The Week That Should Have Ended McCain's Presidential Hopes

[one...two...tree 2,762]

By Max Bermann

This is the week that should have effectively ended John McCain's efforts to become the next president of the United States. But you wouldn't know it if you watched any of the mainstream media outlets or followed political reporting in the major newspapers.

During this past week: McCain called the most important entitlement program in the U.S. a disgrace, his top economic adviser called the American people whiners, McCain released an economic plan that no one thought was serious, he flip flopped on Iraq, joked about the deaths of Iranian citizens, and denied making comments that he clearly made -- TWICE. All this and it is not even Friday! Yet watching and reading the mainstream press you would think McCain was having a pretty decent political week, I mean at least Jesse Jackson didn't say anything about him.

But let's unpack McCain's week in a little more detail.

1. McCain unambiguously called Social Security "an absolute disgrace." This is not a quote taken out of context. John McCain called one of the most successful and popular government programs, which uses the tax revenues of current workers to support retirement benefits for the elderly "an absolute disgrace." This is shocking - and if uttered from Obama's mouth would dominate the news coverage and the Sunday shows, as pundits would speculate about the massive damage the statement would cause him among retirees in Florida.

2. McCain's top economic policy adviser calls Americans a bunch of "whiners" for being worried about the slumping economy. Words cannot fully explain how devastating this statement should be from Phil Gramm. You would think it would be enough to sink McCain's campaign. Of course McCain only thinks that the economic problems are psychological.

3. Iraqi leaders call for a timetable for U.S. withdrawal, McCain gets caught in a bizarre denial and flip flop. The Iraqis now want us to begin planning our withdrawal - McCain however wants to stay foooorrreeevvveerrrr. So what does McCain say - First, he refuses to accept Maliki's statement as being true. Then he concedes that it was an accurate statement, but was probably just a political ploy to curry favor with his own people and WOULD NOT influence his determination to keep US troops in Iraq indefinitely. Yet, McCain in 2004 at the Council on Foreign Relations said that if the Iraqis asked us to leave, we would have to go. No matter what. But that was apparently a younger and less experienced John McCain.

But let's just look at his comment that Maliki's statement is "just politics." If that is true, then it must also be true that the American military presence in Iraq is so unpopular with Iraqis that the government is forced to push for a timetable in order to survive at the ballot box. That's a reason to stay for 100 years.

4. McCain's economic plan to cut the deficit has no details and is simply not believable. There are so many things here. McCain pledges he would eliminate the deficit by the end of his first term (the campaign latter flip flop flipped about whether it was four years or eight years), but does not provide any details about how he would do it. Economists on both sides of the political aisle said that this was simply not believable, especially given McCain's other proposals to a) cut individual and corporate taxes even further, b.) extend the Bush tax cuts and c) massively increase defense spending on manpower (200,000 more troops) and d) maintain a long-term sizable military presence in Iraq.

5. McCain's deficit plan includes bringing the troops home represents a major Iraq flip-flop. Speaking of the long-term military presence - a story that has gotten absolutely no attention is that McCain now believes the war will be over soon. The economic forecasts made by his crack team of economists predict that there will be significant savings during McCain's first term because we will have achieved "victory" in Iraq and Afghanistan. The savings from victory (ie the savings from not having our troops there) will then be used to pay down the deficit. The only way this could have any impact on the deficit in McCain's first time is if troop withdrawals start very soon. So McCain believes victory is in our grasps and we can begin withdraw troops from Iraq pretty much right away -- doesn't sound that different from Obama's plan does it. Someone should at least ask McCain HOW HE DEFINES VICTORY - and why he thinks we will achieve it in the next couple of years.

6. McCain campaign misled about economists support. In the major press release the McCain campaign issued to tout its Jobs for America economic plan that would balance the budget in 4 years, it included the signatures of more than 300 economists who the campaign claimed to support the plan. Only problem is that the economists were actually asked to sign up to SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. Um, hello?

7. McCain makes a joke about killing Iranians. Haha... that's just McCain being McCain. I am sure that is exactly how it is being reported in Tehran. This guy is running for President not to become a talk radio pundit. Yet according to the AP this was just a humanizing moment between candidate and spouse - I am not sure when joking about the deaths of civilians became humanizing.

8. McCain denies, flatly, that he ever said that he is

in economics. Are you kidding?

9). McCain distorts his record on veterans benefits in response to a question from Vietnam Veteran, who then proceeds to call McCain out on it.

10.) McCain demonstrates he knows nothing about Afghanistan and Pakistan. McCain said "I think if there is some good news, I think that there is a glimmer of improving relationship between Karzai and the Pakistanis." Pat Barry notes how crazy this comment is..."Just what "glimmer" is McCain talking about?? Maybe he's referring to President Karzai's remarks last month, which threatened military action in Pakistan if cross-border attacks persisted? Or maybe McCain is talking about Afghanistan's allegations that Pakistan's ISI was involved in a recent assassination attempt on Karzai? Maybe in McCain's world you could call that a silver-lining, but in reality-land I'd call it something else."

Any one of these incidents and comments would dominate the news cycle if they came from the Obama campaign. Yet McCain barely gets a mention. The press like to see themselves as political referees - neutral observers that call them like they see em'. But they want this to be a horse race and so all the calls right now are going one way. How else can you explain the furor last week over the Obama "refine" comment - which represented zero change in Obama's position on Iraq - and the "swift boat"

over Wesley Clark's uncontroversial comments (psss... by the way McCain exploits his POW experience in just about every ad - yet he says he doesn't like to talk about it).

This Sunday expect the ten incidents above to get short shrift from pundit after pundit, because after all Jesse Jackson said he wanted to cut Obama's nuts off.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-bergmann...e_b_111983.html

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

As I say - I saw on the news earlier this week that the bookies had lengthened the odds on McCain winning the election.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

McCain's broken marriage and fractured Reagan friendship

The nature and timing of his divorce from Carol Shepp alienated key friends -- and his version doesn't always match that in court documents.

By Richard A. Serrano and Ralph Vartabedian

Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

July 11, 2008

Outside her Bel-Air home, Nancy Reagan stood arm in arm with John McCain and offered a significant -- but less than exuberant -- endorsement.

"Ronnie and I always waited until everything was decided, and then we endorsed," the Republican matriarch said in March. "Well, obviously this is the nominee of the party." They were the only words she would speak during the five-minute photo op.

In a written statement, she described McCain as "a good friend for over 30 years." But that friendship was strained in the late 1970s by McCain's decision to divorce his first wife, Carol, who was particularly close to the Reagans, and within weeks marry Cindy Hensley, the young heiress to a lucrative Arizona beer distributorship.

The Reagans rushed to help Carol, finding her a new home in Southern California with the family of Reagan aide Edwin Meese III and a series of political and White House jobs to ease her through that difficult time.

McCain, who is about to become the GOP nominee, has made several statements about how he divorced Carol and married Hensley that conflict with the public record.

In his 2002 memoir, "Worth the Fighting For," McCain wrote that he had separated from Carol before he began dating Hensley.

"I spent as much time with Cindy in Washington and Arizona as our jobs would allow," McCain wrote. "I was separated from Carol, but our divorce would not become final until February of 1980."

An examination of court documents tells a different story. McCain did not sue his wife for divorce until Feb. 19, 1980, and he wrote in his court petition that he and his wife had "cohabited" until Jan. 7 of that year -- or for the first nine months of his relationship with Hensley.

Although McCain suggested in his autobiography that months passed between his divorce and remarriage, the divorce was granted April 2, 1980, and he wed Hensley in a private ceremony five weeks later. McCain obtained an Arizona marriage license on March 6, 1980, while still legally married to his first wife.

Until McCain filed for divorce, the Reagans and their inner circle assumed he was happily married, and they were stunned to learn otherwise, according to several close aides.

"Everybody was upset with him," recalled Nancy Reynolds, a top aide to the former president who introduced him to McCain.

By contrast, some of McCain's friends, including the Senate aide who was at the reception where McCain first met Hensley, believed he was separated at that time.

Albert "Pete" Lakeland, the aide who was with McCain at the reception in Hawaii in April 1979, said of the introduction to Hensley: "It was like he was struck by Cupid's arrow. He was just enormously smitten."

As the pair began dating, Lakeland allowed them to spend a weekend together at his summer home in Maryland, he said.

The senator has acknowledged that he behaved badly, and that his swift divorce and remarriage brought a cold shoulder from the Reagans that lasted years.

In a recent interview, McCain said he did not want to revisit the breakup of his marriage. "I have a very good relationship with my first wife," he said. In his autobiography, he wrote: "My marriage's collapse was attributable to my own selfishness and immaturity. The blame was entirely mine."

Tucker Bounds, a McCain campaign spokesman, said: "Of course we will not comment on the breakup of the senator's first marriage, other than to note that the senator has always taken responsibility for it."

Carol McCain did not respond to a request for an interview.

About all she has ever said is this to McCain biographer Robert Timberg: "John was turning 40 and wanting to be 25 again."

After leaving the White House, Carol McCain worked in press relations in the Washington area, retiring about five years ago after working for the National Soft Drink Assn. She now lives in Virginia Beach, Va., and has not remarried. She has two sons from an earlier marriage: Andy, a vice president at Cindy McCain's beer distributorship, and Doug, a commercial airline pilot.

Carol and John McCain had a daughter, Sidney, who works in the music industry in Canada.

John McCain, who calls himself "a foot soldier in the Reagan revolution," said in his memoir: "My divorce from Carol, whom the Reagans loved, caused a change in our relationship. Nancy . . . was particularly upset with me and treated me on the few occasions we encountered each other after I came to Congress with a cool correctness that made her displeasure clear.

"I had, of course, deserved the change in our relationship."

Joanne Drake, spokeswoman for Nancy Reagan, did not return phone calls seeking comment.

The first Mrs. McCain

McCain met Carol Shepp through a mutual friend and fellow midshipman at the Naval Academy, from which McCain graduated in 1958. That friend, Alasdair E. Swanson, married her in 1958. In the early 1960s, the Swansons lived in Pensacola, Fla., where Alasdair Swanson and McCain served as Navy pilots.

But that marriage ended in June 1964 after Carol sued for divorce, alleging that her husband had been unfaithful.

According to McCain, he started seeing Carol shortly afterward. They were married in Philadelphia, her hometown, in July 1965. McCain adopted her two sons, and they had a daughter together. Then in October 1967, McCain's plane was shot down and he was captured by the North Vietnamese.

She became active in the POW-MIA movement. A former model, she dedicated herself to her children and kept the family together, friends said, while awaiting his return.

"She had the perseverance to carry on," said Melinda Fitzwater, a cousin of McCain's who later worked with Carol McCain at the White House. "She had a little baby and small kids. She was a great, unique person."

On Christmas Eve 1969, while she was driving alone in Philadelphia, Carol McCain's car skidded and struck a utility pole. Thrown into the snow, she broke both legs, an arm and her pelvis. She was operated on a dozen times, and in the treatment she lost about 5 inches in height.

After John McCain was released in March 1973 and returned to the U.S., he told friends that Carol was not the woman he had married.

Reynolds, working for then-California Gov. Ronald Reagan, said she first met the couple in San Francisco at a reception for ex-prisoners. She later introduced them to the Reagans at their home in Pacific Palisades.

"They were just an attractive couple," Reynolds said. "The Reagans had great admiration and respect for John."

In 1974, Reagan invited McCain to speak at a governor's prayer breakfast in Sacramento. The former prisoner of war told the story of a fellow captive who had scratched a prayer on a cell wall. Ronald and Nancy Reagan were reduced to tears. It was "the most moving speech I had ever heard," Reynolds said.

In the next few years, family and friends said, there was no sign that McCain was unhappy in his marriage. Fitzwater recalled visiting the family on Thanksgivings, and McCain seemed content barbecuing a turkey on his outdoor grill near Jacksonville, Fla.

Navy officers in the squadron McCain commanded in 1977 said they did not know anything was wrong. "When I went to parties at their home, everything seemed fine," said Mike Akin, a naval flying instructor. "They seemed to be a happily married couple."

But two years later, while on a trip as a Navy liaison with the Senate, McCain spied Hensley at the Honolulu reception. In a recent television interview with Jay Leno on the "Tonight Show," Cindy McCain joked about how the Navy captain had pursued her. "He kind of chased me around . . . the hors d'oeuvre table," she said. "I was trying to get something to eat and I thought, 'This guy's kind of weird.' I was kind of trying to get away from him."

John McCain was 42; she was 24. During the next nine months, he would fly to Arizona or she would come to the Washington area, where McCain and Carol had a home.

Carol McCain later told friends, including Reynolds and Fitzwater, that she did not know he was seeing anyone else.

John McCain sued for divorce in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., where his friend and fellow former POW, George E. "Bud" Day, practiced law and could represent him.

In the petition, he stated that the couple had "cohabited as husband and wife" until Jan. 7, 1980.

His wife did not contest the divorce, and Day said that the couple had reached an agreement in advance on support and division of property. By then she was living in La Mesa, in San Diego County, with the family of Meese, a close Reagan aide and future attorney general.

"We knew John and Carol both since he came back from Hanoi in 1973," Meese said recently. "They have been friends of ours ever since.

"She was with us for maybe four or five months. Their daughter and our daughter were friends, and they went to school together."

Carol McCain was distraught at being blindsided by her husband's intention to end their marriage, said her friends in the Reagan circle.

"They [the Reagans] weren't happy with him," Fitzwater said. Carol McCain "was this little, frail person. . . . She was brokenhearted."

By that time, Nancy Reagan had come to Carol McCain's aid, hiring her as a press assistant in the 1980 presidential campaign.

When the Reagans moved to Washington, she was named director of the White House Visitors Office.

"Nancy Reagan was crazy about her," Reynolds said. "But everybody was crazy about Carol McCain. . . . And the Meeses were very generous and helpful and comforting to her."

Fitzwater said that living in Southern California and working on the Reagan campaign helped Carol McCain move past the loss of her marriage.

"It was perfect for her. She was traveling, and it took her mind off a very, very sad time for her."

[alienlovechild 75]

This Sunday expect the ten incidents above to get short shrift from pundit after pundit, because after all Jesse Jackson said he wanted to cut Obama's nuts off.

Let's also ignore Jackson's comment that Obama talks down to black Americans.

1. McCain unambiguously called Social Security "an absolute disgrace."

True, a elaborate Ponzi scheme that's a waste for anyone under 45. More Dem fearmongering which happens EVERY election cycle.

2. McCain's top economic policy adviser calls Americans a bunch of "whiners" for being worried about the slumping economy.

Considering we still don't have the recession stats and Dems always say "worst economy since the Great Depression" no matter what's happening, whining is our national cry since, "No taxation without representation." Whining Founding Fathers.

3. Iraqi leaders call for a timetable for U.S. withdrawal, McCain gets caught in a bizarre denial and flip flop. The Iraqis now want us to begin planning our withdrawal - McCain however wants to stay foooorrreeevvveerrrr. Then he concedes that it was an accurate statement, but was probably just a political ploy to curry favor with his own people and WOULD NOT influence his determination to keep US troops in Iraq indefinitely. Yet, McCain in 2004 at the Council on Foreign Relations said that if the Iraqis asked us to leave, we would have to go.

The Iraqi government has said this stuff before. The U.S. left several allied countries when asked: Panama, the Philippines, Libya, Somalia, Spain, Saudi Arabia (?), Iran, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua . . . I can only think of Gitmo on Cuba as the only U.S. base on soil with a hostile government.

7. McCain makes a joke about killing Iranians. Haha... that's just McCain being McCain.

Right, this is the Huffington Post so lying is isn't beyond them. I think McCain said Iranians smoking American cigarettes kills Iranians. Who cares about about cigarettes in a country with the highest proportion of heroin addicts? Let's forget about the weekly "Death to America" chants for the last 30 years. It's just the Iranian sense of humor.

Edited July 11, 2008 by alienlovechild

[one...two...tree 2,762]

This Sunday expect the ten incidents above to get short shrift from pundit after pundit, because after all Jesse Jackson said he wanted to cut Obama's nuts off.

Let's also ignore Jackson's comment that Obama talks down to black Americans.

1. McCain unambiguously called Social Security "an absolute disgrace."

True, a elaborate Ponzi scheme that's a waste for anyone under 45. More Dem fearmongering which happens EVERY election cycle.

2. McCain's top economic policy adviser calls Americans a bunch of "whiners" for being worried about the slumping economy.

Considering we still don't have the recession stats and Dems always say "worst economy since the Great Depression" no matter what's happening, whining is our national cry since, "No taxation without representation." Whining Founding Fathers.

3. Iraqi leaders call for a timetable for U.S. withdrawal, McCain gets caught in a bizarre denial and flip flop. The Iraqis now want us to begin planning our withdrawal - McCain however wants to stay foooorrreeevvveerrrr. Then he concedes that it was an accurate statement, but was probably just a political ploy to curry favor with his own people and WOULD NOT influence his determination to keep US troops in Iraq indefinitely. Yet, McCain in 2004 at the Council on Foreign Relations said that if the Iraqis asked us to leave, we would have to go.

The Iraqi government has said this stuff before. The U.S. left several allied countries when asked: Panama, the Philippines, Libya, Somalia, Spain, Saudi Arabia (?), Iran, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua . . . I can only think of Gitmo on Cuba as the only U.S. base on soil with a hostile government.

7. McCain makes a joke about killing Iranians. Haha... that's just McCain being McCain.

Right, this is the Huffington Post so lying is isn't beyond them. I think McCain said Iranians smoking American cigarettes kills Iranians. Who cares about about cigarettes in a country with the highest proportion of heroin addicts? Let's forget about the weekly "Death to America" chants for the last 30 years. It's just the Iranian sense of humor.

Fortunately, most of America doesn't share your sentiment.

[alienlovechild 75]

Fortunately, most of America doesn't share your sentiment.

Why have leaders, representatives, a constitution, laws, separation of powers, federalism. . . let's just poll the public.

Jabba, you're another voter who substituted history and government classes by watching people vote on "American Idol" and "Survivor". That explains why Obama is doing so well.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Fortunately, most of America doesn't share your sentiment.

Why have leaders, representatives, a constitution, laws, separation of powers, federalism. . . let's just poll the public.

Jabba, you're another voter who substituted history and government classes by watching people vote on "American Idol" and "Survivor". That explains why Obama is doing so well.

Oh geez...yes...everyone who won't vote for McCain hasn't the foggiest idea what they are doing. Dude, you need to lighten up and stop thinking everyone isn't as smart as you...seriously.

[no name 1]

Fortunately, most of America doesn't share your sentiment.

Why have leaders, representatives, a constitution, laws, separation of powers, federalism. . . let's just poll the public.

Jabba, you're another voter who substituted history and government classes by watching people vote on "American Idol" and "Survivor". That explains why Obama is doing so well.

Oh geez...yes...everyone who won't vote for McCain hasn't the foggiest idea what they are doing. Dude, you need to lighten up and stop thinking everyone isn't as smart as you...seriously.

Take your own advice, perhaps?

Even Obama-loving HuffPo has their doubts....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristen-brei...n_b_111627.html

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Fortunately, most of America doesn't share your sentiment.

Why have leaders, representatives, a constitution, laws, separation of powers, federalism. . . let's just poll the public.

Jabba, you're another voter who substituted history and government classes by watching people vote on "American Idol" and "Survivor". That explains why Obama is doing so well.

Oh geez...yes...everyone who won't vote for McCain hasn't the foggiest idea what they are doing. Dude, you need to lighten up and stop thinking everyone isn't as smart as you...seriously.

Take your own advice, perhaps?

Even Obama-loving HuffPo has their doubts....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristen-brei...n_b_111627.html

Huh? See the part in red...I think I have every right to stand up for myself when being insulted.

[no name 1]

Oh geez...yes...everyone who won't vote for McCain hasn't the foggiest idea what they are doing. Dude, you need to lighten up and stop thinking everyone isn't as smart as you...seriously.

Take your own advice, perhaps?

Even Obama-loving HuffPo has their doubts....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristen-brei...n_b_111627.html

Huh? See the part in red...I think I have every right to stand up for myself when being insulted.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Oh geez...yes...everyone who won't vote for McCain hasn't the foggiest idea what they are doing. Dude, you need to lighten up and stop thinking everyone isn't as smart as you...seriously.

Take your own advice, perhaps?

Even Obama-loving HuffPo has their doubts....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristen-brei...n_b_111627.html

Huh? See the part in red...I think I have every right to stand up for myself when being insulted.

Good grief, Dev...this isn't a freaking war. I was addressing him directly. Please stay out of it.

[no name 1]

I found it funny that your source is valid, yet when I posted a conflicting reply from the same source, I need permission to reply.

Edited July 11, 2008 by illumine

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I found it funny that your source is valid, yet when I posted a conflicting reply from the same source, I need permission to reply.

No, I wasn't talking about your posted article and you know that. Post away to hearts content, but I'm not sure why you felt it was your place to instigate the personal jab made at me by alienlovechild - that I basically don't know #### about history because I watched TV while he read the annals of history starting from year one.

[no name 1]

I found it funny that your source is valid, yet when I posted a conflicting reply from the same source, I need permission to reply.

No, I wasn't talking about your posted article and you know that. Post away to hearts content, but I'm not sure why you felt it was your place to instigate the personal jab made at me by alienlovechild - that I basically don't know #### about history because I watched TV while he read the annals of history starting from year one.

Geez...

Dude, you need to lighten up