"I Would Rather Lose An Election Than Lose A War," Senator McCain, "Obama..." [complaint follows]

What do you think of this strongly PR tested phrase/meme that you have surely heard by now?

Me? I think it's just dumb enough to rile up some hillbillies who, up 'til now have been yawning at McCain's campaign, but it isn't gonna win him any new votes.

And it's vulnerable to an attack as a childish whine. In fact, the McCain campaign strategy appears to consist almost entirely of inventing straw man arguments and whining about them - that's their BEST strategy, the BEST that they can come up with?

IMHO, watching the McCain campaign reminds me of watching a beached salmon die on the banks of the river. From that experience, I learned that one can't beat the inevitable by flapping your fins around in air.

What do you think? - Good politics? Bad politics? Won't work?

Discuss. :P

He'll lose the election, Obama will leave a stable and sovereign Iraq to sort through its internal affairs.

I'll bet he's had dozens of jump-the-shark moments.

His nastiness is visible and disgusting.

...but I think most Americans are kind of unclear on what constitutes "winning" these days...

stay in Iraq to "Win" because he still thinks we could have won the Vietnam War if we would have stayed. Is it possible that he thinks by the US withdrawing that his sacrifice as a POW was discarded?

Random Thoughts.....

that makes him see things only as "winning!" or "surrendering!"

To mcCain, leaving is losing and staying is winning. He's fighting the Vietnam War again, blind to the fact that our presence in Iraq is an occupation, not a war. You don't win or lose an occupation - you stay or you go.

What a mixed up fellow mcCain is. Is this really the best the R's can do for prez? (OMG I said the exact same thing about the idiotic bush!)

election and the war has been lost.

gone negative. Something that he said he would not do, and something that Obama would not be allowed to do without the media having a cow.

I don't even hear Jon Stewart saying anything about it, but there are plenty of jokes about Obama being on a "fairy tale" (my term for how they are protraying it) trip with pictures of flowers coming from his plane, etc.

If Obama or one of his surrogates says anything that can be taken as a negative against mccain, the MSM goes beserk. Oh, but the media is biased against mccain. Obama is looked at as the "messiah" according not only to the right wing talking heads but by David Gregary on MSNBC tonight. Where is the unbiased reporting that use to be the nightly news. It is gone.

he's been ridiculous lately.

if McCain doesn't deliver, Jeb will be brought in. Bush Clinton Bush (oops not Clinton) Bush

God I hope not

n/t

John McCain said this today in Rochester, New Hampshire:

This is a clear choice that the American people have. I had the courage and the judgment to say I would rather lose a political campaign than lose a war. It seems to me that Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign.

This is the ninth presidential campaign I've covered. I can't remember a more scurrilous statement by a major party candidate. It smacks of desperation. It renews questions about whether McCain has the right temperament for the presidency. How sad.

Scurrility Update: Readers should note that I said that I can't remember a more scurrilous statement by a major party candidate. Smart politicians leave the scurrilous stuff to their aides; in fact, a McCain spokesman expressed these words almost exactly on July 14. There is a reason why politicians who want to be President don't say these sort of things: It isn't presidential. A President exists in the straitjacket of literality. His words mean something. So John McCain has to literally believe that Barack Obama would "rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign." I can't imagine that he does. He popped off, out of frustration.

The reality is that neither Barack Obama nor Nouri al-Maliki nor most anybody else believes that the Iraq war can be "lost" at this point. The reality is that no matter who is elected President, we are looking at a residual U.S. force of 30-50,000 by 2011 (a year ahead of the previous schedule). The reality is that McCain should be proud that he helped salvage a disastrous situation by pushing the counterinsurgency plan. It's something to run on. But, at this point, McCain must sense that it's not a winning hand. Obama, the poker player, has drawn to an inside straight: the Iraqis favor his plan over McCain's long-term bases. That must be galling. But it's no excuse to pop off the way McCain did. It was, shockingly, unpresidential.

edited to add link (via TPM)

http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/07/mccain_meltdown.html

Frankly, I think that the first handful of times he used it, it WAS an effective line ...

But, it is one of those things that comes across as heartfelt and genuine, that when repeated over and over loses its integrity ... In addition that he used it initially to say something about HIM, positively, and that each time he says it the version takes more and more of an attacking tone toward BO ...

I also agree VERY much with the poster who noted that McCain has gone negative - which is fine, politics is a contact sport and all ... BUT, again, the myth of the media being biased toward BO ... As noted, the double standard, McCain is taking shots left and right at BO and the media just portrays it as "hitting" BO, in a positive frame ... Meanwhile, any perceived "attack" on McCain gets blown up to extreme ends - witness the Clark thing a couple weeks ago ...

Someone "going negative" this early, he knows he is in trouble ...

downticket... that carolina cracker and his osama/obama T shirt?

that MF should be censured

I think we need to Santorum the both of them

something disgusting and deviant should be named after them and from now on, if their name is Googled, the reader is disgusted beyond recovery

He looked like an evil alien turtle.

saw that on TV last night. He gave the line -- THEN he flashed one of those grimacing smirks at the end of it - NOT the time to do that. If he's going to go for the jugular like that on a very serious issue, he has to look serious. He ruined it with the smirk.

So don't worry. McCain is hopeless as a campaigner. Obama IS the President-Elect-Presumptive! :)