, but the real
problem is all the other stuff that he inexplicably goes along
with while continuing to insist that he's a conservative. It's
simply demonstrably false on more issues than you can shake a
stick at. Why in the world would the Republican Party
nominate him as its ultimate leader?
Will Michigan turn out to be the death knell in McCain's
campaign or will he get new life in South Carolina? Who knows
in this political season of conventional wisdom getting tossed
out like yesterday's fish wrapper?
So much for the conventional wisdom which said that the thing
people liked so much about John McCain was his propensity to
deliver "straight talk" even when it was stuff nobody wanted to
hear. Straight talk is supposed to be a good thing because it's
another way of saying honest talk and honesty is a rare thing
among politicians and therefore McCain is good.
But a funny thing happened in Michigan, which has the highest
unemployment of any state in the union. Mitt Romney
promised voters he would do everything humanly possible to
help their situation while McCain, on the other hand, with
some of the most sobering straight talk imaginable, basically
said sorry, folks, but those jobs that have disappeared with the
decline of the local auto industry ain't coming back so you best
stop whining and just get used to it.
Apparently Michiganders aren't quite as quirky or accepting of
the maverick senator's straight talk as their New Hampshire
cousins and their basic response, electorally speaking, was to
tell him to take a long walk off a short pier.
It would be sort of like going to the North Slope of Alaska and
telling the indigenous coastal villagers that because of
uncontrollable, runaway, anthropogenic global warming, their
villages, along with their culture and very identity, will soon
fall into the sea and that while he, if elected president, will do
everything he can to fight global warming, it's too late for them
and they best start seeking out higher ground elsewhere.
Actually, he did say something along those lines, but let's leave
that discussion for another time. It's not just all the searingly
honest and brutal straight talk that makes McCain such an
inappropriate Republican nominee for president. It's the fact
that on most issues other than the war in Iraq and national
defense, he's not really conservative.
Okay, time for the obligatory caveat that I like McCain and
have the highest respect for his service to the country. Now,
here's a little straight talk about why his nomination as the
Republican presidential candidate would potentially be a
disaster for the party.
McCain-Feingold. McCain-Kennedy. McCain ____ (insert
name of most despised liberal here). The straight-talking
maverick senator has a tendency to go along with policies that
seem straight out of the Pelosi/Reid playbook and are such that
no self-respecting conservative would be caught dead doing.
Here's the short list of issues on which he has been on the
wrong side: immigration, campaign finance, Bush tax cuts,
drilling in Anwar, global warming, Gang of 14, Guantanamo,
terrorists' rights.
Straight talk is one thing, crazy talk is another. For all I know,
McCain may be right about jobs in Michigan, but the real
problem is all the other stuff that he inexplicably goes along
with while continuing to insist that he's a conservative. It's
simply demonstrably false on more issues than you can shake a
stick at. Why in the world would the Republican Party
nominate him as its ultimate leader?
Will Michigan turn out to be the death knell in McCain's
campaign or will he get new life in South Carolina? Who knows
in this political season of conventional wisdom getting tossed
out like yesterday's fish wrapper?