McCain: The Presidency Is All in My Head

The Great Orange Satan points to John McCain, admitting that offshore drilling will provide nothing but "psychological" benefits:

At a town hall in Fresno, CA, McCain admitted that the offshore drilling proposal he unveiled last week would probably have mostly “psychological” benefits, NBC/NJ’s Adam Aigner-Treworgy notes. “Even though it may take some years, the fact that we are exploiting those reserves would have psychological impact that I think is beneficial." Uh oh.

But this isn’t the first time that McCain has treated his presidential campaign as an exercise in tilting at windmills psychological affirmation. As a Mid-Western gal, I still cannot believe McCain flew his Sugar Momma Express into Youngstown, Ohio and told a bunch of struggling manufacturing workers that the shitty economy, like the benefits of offshore oil drilling, is just psychological. Here’s McCain telling that to Fox News:

"But I think psychologically – and a lot of our problems today, as you know, are psychological – the confidence, trust, the uncertainty about our economic future, ability to keep our own home," he added.

McCain explained that his proposal to eliminate the federal gas tax for three months would provide Americans the necessary ‘psychological boost’ to deal with their economic problems.

Given McCain’s professed ignorance about economic issues, I guess this isn’t really surprising. But jeebus–isn’t it time for him to admit that his chief domestic policy is to fool Americans with a bunch of psychological hocus pocus?

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45 replies
      • MadDog says:

        No complaints here.

        Given McSame’s lack of knowledge about most anything except Cheerleader panty raids, brewskis and BBQ, he seems likely related to Barney The Lump or his owner.

  1. earlofhuntingdon says:

    McSenile jetting into Y’town to tell the locals that the past twenty-five years of being shat on by local employers, the economy and, shall we say, closely knit families involved in the construction trades, was all in their heads. He’s lucky he made it out without a little graffiti on Sugar Momma’s jet.

    • LabDancer says:

      “all in their heads”. Well that explains it: Poor old guy is so befuddled by the Obama Campaign he’s aiming to win the Virtual presidency – & its not so much that he’s actually McSame: it’s that Bush is his avatar.

    • bmaz says:

      Bad Cop Here – What the hell you talking about??? Are you asserting there is some intellectual honesty in this bohunk that McCain is pitching? Looks to me like the cheap shit is being peddled by McCain.

      • JTMinIA says:

        No, I was asserting that pieces like this add zero (on their own) to serious debate and are much more likely to lower the level of discussion than raise it.

        Compare the replies in thread like these to those that follow more typical EW posts. You’ll see what I mean.

        • MadDog says:

          I would politely disagree to the extent that McSame is a moron in the very same way that Junya was and still remains a moron.

          The media image of McSame has been created by his handlers/backers and complicit MSM groupies.

          In that sense, EW’s post allows us to explore the pushback that we’d like to see eventually crawl, on hands and knees if necessary, from the blogosphere into the addled minds of the Talking Heads and Gotcha Gossips who claim to represent known reality.

          No sense in letting them paint him as a Prince when at best, he’s a frog.

          If we don’t take on this mission, who will?

          Remember the last time the MSM got a frog in their hot little hands. Coming up on 8 years of insanity that even they have to admit is our daily reality.

        • bmaz says:

          Okay, I understand I might have been a tad uncivilized previously upthread. So, let me rephrase my thoughts on McCain. Fuck the addled, old, fraudulent, asswipe gasbag. Oops, I did it again.

        • freepatriot says:

          we ain’t detail devouring nerds all the time, eh

          we talk bout other stuff (and mcsame makes a very shallow reflecting pool)

          some of us even watch baseball and stuff

          btw, anybody else impressed by Fresno St ???

          first time I ever made a positive reference to Fresno that wasn’t preceded by the words “compared to Bakerfield”

  2. earlofhuntingdon says:

    I fail to understand why pointing out Mr. McCain’s numerous inconsistent, often unintelligible “positions” constitutes taking a “cheap shot” at the Republican nominee. He’s not campaigning to be club secretary. He’s asking to be named to the most difficult executive job in the world, made even more difficult by the current president’s intentional lawbreaking and maladministration. It’s precisely what informed public debate requires, for those who still remember it.

    • freepatriot says:

      I fail to understand why pointing out Mr. McCain’s numerous inconsistent, often unintelligible “positions” constitutes taking a “cheap shot” at the Republican nominee.

      maybe cuz it’s so easy to do

      the image of shooting fish in a barrel comes to mind

      pointing out mcsame’s inconsistencies is kinda like dead eye dick “hunting”

      they just release a whole flock of things that can’t fly in front of us and we shoot em

      it’s not really very sportsman like …

      but you campaign against the pathetic whinny assed titty baby opponent you have, not the opponent you wanna have

      if Democrats had picked the repuglitard candidate, we probably coulda done better than grandpa mcsimpson

    • LabDancer says:

      Maybe the least offensive sin for which Cheney is now answerable is turning what was once rightly worth less than a bucket of piss into something which the cable networks & the MSM can’t let 15 minutes pass by without raising like the weather.

      I get the distinct impression that neither Irish Barry nor McFudd ever want to decide – tho for slightly different reasons: Obama because the media will dive right into the bucket to fuel itself through to the convention off more samples than the Mars landing unit will take & McTemper firstly because whoever he picks to help him out in one state means there’s no one to help him out elswhere & secondly because almost immediately the odds of his VP becoming president some day will rate higher than his own.

  3. bmaz says:

    Lets all give McCain a break. He is confused and addled. We need to find him a nice peaceful home somewhere far away from Pennsylvania Avenue.

  4. freepatriot says:

    dude pull yer head out

    we’re all sorry that we can’t have a serious discussion about issues

    but doofus mcsame decided to talk about “psychological benefits” and other goofy shit, so we gotta lower the level of discourse around here to address his “plans” and dreams

    you campaign against the sorry whinny assed titty baby candidate you have, not the candidate you wanna have

    does that clear things up ???

    cuz I got a sawzall, and we’re havin a special on plexiotomys this week

  5. Leen says:

    Sure sounds and looked like General Wesley Clark was displaying his National Security credentials on Morning Joe’s today.

  6. Hugh says:

    The problem is not one of psychology. It is one of mathematics. The energy we get from fossil fuels is poisoning the planet, and there are currently no substitutes that can replace the energy from them. And even if we stick with fossil fuels, we are at or near peak oil and in another decade or so will be at peak energy, and after that it will all be downhill regardless of what we do.

  7. freepatriot says:

    I’m gonna go way off topic here

    Time for another view behind the scary door in my head:

    A teacher in Texas (texas ??? how stupid are you) was fired for apparently trying to turn his class into militant vegans (using Peeps as props, no less) and telling the students to keep it secret from their parents (I’m thinking he knew this wouldn’t fly in texas)

    It worked about as well as the Stanford Experiment, so apparently this guy is suing for wrongful termination or something

    Linkage, dude

    all I can say is Karma is sleeping on the job here

    WHY DON’T THEY JUST EAT THIS STUPID FUCKER AND GET IT OVER WITH ALREADY

    cuz you know, when the food runs out, vegans are gonna make really good steaks

    (wink)

    we now return you to your regularly scheduled topic

    ew, upon further review, I disagee

    mcsame ain’t got some mythical or delusional presidency in his head

    he’s been pulling most of this stuff outta his ass lately

    he wants us to trust him to award a $300 million prize ???

    It doesn’t help that mcsame could fuck up a two car parade, cuz you just KNOW that Halliburton is gonna win the prize anyway

  8. Hugh says:

    BTW Judy Woodruff actually had the chutzpah to ask an Obama spokesman, “Isn’t it true that McCain disagrees with Bush as often as he agrees with him?” How koolaid stupid is that?

  9. behindthefall says:

    Haven’t we been living off a psychological feel-good message for the last 30-odd years, at least since everybody and their uncle jumped on Jimmy Carter’s case for saying that achieving energy independence was the moral equivalent of war? The drilling would be like like handing an alcoholic another case of beer, just to postpone the DTs, just maybe with less effect — O’Douls’, maybe.

    Somebody needs to put the nation in rehab, before reality does it for us.

    • freepatriot says:

      Haven’t we been living off a psychological feel-good message for the last 30-odd years

      yeah, yeah, that’s it

      that’s how I survived the past thirty years

      with that psychological feel good message thingy

      the feel good message thingy is what keeps me off tall buildings …*

      you guys can’t see the bong when I hide it behind the monitor, right ???

      *you don’t wanna know the rest of that sentence

  10. freepatriot says:

    Olberman just said that Gallup report that only 28% of people in a current poll were willing to identify themselves as repuglitards

    67 seats in the Senate, and Impeachments all around

    and don’t call me crazy, they never proved anything. I dodged the evaluation on a technicality

    • MadDog says:

      On a related note, for the absolutely very first time in my entire life, not ten minutes ago, I was called by a pollster (Quinnipiac Polls) for my views on the 2008 Elections.

      Repugs can’t get a break. Heh!

  11. LS says:

    What a dummy McBush is…sounds like they explained that his talking point would be effective “psychologically” and the dummy repeated that part….D’OH..

  12. PJEvans says:

    I like the thought of McSame being president – but only in his head. The rest of us will be happy if he disappears into his collection of war movies. (You know he has one: that’s how he knows so much about WW2. Marron.)

  13. dude says:

    McCain and The Power Psychology

    Or, “Yes, I Can”.

    My theory is that he is simply relying on the defining experience of his own life: being a prisoner of war. It doesn’t surprise me at all that he should put a premium on psychological positives and hopeful (if ineffectual) activities. Ultimately, he believes what a lot of Conservatives believe: that willpower is all that matters.

    • hackworth says:

      The crazy old bastard’s fixation on things psychological – exchanging tangible for intangible – hearkens back to his time in solitary confinement.

      This is no time for psychological ointments. Wind and solar need huge federal investment. Citizens need 100 percent tax credits for home installations.

  14. masaccio says:

    Totally OT, reporting from Beijing.

    Yesterday, we saw the beautiful Summer Palace, and the Lamasery Temple. It confirms my view that there is little change in the Old China. The construction is the same, and the best that can be said is that some of the cross beams in the long corridor have little paintings instead of geometric designs, and that the the Dowager Empress put in a phone shortly before she died in 1908, at the end of the feudal period.

    We also went to the Silk Alley, a shopping bazaar in the Guangzhou style, but cleaner and newer, and somewhat more sedate.

    I have been reading Terror and Consent, by Phillip Bobbitt while traveling. It is not terribly convincing, but it got me to thinking about something I see here. Years ago, as I was waking from my political stupor, I read a book by Michael Novak, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, which argues that capitalism and Christianity go together, and that democracy follows in their path. China gives that argument an empirical challenge. The government isn’t at all democratic, and capitalism is flourishing. Even the State enterprises, like the huge Cloisonne factory and the Agriculture Museum have entered the capitalist fray, with huge factory outlet stores offering a great array of finely crafted products, and delicious tea, in a perfect capitalist form.

    And the people, meaning my guides, since I cannot talk to anyone else, don’t seem to worried about the lack of the trappings of democracy, like voting, and a free press. My guides seem quite happy with the government, which is doing an excellent job of maximizing their opportunities to make money and do stuff and own stuff. My guide here tells us that her parents own a business making cooking oils, soy and sunflower, and selling at wholesale and retail. They have done very well, educating their three kids and setting them up for the future, so well that none of the kids seems interested in running the family business. It is hard to imagine what democracy and voting would add to their lives.

    Reading here and elsewhere as time permits, it doesn’t sound much like the US government is at all responsive to the concerns of the populace on major issues. It looks from here like the US is intent on proving that capitalism doesn’t have any interest in democracy. It is only interested in money, and if that means a surveillance state, as here or in the US, then fine, let’s do it.

    The trappings of democracy, like voting and a capitalist media, don’t really influence anything in the US either. All of the anger and action of the late 60s and early 70s didn’t bring any change. Neither has this round, even after the republicans were thoroughly crushed in the 2006 election. The politicians do whatever they want, and there is no way to hold them accountable. On major issues, our policy is made by intrigues that would shame the Dowager Empress Cixi. The same people who gave us Iran-Contra are now lined up to bomb Iran. Nothing changes.

    • MadDog says:

      Democracy indeed, has a very short history (and perhaps a now shortened lifespan).

      The “market economy” however, is many millenia old. Bread and circuses have been the mainstay of rulers regardless of form of government.

      That China (like its neighbor Russia) have reverted to, returned to, or even just resumed after a slight interruption, to the only market mechanism that works, is not that all surprising.

      No, Democracy is neither a prerequisite of a “market economy” nor a outgrowth of it.

      Sadly, Democracy may have just been a fluke of human history whose presence was tolerated for a while but eventually subsumed by:

      Multiple Choice Answers:

      1. Neglect.
      2. Design of the Rulers.
      3. Votes of the Ruled.

    • emptywheel says:

      My first trip to China came not long after I went to Brazil with some Brazilian friends, including to some of the booming cities in the south inland. On the trip I also did a tour of the Rocinha favela.

      And it made me think–for people undergoing that kind of change, who would you rather have in charge of your security? The state, or the gangs?

      And given our–until recent–stupor on politics, it’s not clear most Americans WOULD choose democracy over the change in China.

      What you’re not seeing, though, is the insecurity of both the migrant workers–who live in substandard housing in the big cities and often are abused by their employers, nor the terrible pollution in the rural areas. China’s got a great deal of instability in rural areas.

      And frankly, most of their “middle class” are still so poorly paid that when inflation hits–as it is hitting–folks won’t be so happy anymore. The kids I worked with in car dealers made about $200/mo selling cars with prices equivalent to US cars (more in Beijing). That’s not enough for long term security or happiness, and while factory wages are going up, the middle class is getting further out of reach for a lot of Chinese.

  15. masaccio says:

    I know I am not seeing the housing for the poor in Beijing, although I did in Guangzhou and Xi’an. I would like to, but it isn’t possible here. As to the middle class, I think there are problems as you say. Both our guides have mentioned the increase in fuel prices, adding that they didn’t get a raise to deal with it. On the other hand, the government is acting to curb inflation, by revaluing the yuan against the dollar, which will help in petroleum purchases. They seem to be building a lot of high rises here (some notably beautiful and some plain weird), and it looks like some of the money could be spent on scrubbers for the coal plants.

    I don’t doubt that they have problems, but I think the government here clearly thinks that it can maintain consent of the people as long as they maximize opportunities for the people to make money. Bobbitt calls the Market State of consent, which he says is replacing the Nation State even in the West.

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