“John’s eaten up with envy,” LOL!

[Quixote1818]

August 6, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist

McCain’s Green-Eyed Monster
By MAUREEN DOWD

SNIP>>

Some of McCain’s old pals in the Senate are cringing at what they see as his soulless transformation into what he once scorned.

“John’s eaten up with envy,” said one. “His image of himself was always the handsome, celebrity flyboy.

“Now somebody else is the celebrity,” the colleague continued, while John looks in the mirror and sees his face marred by skin cancer and looks at the TV and sees his dashing self-image replaced by visions of William Frawley, with Letterman jokes about his membership in the ham radio club and adventures with wagon trains.

For McCain, being cool meant being a rogue, not a policy wonk; but Obama manages to be a cool College Bowl type, which must irk McCain, who liked to play up his bad-boy cool. Now the guy in the back of the class is shooting spitballs at the class pet and is coming off as more juvenile than daring.

More at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/06/opinion/06dowd.html

[BlooInBloo]

1. But McWhiny's attacks are playing very strong in the local media!

http://www.americablog.com/2008/08/mccain-negative-ad-strategy-not-playing.html

Spring Hope (NC) Enterprise: “McCain ads petty and false” – August 6

“It is sad but telling that the presidential campaign of Republican Sen. John McCain has already slipped into the gutter before the nominating convention has even been held. It would be even sadder, considering the nation’s desperate desire and need for a change in political leadership and policy, if American voters fall for the inane, irrelevant, mean-spirited, and flatly false commercials now attacking Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama.”

Lancaster (PA) Intelligencer-Journal: “All McCain has left is to strike at Obama’s image” – August 4

“While the midsummer timing may seem early in the election season to launch attack ads, they’re indicative of McCain’s predicament: being on the wrong side of popular opinion on just about every major issue in the campaign…All McCain has left is to strike at Obama’s image, and you can expect the attack ads to keep rolling out all summer long.”

Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter: – “Where Have You Gone, John?” – August 2

The youthful insouciance that for many years has helped McCain charm reporters like me is now channeled into an ad that one GOP strategist labeled ‘juvenile,’ another termed ‘childish’ and McCain’s own mother called ‘stupid.’…Without some compelling vision beyond support for offshore drilling, the negativity may well boomerang. ‘It’s hard to imagine America responding to ‘small ball’ when we have all these problems,’ says John Weaver, McCain’s chief strategist in 2000 who was pushed out of the campaign last year.”

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Republicans and old advisers second-guessing” McCain’s tone – August 2

“Of course, there are risks for McCain in how he goes after Obama, with some Republicans and old advisers second-guessing the tone and content of his attacks, and worrying out loud about whether McCain is putting his vaunted personal image and nonpartisan appeal at risk by sounding negative on the stump.”

The list goes on at the link.

:P

[Quixote1818]

5. Even our local conservative talk radio guy thinks the ads are horrible

Here in Albuquerque that is.

[gateley]

7. Ooops - wrong place. nt

[flamingdem]

8. Seething leads to eruptions, looking forward to a good one from McEnvy n/t

[Quixote1818]

9. John McEnvy!!! Now that is a great nickname!

If Obama could paint John as Mr. McEnvy it would probably stick and cause a lot of damage to his image.

[flamingdem]

13. Thanks! "John’s eaten up with envy” = John McEnvy = eruption on its way! n/t

[eshfemme]

12. Yup, the new kid on the block is making friends with everybody

when they're supposed to be paying attention to McCain. McCain sure does have a weird way of trying to tear Obama down though. That celebrity ad was a joke. All it did was prompt a smackdown on McCain from, of all people, Paris Hilton.

[XemaSab]

2. You can't both be a young rogue and an elder statesman

:shrug:

[blondeatlast]

3. There's a lot of truth in this; I don't dount it at all. His sad attempts

to be so with it--capped by his really sad insistence that Paris Hilton was endorsing him--wow.

He's so very jealous and it's so very obvious. It really is sad and kind of creepy.

[Quixote1818]

4. They say Nixon was filled with envy over John Kennedy

It drove him nuts that Kennedy was so popular, handsome, dashing, charismatic! What a bunch of ego maniacs.

[samdogmom]

6. Wow! We've suffered through one bad presidency where the guy...

saw himself as a "hero" or whatever!

PLEASE AMERICA...DON'T VOTE FOR THIS CLOWN! McLame IS NOT the COOL GUY in the back of the classroom. In FACT, he's the scary guy with his finger on the trigger of nuclear annihilation! http://primebuzz.kcstar.com/?q=node/13534

Go Figure!

[DangerousRhythm]

10. It makes perfect sense. Just look at his commercials...

They tell the story. How many ads, both TV and web, does he have in which they show much younger footage of him?

I guess that green background was appropriate after all... it matches his obvious jealousy.

[SuperTrouper]

11. Maureen has a great point. McEnvy indeed green with jealousy

[Renew Deal]

14. I noticed this a couple years ago.

McCain seems to be obsessed with being bigger, greater than Obama. Obama wants brigades in Afghanistan, McCain wants 3. Obama spends 5 million during the Olympics. McCain spends 6. He is insanely jealous. That's what the celebrity ads are all about.

[Hamlette]

15. Don't say this out loud but MoDo is not trashing Obama. 2 reasons:

1. Her editors had to apologize for a horrid column she wrote (republicans are manly men, democratic men are wimps...or something like that....her usual line.)

2. And maybe more importantly, Obama gave her a long interview a couple of weeks ago.


Maybe he should do the same to Broder?

[The Backlash Cometh]

16. Eye-opener