The New McCain Cult of Messiah

[rayboyusmc]

McCain as Messiah


John McCain is no silver-tongued orator, as he proved in St. Paul, but it's hard not to be stirred when he speaks of wanting only to serve a cause greater than himself -- until you take a closer look and see that he's running one of the most egocentric presidential campaigns in memory.

Not that Barack Obama lacks a healthy opinion of himself, mind you. And no one wants the next president to be paralyzed with insecurity, or to doubt, even for a minute, that he's the right man for the job. But after ridiculing Obama as a preening celebrity, if not a self-proclaimed messiah, McCain is campaigning on a platform that can be summed up in three words: me, me, me.

Much has been made of the fact that he's a Republican running on a pledge to clean up the intolerable, unforgivable mess created over the past eight years by a Republican president -- and, for much of that time, a Republican-controlled Congress in which McCain himself had great power and influence. It's amusing to listen to a man in his fourth term in the Senate (after two terms in the House) rail against evil "Washington," as if he weren't one of this modern-day Sodom's most prominent denizens.
There has been less comment, however, on the extent to which McCain rejects not only his party's record but also important tenets of its stated philosophy. He's a Republican who doesn't entirely believe in modern Republicanism.

"I'm not running for president because I think I'm blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our country in its hour of need," McCain said in accepting the nomination. But this line -- which I took as a continuation of his attempt to paint Obama as some kind of self-proclaimed Chosen One -- came right after a lengthy recounting of the horrors McCain lived through as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. In effect, he had used his personal experience to anoint himself.

McCain's speech offered hardly anything in terms of policy. At one point, he mentioned three "ordinary" families by name and spoke of their travails -- and it was no coincidence that they happened to live in Michigan, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, states that McCain would like to steal from the Democrats this year. But he offered no specifics on how the federal government under a McCain administration would make these families' lives one bit better. He pledged only that he, personally, would "fight" for them.

McCain and his campaign aides are right when they insinuate that one candidate is acting as if he thinks voters should accept him, on faith, as their political messiah. They're just trying to make fun of the wrong one.

washingtonpost.com

 

[ABikerSailor]

Ya know......I'd really like it if McSame and his ilk were buried under a whole bunch of really nasty garbage.

Hell.......put them in a toxic waste dump and let them melt.

 

[Jeepers]

Ya know......I'd really like it if McSame and his ilk were buried under a whole bunch of really nasty garbage.

Hell.......put them in a toxic waste dump and let them melt.

Like the glaciers to the north..

 

[ABikerSailor]

Naaahhh.....don't want to pollute the water that runs off the glaciers.