Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Yep, John McCain is Still a Jackass

At yesterday's summit:

MCCAIN'S SALVO FALLS FLAT.... At the closing session of the "fiscal responsibility summit" at the White House yesterday, President Obama graciously introduced John McCain and invited him to go first in raising a point or asking a question.

McCain apparently thought he'd get in a little dig at his former campaign rival, and began talking about the bloated Pentagon budget. "We all know how large the defense budget is," the Arizona Republican said. "We all know that the cost overruns, your helicopter is now going to cost as much as Air Force One. I don't think that there's any more graphic demonstration of how good ideas have cost taxpayers enormous amount of money."

The president, taking away the senator's fun, agreed.

"I've already talked to [Defense Secretary Robert] Gates about a thorough review of the helicopter situation. The helicopter I have now seems perfectly adequate to me. Of course, I've never had a helicopter before. So, you know, maybe -- maybe I've been deprived and I didn't know it. But I think it is an example of the procurement process gone amuck, and we're going to have to fix it."

This almost certainly isn't what McCain had in mind. At a White House gathering on fiscal responsibility, McCain wanted to needle Obama on wasting federal funds on a new Marine One helicopter. Instead, the president voiced his agreement.

Jonathan Chait noted, "This is Obama at his most appealing. He makes a gracious introduction of his rival, who in turn tries to stick in the knife by painting him as wasting taxpayer dollars on needless luxuries. Obama, rather than sniping back, turns around and agrees with McCain while making the point that he's hardly accustomed to extravagance."

If being an asshole failed as a debate strategy, I'm not sure why he thought it would be a good idea now.

2 comments:

  1. there is one question i wish i had thought of during and somehow been able to ask john mccain during the primaries. basically i want to know how a man who due to his extensive military and political background has never had to personally deal with the American health care system is going to know what's wrong with it and how to fix it.

    apparently it's by trying to openly mock a man who defeated him over a month ago. you may have lost the race for president but you are still a senator.

    on a side note, i just enjoyed a wonderful moment with my healthcare provider at which apparently it is legal to promote a plan for the year of 2009 as a certain amount because they higher their premiums in February. So all those who thought they were getting a year's worth of healthcare in January for an already outrageous price are in fact going to pay even more until the February of the following year.

    if this system is so sound then why don't our public officials and military start using it? someone on here please write something about this.

    ReplyDelete
  2. i'll do better than write about it, i'll not write about it! US healthcare is so messed up in so many ways that just thinking about it makes me loss control of my faculties and end up screaming for hours at a time until my chinese WoW gold-farming neighbors come by to politely ask if something's the matter.

    maybe i can try to come up with some ideas for how to make it worse, ahahahahha just kidding that's impossible

    ReplyDelete