"He who is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly."
--Proverbs 14:29
Certainly, John McCain has made mistakes on the campaign trail before. We've seen his confusion concerning al Qaeda and regarding Sunnis and Shiites, and we've been made aware of his rather erroneous views on the safety of Baghdad. But perhaps the most emblematic mistake of all was McCain's odd choice to sing along to Beach Boys' song (a shoutout to the blog's resident enthusiast) "Bomb Iran." That gaffe was potent because it played into the deepest concerns about McCain: that he was volatile, somewhat of a loose cannon, and, most of all, a warmonger.
These notions were only reinforced on Tuesday when McCain brought his latest gem of hypermilitaristic humor to the campaign trail.
Rather interesting, no? One would think that, given the political climate and the media's burning desire for a slipup, McCain's aides would be competent enough to prevent their senator from continuing this line of rather puzzling jokes. But apparently not - and this gaffe is especially dangerous because of what it reveals about McCain: that his first thought when it comes to Iranians is, well, "killing them." Troubling indeed - McCain shows more and more that he may lack the eventemperedness to serve as a peacable leader of the free world.Responding to a question about a survey that shows increased exports to Iran, mainly from cigarettes, McCain said, "Maybe that's a way of killing them."
He quickly caught himself, saying "I meant that as a joke" as his wife, Cindy, poked him in the back.
P.S.: Yay, I made a post! Now Jeremy can make fun of me...
P.P.S.: Major props for the smurf.
5 comments:
How can you forget mentioning McCain Gaffe #196?
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=36a_1200899945
Russia. Germany. Same difference.
not to rain on your liberal parade, but if we look back to 2004-- I believe it was the King of Gaffes, Mr. George W. Bush, who ended up the victor, much to your chagrin. Surely you won't find anyone who manages to screw up words worse than him. Since the American people simply don't seem to care, perhaps its time to stop counting?
I'm not so sure, Jeremy, that Mr. Bush's gaffes are worse than McCain's. At least Bush's were endearing - and the attempts from the Democrats to portray him as stupid backfired. McCain's gaffes are anything but endearing - and the attempts to portray him as dangerous will likely be more potent.
Regardless, I don't think what you say is quite fair.
"Bomb, bomb Iran" doesn't seem to have a whole lot of malice involved-- it seems like an old man making a bad joke. Russia, Germany has zero malice attached. Come on, guys-- let's focus on something important, like Barack Obama's wife.
Eh. Once it's a bad joke. But when he continues to go with the warlike humor, there's an unpleasant picture to be painted: McCain as a man whose first instinct is to go to war.
Also, he ought to be wary of the growing media narrative that he's senile. True or not, that's going to hurt him.
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