McCain’s Top Ten Tasteless Jokes

Note: I will just describe them and leave it to you to Google the contents. Most of them would get me in trouble with the editor here if I printed them in full.

1. The Ape Rape
2. Bomb-Bomb-Bomb, Bomb-Bomb Iran
3. Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?
4. Seizure World
5. And I stopped beating my wife just a couple of weeks ago
6. Maybe that’s a way to kill ‘em!
7. Torture isn’t funny—except my numerous water-boarding jokes
8. “I hate the gooks.” Wait, sorry, that one’s not a joke; it’s just a tasteless racial slur he’s fond of.
9. A little I.E.D. for Jon Stewart’s desk
10. John McCain for President 2008

By the way, if you’re keeping score, McCain still believes Czechoslovakia is a nation, still doesn’t know how to log onto the Internet (“Well, basically, it’s a Google…”), doesn’t know Somalia from Sudan, and still could not tell you if Al Qaeda is Sunni or Shiite (or how the difference matters for Iran policy). Go John go!

Comments

[JRS]

It has been an open secret for a long time in the Washington beltway that McCain has a mean
streak and a nasty temper, that
fact is now becoming more well
known to the general public.

[Populista]

He called Cindy a C-word once in front of reporters, too. How's that for family values?

[TouchdownDuck]

You can't hold the C-word remark against him. Have you seen her interviews? She really is a C-word.

[Timo Kokko]

Dave,
Wow, I'm truly impressed by the intellectual contribution you have made to the political discourse. Pulling out old, some of questionable veracity, chestnuts to smear McCain is an indicator of your lack of interest in serious dialogue.

[Populista]

As is the blatant disregard of facts, Timo.

[RobertJK]

It's kind of hard to smear a man with his own words. Singing "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran" is a rather counterproductive way to demonstrate why you should be the nation's chief diplomat. The guy is a regular gaffe-o-matic. You get it all with McCain- the political tactics of Karl Rove, the marital fidelity of Bill Clinton, the intellectual curiosity of George W. Bush, and the senility of Ronald Reagan. Perhaps if we wait long enough, he might tell us why he is qualified to be president, BESIDES having been a POW. I can't wait for the first debate when he is asked to name a substantial issue in which he disagrees with Bush. After 15 seconds of awkward silence, he might give us a snarl, a drool, and a snort.

[Dave Woods]

Thanks for that, Robert.

If this is a "smear," McCain is the author of it.

As far as "old" goes, some of those are a couple weeks old, if even that, and none are older than his senate career.

As far as "serious" goes, I'm totally serious. The man who made those statements is seriously not someone I want to represent me or lead my country.

Enlighten us: what statements by McCain are legitimate topics, Timo? Is there a one-week limit on reaching back? Are all jokes not to be discussed? How about slurs? Can we look into those, or is he to be given a pass there, too? Do define for us the Kokko standard of serious political dialogue.

[brynb2]

Here's a recent one, Timo:

McCain said the United States should set up a missle defense system in Czechoslovakia. Twice.

Then said: "I was concerned about a couple of steps that the Russian government took in the last several days. One was reducing the energy supplies to Czechoslovakia..."

Oh, but it wasn't a joke.

Perhaps he just forgot there is no such country any longer.

Short term memory is the first to go. And in a man of his age and health history... well...

[Timo Kokko]

I consider Iraq a serious issue; I had thought Obama was serious about it a few days when he said he may make refinements "after" talking to the on-scene commanders. Obviously the reaction of DailyKos and MoveOn changed his mind and he is back to the mindless 16 months after taking office mantra. This is childish and naive.

Iran's (dare I say it) quest for WMD, theirs of the nuclear variety, is a serious topic. I don't think either Obama or McCain have a clue what to do about it.

I think drilling for oil is a serious topic along with the strategic direction for weaning ourselves off of foreign dependence on energy. McCain is wrong on ANWR and Obama is wrong on all counts of near-term fixes.

I think immigration policy/enforcement is serious. So is Afghanistan. Education. Associates. Voting record. Alternate energy. Freedom. Tax reform. Economy. The list goes on.

Idiotic jokes by the candidates, of which McCain has made many, don't qualify in my mind as serious. Some of the "jokes" you mention are indeed fairly recent, but some go back as far as 20 years. I freely confess looking at what a person finds humorous does give insight to the person's mental set. McCain should give up his feeble attempts at stand up comedy.

We need a third party candidate that makes sense, as clearly neither of the major party candidates have much of a clue.

[Dave Woods]

If it is "childish and naive" for Obama, a mere candidate six months away from taking office, to be open to reconsidering his foreign policy, how childish and naive must Bush be?

He is sending an undersecretary of state to meet with a high Iranian nuclear official -- one of the most stunning 180's any major nation's leader has made in years.

Now, wait, if Bush now WILL negotiate with Iran without preconditions, does that mean McCain is also honor-bound to adopt that position?

And does that also mean that when McCain rags on Obama as a naive appeaser does that mean he also has to call Bush one?

I hope JSM has a really good one-liner ready for this one. Maybe back to the water-boarding; he can make that old chestnut fit every occasion.

[DWC13]

Dave,

Please do you really think there are no preconditions to meeting even with our under secratary, how niave you are. There is preconditions for a photo Op for gods sake with anything that goes on between countries.
Personnally I believe both of the candidates are idiots with no real word sight into the current world situations as well as our own country and its people.

[Dave Woods]

I feel as if the real Landser is back among us!

[brynb2]

Timo, the heat must be getting to you. Yesterday, you almost started to make sense.

I'm sorry you're not feeling well today.

[mcilhaney]

Have you seen Megan Mccain. This is the youth vote for Mccain.

[Landser]

Dave,

You're worried about McCain but ignore some huge financial problems. The American President is not the emperor of the world. If National City Bank of Michigan has a run on its deposits then that means 10% of Michiganders will not have access to their money. That leads to social chaos. It matters not a hill of beans that the FDIC will refund the deposits when the depositors may not have access to their money for thirty to sixty days.

I would advise you to look at this web site with an analysis of the problems with Freddie Mac and Fannie May.

http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/513-Fannie%2c-Freddie%2c-Banks-and-Government-Debt.html

Read the article, Dave. Your blood will boil when you find out that the US Taxpayer will have to absorb 5 Trillion dollars in bad loans by these two institutions. That means the total government liabilities will shoot up to 14 Trillion dollars. The taxpayers will have to pay $700 Billion dollars in bond interest payments to finance all of the debts.

America is nuts to vote for either the Democrats or Republicans. Both political parties have helped destroy the banking system.

You've been swindled, Dave, by people who have pillaged the US banking system and they are from both political parties. When the T-bills dropped in price last Friday because of uncertainly in the US Financial system that should have sent shock waves through all of America. The absolute worst thing is most people don't understand what Fannie May and Freddie Mac have done. And too many posters on this site don't understand the function of a T-bill and why the discounted price on last Friday was dangerous.

If the American banking system goes insolvent then the least of your problems is who makes the appointments to the supreme court. No access to money quickly leads to social chaos.

Vacation ended on Friday when Freddie Mac and Fannie May were found to have a debt to equity ration of over 60 to 1. The American Financial System may have to absorb 5 Trillion Dollars of debt and people don't have a clue. This is dangerous. People are not paying attention and more than a few Michigan banks are looking at insolvency. I don't give a f*** about a 70+ year old man nor a suburban Chicago flim-flam artist when the debt equity ratio of Freddie Mac and Fannie May are at ratios of greater than 60/1 and I see darn few articles on the LSJ.com web site explaining the problem to its readers. The newspapers don't understand the problem and you're the media. It's your job to communicate real threats to the American people.

[Kerri T]

Dave~~~I don't think you'll have any problem coming up with just as many original jokes, from Obama, if you just reread most of what he's said in the past few months.
I think a list of the 12 worst friends you could be connected to would be a good one!
What an idiot, and what a lousy way to say you don't support McCain as a candidate.
When Gore and Bush were running, Gore made many silly remarks at his luncheons, etc. but unless you had a computer, you couldn;t listen to them. Why? The media didn't report them. Didn't want a democrat candidate to look stupid, or rather~~just normal like the rest of us.
But, oh the reports flew in on a regular basis, when the media (poised and ready) reported the english mistakes that Pres. Bush made.
You people on the left are so great at pointing out everyones shortcomings~~~~but YOUR OWN!

[Dave Woods]

Gosh, where to start.

First, Landser, you have really made me reconsider my comments on McCain's lack of character as demonstrated by his cruel and untactful sense of humor. I now realize that . . . well, I'm not sure what I realize, but I guess it has to do with the banking system and the impotence of the FDIC.

Still, I will reserve a little piece of my little mind to remember that McCain thinks it's fun to mock Asians, battered wives, rape victims, political opponents' children, our service members' combat deaths, and so on.

I wasn't clear if the banking update was pro-McCain, anti-McCain, or non-McCain. In other words, what's the point? If your point is that the American credit scene is in chaos, housing is in the toilet, and banks are in big trouble, thanks for the news but I'd already caught a whiff of that. (Gas prices are high, there's another alert. Many people uninsured. War in two countries. Keep us posted.)

Chicken Little only goes so far. What is it you want us to do?

And Kerri -- I did the Obama joke search you're talking about. It doesn't yield any results (though you're free to try it). As for Obama's "12 worst friends," that's a level you may not want to go to. McCain will come out far more closely connected to far uglier people -- lobbyists for the world's cruelest regimes on his staff, for example -- than will Obama.

[Landser]

Dave,

A person just can't debate with you, can they. Fine. My judgement of a last week was correct.

Dave, try to get laid. Go see Jobby Nooner. Perhaps the LSJ will wise up and fire your worthless ass.

I'm out of here.

[TouchdownDuck]

Dave,

Great posts! Kerri's just a crazy old lady and Landser's obviously a complete psychopath.

It's funny how Mr. Inside info thinks that he's the only one that knows about Freddie Mac/Fannie May, like it hasn't been all over the news channels with both party leaders explaining it to the country.

[Timo Kokko]

Dave,
Not sure this post is the right place for this question, but I am curious what you think the proper, if any, role of a lobbyist should be? Are lobbyists by nature evil or do they provide a service for elected officials? Also, I'm curious who the "lobbyists for the world's cruelest regimes on his (McCain's) staff" might me?

[Dave Woods]

I work for a lobbyist, so I'm all for them.

The proper role of a lobbyist is political advocacy -- trying to convince legislators that your client's point of view on a piece of legislation is best.

Lobbyists don't serve legislators; they serve clients.

McCain's convention CEO was Doug Goodyear, who made about $300,000 representing Myanmar/Burma's Junta. His mid-Atlantic manager was Doug Davenport, who represents, you guessed it, the Myanmar/Burma junta. (They've both quit now.) One irony in it was that Goodyear had gotten the convention job because McCain's first choice, Paul Manafort, also a lobbyist, had too many foreign governments and hated companies in his client list. Charlie Black, McCain's top advisor and by some reports his campaign chair, is an uber-lobbyist with a big foreign-government slate. He has represented such paragons of democracy as Ferdinand Marcos, Mobuto Sese Seko, Iraq's own Ahmed Chalabi, and Jonas Savimbi. He also rep'ed China's version of Exxon, called CNOOC. Lastly, just because I know this is Timo's favorite: Iran. Rick Davis, another contender for McCain campaign-chair honors, lobbied heavily for Metinvest, which is so tied up with Tehran business I cannot explain it all.

McCain is, and for years has been, adrift in a sea of lobbyists. His whole campaign staff is lobbyists; check out this article --

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/21/AR2008022101131_pf.html

Yes, Timo, I know: the Washington Post is a liberal rag and you wouldn't read it if it were the last blah blah blah, but if you'd like some insight into how McCain operates, you could start there.

One interesting fact: Charlie Black told the Post that he does most of his lobbying these days from on board the Straight Talk Express. Now that's irony.

[Aubrey Marron]

Dave,
Excellent post as always. If you google "McCain temper," you get a massive number of hits. If you google "Obama temper," here's what you get as first choice (and the others are similar to this).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N75pIR5Pg3w