John McCain's contempt for Barack Obama is alive and well and has been steadily growing since the beginning of the 2008 race for the White House. It's becoming even more obvious now that McCain carries it with the added weight of defeat on his shoulders and the bitter taste of jealousy in his mouth.
One would think that a man with the skill and ability to manuver a military aircraft through the wild blue yonder, would be intelligent enough to realize that if his contemp for a man didn't serve him well when that man was a junior Senator, it most certainly will not serve him well now that that man is the President of The United States.
McCain continues to make the same mistakes that he did during the campaign by not picking his battles and repeatedly bringing a knife to a gunfight whenever he has a bone to pick with President Obama. In spite of multiple failed bids for the presidency, the military vet has the strategic foresight of a 12-year old boy playing battleship.
McCain has such a stunningly inflated sence of himself as the only true, honorable person that he uses contempt of his opponent as a normal tactic. This is his MO and being that he is somewhere closer to the end of this journey called life, there's little time for tender notions, fond reflections, or teaching an old dog new tricks.
The presidency has long been an ambition by McCains own admission, and when news came that the race would be between he and Obama and not Hillery, for a breif moment McCain surely had to believe that victory was all but certain. But then he opened his mouth. Soon after that, he tapped Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate and then she opened her mouth.
What wakes me up in a cold sweat in the wee hours of the morning is my unshakable belief that had Sen. McCain tapped Gov. Huckabee as his VP choice, John McCain would be President of the United States right now as sure as I am sitting here typing these letters onto my computer screen. Just thinking about it scares the bajesus out of me. Instead, McCain will finish out his term as the Senator from Arizona and taking swipes at President Obama even if he has to create the scenarios to criticize him.
In the video clip below, McCain hems Obama up for not speaking out against the situation in Iran as forcefully as other leaders such as French President Nikolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
John McCain's Contempt For Obama Still Growing
Robert Gates And Hillary To GOP Leaders: You’re Putting Our Security At Risk
I’ve obtained a copy of the letter, which was sent to GOP leaders John Boehner and Mitch McConnell and Dem leaders Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, though the obvious targets are the Republicans, who have opposed the IMF funding. Gates and Clinton significantly up the stakes, saying that the IMF funding would reduce the threat of terrorism.
The battle over the IMF funding is at the center of the big battle on Capitol Hill over the war spending bill. House Republicans are strongly opposed to including in the bill the IMF funding, which the White House wants to fulfill a pledge to foreign leaders to fund the IMF to help foreign economies weather the downturn.
In the letter, Gates, Clinton and a third signatory, National Security Adviser James Jones, say the IMF plays a key role in reducing the “security risks” the crisis “poses to our nation and the world.” The crisis, it says, risks destabilizing foreign economies, producing “unforeseeable reactions.”
Ironically, Boehner and Eric Cantor have justified their opposition to the IMF funding on national security grounds, claiming it could help state sponsors of terror. But that case could be tougher to make, now that Gates, Clinton and Jones say funding the IMF is necessary to reduce the terror threat and enhance our security.
Pew Analysis: Obama A Successful President So Far
--FDR got very positive coverage because he was a successful President in very tough times. He got virtually everything he wanted through Congress; the economy started to improve; his party won big in the off-year elections in 1934; he won a massive landslide re-election in 1946 and in two more elections after that, he was a successful war President. No surprise he got lots of good press.
--Eisenhower got mixed coverage because his record was, well, mixed. He got some big things done, got stalemated on others and generally didn't have a big agenda.
You get the idea. Presidents generally get about the media coverage they deserve. Carter and the first President Bush got pretty bad press coverage because they really weren't very good Presidents, and Reagan - who passed many of his biggest legislative initiatives and was generally quite popular - got better coverage.
A lot has been made of Pew's mentioning that Obama did a lot better in his first couple of months than Clinton or GW Bush, but look at each of their first two months:
--Clinton mishandled the gays in the military fight and he got beat in the stimulus debate in his fist two months.
--GW Bush came off a hotly disputed election and got very little accomplished in the first two months. His tax cut bill got passed, and his popularity didn't go high until after 9-11.
--Obama, in his first two months got the biggest stimulus bill in American history passed, along with the popular Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the SCHIP reauthorization, plus he reversed restrictions on embryonic stem-cell research.
I'm reminded of Kevin Costner in Bull Durham: baseball is a pretty simple game, you hit the ball, you pitch the ball, you catch the ball. Politics is the same: if you succeed, the media tends to write good stories about you. If not, they don't.
And frankly, campaigns tend to be much the same. Candidates that run ahead in the polls, raise more money, get bigger crowds, and do better in debates in the polls, tend to - amazingly enough! - garner more positive stories. That may or may not be a good thing, but it's a fact.
Clinton Ask Russia For Unified Response To N. Korea
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A Hero's Welcome In Kosovo For Vice President Biden
Kosovo children cheer as US VP Joe Biden arrived in Kosovo's capital Pristina, 21 May 2009
Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. received a hero's welcome Thursday as one of the highest-level officials yet to visit Kosovo since its disputed declaration of independence from Serbia last year.
"Kosovo's independence was the only viable option for stability in the region," Biden told a special sitting of the Kosovo parliament in Pristina. Cheered on by a huge crowd, Vice President Biden's motorcade had made its way towards the parliament along streets lined by billboards declaring: "Welcome and thank you."
"Your independence is irreversible," he said in a speech that received several standing ovations from the ethnic Albanian dominated assembly
"The success of an independent Kosovo is a priority for our administration and our country."
The US vice president is considered one of Washington's strongest advocates of the independence of ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo, which declared its secession from Serbia in February last year. Coming after trips to Bosnia and Serbia, Biden's visit to Kosovo is his final stop on a tour to demonstrate fresh US engagement in Europe and the volatile Balkan region. Earlier, after meeting with President Fatmir Sejdui, Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and other leaders, Biden said Kosovo awarded him with "The Golden Medal of Freedom," the highest decoration in the Balkan territory.
"Thank you... for honouring me with this medal... I don't deserve it, but I received it on behalf of the United States," Biden told reporters. Local media hailed the visit of Biden, one of the strongest supporters of Kosovo's independence when he served as a senator in the late 1990s.
"Mr. Biden is one of the few politicians in the world that has long believed in the independence of Kosovo. For his contribution to changing our destiny, Biden is our man," the Express daily said Thursday in a commentary. Kosovo's decision to split from Serbia on February 17, 2008 is strongly opposed by Belgrade and Serbs, who number little more than 100,000 in the disputed territory of two million inhabitants. During the Clinton Administration, US warplanes took part in NATO's 1999 bombing of Serbia to end a violent crackdown on separatist Kosovo Albanian rebels by forces loyal to late president Slobodan Milosevic.
NEW KATT WILLIAMS: "Date a President" - On Obama, McCain, an
NEW KATT WILLIAMS: "Date a President" - On Obama, McCain, an
Video sent by ClydeTV
Listen to Katt discuss how the country might need to date a president before getting in a relationship after the harsh break up with George Bush. This is some funny ass material. Katt Willims is a fucking riot!
Jon Stewert Thank You Boston
Colbert Report On 4th of July