OVERBREADTH

Let’s have an 80’s flashback. Remember how Congress was all, “what’s up with the president selling weapons to Iran and giving the profit to Nicaraguan contras? Isn’t that illegal?” And Reagan was like, “I totally don’t remember doing that.” And we were all, “that’s like totally bogus,” until it turned out he had Alzheimer’s (old-timers) disease, and we were like, “gnarly!”

Well the eighties are in right now, as this recent episode from the McCain campaign trail will illustrate. I should say at the outset, we’ll be using a standard formula for this post.

Politician says X, then within 48 hours, politician says I never said X. Hilarity ensues.

We used this template recently with Bill Clinton’s “Obama played the race card” claim. Anyway, it begins with a statement that shows you’re dangerously out of touch.

[John McCain] told reporters he was not sure if he would rebuild the lower 9th ward as president. “That is why we need to go back is to have a conversation about what to do — rebuild it, tear it down, you know, whatever it is,” he said.

As it turns out, “tearing down” the 9th ward was one of the things people liked least about Hurricane Katrina. It’s not supposed to be difficult to pick sides between hurricane relief and hurricane. And when you say stupid things and you’re running for president, other people running for president point it out, like Hillary Clinton.

“Sen. McCain said he might want to tear down the Ninth Ward instead of rebuilding it.”

According to the McCain camp, Senator Clinton’s critique was “inaccurate.” John McCain explained his statement as follows:

“I don’t remember ever saying it.”

Poor ol’ grampa. (He said it just a few days before.) Usually, it’s a little sad when old people stop remembering things they just said, but when they’re president it’s a little scarier.

“What’s all this ruckus?”

“We’re tearing down the city, like you ordered.”

“I don’t remember saying that. A senator can’t order a city torn down.”

“You’re the president now, John. You have been for three years.”

“Can we nuke Iran?”

“Okay sir, but first lets get you into a fresh diaper.”

As I mentioned, we’re following a template for this post. No “John McCain put his foot in his mouth” story would be complete without some mention by the press about how stupid things McCain says don’t count. Here’s the spin from Michael Scherer.

Now I was not on the bus when McCain said that quote, but I was traveling with McCain during this time. And all available evidence suggests that McCain meant something far narrower–not that he wanted to tear down the Ninth Ward, but that he wanted to speak with the people of the Ninth Ward about how they want to move forward.

I wasn’t there when Michael Scherer wrote his editorial, but “all available evidence” suggests he wrote it with a stick up his ass. Somehow, in his calculus of “all available evidence,” he ignores the reports by those who actually were on the bus to arrive at the conclusion that McCain didn’t say it, or he didn’t mean it, or something.

The “evidence” that Scherer points to has something to do with McCain’s general love of New Orleans and America. So lets conclude with a picture of John McCain, taken as people in New Orleans were drowning (h/t barbin):

Tags: Elections //