Katie Couric asked John McCain a great question the other day on CBS: You claim you know how to win wars? Which wars have you won?
Watch it here:
I asked the press to put this very question to John McCain about ten days ago, albeit in a little bit more colorful language. You can watch that here. There is no good answer for this because John McCain is taking credit for many things he had no part in or was only minimally involved with. He is way overplaying his so-called national security credentials.
Some might think I'm going a bit too far in pointing this out, but we should also remember John McCain crashed five different planes in his time in the service. He also finished 894th in his Annapolis class of 899. God bless him for serving anyway, but it's hard to take that record and brag about how you have won all these wars.
John McCain has a service record he can be proud of, that anyone could be proud of. His resistance at the POW camps was down right heroic. But when you put yourself out there as the man who knows military strategy and winning wars, we have to look at your record and see what's really in there.
And when you look, there is not some secret stash of wars that John McCain led troops into and won because of his national security know-how. There just isn't and when he pretends there is, it looks like forced braggadocio. If he sticks with his actual service record, he would have something everyone could agree was a big asset for him. He served with tremendous courage and honor. He doesn't also have to claim to be Dwight D. Eisenhower. Leave well enough alone.
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Reader Comments ( Page 5 of 6)
61. Here is an idea why don't you get some new material or go elsewhere.
Doug R. at 4:15PM on Jul 25th 2008
xxxx
are you an audience or an act?
Clif Kuplen at 6:18PM on Jul 25th 2008
62. mccain = bush
anyone want to point out any differences? Any at all?
Clif Kuplen at 6:22PM on Jul 25th 2008
63. Dedmanrism:
Excellent post: I believe Limbaugh has loads more credibility than Olbermann and Schultz, both of whom worship at the altar of the Great Obama. I rarely listen to any of these folks, though, since they are more entertainers than journalists. I did not realize Limbaugh provides a transcript of his show with links to verify his information. In fact, I think everyone should be held accountable for their comments. That would separate the credible folks from the BS artists.
David Pitlock at 6:26PM on Jul 25th 2008
64.
the way I said, toodles. We had lots of expressions then that you don't still have now. Terms like SOS and and FUBAR and SNAFU were not witticisms but overworked cliches by 1954.
A couple more that could apply to you would be, 'you could fuck up a ball bearing' and 'If I shoved your brain up a gnat's ass it would rattle like a BB in a boxcar' also pretty cliche by '57 or so.
You might also be advised to take a course in geological anatomy so you could learn to tell your ass from a hole in the ground.
I didn't read the rest of it, toodles. Sorry. This tickled me, though. As a detective you make a great electrolux.
Clif Kuplen at 5:50PM on Jul 25th 2008
--------------------------------------
Well Clef,in 1954 you were a freshman in HS and by 1957 a senior but you're an expert on sayings that reflect the typical high school smartass trying to impress Ima Rottencrotch in home econ. what a with it kinda guy you are er, were.
Your other witticisms are par for the course, ie., if brains wer dynamite you couldn't lift a piss-ant's leg off the ground, all high school put downs.
FYI, I did take geology and you would classify as an upthrust fault caused by excess pressure underlying the strata resulting in a stress fracture of the overlying sedimentary layer. Where I come from, holes in the ground get posts shoved in them so I do know the difference although you probably have pole/hole filling experience yourself.
You suck without electricity, but were you powered, you would be a Kirby..overpriced, sold under the premise it can do everything better and usually gets replaced by something that actually cleans up. To take off on the "tree in the forest" question, "If Clif gives an answer and no one can understand it, has Clif really given an answer?"
Dedmanrisn at 6:31PM on Jul 25th 2008
65. At least McCain was in the service- Obama was riding the affirmative action ticket thru college while liberal/socialist professors kissed his precious little black ass as if he were a paying customer and passed him along in order to assuage their own white guilt.n Obama is an empty suit, and Shenk has an empty head!
Mike at 7:14PM on Jul 25th 2008
66. Well at least he has a record to look at. From a military standpoint and a political one. Not just an empty suit that can communicate. I will take a slight exaggeration of a person's record over a person who makes it up as they go along.
JIM at 9:41PM on Jul 25th 2008
67. Clif
I acknowledged you enlisted in the US Military and said I was sorry for saying you were a draft dodging coward. And you enlisted during the Vietnam War, so that alone does not make you a coward.
Then you question my patriotism by asking me if I got an Undesirable Discharge or a Dishonorable Discharge, not asking if I had gotten an Honorable Discharge.
You joined the US Military, you said that, and I acknowledged that. I said I was sorry calling you a draft dodging coward, was that not enough.
I got an Honorable Discharge from the US Military, what did you get?
robert okane at 10:16PM on Jul 25th 2008
68. Obama and Bush, what a team they could make. It would be a Dumb and Dumber. The Left Wingnuts love to make fun Bush and his inability to deliver a speech.
Place Obama on a stage giving a speech without a teleprompter and the results are the same bumbling along speech along the lines of what Bush gives.
Here is the Master Orator Obama giving his speech in Amman, Jordan, as presented by Rush, the man all Left Wingnuts love to hate.
It is quite funny to watch Obama make a fool of himslef without a teleprompter.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QpOnV1THjvc
or http://patriotroom.com/?p=604#comment-2776
Robert OKane at 10:40PM on Jul 25th 2008
69. Cliff - McCain is merely pointing out how he and Obama differed on the surge. Good grief, if that's an "attack", no politician running for office can ever say anything about his opponent other than glowing praise and we, the people, will not be as informed as we should be about the relative competency of candidates or about their policy positions before they get into office. Not good.
Dave at 10:48PM on Jul 25th 2008
70. Cenk shows one of the interviews Katie Couric gave recently, the one with McCain. But Katie did 2 interviews, one with Obama and one with McCain. You tube has both on one video.
Cenk thinks his left wingnuts buddies are 2 stupid to make up their minds over a simple YouTube video and an interview. Cenk does not show the interview with Obama.
The interviews as shown, show the differences of opinions these two men have on Iraq.
You are smart enough to figure out who is right in your own mind.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=3B7CBM68wPV
Robert OKane at 11:22PM on Jul 25th 2008
71. Here is my opinion of the history of the "Surge", but not necessarily in exact time order:
1. After four years of fighting many Iraques got very tired of the fighting and bloodshed and wanted something to change!
2. Many Iraques were killed in the four years and some(maybe many) that were involved in the battles against the American troops so therefore violence began to wane.
3. Many Iraques (some estimates of over 2 million) left Iraq. This would eliminate many civilian targets which was the cause for much of the ongoing retaliation.
4. Many areas of Iraq became homogeneous which caused civilian deaths to decline and less attacks against American troops.
5. The Sadr Militia began to stand down and only intermittently would surge again.
6. The Sunnies( in mostly homogeneous areas - say like Anbar) began to cooperate with the Americans ( helped a lot by American dollars).
7. After four years many of the real bad ass sociopath Iraques who were the major trouble makers did one of the following: were killed, left town or Iraq, went under ground to pretend they were good until the moment is right,just decided to be a good guy because he loves his country or loves something better than fighting, or decided to love each other because of the American money.
8. Then we have the "Surge", unless I forgot something else that affected the slow down in violence and increased the cooperation.
The "Surge " did not make # 1-7 happen. It was the other way around; It was # 1-7 that made the "Surge" a good polical move.
IMO the "Surge" was a political move only; done to make it look like a new strategy. Also, IMO it was a good ploy because there are so many guillable Americans and if told the same thing over and over again they believe. Just like we went into Iraq to find WMDs; No I mean because Iraq was involved in 9/11, No I mean because he threatened Bush's daddy; No I really mean becuase we wanted to spread democracy; No on fifth thought it was because Saddam was evil; No, Darn it was because Saddam was a threat to attack the US; No, it was honestly to get all of their OIl!.
Repukes and right-wingers are so easily duped. They can be made to believe that the world is flat by just saying it over and over, or there really is a Santa Claus or that God is coming back tommorrow at a specific time. Now everyone should see why Repukes keep insisting that the current slowdown in violence is due soley to the "Surge". There is a panzy in every Repuke and right-winger household.
Tommy at 12:24AM on Jul 26th 2008
72. I don't see you (Cenk Uyger) or your guest ever going to war for our country...talk is all you can do...but it's men like McCain who have fought for your freedom and right to make fun of our country...and Katie Couric is over-rated she should see how the rest of us lives...spoiled over rated and over paid - Looks like her late nights are catching up with her... Obama is a Freshman Senator with no experience who also believes in Black Liberation Theology - not very American - Why don't you exposed that!!! before this election is over most people will get it...I was born in the US...My vote is for McCain!! NO Bamanation 2008... A must read www.gop.com click on meet Obama...these are the facts...check it out... www.gop.com
Ann at 12:26AM on Jul 26th 2008
73. Let's not forget, we have not been attacked since 9/11. Our allies have been. When my husband left for Desert Storm he said that he would rather fight them over there than here. Well on 9/11, the War came here. I thank God for our service people and that G.W. Bush was President during 9/11. If this is the "same" you liberals refer to, yes, sign me up.
Debbie at 12:41AM on Jul 26th 2008
74. I don't understand what its going to take for you right wingers to get it.
In the last forty years we have witnessed a widening gap in income between the rich and the rest of us, despite the fact that there has been a marked increase in productivity on the part of the average worker.
We have watched as republican economic policy has given rise to out-sourced jobs, crumbling infrastucture, ineffective schools, downed sized manufacturing base, an assault on labor and the general shredding of the safty net.
We bought the republican line that government is evil and that the market is god upon whose alter we should sacrifice the prudent oversight of government regulation. The result is a financial sector that resembles a casino where the big players can't lose and the rest of us can't win.
We listen as the republicans congratulate themselves for a surge in a country that never attacked us while the enemy that did is resurging once more along the wilds of the Afghan/Pakistan border.
The scary part is that there is a committed core of wing nuts who want four more years of the same.
randy at 1:44AM on Jul 26th 2008
75. Another irrelevant blog by a Young Turd.
Bazooka Joe at 8:13PM on Jul 26th 2008