You know, over the last 8 years, every time I heard the left in the form of politicians, comedians and the press lie about Bush, complete with unnamed sources that didn’t have the balls to stake their name to their accusation, I didn’t automatically think that these were true, if only Bush would deny them.

And similarly here, I didn’t for a moment think that these comments on Palin from these alleged McCain employees were true. While it might have been nice if McCain rose from his depression to seek out the press and say things like ‘that guy who I don’t know who claims that Sarah Palin thought that Africa is a country, not a continent while I never heard this first hand .. Sarah Palin never said that.’ or something to that effect. But for the people who wanted any excuse to hate McCain even more, who absolutely love to believe the worst about him because of the daily diet of BS in reporting and commentary here to stir the pot for controversy and ratings for this blog … this is now somehow proof that McCain hates Palin.

And my answer to you is I don’t think that McCain would refute unnamed sources who calim to speak for no one but themselves if they said something negative about Obama, while the campaign was over. The differences with the other times is such as when the crazy woman spoke to his face at the town hall(while the campaign was ongoing) and called Obama a muslim. Or a dirty aye-rab or whatever. And of course he didn’t want to give the press the opportunity to claim and preach to their liberal audience that because McCain didn’t refute the claim by the random audience member, that he also believed the same. If you recall the time that someone asked McCain ‘how to we defeat the B*tch(referring to hillary) that CNN’s rick sanchez tried for many days to connect that comment and opinion to McCain because he didn’t apologize for what this woman said. McCain probably didn’t want the press – in the eyes of their audience, liberals and ordinary people as well – who can by repeated reporting – make the case that he’s just as bad as Bush senior for that ‘willie horton’ ad. McCain went after Obama, not as much as we all would have liked, in many ways, incuding his association with Bill Ayers. But he didn’t go after him on his former pastor, for that reason of being labeled as a racist. It was his choice.

It was McCain’s choice to try to win fair and square, and he lost. Don’t worry, he’ll soon be out of the picture, and he can’t run for president ever again. It’s too bad that so many people here want so bad to trash him on the way out, with out regard to the facts. I don’t appreciate what they are doing to another human being, another republican and a small c conservative, and yes, he is a conservative. Because if they feel so free to do this, then who else will they trash next time? What other republican will be the focus of the hate from this site without any regard to the facts. And as I have mentioned, the facts are that McCain has never said anything negative about Palin, and Palin have never had anything but praise for McCain. Now that Palin is free of this supposed evil man, she could set the record straight and trash him if she beleive that any of this was true. But she hasn’t.

The powers that be here think that it’s important to label those here who have questions about Obama’s birth certificate as truthers. They don’t want this site to be known as accepting of the supposed mass hysteria that Obama isn’t a natural born citizen. But they don’t seem to give a rats ass that people have this incorrect view of McCain. (as I see it. Again, I have mentioned that this opinion that so many people have here is not supported by the facts.) Hey, it’s Michelle’s site and if this was a problem for her, she could do something about it. Obviously their priorities are their own.

At the very least, I can make my case and move on. I have tried to be as honest and detailed as I can in response to your question. I know this is hours after you posted, and I hope that you or anyone else who thinks similarly can read this and at least clearly understand where I am coming from with this.

When these unnamed staff stories came out, what were they supposed to do? One of the comments was that Sarah Palin thought that Africa was a country. Was John McCain supposed to hold a press conference and say that it’s not true? How was he supposed to defend Palin from an accusation that supposedly came from his staff when we don’t even know who it was because no one gave their names.

wise_man on January 11, 2009 at 1:12 PM

If I remember correctly, most commenters here at the time thought it would have been helpful if McCain could have interrupted his BBQ long enough to issue a supportive statement of Palin.

Something along the lines of “as the leader of my campaign, I worked closely with Sarah Palin. She was knowledgable and capable, and made a valuable contribution to our efforts. I repudiate any statements by anonymous sources that call her grasp of vital issues and integrity into question.” That would have worked for me.

Instead, McCain went silent and allowed the clothes/Africa story to dominate the cycle without rebuttal.

Here’s a question for you- how long would it have taken McCain to issue a statement refuting an “anonymous McCain campaign source” that they had learned Obama didn’t know the difference between Canada’s Prime Minister and (nonexistent) President?

- doesn’t this cause you to doubt your version of events in the least? How can you continue to have this opinion without any substantive fact whatsoever to back up your version of what’s going on here.

When these unnamed staff stories came out, what were they supposed to do? One of the comments was that Sarah Palin thought that Africa was a country. Was John McCain supposed to hold a press conference and say that it’s not true? How was he supposed to defend Palin from an accusation that supposedly came from his staff when we don’t even know who it was because no one gave their names.

None of these facts matter to you, and that’s fine, you can have an opinion based on no facts that is without merit, but it is you who fails here because of your ignorance of the facts and your biased opinion of McCain and Sarah Palin.

The fact he hasn’t defended Palin being attacked by his staff has made it certain in my mind he’s just a jerk.

Palin’s not ready for 2012 but can bone up on the issues and be ready. The problem is if Obama is still popular no one will defeat him and she would be better off to wait until 2016 to run. By then the country should have had a bellyfull of Democrats in national office.

technopeasant on January 9, 2009 at 6:32 AM

Just to clarify: I was talking about how the media often mentions Palin without calling her “Governor”, as a show of disrespect.

Lots of commenters call her “Sarah”, myself included.

During a GOP-senators retreat this week at the Library of Congress, McCain told his colleagues that Republicans need to reach out more to diverse groups, rather than just relying on Christian conservatives, if they want to regain majority status, according to sources who attended the event.

Repeat a lie often enough, everyone believes it.

Go for it, guys.

“Reach out” to everyone except conservatives again.

Worked for Ronald Reagan.

The Gipper?

Totally watered down message to appeal to the center.

/really shouldn’t need to spell it out

I agree with you completely. While Palin took it to Obama every single day regarding the issues that Obama was the most vulnerable on, McCain seemed to hold back on those themes you mentioned and tried to be more of a diplomat than a Presidential contender. He might not have won the election because of the financial meltdown, but Palin certainly didn’t lose him the election. She did her part and kept the contest closer than many pundits thought it should have been.

Yet again if anyone on his staff said this kind of stuff about Obama McCain would have canned them in a new york minute and rebuked them. Thats moral cowardice and hypocrisy on his part

As I have stated before, McCain has never said anything bad about Palin. He has done nothing but praise her. And Palin has never said anything but nice things about McCain. If there were something there, she has had ample time and opportunity to say that McCain was a jerk for not coming to her defense. But she has not. Maybe she, like him, didn’t want to dignify the anonymous comments allegedly from the McCain camp – but we still don’t know any names whatsoever to confirm that they were …. And this little pesky fact doesn’t seem to matter for sh*t with some people.

In my opinion.

But if the comment was made about Obama McCain would have called the guy out in a second. That is his cowardice. It also goes against the morals and ethos he claims to hold

I will agree John McCain and Sarah Palin have both spoken highly of each other. I would expect that as they are both civil people. However, it’s a fact that John McCain went on Jay Leno after the election and brushed aside the mudslinging that had come from his staff and landed on Ms. Palin as ‘politics as usual’. He brought her in to that pit, he could have put an end to it … unless he agreed with it or, as I suspect, he did nothing about it because someone very close to him wanted Sarah Palin to look bad. I’m not offering that as fact … just my opinion. If I had to vote again and it was McCain/?? v. Obama/Biden, I’d still vote for McCain.

Monkeybrains220 on January 9, 2009 at 10:06 AM

He brushed aside the mudslinging because he didn’t want to dignify the anonymous comments with a response. This isn’t the first time a politican has done that, and I’m sorry but it’s not an endorsement of the anonymous comments because he didn’t refute them. If someone from the campaign wanted to say that Sarah Palin thought Africa was a country, then they should say this publicly. How was McCain supposed to counter the anonymous comments by people when Sarah Palin supposedly said something where McCain wasn’t there in the first place. It would have been nice if he said that these people (assuming they were actually in his campaign in the first place, but we don’t know that for a fact because no one knows their names) are scum, but like I said, he decided to take the high road and not participate. If you honestly think that this action of his was some sort of proof that he agrees with these anonymous comments that supposedly came from his campaign, I can’t stop you. I won’t try. But I do see this as a ridiculous attitude to have and if might comment on this like I’m doing now to provide the alternate view.

McCain could not have put an end to it, as you suggest. The only people who could have put an end to it is the reporters who carried the anonymous comments to the public. Again, what are their names? If we don’t have a name, someone to stand up and make the charge, then there is no way to somehow ‘put an end to it’ when it began as ‘anonymous comments’ from some people supposedly in his staff who might not really be telling the truth in the first place. When I hear anonymous comments, I don’t take this as the truth, only to be debunked when someone else denounces them. It’s up to these people to prove the allegation in the first place.

Since you state that this is your opinion, again, I am not on a mission to make you think otherwise, but I won’t call you crazy because you are clearly stating this as an opinion, not a fact.

Another reason I’m glad to address you in a civil manner is that you understand that in a battle between McCain(warts and all) and Obama, you know who you would get behind and hope to win. It’s only the idiots here who trashed McCain and believed the worst about him based on no logic or fact whatsoever (and have some bizarre concept of me with this “narrative of pure McCain-love.” ) that I will identify as being insane. Because they are acting insane.

Monkeybrains220, I am pleased to agree to disagree with you. Have a good weekend.

McCain told his colleagues that Republicans need to reach out more to diverse groups

That’s like listening to the New England Patriots tell you how to have a perfect season. McCain LOST because he was WRONG. The ONLY thing he did was ‘reach out to more diverse groups’. He lost and concluded that that was the best plan.

Not only did HE lose, but HIS poor performance cost the GOP NATIONWIDE all the way down the ticket. Until he recognizes this and apologizes, nothing he says concerning campaigning is 100% WRONG(other than you have to win 2 of the first three R primaries to get the nomination).

/yawn

Note to RINO’s – McCain lost – he’s irrelevant. In fact – his failure to speak well of Palin actually increases her stock among conservatives – who had to cringe while they saw her “modify” her positions on issues like faux global warming to match McCain’s.

McCain is soooo over. Get over it RINOS

Do the Noonans & Parkers of the party think they can win elections without the Christian Conservatives?

katiejane on January 9, 2009 at 11:55 AM

Yep. Makes you wonder how “intellectual” they really are.

You just know it’s a dead solid lock certainty that, in order to get back into the good graces of the D.C. media, McCain’s going to do an interview this year where he basically will agree with the interviewer’s statement that Palin brought his campaign down. ….
jon1979 on January 8, 2009 at 9:00 PM

Unfortunatly IMO even if he holds back from saying exactly those words he will damn her with faint praise even when it reflects more negatively on him than on her. IF – as some here delight in thinking – Gov Palin is dumb as a rock, what does picking her as VP candidate say about McCain? That he was so desperate to be elected and cared so little about our country that he tried to pander to voters by picking a deathknell running mate? Shame on him. The Dems were already on the road to picking a disaster for the country – why should the Reps join them?

If MCCain had been a better candidate he would have been able to reach Independents while leaving the Conservatives to Palin. Whether she drew in the cocktail conservatives or not, no one can refute that Palin did bring the far-right back into the mix. That was something McCain could never have done. Do the Noonans & Parkers of the party think they can win elections without the Christian Conservatives?

So instead of an experienced Prez and a less experienced VP, we have an inexperienced Prez and a VP whose experience in cringeworthy.