lately McCain has not only taken millions from oil interests. He’s also become a consummate jerk. He falsely accused Obama of refusing to visit wounded troops because cameras couldn’t be present. His campaign accused Obama of being “presumptuous” in seeking the highest office—a rough synonym for “uppity” in this context. Then his campaign had the gall to accuse Obama of “playing the race card”—a view that McCain did not disclaim. And what can you say about someone who introduces Britney Spears and Paris Hilton into serious discussions of leadership and foreign policy, other than that he’s a jerk?

We have here a reverse Superman story. Admirable war hero and maverick Clark McCain sneaks into a telephone booth. There he dons garb supplied by Rove’s disciple Schmidt. At last he emerges, transformed and resplendent as Frat Boy II.

McCain has taken the frat-boy mantle from Dubya and is preparing to succeed him as the biggest jerk in American politics, the frat boy in chief. Like Dubya, McCain aims to win with snideness, sarcasm, and puerile verbal chops, forsaking any semblance of serious debate. His own lies (on the wounded troops), name calling (“presumptuous,” “elitist,” “out of touch”) and titillating irrelevancies (Spears and Hilton) echo Dubya’s Swift-boating and “flop-flopping” John Kerry and “Defeatocrating” his party.

What else can McCain do? Obama outclasses him in education, intelligence and detailed command of the issues. Obama crushes him in perspective, emotional balance and self-restraint.

Once the three debates begin, it will hopefully be over for John McCain. Outsmarted and outclassed, he will likely lose his legendary temper and release the schoolyard bully lurking within him. The whole nation will see the irascible, explosive personality with which his Senate colleagues are familiar, but which so far has stayed hidden from the general public.

P.S. Greg - you're absolutely right. McCain is doing everything in his power to push this as the key issue so that voters see his "toughness" and "experience."

And you know what? It may work. I always tend to underestimate the intelligence of voters and I'm frequently right.

But I wonder if the notion of more war and hawkish-ness just may not appeal this time around. And to the degree that the world is a mess, that may remind voters that Bush has been President during these last 8 years.

http://strategy08.wordpress.com

This is a complex situation, one that will require great care, diplomacy, and a cool head. McCain's response is where he was headed already - belligerence, further isolation of Russia, kick them out of the G8, and launch a new cold war. Yeah, that's what Americans want.

I'm sure we're all supposed to be impressed by the details in the McCain camp's statement. Well, when your top foreign policy advisor works for the Georgian government and when your candidate is an old cold warrior, of course they are going to be well-versed in all the details of a matter that, realistically, just isn't a top concern for American voters right now. Of course, they'll try to make it a concern for voters by tying this skirmish to gas prices, which McCain's camp already tried to do in the statement above.

Also, given that it's still August and the election - never mind the inauguration - is months away, should McCain be playing president? That's what they accused Obama of doing simply because he met with foreign leaders. Now McCain is playing foreign policy spokesperson for our country?

Puhleeze...

The only reason McCain is breaking sweat over this is so that he can say later on that he was fixing the world while Obama was fixing his tan in Hawaii.

Someone might think to ask McSame a couple of questions like

1. Why did Bush and Rick Davis let Georgia go off half-cocked with its hairbrained adventure

and

2. What in the hell is he gonna do about it?

NyT:Mr. Bush, in Beijing for the Olympics, strongly criticized the Russian attacks, especially those outside South Ossetia, and urged an immediate cease-fire. In an interview on NBC on Monday morning, he said he had been “very firm” with both Russia’s prime minister, Vladimir V. Putin, and its president, Dmitri Medvedev.

AP: TBILISI, Georgia - Swarms of Russian jets launched new raids on Georgian territory Monday and Georgia faced the threat of a second front of fighting as Russia demanded that Georgia disarm troops near the breakaway province of Abkhazia.

I guess Bush told them!

Let him get as far out on that limb as he likes

While a senior Russian general insisted that Russia has no plans to press further into Georgian territory — its troops are now in two breakaway provinces — the order to disarm carried the threat that Russian-sponsored fighting would sprea

What's McSame going to do? Pout?

The Russian prime minister, Vladmir Putin, criticised the US today for flying Georgian troops home from Iraq, claiming the west had mistaken the real aggressor in the conflict over the separatist region of South Ossetia. Putin, who is directing the Kremlin's actions in Georgia, said Moscow would take its mission in the region to "a logical conclusion", and accused some US politicians of having a cold war mentality.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/11/georgia.russia8?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

What leverage does the west have in this situation, what would McCain do to back up his rhetoric? One option is for politicians from the west to fly into Tblisi as a gesture of solidarity amongst democracies. Would Rice, Cheney or Bush do that? Would McCain or Obama? Sarkozy? How would Putin respond?

In the next few months if this is seen as the beginning of a new cold war over resources and the usual republican/insecurity reflexes are still operative, this could benefit republicans in general and McCain indirectly. But after Bush I don't think it works that way anymore.

Does anyone else think that the best thing for us to do here is sit and watch? I hear Cheney saying "Russian aggression must not go unanswered," but I can't help wondering why not.

Everyone here should realize it was Obama's fault that Russia invaded Georgia.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MmIxMGNhOGMyYzFhNDA5ODRmZjVhNjVmMWEzMWMyOTg=

Well, the only straight talk he's given is the promise of "more wars" "..there's gonna be other wars, my friendgs..." says McCain.

"He [McCain] will make Cheney look like Ghandi."
~Pat Bucahan

(I don't like to quote Buchanan much, but that one's a gem.)

Once again:

http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/Republicans_and_miltary_men_on_John_McCain

Who was the real aggressor in S.Ossetia war ?

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=13285

(Trolls are exempted from reading this, given their limited intelligence)

This is incredibly stupid. McCain's overly personal involvement with Georgia shows just how dangerous he is. He could start more wars than Bush and totally unravel the ending of the Cold War.

McCain is not just a jerk, not just a sleazy politician, he's incredibly dangerous for America.

McCain = Four (For?) More Wars!

The scary bit is that Bush was pushing for Georgia to join NATO even though it had these unfinished wars and foreign occupation. If they had actually joined NATO this would have destroyed NATO.

The Georgians are so close to the Bush administration I have to wonder if they got the go ahead from Bush to attack S. Ossetia before they made thier move.

I think this little war is bad news for the Democrats as it could blow up into a major issue for the election. The Republicans love any issue that will distract the electors from the state of the economy. Restarting the cold war to win an election? Nah could never happen could it?

Russia is playing chess here, while we flounder around in the sandbox. By pushing into Georgia, Russia reminds every wannabee NATO and EU nation that when the chips are down, the West can't do much, and will choose their critical relationship (natural gas, Iran, etc.) with Russia over defending the peace and safety of the former Soviet states like Georgia and Ukraine.

At the UN, Khalizad practically was laughed at when he accused Russia of looking for "regime change" in Georgia. Imagine the Americans scolding someone for unilateral military action, and seeking regime change....What a disaster. Our power to infuence world affairs is at a very low ebb. Russia imposed a very harsh reality in Georgia over the past few days. The geopolitical repurcussions of this action are huge, and not good for the U.S., Democracy and peace in general.

McCain says: "With the same aim, the U.S. should coordinate with our partners in Germany, France, and Britain, to seek an emergency meeting of the G-7 foreign ministers to discuss the current crisis."

Hmmm... what is this G-7 of which he speaks? I'm familiar with the G-8, so G-7 would seem to be G-8 minus 1. Did John McCain just unilaterally kick Russia out of the G-8? Can he do that? That seems rather... what's the word... oh yeah-- presumptuous, doesn't it?

first bush, now mccain.

nothing like seeing republicans who advcated the invasion of a sovereign country for no good reason condemning another country for following their example.

It's a case where McCain Camp has two attacks ready for Obama, if he came rushing home and put out messages, they would have said "Why, you're not the President", and if he remained relatively silent in Hawaii its "Where was Obama? Is this the leader you want?"