FRANK RICH: Sunday in the Market With McCain

[kevinmc]

JOHN McCAIN’S April Fools’ Day stroll through Baghdad’s Shorja market last weekend was instantly acclaimed as a classic political pratfall. Protected by more than a hundred American soldiers, three Black Hawk helicopters, two Apache gunships and a bulletproof vest, the senator extolled the “progress” and “good news” in Iraq. Befitting this loopy brand of comedy — reminiscent of “Wedding Crashers,” in which Mr. McCain gamely made a cameo appearance — the star had a crackerjack cast of supporting buffoons: Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who told reporters “I bought five rugs for five bucks!,” and Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, who likened the scene to “a normal outdoor market in Indiana in the summertime.”


Five rugs for five bucks: boy, we’ve really got that Iraq economy up and running now! No wonder the McCain show was quickly dubbed “McCain’s Mission Accomplished” and “McCain’s Dukakis-in-the-Tank Photo Op.” But at a certain point the laughter curdled. Reporters rudely pointed out there were 60-plus casualties in this market from one February attack alone and that six Americans were killed in the Baghdad environs on the day of his visit. “Your heart goes out to just the typical Iraqi because they can’t have that kind of entourage,” said Kyra Phillips of CNN. The day after Mr. McCain’s stroll, The Times of London reported that 21 of the Shorja market’s merchants and workers were ambushed and murdered.

The political press has stepped up its sotto voce deathwatch on the McCain presidential campaign ever since, a drumbeat enhanced by last week’s announcement of Mr. McCain’s third-place finish in the Republican field’s fund-raising sweepstakes. (He is scheduled to restate his commitment to the race on “60 Minutes” tonight.) But his campaign was sagging well before he went to Baghdad. In retrospect, his disastrous trip may be less significant as yet another downturn in a faltering presidential candidacy than as a turning point in hastening the inevitable American exit from Iraq.


Mr. McCain is no Michael Dukakis. Unlike the 1988 Democratic standard-bearer, who was trying to counter accusations that he was weak on national defense, the Arizona senator has more military cred than any current presidential aspirant, let alone the current president. Every American knows that Mr. McCain is a genuine hero who survived torture during more than five years of captivity at the Hanoi Hilton. That’s why when he squandered that credibility on an embarrassing propaganda stunt, he didn’t hurt only himself but also inflicted collateral damage on lesser Washington mortals who still claim that the “surge” can bring “victory” in Iraq. ........

http://freedemocracy.blogspot.com/2007/04/frank-rich-sunday-in-market-with-mccain.html

[Ishoutandscream2]

1. Classic political comedy

John placed his bets on the Boy King, and now his presidential aspirations are a joke. We will always remember John's leisurely stroll through the streets of Baghdad. LOL!

[Vexatious Ape]

2. Good, I'm glad 60 minutes will show McCain to be the

horses ass that he truly is. Maybe in the future 60 Minutes can do a story on Vietnam and all the napalm the alleged hero McCain dropped on people who live in bamboo house's. I won't hold my breath waiting on that one.

[Laurab]

3. k AND R ! n/t

[pretzel4gore]

4. but Frank, how did Vietnam threaten america?

mccain was a bomber pilot; he dropped god knows how much explosives on people in a 3rd world country which couldn't invade his homeland even if they wanted to. He got shot down. How this makes mccain a genuine hero (he never noticed that 'communism' might have been the Vietnamese people's choice under Ho Chi Minh- possibly their greatest public figure at the time!) John never saw that there was no reason for USA to war against Vietnam; it was a 'poor developing' country with an ancient culture and a water buffalo fast lifestyle- it's communism would probably have been closer to the Mormans in Utah then what henry luce was scarifying the nation with re china or USSR...yet mccain overlooked all these facts, accepted the 'domino theory' etc, and dropped high explosives on a nation which he must have known bore no ill will towards america, being an ex colony of the French and still recovering from fighting for it's liberty? All this is poohpoohed by those who understand military rank and martial law/history etc. mccain was a tool in the hand of men at war. period. Yet the war never had to happen. It was a total waste, in every way we can measure. Even h kissinger today admits it better never have happened. And yet john mccain is a hero?
I like Frank Rich, but ...let's not pretend we're all thick and thoughtless....the USA was riven by political forces that thought Vietnam was perfectly served by the genius of its Ho Chi Minh (a man who adored the USA) at the very time mccain was studying to go there and spread hell regardless of how small and innocent the creatures on the ground were....too bad mccain never stood up to the bastards who contrived and schemed and lied to stampede the american people into the 'war'... then he would have been a war resister, or a peacenik. Certainly not a hero...

[tomreedtoon]

5. pretzel4gore, McCain IS NOT a baby killer. Get over it.

I realize you don't like him, but you seem to think he chose to be a bomber and deliberately kill Vietnamese. You even envision him rubbing his clenched knuckles with glee at the thought of killing lots more yellow people. GET OFF IT.

He was a soldier. He chose to serve. You seem to think that if he didn't flee to Canada he was a traitor. He did what he believed in at the time, like a million other soldiers in Nam. Do you believe that every soldier who went to Vietnam intentionally became a baby-killer? How bitter and contemptuous of you.

I am not supporting McCain of 2007. He's dead wrong about Iraq and national defense. He would continue the Bush policies - the policies of a man who sabotaged and humiliated McCain during his previous Presidential runs. I don't also think McCain was a "hero" because he survived his POW experience. (Heroes aren't heroes because they survive; they're heroes if they help OTHER people survive.)

However, your resurrection of the "baby killer" stereotype, the kind of blind ideological crap the New Left farted out in the 1970's, is a terrible thing to bring out of the tomb on Easter morning.

[jaysunb]

6. How sad... ( your comments )

What a display of disconnect from reality and truth.

[pretzel4gore]

7. yeah...the war's long over, but

had 'I' been in John's place, long ago, 'I' would have seen that 'we' the people were also as victims of the same type/goofs who got us murdering, yes babies and little kittens, then and again today in Iraq! And if John McCain had refused to commit atrocities (and dropping 1 tonne bombs on civilians from 5 miles up is an atrocity if the war itself was justified only by a thin vaneer sham ie gulf/tonkin incident) and led others in the military who were less favoured family-wise as McCain was, to also refuse to go along, then buchenwald could remain the name of pretty little town famed for its gingerbread(?) and nothing else!

[jaysunb]

8. I was there...

and war IS hell, but the heros, are the ones that try to stop it.

Even though my service was considered non combat (medic) I/we should have never have been there.

[pretzel4gore]

9. if history has any lesson, that's it (war only when no other way)

ty...

[jaysunb]

10. Amen

:thumbsup:

[Kolesar]

11. Nobody posted MCCain's WaPo editorial from today!

And I am not going to hunt it down.

That first paragraph by Frank Rich was a hoot! “I bought five rugs for five bucks!” That's like something out of "National Lampoon's Arabian Vacation".
s

[Cha]

12. Insane mccain is the one who

told Barbra Streisand to shut up and sing and they'd do the politics.

Looks like Barbra can Sing and do politics at the same time.