Mack the Hoopie McBush as President

Bob Cesca, HuffPost

 
Senator McCain has famously said, "Only a fool or a fraud talks tough
or romantically about war."
How, then, should we describe a clearly unbalanced presidential candidate
who jokes about killing innocent civilians as part of a larger war-mongering
foreign policy? "A fool or a fraud" barely cracks the surface. There
are a few other f-words that might suffice, but in lieu of those, might I
suggest "unhinged maniac" or "tasteless hack" or
"creepy, twitchy, psychotic hoople without any internal monologue who
shouldn't be allowed within a hundred square miles of the nuclear launch
codes"?
Yesterday, Senator McCain was asked about an AP story in which it was
revealed that during the Bush years there has been a significant increase in
American exports -- including cigarettes -- to Iran. First, Senator McExperience
admitted that he hadn't heard about this news story. That's bad. But not bad
enough for the corporate media to wet-nap the barbeque sauce off their fingers
so as to successfully pen a news item about it. But it doesn't matter because
Senator McShecky followed his ignorance with this reaction
to the cigarettes exports:

"Maybe that's a way of killing them."
Then the uncomfortable, jittery, bottled-rage laughter and, "That was a
joke!"
I sincerely hope so. I hope the Iranian government gets the correct
tone-of-voice in the translation, especially if what Senator Jackie McJokeman
and his neocon wack pack are saying about Iran's impending nuclear arsenal is
true. I can only imagine how the Cheney-ish warhawks would react if Ahmedinejad
cracked a similarly unfunny zinger about killing our citizens -- or the
citizens of Israel.
But it wasn't just a joke about killing Iranian citizens -- a people who
thirst for American-style democracy; a people who held spontaneous candlelight
vigils in Tehran following September 11; and,
most importantly, a people who have little or nothing to do with Iran's alleged
nuclear weapons program. It wasn't just that. It was also a joke about, of all
things, lung cancer. And not just regular, horrible lung cancer, but weaponized lung cancer. Which, as we all know, is always funny, especially in the larger
context of a wisecrack about murdering civilians.
And that's the problem. If he doesn't have the judgment to discern between appropriate,
tasteful jokes and indiscriminate, Tourette's outbursts then why
should anyone trust him to be the commander-in-chief of the world's most
powerful military?
No-one should. Because, if nothing else, this episode goes a long way
towards underscoring that the presumptive Republican nominee has lost his shpadoinkel.
He's finally proved himself to be a crackpot who has somehow bought off the
very serious corporate media with his awesome recipe for dry-rub in exchange
for wide-berth latitude -- so much so that too many of his otherwise
self-destructive remarks are simply laughed off. Oh look -- HOO-HOO! --
Pappy is going on and on about Iran
again. Pass the cole slaw, Stretch. It's a remarkable level of ambivalence
considering how the corporate media has been excoriated for its narcolepsy
during the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq.
Meanwhile, Senator Obama's various remarks, as witnessed during the recent
frenzy about the senator's Iraq policy, are parsed, masticated and
purple-nurpled by everyone with a very serious haircut. I can only imagine the
breathless, hyperkinetic why-oh-why-oh-why reactions from the
commentariat had Senator Obama -- or worse, Reverend Wright -- said such a
thing about Iran, especially
on a day when we've learned that Iran has successfully tested long-rage
missiles. But naturally, the Democratic candidate is always the
experimental group and never the control group.
Even still, the question being presently discussed on the cable news shows
is, Which candidate is better suited to confront the issue of Iran? Is
it the candidate who has pledged aggressive diplomacy? Of course not.
Aggressive diplomacy never works -- too girlish and effete... except during the
Cuban Missile Crisis and the entire American-Soviet Cold War when aggressive
diplomacy worked and when a shooting war would have escalated into Armageddon.
Nope, the presidential candidate who the pundit-bots have canonized as the man
best suited to balance upon the razor's edge between war and peace happens to
be the fidgety lunatic suffering from involuntary giggle fits and who just last
night joked about killing Iranian civilians with, of all things, weaponized
cancer. Very serious! And people allow this crazy person to operate a propane
grill?
Speaking of crazy people, President Bush's inappropriate
smirking while discussing serious affairs has been an on-going yard stick
with which to measure his utter lack of sanity. But I submit to you that
Senator McCain is far worse. Irrespective of how awful the content of this
so-called joke happened to be, the fact the he has repeatedly blurted out such
ridiculousness (see also "bomb-bomb-Iran"
and, well, you know, calling his wife the c-word)
ought to raise serious doubt about both his mental capacity as well as his
morality -- his sense of right and wrong.
Because even the most gifted comedians know where to draw the line, and when
they do "go there" they do so with precision and extreme care. Not
everyone is George Carlin or Bill Hicks or David Cross or Louis CK. But the
notion that Senator McCain believes that he possesses not just similar comedic
skills but, more importantly, similar moral latitude makes him patently
unqualified to be president. After eight years of a president who laughs
whilst talking about Iraq casualties, we don't need another fool, fraud or
doof who's incapable of seeing the threshold between where dignity ends and crazy
begins.
Bob Cesca's
Goddamn Awesome Blog! Go!