Friday, September 5, 2008

Perspective

I love TPM because I know deep down we're on the same team, but they always maintain a solid - and most often sober - perspective on the political sceen. I think Josh Marshall's take on McSame's speech tonight is spot on. Granted, my take is extremely more critical, but I know Josh and TPM are a good buffer between me and the rest of the idiots in this country; the same idiots who easily buy into baseless and moronic platitudes from vacuous, lying politicians as easily as they empty their debt-ladened wallets for the latest cheap knock-offs that promise on the surface what ultimately ends up being an EPIC FAIL in the end!

Make no mistake, McCain is a cheap knock-off. Whatever piece of himself that was worth saving was sold off a long time ago. Anyone paying attention knows that we all sell a little piece of ourselves any time we make compromises that we oppose in principle. But when we sell out wholesale and make ourselves compliant and malleable to interest groups, and do it for cash - not cash to support our favored cause, but cash for personal benefit - we become prostitutes. (For the record, I have nothing against prostitutes, and neither do most politicians, except when they can be used for political advantage.) McCain has sold out wholesale.

The saddest part of all this is that McCain really does have a great life story, about 5 years worth. The pre-POW and post-POW periods are saddly not the best parts of his story, despite what he wants you to believe. If we take out his priviledged upbringing, and all the favoritism he got from his Admiral father (the kind of favortism that keeps you flying even though you have a proclivity for crashing planes), we end up with a bad pilot who got cocky, flew into some missiles, and ended up in a POW camp.

It is true McCain suffered as a POW, but what he did with that suffering is what matters. He could have turned into a force for helping others who suffer, but his first instinct was to corrupt his public office into becoming a facilitator for one of the worst public corruption scandals of the 20th century.

I could easily go on, and I will soon enough, but - for now - take the time to read Josh's post at TPM.

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