(World News Trust) -- Is John McCain in a meltdown? Can his campaign be saved? Can the dots
remain unconnected? I don’t know about the first two, other than just
observing from the sidelines. But the third one I can take a crack at.
I’ll try to be brief. After all, neither you nor I have all day.
It’s becoming increasingly evident, at least to me, that the Iraq
policies on which John McCain has hitched his wagon are not stars but
anvils these days. In a classic “be careful what you wish for,” McCain
and friends tried to goad Barack Obama into going to Iraq -- the novice,
they said, who might even benefit from traveling with the political
greybeard, who could “sorta show the new kid around.” On their terms,
of course. Unfortunately, Barack didn’t bite.
Obama finally did go to Iraq and Afghanistan to see for himself and
it’s the McCain camp left grinding its collective teeth. He’s done
rather well without the services of Mr. Hundred-Years-Over-There as a
tour guide. Obama came, he saw, and he conquered. He not only looked
cool in sunglasses and avoided an embarrassing Dukakis-style helmet
howler, but he looked downright presidential. Significant meetings with
General David Petraeus, exuberant rank-and-file soldiers, and Iraqi
government officials including Prime Minister Maliki and his
second-in-command made for some terrific photo-ops, flanked by the
Bipartisan Brothers, Democrat Reed and Republican Hagel. Maliki further
added insult to injury by echoing a preference for a U.S. departure
very much like Obama’s long-held 16-month withdrawal timeline.
Hilariously, the White House then clambered aboard, babbling
frantically about a neat new something called a “time horizon” for -- er
-- um -- withdrawal. I guess they figured if they came up with something else
to call it, it wouldn’t count, and voters won’t notice anyway.
The press spotted it, though -- so much that McCain is whining about
Obama getting too much attention. As if the man long known as “Teflon
John” has a right to complain -- for his many gaffes and embarrassments
that the mainstream media has resolutely either soft-pedaled or
flat-out ignored. Now, of course, he’s been recast as Odd Man Out, as
events slip through the side door while he’s still desperately
barricading the front gate. When in doubt, channel Rumplestilskin in
hopes of spinning what’s already turned into straw -- into a kind of
fool’s gold. “…But, but, but, Obama was wrong about the surge!” Well,
Mr. McCain, it can hardly be forgotten how YOU were wrong about the
whole thing from the get-go. You REALLY want to get into which man has
the best overall, long-range judgment? Besides, if the escalation, or
surge, is such a success, then why can’t we start leaving?
At any rate, Obama has thus officially bigfooted McCain on McCain’s pet issue. That’s gotta hurt. As Marc Abinder speculated in TheAtlantic.com -- “Via e-mail, a prominent Republican strategist who occasionally
provides advice to the McCain campaign said, simply, "We're f- - - - -."
http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/07/almalikis_announcement_a_big_d.php
It would be bad enough if the McCain meltdown stopped with Obama’s
checkmating the national security debate. But there’s also that other
problem: the economy. My favorite incident in a veritable avalanche of
them involves the hapless Scrooge-unmasked, the stone-hearted Phil
Gramm. Until recently he was McCain’s BFF and lobbyist/UBS
financier/economic policy czar. Then, he became poison. Phil Gramm
inadvertently exposed the most crass bedrock belief of the modern
Republican Party -- blabbing the dirty little secret they don’t want you
to know. My late father had a term for it -- his favorite
“greed-is-good” punchline: “IGMFU” -- pronounced “IGGUM-foo.” It stands
for “I Got Mine, (and, considering the last two letters, you can
probably fill in the rest with both accuracy and -- um -- decorum.
Consult Marc Abinder’s source above if you need help).” It’s the John
3:16 of the GOP Bible.
Phil Gramm had the outrageously poor taste to blurt that the bad
economy from which his own wealth and connections insulate him is
merely a “mental recession” and that we’re nothing but a bunch of
whiners to dare complain about it. The story’s faded by now, yet
another McCain campaign oopsie that got a once-over-lightly from the
media, but I think it’s worth revisiting, especially as a further
meltdown metaphor. Choice words from this modern Marie Antoinette who,
during his own Senate career, pushed legislation that made the Enron
and sub-prime mortgage messes possible, and allowed corporate tax
cheats to dodge accountability in hush-hush offshore banking havens.
Phil Gramm may have had to resign the campaign in disgrace, but it
wouldn’t surprise me if he’s still exerting influence under the radar.
I doubt whether John McCain would deep-six a friendship considered
that strong, long-running, or key.
The Phil Gramm IGMFU fiasco should stick in our minds throughout the
rest of the campaign -- and even beyond -- every bit as much as the
now-empty McCain claim to exclusive ownership of the Iraq/national
security issue. It’s just one more thing about which McCain himself and
his entire party are just plain wrong.
On the war, their dearly-held My-Way-or-the-Highway arrogance and
American-brand democracy forced on other sovereign nations at gunpoint
by rich old white men nursing John Wayne complexes all are now exposed
as little more than castles built on sand. On the economy, it’s
We’ve-Got-Ours and the rest of you can just shut up and stop
complaining, and try to work out your own fabulous golden parachute
crony deals like we did. If you can’t, well, tough luck, Chuck. Be sure
to write when you find work. And don’t forget -- Free Market!!! Free
Market!!! That, and a dime, will get you a few minutes at a parking
meter anymore.
Thankfully, I think, America seems to be waking up and catching on.
Neither the lust for empire because “our oil is under their sand” nor
robber-baron economics work for the vast majority of us any longer.
Never mind that we’ve been preached this gospel ever since the Reagan
era -- that cutting back government is good, that taxes are a nuisance
instead of a shared civic obligation for the betterment of the common
good, and that big business should be liberated from all those pesky
regulations that keep them fairly honest and prevent their running
amok. Furthermore, we’ve been told for years that public money is far
better spent buying and building more destruction delivery systems than
any adversary (or even we ourselves) could afford. Our people may be
sick, homeless and starving, but by Jove we’ll still be able to blow
you to smithereens!
It doesn’t work anymore. The World According to John McCain doesn’t
work anymore. The World According to the GOP doesn’t work anymore. No
wonder so many millions of Americans have warmed to the idea of a
change from years of that. It’s a meltdown that may lead ultimately to
defeat for the McCain campaign. But it’s a welcome thaw from a very
long, harsh, and heartless deep freeze for the rest of us.
***
Mary
Lyon
is a veteran broadcaster and five-time Golden Mike Award winner, who
has anchored, reported, and written for the Associated Press Radio
Network, NBC Radio "The Source," and many Los Angeles-area stations
including KRTH-FM/AM, KLOS-FM, KFWB-AM, and KTLA-TV, and occasional
media analyst for ABC Radio News. She began her career as a liberal
activist with the Student Coalition for Humphrey/Muskie in 1968, and
helped spearhead a regional campaign, The Power 18," to win the right
to vote for 18-year-olds. She remains an advocate for liberal causes,
responsibility and accountability in media, environmental education and
support of the arts for children, and green living. In addition to
World News Trust, Mary writes for Huffington Post, OpEdNews,
Democrats.us, WeDemocrats.org's "We! The People" webzine. Mary is also
a parenting
expert, having written and llustrated the book "The Frazzled Working
Woman's Practical Guide to Motherhood.