Tuesday, April 08, 2008

McCain is confused 

McCain's confusion about who our main enemy is seems to be part of a troubling pattern, and I have predicted that this will have serious political ramifications in the coming months. Now that there's a history of such blunders, McCain will have less margin for error. Smaller and smaller "misstatements" will blow up bigger and bigger. Fair or not, this is how narratives develop.

"McCain is confused" feeds into one of the biggest subterranean worries voters have about Sen. Str8 Tawlk-- that he's too old for the job.


1. "By rhetorically asking if al-Qaida is a Shiite sect, McCain was once again demonstrating that he's confused about the terrorist group's religious background."

2. "John McCain still seems to be confusing his Shi’a and his Sunnis."

3. "I suppose that eventually the press is bound to notice that McCain is seriously confused about the religious and political dynamics of Iraq and the greater Middle East, right?"

4. "Did McCain get confused about al Qaeda again?"

5. "McCain apparently confused Sunnis and Shiites yet again."

6. "McCain Confuses al Qaeda in Iraq with Shi’ites. Again."

7. "McCain seems confused about al Qaeda again, suggests it’s a ’sect of Shi’ites.’"

8. "McCain's Al Qaeda Confusion."

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Don't be McConfused, or Mac-con-fused.
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And Michael reminds us not to be "McCharming", either.

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posted by oyster @ 2:41 PM
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11 Comments:

Hmm.. Sounds positively Reaganeque to me.

By Blogger jeffrey, at 3:07 PM  

Reagan was 69 when elected in 1980. McCain will turn 72 on... 8/29/08.

By Blogger oyster, at 3:18 PM  

Well there is also that Odor of Dole thing.

By Blogger jeffrey, at 3:34 PM  

Also... fun b-date.

By Blogger jeffrey, at 3:35 PM  

Makes me light-headed.

By Blogger oyster, at 3:35 PM  

McCain also doesn't understand the fact that leaving Iraq does not mean "surrender" or "defeat". And whoever the Democrat nominee is, they better have some good wordsmiths to make sure they deal with his rhetoric of fear.

By Anonymous Daniel Z., at 9:03 PM  

This sounds more and more like an advertising ploy. It's been proven that the more you repeat a certain thing to the mass public, they begin to believe it.

I don't believe he's confusing a thing. I believe he's staying on script until those who've heard it enough and don't question begin to believe him and are BEGGING to go raise hell in Iran.

And they also seem to be smackin' their chops for the opportunity...

By Blogger droudy, at 10:04 PM  

Huh. McCain as Vinnie Barbarino? Now I'M confused...

By Blogger Leigh C., at 11:07 PM  

McCain has a binary view of the world (us vs. them) and Al-Qaeda to him is a synonym for 'bad guys'. All 'bad guys' are subsets of 'them'. Good guys = 'us + whoever helps us'. By this logic Musharaff and the Saudis are good guys. McCain is not alone in thinking this way and it explains why Obama got a lot of flack for suggesting he'd use missile strikes inside Pakistan if Musharaff wouldn't take action against Al-Qaeda camps. McCain couldn't conceive of Musharaff playing both sides for his own benefit in his binary view.

By Anonymous joejoejoe, at 12:04 AM  

An American President with a "Binary view of the world"... I wonder, where've we seen that before?

By Blogger oyster, at 10:15 AM  

Im sure Bush would tell us that he doesn't have a binary view of the world... and that he only likes women.

By Anonymous Daniel Z., at 10:35 AM