BernieHund: The Political Watchdog

John McCain is sounding more and more like a bitter old man, a loser, and still confused from time to time.  Of course, Barack Obama is touring Europe now and looking like an elegant head of state with a following that is overflowing most venues.

In Berlin today, Barack Obama charmed the masses with another hypnotizing speech.  Back on the home front, John McCain first said that he had enjoyed watching Obama on the tour.  Apparently, that fascination has faded… at least for McCain.

“I had the courage and the judgment to say that I would rather lose a political campaign than lose a war,” John McCain said during a Rochester, N.H., town meeting on July 22. “It seems to me that Senator Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign.” It was a remarkable statement, as intemperate a personal attack as I’ve ever heard a major-party candidate make in a presidential campaign, the sort of thing that no potential President of the United States should ever be caught saying. (A prudent candidate has aides sling that sort of mud.) It was also inevitable.

First, in an interview with Katie Couric (that was conveniently edited) McCain seemed to have a few Iraq facts scattered about a McCain timeline rather than a real timeline.  Since that time, McCain has tried to dance around the facts and argue semantics.  But, isn’t that what candidates always do when they misspeak?  Anyway, you cut it, a square peg still won’t fit in a round hole.

Then, McCain tried to play off the frustration of the media coverage of Obama on tour by labeling his few remaining “press people” as JV’s.  I don’t know if that was a way to deflect his lack of coverage or to just plain insult the reporters he handed the “JV” name tags to.

While enduring minimal coverage, McCain must have thought the mike was off… well, we know that wasn’t the case.  It was during a town hall meeting that McCain finally flaunted his frustration.  In all probability McCain isn’t just lashing out about Obama.  He must be frustrated that Bush has a new “horizon”… not a timeline… for withdrawal of troops from Iraq.  And, then al-Maliki seemed to agree with Obama about the withdrawal of troops. 

Then the Bush administration who would never agree to negotiate with Iran without a whole bunch of pre-conditions… and McCain said he would not negotiate with Iran… well, Bush sent a negotiator to a high level meeting with Iran’s top negotiator.  Call it a slap in McCain’s face if you will, it seems to have come as a complete surprise to McCain.  Ah, it seems that the Bush administration was following the Obama plan, not McCain’s.

Some weeks nothing goes right.  This has been one of those weeks for John McCain.  Whether intended or not… and I do suspect it was fully intended… Barack Obama has managed to press all of John McCain’s hot buttons this week.  Needless to say, McCain has become hotter and hotter.  An eruption was inevitable!  How convenient!  It all happened while Obama is an ocean away.

Joe Klein wrote in Time:

McCain’s greatest claim to the presidency — his overseas expertise — now seems squandered. He has appeared brittle and inflexible, slow to adapt to changes on the ground, slow to grasp the full implications not only of the improving situation in Iraq but also of the worsening situation in Afghanistan and especially Pakistan. Some will say this behavior raises questions about his age. I’ll leave those to gerontologists. A more obvious explanation is that McCain has straitjacketed himself in an ideology focused more on enemies (real and imagined) than on opportunities.

Later in the same piece Klein wrote:

He has been militant on Iran, though even there his statements have been tactical rather than strategic: his tactic is not to talk to the bad guys.

The strategic question here is whether to go for regime change or diplomatic engagement. McCain hasn’t said he was for regime change, but he has rattled sabers noisily, joked about bomb-bomb-bombing Iran and surrounded himself with, and been funded by, Jewish neoconservatives who believe Iran is a threat to Israel’s existence. He has also taken a rather exotic line on Russia, which he wants to drum out of the G-8 organization of major industrial powers (a foolish proposal, since none of the other G-8 members would abide by it). His notion of a “League of Democracies” seems a transparent attempt to draw a with-us-or-against-us line in the sand against Russia and China. But that’s the point: McCain would place a higher priority on finding new enemies than on cultivating new friends.

The sudden collapse of McCain’s Middle East policy is a stunning event, although McCain’s regional stridency raised questions from the start. This is a long campaign — with, I fearlessly predict, at least one major Obama downdraft to come — but John McCain seems panicked, and in deep trouble now.

It could not have been better said.