McCain

There's just so much this week that makes John McCain ill suited to be President, even if you agree with his philosophies...

First, there are the little things, the miscues and mis-speakings. Sure, they all have them, but he gets his facts wrong way too often.

1. Iraq does not have a border with Pakistan (link to video here).
2. The Anbar Awakening had nothing to do with the surge, it predated the surge
3. The surge did not help us keep a certain sheik safe, he was assassinated.
4. Iraq is NOT the first war since 9/11. (I'm willing to assume he was lumping Afghanistan and Iraq together into the "war on terror", but he did say "the Iraq war" was the first war since 9/11, not "the war on terror")

Then there's the regular attacks on Obama which are starting to sound tired. Attack Obama for not going to visit Iraq, and when he does, attack him for going. Call him a flip-flopper, completely ignoring that you've done so many 180s on so many issues that you can't walk a straight line.

And today, there's this appearance on CNN's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, during which McCain repeated his assertion that Barack Obama would rather win a political campaign than win in Iraq.

During that interview, he also makes the startling assertion that he knows how to bring bin Laden to justice. Quote McCain "Look, I know the area, I've been there, I know wars, I know how to win wars, and I know how to improve our capabilities so that we will capture Osama bin Laden -- or put it this way, bring him to justice... We will do it, I know how to do it."

This brings a lot of questions to anyone who actually THINKS about it. Most importantly, if he knows how to get bin Laden, but he hasn't shared that expertise and knowledge with the Bush administration, does this mean that he'd rather win a political election than take down America's number one enemy? And if he HAS shared that information with the Bush administration and they've ignored him, why does he still speak so highly of the Bush strategy?

Another question is which wars, exactly, has McCain actually won? He's best known for having been shot down in a war, not necessarily his fault but certainly not a badge of accomplishment. And that was a war we lost. He was too young for any of the wars before that. And he finished fifth from the bottom of his class of almost 900 in the academy, which hardly indicates some strategic uber-genius.

McCain has lost sight of the fact that being a war hero for having withstood torture and having fought for our country does not imply any great military leadership skill any more than being the guy on the back of a crashed bus who is badly injured but still helps everyone else safely off the bus makes one a skilled bus driver.

John McCain is too old to be President, that's what it comes down to. Not physically but mentally. It has nothing to do with his chronological age, but to do with the extent to which he has aged in those years, and the fact is that he's making so many mistakes the John McCain of years past would never have made.

He's losing his faculties, and he hasn't yet spent even one day in the pressure cooker that is the oval office.

Oh, and by the way, although the latest meme from his campaign is that the media loves Obama and is out to get him, check out this video of an interview on CBS from a few days ago. CBS edited the interview, removed a semi-incoherent and clearly incorrect response regarding the timing of the Anbar awakening vs the surge and in its place edited in an answer to a later question, making McCain sound far better than he actually did. Your liberal media at work.

Liam.