NYT, Bob Herbert: "How much do voters really know about MCCAIN?"

[DeepModem Mom]

Getting to Know You
By BOB HERBERT
Published: July 26, 2008

The conventional wisdom in this radically unconventional presidential race is that the voters have to get to know Barack Obama better....

But what about the other guy? How much do voters really know about John McCain?

Senator McCain crossed a line that he shouldn’t have this week when he said that Mr. Obama “would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign.” It was a lousy comment, tantamount to calling Mr. Obama a traitor, and Senator McCain should apologize for it. But what we’ve learned over the years is that Mr. McCain is one of those guys who never has to pay much of a price for his missteps and foul-ups and bad behavior. Can you imagine the firestorm of outrage and criticism that would have descended on Senator Obama if he had made the kind of factual mistakes that John McCain has repeatedly made in this campaign?

(Or if Senator Obama had had the temerity to even remotely suggest that John McCain would consider being disloyal to his country for political reasons?)

We have a monumental double standard here. Mr. McCain has had trouble in his public comments distinguishing Sunnis from Shiites and had to be corrected in one stunningly embarrassing moment by his good friend Joe Lieberman. He has referred to a Iraq-Pakistan border when the two countries do not share a border. He declared on CBS that Iraq was the first major conflict after 9/11, apparently forgetting — at least for the moment — about the war in Afghanistan. In that same interview, he credited the so-called surge of U.S. forces in Iraq with bringing about the Anbar Awakening, a movement in which thousands of Sunnis turned on insurgents. He was wrong. The awakening preceded the surge.

More important than these endless gaffes are matters that give us glimpses of the fundamental makeup of the man. A celebrated warrior as a young man, he has always believed that the war in Iraq can (and must) be won....He also felt we could have, and should have, won the war in Vietnam....The spirit of the warrior was on display in the famous incident in which Mr. McCain, with the insouciance of a veteran bomber pilot, sang “Bomb-bomb Iran” to the tune of “Barbara Ann” by the Beach Boys. No big deal. Just John being John. But then, we are already bogged down in two wars. And John is running for president. It’s hardly crazy to wonder.

Part of the makeup of the man — apparently a significant part, according to many close observers — is his outsized temper....If the McCain gaffes seem endless, so do the tales about his angry, profanity-laced eruptions. Senator Thad Cochran, a Mississippi Republican, said of Mr. McCain: “The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine.” Senator Pete Domenici, a New Mexico Republican, told Newsweek in 2000: “I decided I didn’t want this guy anywhere near a trigger.”...

***

My guess is that most voters don’t see John McCain as an angry candidate, despite several very public lapses. The mythical John McCain is an affable, straight-talking, moderately conservative war hero who is an expert on foreign policy....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/opinion/26herbert.html?hp

[grantcart]

1. "We have a monumental double standard here"

[whatchamacallit]

2. We'll soon get an picture of the scope of America's mental health problems

because only the most delusional would ever consider voting for this fucking loser.

[Me.]

3. I've Got To Wonder If Herbert Is Schizo

I've seen him several times on Hardball, recently, where he spent most of the time chipping away at Obama. Now this nice piece of truth.

I'm waiting for McCain to blow his stack in front of the cameras. I think it'll happen once the polls start going down.

[senseandsensibility]

4. k and r

Great article. I thought I saw the author on hardball yesterday criticizing Obama. I could be wrong because I turned on the show in progress, but it sounded like tweety was summarizing a negative review of Obama's trip and attributing it to Herbert. Did anyone else see hardball yesterday? Anyway, I'm glad he's turned his venom onto McSame since he deserves it.

[DeepModem Mom]

7. I did see that, and while I was distracted and didn't get the exact gist of what Herbert said...

I did note that I hadn't heard him criticize Obama before, either in print or on the air.

[ErinBerin84]

10. I'd seen him criticize Obama for FISA, and other perceived "moved to the center"

But I have no idea why he said on Hardball that he thought it was "even closer" than the 2 or 3 point spread that they are trying to bullshit with us, as in "McCain doing better".

[DeepModem Mom]

11. You're right! I forgot about the FISA/"move to the center" period during which...

the NYT columnists, including Herbert, criticized Obama.

[VespertineIconoclast]

5. Wow! Great column and a great read.

It's truly astounding how unaware most people are of the true nature of McCain. You don't have to dig deeply to find his dirt because it's right on the surface....

It's unbelievable that anyone would want to make McCain president. His obsession with wars and winning is dangerous. He truly believes that all efforts and resources should be placed in "winning the war in Iraq." This sort of one-dimensional thinking is not what is needed in our leader. The world is dynamic and the USA's issues are vast. The US has already seen how ineffectual a one-tracked minded president can be with our current failure Bush....

[DutchLiberal]

6. The voters have to get to know Obama better??!

I've been hearing this for months now. Didn't we just have the primaries that lasted a year? Didn't we have Clinton and Obama on television every night? And haven't we seen Obama and McCain every night since they both got their party's nomination?

People who don't know Obama by now will never know them, because they don't care enough to pay any attention!

[valerief]

8. I heard he wears two different colors socks at a time on purpose

and he's one of the one in five with G.H. He also likes waffles and got picked on at school when he was a little kid because he was so fat.

That's what I've heard. What more do voters need to know?

[tishaLA]

9. I just wish that Herbert had the ability to push the CW idiots

But he doesn't have the pull with the pundit class of, say, Friedman and Dowd, so the accuracy of his column will be ignored and we will instead be treated to stories about how the press is ignoring McCain in favor of "the messiah" or how McCain is a truth-teller and Sen Obama is all hubris and calculation.