McCain’s Tortured Logic

[babylonsister]

June 18, 2008 – 5:44 a.m.
McCain’s Tortured Logic
By Madison Powers, Guest Columnist

snip//

McCain once again last week proved his remarkable capacity for going astray on one of the most important military policy choices the next president will face. Of the U.S. Supreme court decision guaranteeing Guantanamo prisoners the same rights of habeas corpus as others incarcerated under U.S. legal authority, McCain called the decision “one of the worst decisions in the history of this country.”

Considering the other candidates for inclusion in the list of “worst decisions in history” one might assume that this would be one of the top priorities he would pursue should he become president. But we have no direct indication from his campaign just what, if anything, he hopes to do in order to make sure that these prisoners are denied the sort of rights accorded almost universally around the world to those in similar circumstances of captivity.

More important is the logic of his criticism. The argument begins with the observation that “these people” are not citizens and that there are “some pretty bad people down there.”

Given that logic, McCain’s own captivity in Vietnam would seem to be unfortunate, when judged from his own perspective, but not something he could complain about as a matter of his human rights being violated. He seems intent on linking what legal rights we have under a system dedicated to the rule of law to citizenship. That is a perilous path to take, given that he was not a citizen of Vietnam. The logic of his own position demotes the moral status of any complaint he might have against his own former captors by tying any claims he might have had to citizenship.

more...

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docid=news-000002899032

[Shae]

1. Just more evidence that he's sold his soul to the GOP.

I don't think he believes half of what comes out of his mouth.
He's in the unenviable position where he must pander to both the rw base and the independents.

[babylonsister]

2. Yep. I used to think he was principled, but no more. He hasn't seen

any side of an issue he doesn't hawk depending on the audience. I hope people eventually realize he doesn't have a position, or integrity.

[KharmaTrain]

3. He's Playing It By Ear...

I honestly think Gramps doesn't give a shit what he says. He shows up at a speaking gig, looks at the crowd and starts to ramble out things he thinks they want to hear. One day it's about global warming, the next it's drilling in ANWAR. When he's with seniors, he's gonna champion Social Security, when he's at a fundraiser, he's all for privitization. He doesn't care...no one really holds him accountable for what he says cause no one really knows what the dude stands for. He's throwing so much shit out there, it's getting too deep to sort it all out.

This is all a game to Gramps..."winning" the news cycle, getting the good photo op, appearing to be "controlling" the debate. He knows he has to find ways of staying in the news during the summer with as many free gimmicks as he can and attempt to force Obama into some kind of slip up (we saw how well that strategery worked for Senator Clinton).

Right now a vast majority of people are not paying attention to the election. If anything, we're in a lull as those who are "primaried" out have disconnected. Gramps is playing to what is left of his "base"...throwing whatever red meat he can right now in hopes of them rallying around him.

Bottom line is Gramps is a terrible candidate...and will get worse as the campaign season rolls on.