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John McCain has died

nytimes.com

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Re: John McCain has died

#141

Post by danek »

Spooky23 wrote: post #125
gbacon wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember reading that McCain picked Palin over his handlers’ strong objections. Was it the other way around?

There’s a few stories out there. The common thread is that the vetting process wasn’t done and nobody realized what a shitshow Palin was. Whomever made the decision, it was a rash move that proved that a low caliber, not so smart, but media savvy national candidate could win the support needed to be president. It led to 2016.

His campaign manager picked palin, and later admitted it was a mistake. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.slate.com/news-and-politics...

Having a gun toting female vp on the republican ticket would have been a strategic move had she not been such a dumpster fire, so I see where he was going with it. Unfortunately for America it propelled her into the national spotlight and we were subjected to her idiotic rambling for years.

Re: John McCain has died

#142

Post by danek »

abcdcba wrote: post #139
majos wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

David Foster Wallace had a similar reaction to McCain when he covered him in the 2000 election [1]. [1] https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/davi...

This might be a dumb question but how does a prisoner refuse to leave? Can't they just kick him out?

He was given the option to “skip the line” since his dad was an admiral. I think the way it worked is the POW who had been there longest would be first to leave when there was an exchange opportunity. McCain saw it as unfair for him to take someone else’s spot just because of who his dad was.

Re: John McCain has died

#143

Post by daveguy »

tzs wrote: post #37

The comment section on the story about this on Foxnew.com [1] is eye-opening. At the moment it is about 1/3 celebrating his death and complaining that he was really a RINO or closet liberal, 1/3 not commenting on his death but complaining about the RINO/closet liberal stuff, and 1/3 expressing sorrow at his death. [1] http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/08/25/john-mccain-dead-... Addendum: the comments section seems…

They haven't removed the comments from this one yet, and it's just as toxic: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/08/25/tributes-pour-in-...

Re: John McCain has died

#144

Post by jquery »

Spooky23 wrote: post #125
gbacon wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember reading that McCain picked Palin over his handlers’ strong objections. Was it the other way around?

There’s a few stories out there. The common thread is that the vetting process wasn’t done and nobody realized what a shitshow Palin was. Whomever made the decision, it was a rash move that proved that a low caliber, not so smart, but media savvy national candidate could win the support needed to be president. It led to 2016.

"Not so smart guy" that somehow reached the peak of 3 major fields, including one where he was grossly outgunned and outfunded. "Low calibre" that's somehow supercharging our economy.

I remember reading an AskReddit thread about "have you ever met Trump, what was he like?", it was nothing but amazing stories about his incredible gifts of memory, his intelligence, and his generosity. This of course was back when Trump was still a Democrat. After becoming a Republican he's suddenly a bumbling senile fool who just stumbled into the Presidency over someone who raised 3x the money and had all the establishment support. An amazing example of the Dunning Kruger effect.

Re: John McCain has died

#145

Post by thsowers »

war1025 wrote: post #127

My dad died from the same cancer about a year before McCain was diagnosed. Terrible, terrible thing to go through. I feel bad writing it out, but it gives me a bit of comfort to know it isn't something that could have been managed with the added resources of someone on the national stage like McCain. The first surgery is pretty amazing because they can get almost all of the cancer out, and all the weird behavior just…

> No time to waste putting things off till "later".

As someone going through something similar (for the second time), thank you for sharing this.

Re: John McCain has died

#146

Post by mejari »

hougy wrote: post #77
secfirstmd wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also making the ridiculous decision (which says a lot about his judgement) to run with Sarah Palin as his VP.

Nothing ridiculous about it. He could see where the wind was blowing. 50+ million ppl voted for Trump. Who do you think is going to get that vote bank post Trump? Someone even more ridiculous unless a better McCain-Palin type arrangement happens. We are just one Wall Street/Silicon Valley/Pentagon created fiasco away from Alex Jones being president given the current "us VS them" narratives 24*7 news, social media kee…

>Someone even more ridiculous unless a better McCain-Palin type arrangement happens.

We basically got that relationship with Trump/Pence, just flip the ticket and replace War with Religion.

Re: John McCain has died

#147

Post by danso »

liquidise wrote: post #26

America lost a publicly principled man today. RIP sir. As a related meta-analysis of the response to his passing, i am surprised how many comments here include disclaimers to the appreciation offered. "I didn't agree with him but...". Have we become this partisan as a people? Our semi-anonymous respects for the passing of a prominent figure must be disclaimer-ed with political editorials. A worrying trend.

It’s not partisanship to make such a disclaimer. It’s an acknowledgement that McCain was a huge force in politics, and led initiatives that had serious impact on American policy, for better or worse.

Re: John McCain has died

#148

Post by gammateam »

rpiguy wrote: post #131
gammateam wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats not complicated. Uncomplicated men are as faithful as their options. This is a timeless tale and largely irrelevant to me, unless I wanted to look past the well-maintained public image and notice "oh hey he's human too".

You are right. “Human Too” would have been better than saying “complicated.” I thought it was relevant to this thread because every other comment has the word “honorable” in it, but in fact he was no better or worse than any of us.

ah I understand now

Re: John McCain has died

#149

Post by jakebasile »

mnm1 wrote: post #137
adventured wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're missing the obvious. Very few people would be capable of enduring torture across nearly six years, while letting numerous other prisoners go free in their stead. McCain signed up to the military willingly. He comes from a family line of professional soldiers. Who knows how many of those others he put before himself were forcibly drafted into it, plausibly many of them (late 1967 was near peak US troop levels,…

If he was drafted, you might have a point. Yet he willingly joined a war that even back then everyone knew was unjust and pointless. I don't see how that makes anyone a hero, no matter what they do in said war. People in this country sure have a really fucked up conception of what a "hero" is.

McCain joined the Navy in 1958, the US wasn't at war in Vietnam at that time.

Re: John McCain has died

#150

Post by snuxoll »

krferriter wrote: post #28
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course he also said if Hillary won that he would refuse to confirm Garland for the entirety of her presidency...

I mean that's due to a disagreement in politics. He wasn't calling her a demonic satan-worshipping child trafficker like some on that side of the spectrum were.

Certainly, but that doesn't make it okay. In general things weren't rosy with his political career, his reputation for being a "maverick" that would buck party leadership was laughable since he ended up toeing the party line more often that not, even when he decided to speak out against {X} idiotic move they made he would still put a "Yea" in for the vote.

With that said I think he genuinely wanted what was best for the country, even if we never saw eye to eye on what "best" actually was.

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