Cindy McCain was a druggie?

It's old news, but offers insight into the dynamics of John and Cindy McCain's relationship.

The link is based on excerpts from a private journal of a guy that worked at the charity that Cindy McCain headed. It's an interesting story.

Aware

Through a proxy, John McCain: "I am aware of the Internet."



I like the comment on Politico that notes:

It's pretty bad when the best we can say for McCain is that he is "aware" of his surroundings.

Audiences

This ability to have the presence to schedule time with these two audiences and use ideas/products of each to form progressive, intelligent policies differentiates Obama from McCain and/or the GOP.

The Naders and Kucinichs that criticize the second meeting clearly have their heads up their asses.

Goals and consequences

"McCain wants to stay in Iraq until no more Americans are getting killed, no matter how long it takes and how many Americans get killed achieving that goal -- that is, the goal of not getting any more Americans killed. And once that goal is achieved, we'll stay."

- Hendrick Hertzberg, The New Yorker

While maybe accurate and funny, also simplistic.

Click here and look for Austin Bay's video presentation entitled: "A Rapid U.S. Military Withdrawal from Iraq". It's about 20 minutes long and definitely worth it. He starts with historical analysis and ends with seven hypothetical situations. I did not detect an agenda.

Catching flak

Hotline's On Call has carried the story of a war of words between Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain. After McCain criticized Sens. Hillary Clinton and Obama about their vote for the Iraq war funding supplemental, Obama responded:

“And if there ever was a reflection of that it's the fact that Senator McCain required a flack jacket, ten armored Humvees, two Apache attack helicopters, and 100 soldiers with rifles by his side to stroll through a market in Baghdad just a few weeks ago."

McCain jumped on the apparent misspelling in subsequent the press release, noting that:

"By the way, Senator Obama, it's a 'flak' jacket, not a 'flack' jacket."

FWIW, spell check in Microsoft Word for the sentences, "I am wearing a flack jacket" and "I am wearing a flak jacket" both escape without need for correction.

Interestingly, the word "flak" is an acronym from German. If Obama deems the criticism worth responding to in the future, I hope it's just as smarmy.