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Reports

McCain’s Self-Obsessed Campaign

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Posted on Sep 8, 2008

By Eugene Robinson

    John McCain is no silver-tongued orator, as he proved in St. Paul, but it’s hard not to be stirred when he speaks of wanting only to serve a cause greater than himself—until you take a closer look and see that he’s running one of the most egocentric presidential campaigns in memory.

    Not that Barack Obama lacks a healthy opinion of himself, mind you. No one wants the next president to be paralyzed with insecurity, or even to doubt for a minute that he’s the right man for the job. But after trying to ridicule Obama as a preening celebrity, if not a self-proclaimed messiah, McCain is campaigning on a platform that can be summed up in three words: me, me, me.

    Much has been made of the fact that he’s a Republican running on a pledge to clean up the intolerable, unforgivable mess created over the past eight years by a Republican president—and, for much of that time, a Republican-controlled Congress in which McCain himself had great power and influence. It’s amusing to listen to a man in his fourth term in the Senate (after two terms in the House) when he rails against evil “Washington,” as if he weren’t one of this modern-day Sodom’s most prominent denizens.

    There has been less comment, however, on the extent to which McCain rejects not only his party’s record but also important tenets of its stated philosophy. He’s a Republican who doesn’t entirely believe in modern Republicanism.

    “We oppose amnesty” for undocumented immigrants, the GOP platform says. “The rule of law suffers if government policies encourage or reward illegal activities.” Yet McCain co-authored the ill-fated immigration reform bill that would have granted de facto amnesty to millions who are in this country without the proper papers.

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    “Republicans caution against the doomsday climate change scenarios peddled by the aficionados of centralized command-and-control government,” the platform says. McCain is with his party on the issue of offshore drilling—there was a surrealistic moment in St. Paul when delegates were actually chanting “drill, baby, drill”—but he has tried his best to sound more like a Democrat in acknowledging the urgency of taking measures to ameliorate global warming.

    On abortion, the platform is uncompromisingly pro-life and mentions no exceptions for rape or incest; McCain believes there should indeed be exceptions. On embryonic stem-cell research, the platform says no; McCain says yes.

    I’m not being disingenuous. I know that party platforms aren’t as important as they once were. But McCain’s apostasy on these hot-button issues has to be considered alongside the stunning charges he leveled against his own party in his acceptance speech. “We were elected to change Washington, and we let Washington change us,” he said. “We lost the trust of the American people when some Republicans gave in to the temptations of corruption. ... We lost their trust when we valued our power over our principles.”

    I can’t argue with any of that. Those sound like great reasons to throw the Republicans out of town and give Democrats a chance to lead. But John McCain is arguing that he should be elected in spite of his party’s many failures because, well, he’s John McCain. He’s special.

    “I’m not running for president because I think I’m blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our country in its hour of need,” McCain said in accepting the nomination. But this line—which I took as a continuation of his attempt to paint Obama as some kind of self-proclaimed Chosen One—came right after a lengthy recounting of the horrors McCain lived through as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. In effect, he had used his personal experience to anoint himself.

    McCain’s speech offered hardly anything in terms of policy. At one point, he mentioned three “ordinary” families by name and spoke of their travails—and it was no coincidence that they happened to live in Michigan, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, states McCain would like to steal from the Democrats this year. But he offered no specifics on how the federal government under a McCain administration would make these families’ lives one bit better. He pledged only that he, personally, would “fight” for them.

    McCain and his campaign aides are right when they insinuate that one candidate is acting as if he thinks voters should accept him, on faith, as their political messiah. They’re just trying to make fun of the wrong one.
   
    Eugene Robinson’s e-mail address is eugenerobinson(at)washpost.com.
   
    © 2008, Washington Post Writers Group


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By bag lady finds lipstick, September 10, 2008 at 6:00 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

NinoBaldino,  Your fascinating comments, posted at 7:34AM, reminded me to remove the fishhooks from my testicles and call in another bombscare. Remember, in space no one can hear you scream.

Be nice. Write something constructive.

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By mooseduck hunter, September 10, 2008 at 5:40 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

from Maryet63:  “Old man fly boy does not have a movement.  He has Bush 90% of the time.”

Actually, I don’t think he has much movement OR bush.

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By libertarian, September 10, 2008 at 5:05 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Eugene has it deadnuts when he says the McCain operation is ego-driven. If another guy did the McCain bit, sitting at the breakfast table every morning nodding and forcing his wife and kids to listen to his did you know I am a hero speech, his wife would have him locked-up on the 4th floor at the VA. I take it back. John McCain isn’t an egoist, he is crazy.

I come here every few days to scoff at Democrats. I noticed this week that the Democrat version of getting tough is to talk loud into the mic on the cable shows. I swear to God. They believe this reflects toughness. You papsmear pussified losers. My mother did not pay for my eighth-grade schooling for naught…use verbs..use nouns..you know, those things Vonnegut used to rip the ego off your face. Jesus fucking Christ. Get me an $8/hr gig at Obama HQ. I’ll write some things on a piece of paper for them before one of them goes on Olbermann.

Tough does not mean writing tough. It means doing a mental walk-through of San Quentin, picturing those fucking animals loose in your neighborhood, THEN writing it down.

McCain is about to take charge of the United States.
Are you starting to get it Mr. Obama?

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By nobozos, September 10, 2008 at 4:48 am Link to this comment

Big B —

I hit the “report this” under your comments, thinking I could leave a compliment (okay, I’ve been inhaling), but instead, I’ve reported you as a menace. Sorry.

I really enjoyed your post; I’m still laughing.

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By Tom Joad, September 9, 2008 at 4:09 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

All the dirt on John McWayne you ever wanted to know, all in one article…
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2008/3202

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By joey, September 9, 2008 at 4:09 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

If you want to find the billionaire in your neighborhood follow the straight talk express or follow the
Sarah and John road show. They seem to be hitting the top one percent. He is not running to be the president of a democracy , he is running to be king of a plutocracy. If John McCain wins this election we can send those diebold machines to Iraq to help George spread that freedom.

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By Maryet63, September 9, 2008 at 3:12 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

I do believe that Obama has been saying over and over again that we the people can change Washington not he along.  The old man flyboy and gun toting annie oakley gonna bring reform by themselves.  No help from anybody.  Get real folks, you gotta have a movement if change is gonna come.  Old man fly boy does not have a movement.  He has Bush 90% of the time.

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Virginia777's avatar

By Virginia777, September 9, 2008 at 11:13 am Link to this comment

Cran Berry - that is not true! don’t give up so easily. What are you listening to, slanted polls? Numbers always swell after a (televised) convention. Just give them more time to stick their feet in their mouths.

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By wildflower, September 9, 2008 at 8:24 am Link to this comment

Speaking of McCainÂ’s me, me, me, messiah campaign, there appears to be a pattern developing in that campaign that sort of bothers me. 

When McCain’s Palin was speaking to that Assembly of God youth group in Wassila, both she and those Wasilla ministers spoke openly about that Alaskan pipeline being God’s will and Alaska becoming an “end of time” refuge.

Yet, I noted that Palin didnÂ’t mention a word of this when she spoke to those unsuspecting delegates at the Republican convention. I also noted she didnÂ’t share it with either her opponents of the audience during the debate for the 2006 Alaska Gubernatorial race. Why do you think this is, Eugene?

Is it possible that Senator McCain and Palin are just using U.S.  taxpayers like you and I to help build this end of time Alaskan refuge only to slam the door in our faces once theyÂ’ve brought it all on? 

http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/20080907_palin_takes_the_pulpit_at_wasilla_assembly_of_god/

http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/20080908_palin_the_debater/

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By NinoBaldino, September 9, 2008 at 7:34 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

sooo right on..the Manchurian candidate is still living off of his POW days..there are thousands of vets who were prisoners of war and returned to civilian life and the main stream…it was just one part of their life! This smirking character has been on the taxpayer paid for rolls for 40 years…wants all illegals to stay here so that breaking the law of a land can forever be in their families a mark of acceptance and even goodness. McCain supports the complete destruction of made in america products with his nafta deal,that law has ruined America more then the Viet Cong would have,..at least Obama is honest in his hatred of Israel and all things Christian as well…he has memorized the communist manifesto by heart and shows that to us..so if he gets elected it will wake up the nation..Ginnin John is the gradualism candidate…like Napoleon got on Elba..a tiny swig of arsenic daily in his wine and eventually he was no more..

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By Big B, September 9, 2008 at 5:18 am Link to this comment

Every man who has ever run for president has had the same charactor flaw, they believe that they, and they alone, were meant to be president. It’s this type of megalomania that has driven nearly all our presidents.
They do not look at the office of the presidency as a job, to them it is a calling, a destiny.
Until we elect people who do think that it’s a job, that they are beholden to the voters(shareholders) of the US, we will keep electing arrogant dumbasses.

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By dihey, September 9, 2008 at 5:16 am Link to this comment

The Obama campaign is filled with political idiots, including the candidate himself. They have let themselves be lured by McCain/Palin into a fight over “earmarks” which are pocket money compared to the big-ticket items on the federal budget. What Obama/Biden need to say TODAY is this. “The earmarks are a problem but they are pocket money compared to big-ticket items of the federal government. What the country needs is relentless oversight of these budget items to make sure that your hard-earned dollar is not handed to ruthless schemers and crooks. Such oversight you will not get from a McCain Presidency because he will only target the pocket money.”

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