“I am grateful for the fact that I have a wonderful life. I spent some years without a kitchen table, without a chair, and I know what it’s like to be blessed by the opportunities of this great nation.” -John McCain on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.
After the September 11 terrorist attacks, President Bush hijacked our horrors and anxieties and managed dismantle our civil liberties and alienate the Arab world. After scaring America into a second term and convincing America that John Kerry swift boated his way out of Vietnam, the twenty-second Amendment sits between history and a third Bush term.
Now John McCain is looking to continue Bush’s foreign policy for another eight years. Everyone thought “America’s Mayor” Rudy Giuliani would be able to steamroll though the debates and primaries with a constant stream of September 11 references and Islamophobia. As Vice Presidential nominee Joe Biden once said, “Everything out of Giuliani is a noun, a verb, and 9/11.” Fortunately Giuliani ran the worst campaign this side of George McGovern, and his Florida strategy failed. As a Floridian, I have some advice for Giuliani: don’t ever depend on the voters of Florida for anything. Unless your state campaign head also happens to be the Secretary of State and head of the elections committee.
The desperate McCain campaign is now delving into their bags of dirty tricks and pulling out their most reliable weapon: Vietnam. The tactics which made McCain look like a war loony in 2000, convinced America that John Kerry faked his purple hearts in 2004 and avoided mention of Bush’s service record have now come full circle. Facing sheer electoral destruction at the hands of the improbable Boy-God Obama, McCain spokespersons are now constantly mentioning how McCain spent five years in a prisoner of war camp and that makes him fit to be President.
The quote that bannered this piece was McCain’s response to Biden who last week said:
“Your kitchen table’s like mine. You sit there at night, after you put the kids to bed, and you talk. You talk about how much you’re worried about being able to pay the bills. But ladies and gentlemen, that’s not a worry John McCain has to worry about. It’s a pretty hard experience – he’ll have to figure out which of the seven kitchen tables to sit at.” -Joe Biden’s Vice Presidental nominee acceptance speech.
McCain’s response to voter’s economic anxieties is at least you’re not checked into the Hanoi Hilton. Maybe McCain knows that some of our boys in desert fatigues might have to make a stay at the Mashhad Marriott down the road. McCain’s war posturing seems to be his solution to American economic problems at home.
Don’t have a job? Can’t pay your bills? Wife doesn’t love you? Join the Army. After you get discharged and labeled a hero, you can divorce your wife, marry a rich heiress and maybe even run for president.
