McCain: "We are left to figure out the rest for ourselves"

Matt Welch | August 26, 2008

If the Democrats continue to avoid defining themselves, John McCain will gladly do it for them. From his prepared remarks in a speech he's scheduled to give in an hour or so:

In times of trouble, free nations of the world still look to America for leadership, because they know the strength of America remains the greatest force for good on this earth.

My opponent had the chance to express such confidence in America, when he delivered a much anticipated address in Berlin. He was the picture of confidence, in some ways. But confidence in oneself and confidence in one's country are not the same. And in that speech, Senator Obama left an important point unclear. He suggested that the end of the Cold War proved that there was, "no challenge too great for a world that stands as one." Now I missed a few years of the Cold War, as the guest of one of our adversaries, but as I recall the world was deeply divided during the Cold War -- between the side of freedom and the side of tyranny. The Cold War ended not because the world stood "as one," but because the great democracies came together, bound together by sustained and decisive American leadership. [...]

Just days after the Russian invasion of Georgia, Senator Obama had this to say about the crisis: "We've got to send a clear message to Russia and unify our allies. They can't charge into other countries. Of course it helps if we are leading by example on that point." End of quote. I guess we are left to figure out the rest for ourselves.

Obama is going to need more than the "we'll restore our global reputation" vagueness of John Kerry if he's going to counteract this stuff. Today is Economy day–scratch that, Renewing America's Promise day–so don't expect a full-throated job interview yet on the single biggest difference between the two candidates. But it's hard to convince skeptics that you're Ready to Command on Day One when you and your party are so busy congratulating yourself for living the American dream and watching Brady Bunch. 

Comments

Other Matt|8.26.08 @ 11:27AM|#

Obama vague? Never! Seriously, can the man give an unqualified position on anything?

|8.26.08 @ 11:28AM|#

Obama is going to need more than the "we'll restore our global reputation" vagueness of John Kerry if he's going to counteract this stuff.

You think so? Reading the McCain remarks makes Obama look better to me.

|8.26.08 @ 11:30AM|#

Renewing America's Promise

What the hell is this supposed to mean? Can anyone explain this in one sentence? Two? I don't believe America promised me anything. If it did, I missed it. And since there was no consideration in the deal, I probably can't sue for a breach.

|8.26.08 @ 11:35AM|#

Now I missed a few years of the Cold War, as the guest of one of our adversaries

For fuck's sake, can you make one statement without referring to the POW business, McCain? Why don't you just go windsurfing and be done with it?

|8.26.08 @ 11:37AM|#

"We've got to send a clear message to Russia and unify our allies. They can't charge into other countries. Of course it helps if we are leading by example on that point."

Seems pretty clear to me. Rebukes over unprovoked unilateral aggression against a small, defenseless nation ring hollow from a country practicing that very policy.

'Send a clear message' is a bit vague. But most Democrats probably had in mind a strongly-worded email. Unless there is an ethnic angle, in which case it calls for sanctions, no-fly zones and carpet-bombing.

|8.26.08 @ 11:38AM|#

Reading the McCain remarks makes Obama look better to me.

Reading the McCain remarks makes them both look worse to me. Although, that's not strictly limited to reading McCain's remarks. Really, anytime I have any thoughts relating to both of them, it makes them both look worse to me.

|8.26.08 @ 11:44AM|#

Now I missed a few years of the Cold War, as the guest of one of our adversaries,

Damn. Give a rest, man. We know you were a POW.

Kolohe|8.26.08 @ 11:46AM|#

I came here to write what Epi and J sub already did.

|8.26.08 @ 11:51AM|#

Get ready for more of it. The McCain campaign, I shit you not, feels like they underuse the POW thing.

BDB|8.26.08 @ 11:54AM|#

Jesus, he is really going to overplay their hand on the POW experience, isn't he?

How long until its on Family Guy?

|8.26.08 @ 12:04PM|#

Now I missed a few years of the Cold War, as the guest of one of our adversaries

How about every time McCain mentions his time as a POW, we all take a drink? I bought three large bottles of Jagermeister just for this. Figure I will be drunk by noon.

|8.26.08 @ 12:06PM|#

so busy congratulating yourself for living the American dream and watching Brady Bunch.

I don't know how exactly you missed this, Matt, but this election has long been a referendum on Obama. And so long as McCain and his surrogates seek to portray him as an "other," a undefined quantity who cannot not be trusted, it's up to the Obama camp to make the candidate (and his family) seem normal, mainstream, and All-American. I wish voters put policy first, ahead of personality issues, but they. just. don't. Tonight will see a lot more specificity on the economy and more criticism of what will be called "Bush/McCain economics." Then we'll get something approximating a vision of what an Obama administration looks like on the last night.

|8.26.08 @ 12:07PM|#

The statement by Obama was moronic, but only we thought that the Vietnam War had anything to do with the Cold War. The Vietnamese thought it was a civil war.

BDB|8.26.08 @ 12:13PM|#

Check out these McCain talking points. Hilarious.

|8.26.08 @ 12:18PM|#

I wish voters had a brain, but who am i to talk, McKinney is beginning to look good at this point. Can't help it, I swoon for someone who can deck a cop and live to tell the tale.

|8.26.08 @ 12:20PM|#

I have to admit, McCain is consistent.

He cajoles other countries into launching unwise invasions to solve longstanding problems, not just our own.

J|8.26.08 @ 12:22PM|#

That was funny, BDB.

Yeah, he's becoming even more of a joke than Giuliani with 9/11.

Chuck|8.26.08 @ 12:46PM|#

Damn. Give a rest, man. We know you were a POW.

Yeah, but he was told that both people who don't already know that would be listening, so he had to mention it one more time. Now that everyone in the entire universe and beyond knows that McCain was a POW, I'm sure he'll let it go.

|8.26.08 @ 1:10PM|#

Damn. Give a rest, man. We know you were a POW.

I had the same reaction. We all get it, flyboy; this is one of those things that you're better off never mentioning yourself, but letting others mention for you.

Rebukes over unprovoked unilateral aggression against a small, defenseless nation ring hollow from a country practicing that very policy.

Iraq was a small, defenseless nation? I suspect the Iranians and the Kuwaitis would disagree.

He cajoles other countries into launching unwise invasions to solve longstanding problems, not just our own.

Help me out, here, joe. Who did McCain cajole into launching an unwise invasion, again?

Other Matt|8.26.08 @ 2:23PM|#

Help me out, here, joe. Who did McCain cajole into launching an unwise invasion, again?

Don't ask joe to confuse things with facts, it causes him to have a meltdown.

Kolohe|8.26.08 @ 3:54PM|#

I wonder if Jim Taranto will start doing a McCain POW schtick like he has been doing with Kerry & Vietnam for nearly 5 years now.

|8.26.08 @ 4:37PM|#

I wonder if Jim Taranto will start doing a McCain POW schtick like he has been doing with Kerry & Vietnam for nearly 5 years now.

He really should.

|8.26.08 @ 4:41PM|#

Help me out, here, joe. Who did McCain cajole into launching an unwise invasion, again?

I'm going to go out on a limb and say he was referring to Georgia's ill-conceived occupation of South Ossetia.

Randy Scheunemann, McCain's chief foreign policy advisor, was on the Georgian government payroll.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/12/AR2008081202932.html?nav=rss_politics

|8.26.08 @ 4:45PM|#

Don't tell Other Matt. He has a meltdown when confronted with facts.

|8.26.08 @ 10:43PM|#

So did Obama kick Welch's dog once upon a time or did the FEC make him write this piece of shit to balance "Myth of a Maverick" on Fairness Doctrine grounds?