McCain is a condescending dick

[hsapiens]

Dear McDickhead,

NEWSFLASH: It is possible to have a philosophical difference on political issues without it being due to your opponent's, "just not understanding."

You came across as a condescending dick every single time you repeated it. I'm a bit sensitive, perhaps, but it struck me as a subtle race dig to imply that Barack Obama fails to understand the issues. That he somehow can't handle the fundamental concepts. That's patronizing and manifestly untrue. Also? Prattling on about someone not understanding when you're the one who chose a running mate who has to be tutored in order to achieve her current level of incoherence? That's some serious chutzpah.

Absolutely no love,
Me

p.s. Yes! I have electricity, cable, AND internet just in time to see the debate. :)

Comments

[improperlydone.livejournal.com]

HAHAHA! I love you! You have expressed my sentiments so perfectly.

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

*g* Glad to know I wasn't the only one. :)

[improperlydone.livejournal.com]

Um, please pardon me for yelling but...

WHO IS THAT IN YOUR ICON??

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

That was CJ and Ben at the "wrap party" after filming the last scene of SG-1.

[tejas.livejournal.com]

I missed a few minutes toward the end (had to make a Mom run), but yeah. Basically, you nailed it.

There was *one* thing I wish Obama had run with. McCain said something about a bad economy being a sign of a failed government.

I nearly *choked* and then nearly cried when Obama didn't run with it. *sigh*

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

ABSOLUTELY! We all sat around, unable to believe that Obama missed that opportunity. I couldn't BELIEVE that he let it pass!

Reminded me of Al Gore's failure to pick up on George Bush's response to "why doesn't Texas cover children with health care paid for by the federal government" with, "well, Texas Legislature meets every two years and we haven't met yet to enact that -- we manage to run Texas without all those government meetings and a lot of people think that's good government and what I want to bring to Washington."

That's right, the lack of health care for poor children is actually an example of good government. Gore singularly failed to grab that point and run with it. *sigh* I submit for the record that inaction is the only 2000 campaign promise that W kept.

[greeneyes-rpi.livejournal.com]

I love your icon with an unholy love.


(and yes, condescending dick is the phrase of the day)

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

How I wish I had fewer opportunities to use it.

I wasn't certain if anyone else felt like I did about his attitude because I didn't hear the Talking Heads catching it. It really, really grated on my nerves.

[greeneyes-rpi.livejournal.com]

The CNN-heads touched on it a few times.

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

Oh? I must have turned the channel too soon. I was stunned that wasn't one of the very first points brought up so I figured I'd better save my sanity by turning to Sci Fi and watching something escapist.

[gaedhal.livejournal.com]

Wordy Word McWord!

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

McGrin. ;-)

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

Yay for electricity and cable.

I'm so glad I did not watch the debate. My blood pressure could not take it.

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

Most especially the electricity! Cable is nice but electricity is crucial.

I'm not certain why I watched the debate as I have already decided my vote, but I did.

[bleekabyebye.livejournal.com]

Hey! Glad you've got the electric, cable and internet back! Been thinking of you! Got that cable just in time to see Gale on Desperate Housewives! Woo Hoo! Never watched that show before, but now I have to. *winks*

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

Thank you! The electricity is without a doubt the most beloved but the internet and cable are very close seconds. I recorded Gale as we were busy cutting up and hauling the several trees-worth of material that the tree services dumped in our backyard. AFTER we'd already paid to have the storm debris removed from the backyard. Grrrrrrrrrr.

I plan to fast-forward through the show and just watch the Gale bits. :)

[bleekabyebye.livejournal.com]

What a pain having to deal with the cleanup. Glad you're doing ok!

I like Gale's bits. ;-P He was so adorable in that episode!

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

It *is* a pain. I have been favorably impressed with our local officials' handling of both the crisis and the inevitable temper flares. But then, these same folks impressed me post-Katrina when our mayor cleared the calendars for the local convention center so that we could offer the first organized evacuation areas for any and all New Orleanians who needed a safe place, daring any company with contracts for the space to sue the city. It was the first time I saw an elected official put the good of people ahead of business in an emergency. I'm actually quite broken-hearted that we have term limits because our mayor is magnificent.

Gale's bits -- hee! I still haven't had a chance to watch it but it's safely on my DVR.

[beeej.livejournal.com]

You're back! Yay! I've been thinking about you down there all powerless & stuff. Everything ok?

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

Sort of back. :) Living without electricity is never fun. We're okay in the sense of everyone is alive and un-injured. The MIL lost a *lot* of stuff in the storm surge and we spent several days helping her catalog her possessions. Yucky, nasty work.

I see that I missed the final challenge altogether. :( I lost a week in there since I thought this week was the vote. Doh. I'm going to yoga tonight but I'll try to post either tonight or tomorrow to the mods' comm about getting ready for the second round.

[ml-spikie.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear you have your power back. I absolutely agree with you on this one. I'm looking forward to Palin falling flat on her face next week. I think all that shooting has loosened her brain cells.

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

Power is oh-so-welcome. You know, I don't think Palin will fall on her face. I think she will have some rote "talking points" to fall back on when she doesn't know how to answer. I would dearly love it if she did screw up because I think her level of ignorance is dangerous -- but I'm betting they can train her well enough to give useless replies rather than answers.

[jehnt.livejournal.com]

Also? Prattling on about someone not understanding when you're the one who chose a running mate who has to be tutored in order to achieve her current level of incoherence? That's some serious chutzpah.

XD

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

Seriously! It's rather ridiculous to hear him attacking Obama as "dangerously inexperienced" while he and Palin go on the news to declare her "executive experience" as adequate. *shudder* It would be funny if this were a Monty Python sketch. It's phenomenal that it's real life.

[jehnt.livejournal.com]

On this last SNL, Tina Fey's Palin was mostly verbatim from the Katie Couric interview. It was insane. It's like, Biden may not be the best choice for Dem veep (my dream team was Obama + Wesley Clark), but at least he has actual experience and knows what he's talking about, even if he IS rambly and gaffe-prone.

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

I saw that! I haven't tuned into SNL in...years? a decade? but I tuned in, hoping Tine Fey would be on. My brother hadn't seen the Sarah Palin clip and was stunned when I told him the answer was verbatim from Palin's reply. I love the internet; we were able to pull it up so he could see for himself.

Wesley Clark would have been an interesting choice. I don't know a lot about his positions but he's a well-spoken, thoughtful kind of guy. I've seen some Biden "gaffes" and yes, he was incorrect that FDR addressed folks on television in 1929, a real gaffe but a lot his gaffes seem to be of the "willing to speak what's true" like "I might not have been the smartest choice for VP." Couldn't *ANY* candidate claim that? I don't consider that a gaffe but I'm not a fan of issue-free elections.

This financial crisis has done at least one good thing: it has forced us to quit squabbling over stupid tits-for-tats and focused us on exactly how important it is to vote based on *issues.*

[jehnt.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was more Obama/Clark because Clark is foxy for an old dude and they'd win by sheer powers of hotness, but his positions are pretty palatable too.

I guess the main Biden gaffe I always remember is early on in the primaries when he called Obama "clean and articulate" and it was like OMG RACIST all over the place. Which wasn't what he meant but he just used loaded words.

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

LOL! He is pretty, all right.

[riverfox.livejournal.com]

When he repeated that "Senator Obama just doesn't understand" crap, I was convinced that this wasn't a mature response to what Obama had just spoken about. It was a childish response to the Democratic convention in which Obama repeatedly said that McCain "just doesn't get it."

Also, the fact that he flat-out refused to talk *to* Obama, or look him in the eye as Obama kept doing, raised the "red alert" hackles on the back of my neck.

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

It's definitely a sign of lacking of maturity. You know, Biden had his own problems with, "He Just Doesn't Get It" during the confirmation hearing for Thomas. There's a difference between being unable to empathize and being able to understand issues but I wouldn't expect McCain to "get" that difference. ;-)

His words AND his body language all shouted, "contempt." Feh. I have less and less respect for him as the campaign progresses.

[riverfox.livejournal.com]

I lost any respect I had for him when he backed his state's refusal to recognize Martin Luther King day. To basically say "Fuck You" to a large percentage of the population tells me he has no interest in serving the people. His interest is in further enhancing his own bigoted power and padding his golddigging bank account.

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

McCain's instincts on issues are almost always dead wrong. I used to respect him as someone who could learn from his glaring mistakes (I'm thinking here of turning his Keating Five experience into a drive for campaign finance reform) and as a fiscal adult (McCain-Feingold). I actually agonized over having to vote against him because on the issues, we're almost polar opposites.

That, of course, was 8 years ago. Today, I will gleefully be voting for Obama but even if I weren't, I would be gleefully voting against McCain.

You're right that his big "Fuck You" was indicative: it's indicative of what I think of as his brash fighter pilot personality. I have family members who are fighter pilots and I love them -- but the personality that succeeds there is not one of measured thought and reasonable debate. Relying on gut instinct and rote training to save your life in aerial combat is vital but it sucks in the political world. Honestly, I think McCain's still doing that -- he has the rote Republican answers about the federal government not imposing holiday choices on the states and doesn't have the gut instinct that it's necessary to stop and think about what it means to people so he goes with it. I think he's most impressive when forced to deal with the failures of the Republican philosophy of the past 40 years (again, campaign finance and federal deficits) but these things have to hit *him* personally before he stops to think or question his received wisdom. Good lord, this man thinks Phil Gramm has something intelligent to say on financial systems.

The more I see of McCain, the more I realize he's still the person he has been his whole life: the one who barely graduated from Annapolis, the one who knows more than anyone around him, and the one who has relied on his native charm to smooth away the problems caused by his arrogant inability to realize he isn't the ultimate authority on Life, the Universe, and Everything.

[riverfox.livejournal.com]

Agreed. And I think it's time Obama literally went after him in a debate. And I mean, *push his buttons*. So far, the only reaction he was able to get out of McCain was a "Senator Obama doesn't understand" zinger. Obama and others need to get McCain to show his true colors--his explosive, unhinging anger. McCain has done a good job so far in keeping it under wraps and I suspect that medication may be involved.

In listening to someone who knew him at Annapolis, who's a fellow pilot and fellow POW, and hear him talk about McCain's *normal* behavior, then the medical problems all POWs face ... I don't see how people are ignoring him.

It was all fun and games when he was the "maverick" that no one thought would get anywhere near a nomination, but now he's here and he's making even less sense than he did before.

IMNSHO, and it's not a popular one, those who don't vote for Obama are either ignorant, racist, or both. I'm hoping the majority of this country, and the electorate, shows they're above it. If that's "elitist", then I'm elitist.