Thursday, September 25, 2008

McCain and the Fire Drill

John McCain is a decorated war hero. We all know that because we're told that every day. John McCain already has all the right tools needed to run this country. I've seen his ads, and they all indicate that he's the man with the plan. He may be a tad vague on the details, and on a lot of other things for that matter, but I've been listening to all that the maverick is sending my way. It's rather hard to take it all in, though, as we watch his entire campaign melt down faster than a mortgage-backed security. This campaign looks like the milling around of kids in a classroom when the teacher is out and the fire bell rings.

Let's talk about his campaign manager, Rick Davis. He is or, maybe, is not with a firm that gets thousands of dollars monthly from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for doing nothing. He quit in 2006....he quit last month. They have done no work for theses entities, yet are on a retainer. They are being paid for their access to John McCain. John tells one story....the New York Times tells another. John is on TV vouching for this man's integrity when he doesn't have the full story or just lies about the guy's involvement. Either way, this is not a good thing and indicates poor communication inside the campaign.

Then there's his running mate. I think we've all seen her. Perhaps we haven't any idea of what she's actually about, but we've seen her. Cute as a button she is, and incapable of making it through an interview with the likes of Charlie Gibson or Katie Couric, two former morning show hosts, without serious gaffes. I mean, unless I'm missing some inner intelligence that she's intentionally hiding, the lady is hopeless. It's not as if Katie and Charlie are playing Stump the Candidate in their interviews with any of these guys, and she failed to impress on any level. As with every other aspect of this campaign, what are they really trying to do to and with this woman? If they are trying to allay our fears about her leadership ability, it ain't workin'. If they are trying to make her look vice-presidential....dear God. My deepest suspicion is that there is no actual plan of how to use her....that she was and is a stunt. That doesn't speak well of this campaign.

Now we come to the Maverick's handling of serious issues. He cancels conventions because of bad weather a half-continent away. He reassures us about the economy that he told us only months ago he really doesn't understand. Several days later, he's the grim reaper on the same economy and he's back to cancelling things again. This time he's cancelling the debates that many voters use as serious tools to decide who should be running this country. His return to Washington seems to be designed to ease our worries about the economy, as John takes over and repairs things for us. Yet, no one seems very reassured by this bi-polar reaction to all the things that are frightening the American people today.
It seems to be another indication of a campaign that hasn't prepared the candidate well enough for a debate with a pretty impressive opponent. It also doesn't look very tough and presidential.

If all this weren't frenetic enough, today John, who suspended his campaign appearances to get back to Washington to solve our problem for us, is having a sit-down with George Bush, who is the author of all our turmoil. Should the campaign even be allowing McCain in the same building with Bush? Doesn't that merely remind everyone in the country which party has been minding the store horribly for the past eight years? Here's hoping they get a really good shot of him giving George a big wet one on the lips. John and George are even dragging Barack Obama into this useless photo-op that will solve nothing. The real work of trying to sort this mess out has already been done, or will be accomplished by folks who actually handle these things daily, for a living.

Watching all this I have come up with three alternatives as to why this campaign is so terribly screwed up. First, perhaps Karl Rove really is running this one, and McCain's people have some wonderfully nasty surprise left for us in October. Second, it could be that John McCain is running this himself and is such a stubborn old coot that he's going to screw it up all by himself. Lastly, and I suspect that this is really the case, everyone is running this campaign. It has that piece-meal, everything by the seat of the pants feel of desperate people throwing things up against the wall and hoping for something to just hang there for a day or two. People are running in all directions, accomplishing nothing, frightened and frightening....sort of like, well, a fire drill.

Hey, it may work. The low information voters are out there, and they don't analyze this stuff as much as we do. He might just pull this thing out.

But, God, this is terrible campaigning....and an even worse way to run a country.

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