McCain, in Louisiana on Tuesday, in front of a lime-green banner:
I commend both Senators Obama and Clinton for the long, hard race they have run. Senator Obama has impressed many Americans with his eloquence and his spirited campaign. Senator Clinton has earned great respect for her tenacity and courage. The media often overlooked how compassionately she spoke to the concerns and dreams of millions of Americans, and she deserves a lot more appreciation than she sometimes received.
John McCain, talking to reporters on Friday:
Holly Bailey and Jon Meacham: Want to back up a little bit and talk about press coverage. One of the things that you mentioned in your speech in New Orleans was that you felt that the media hadn’t recognized or had overlooked some of the attributes that Hillary Clinton had brought to the race. And I wondered—
John McCain:I did not [say that]—that was in prepared remarks, and I did not [say it]—I’m not in the business of commenting on the press and their coverage or not coverage … My supporters and friends can comment all they want about the press coverage, and that’s their right. They’re American citizens. I will not because I believe it’s not a profitable enterprise for me to do so. I can’t change any of the coverage that I know of except to just campaign as hard as I can and try to seek the approval of the majority of my fellow citizens.
John McCain. Straight talk you can believe in.
*** Update ***
Should have checked all the links at memeorandum before I posted this, because Jonathon Martin noticed the same thing covered up for McCain.
*** Update #2 ***
Watch for yourself- 45 seconds in:
He is either lying, or he does not remember what he said.
Singularity
Dude, uncool. Sometimes when people get to a certain stage of life, they have a hard time remembering things. Things like what they said a week ago, or what their position was on certain subjects, or where they left the nuclear codes.
Lay off our senior citizens. Sheesh.
Incertus
He doesn’t want to slap them in the head while they’re busy sucking his flaccid, wrinkled, drooping penis. They might bite down or something.
Crusty Dem
Oooh, Singularity has an awesome new tack for the McCain campaign, they should accuse the other campaigns of “ageism” when they attack McCain’s gaffes. It’s the new racism (or sexism).
I honestly don’t know what’s wrong with you John, I don’t even notice when someone is senile and incoherent. You disgusting ageist.
NR
Looks like he’d better throw them another barbecue.
dreggas
GET OFF MY LAWN!!
JGabriel
John Cole:
That’s fine. Most od us don’t read Memeorandum. You do it so we don’t have to.
.
JGabriel
‘Of’, not ‘od’. Though most of us that too, I suppose.
.
Krista
Jesus H. Christ, Incertus. That image had me tasting my supper for the second time.
Incertus
Sorry Krista. At least I didn’t try to channel the full Bill Hicks.
demimondian
John McCain — wife changes we can believe in…at least, if we’re Newt Gingrich.
mr serene
Unfortunately, Joe Lieberman wasn’t around to straighten him out. McCain should keep him handy.
oh really
I think of it more as change that makes my head do 360s. It looks like the Saint is going to deliver change several times a week. Change we can’t keep up with.
By the end of this campaign I’m going to be more confused than ever about McCain. Which is most responsible for his performance: stupidity, hypocrisy, ambition, age?
demimondian
Jesus H. Christ, Krista. What did you have for supper?
SamFromUtah
I honestly don’t know what’s wrong with you John, I don’t even notice when someone is senile and incoherent.
Heh. Maybe they’re trying for Reagan II – though to be fair, St. Ron’s Alzheimer’s didn’t get really debilitatingly awful until 1983 or so.
nightjar
The question is– Would you buy a used car or anything else from THIS guy.
Krista
Chicken. It was great going down. But Incertus’ comment almost made it come back up for a brief re-visit.
dnA
The question is, would he be willing to pour bottled hot water on Hillary Clinton if she was dehydrated?
demimondian
Hmm. If dinner is associated with “going down” in your mind, I can see how Incertus’ comment could cause confusion. That explains your reaction.
That’s a relief; I was having…ummm…visions of Loretta Bobbit for a moment there.
cbear
Perfect imagery for Holy Joe—McCain Campaign Fluffer.
“Here Lindsey, I’ve just about got him ready, you take over for a minute and I’ll let in the reporters.
Krista
I’m just going to shut up now, as I seem to be getting myself into trouble. ;)
Earl Hathaway
Hey, mildly off topic, but I’ve been arguing with the Republican step-father and friends. Remember the “Obama doesn’t hold his hand over his heart for the pledge” photo and email chain? I pointed out that it was the anthem, not the pledge, but we’re still going at it. Does anybody have a link to the response someone put together showing 10 or 15 prominent Republicans ignoring the actual pledge?
TIA.
earl
Dennis - SGMM
I like the post that’s up now at the link. The one about how McCain is collecting $58,000 a year from the gov because he’s “technically disabled” due to being tortured. He has collected in the neighborhood of $2,000,000 over time. This is the same man who characterized the Webb GI Bill as “overly generous.”
Cris
Brilliant. That is the ultimate politician’s alibi. “That bullshit you heard me say? Oh, that was one of my speechwriters. If I was reading it off the teleprompter, I didn’t actually say it.”
Kind of the Ron Paul Newsletter defense.
Unabogie
First time commenting here, John, but I love your blog. One thing that needs emphasizing here, is not just that McCain seems to be once again contradicting himself, but that he flatly denies to the Newsweek reporter ever saying the words, and suggests that he killed that part of the speech. As commenters quickly point out, that’s simply a lie. He says it about 45 seconds in. You should link to the youtube video of it, because being senile is one thing, but McCain is just simply a dishonest person.
And he demonstrates this again and again for us.
dnA
No, what’s wrong with that diary is that it suggests McCain’s “disabilities” make him unable to be president, an idiotic line of reasoning for liberals, who presumably think F.D.R was the greatest president ever.
Pointing that a very rich politician collects 60,000 in taxpayer money even as he vows to end “waste” and criticizes current benefits to our veterans is completely legitimate.
El Cid
It only goes to show what a Great American Patriot Hero Maverick John McCain is that he would let Friday McCain totally go after Tuesday McCain. If John McCain can so devastatingly take on himself in a prior timeline, just imagine what he can do to Barack Obama. Obama won’t know what will have been preparing to have hit him.
AkaDad
John McCain: The Status Quo You Can Believe In
calipygian
Giving McCain the money that is owed him by the government isn’t waste. Its all been figured in before hand. Some bean counter in the Pentagon did the calculations when Midshipman McCain entered the Academy, consulted the tables and money was budgeted for him in the military and the VA based on a variety of factors, just as it was when any of us joined the military. He’s just getting his pension and his disability compensation. Its money that has already been allocated. When the money was allocated, it wasn’t taken into account that he was going to be a gold-digging millionaire marrier. Just because he is, doesn’t mean that he should give back that money or refuse to take it.
When I went to transition class, I brought that up with the VA representitive because I felt a little guilty applying for disability and compensation when there are guys coming back legless from Iraq. When I brought up my reservations, the VA rep said, don’t worry, they allocated that money for you 20 years ago.
Not only that, but this up highlights McCain’s service and smacks of those scumbag Swiftboaters.
calipygian
More McCain:
Next thing you know, people will be clamoring to means test Social Security and Medicare.
Incertus
Not to defend the Kos diarist too much, since he/she is responsible for the content of whatever goes up under a username, but the original “source” for his work is John Aravosis, who’s semi-okay on gay issues, but not exactly a brainiac when he gets outside his specialty. It’s Aravosis who needs to be set straight, but since he has a habit of banning people who point out when he’s being a dumbass, it probably won’t happen.
nightjar
And the next thing after that will be the wingnuts in full outrage mode on how SS is a welfare program we got to get rid of.
Dennis - SGMM
They’d be okay with it if SS was privatized. Invest the money in CDO’s, hedge funds, and derivatives. What could go wrong?
nightjar
Nothing in the wingnut world. The Crocodiles of Commerce would flourish, and grow fat and sassy from all of granny’s medicine money.
Phoenix Woman
Ah, John “how do we beat the bitch?” McCain.
TenguPhule
Only FDR’s body was damaged, not his mind.
Oracle
The story behind that article will sink McCain, I’m convinced.
I mean, how can a man like this be running on his character???
Davis X. Machina
It’s not a lie until someone calls him on it.
And not just on a blog, either. A major network. A front page.
“I expect McCain to win every one of these polls. The press loves McCain. We’re his base.”
Chris Matthews, 10 September 2006.
moderately
Earl Hathaway, I think this is what you were looking for.
Urbaniak
Actually Jonathan Martin didn’t notice the same thing.
Elvis Elvisberg
McCain 2008: He is either lying, or he does not remember what he said.
patroclus
I really don’t see how this media criticism kerfluffle is going to help us deliver bottled hot water to dehydrated babies.
Davis X. Machina
Wait a minute, I signed up to deliver bottled water to dehydrated hot babes…..
Zuzu's Petals
Not saying there’s no truth there, but then again, here’s who they’re using as a reference:
To call Ted Sampley “a leading campaigner for veterans’ rights” is like calling David Duke a leading campaigner for voters’ rights.
JubJub
why hasn’t this reached “al gore is a liar” levels yet? and please don’t tell me it’s because the media’s not reporting it…
JubJub
why hasn’t this reached “al gore is a liar” levels yet? and please don’t tell me it’s because the media’s not reporting it…
YellowJournalism
Rule number one in the information age? Never say never. I could deny ever picking my underwear out of my butt in public, and I’m sure someone could probably find a clip of it on You Tube. These guys need to realize that their entire public lives are easily accessible to the masses, which also makes me wonder why they don’t check these things themselves sometimes. Or at least have their people do it.
Conservatively Liberal
There is a meltdown going on at Hillaryis44. The admin there posted a ‘we will not vote for McCain, we will write in Hillary’ message, also saying that ‘we will not leave the Democratic party, we will work to fix it’.
The ratfuckers are in full meltdown mode now. If you go to see the train wreck in action, bring lots of popcorn. Lots. ;)
Trabb's Boy
Come on, what he’s saying is that he didn’t “say” it — he “read” it off the teleprompter. In other words, he doesn’t bother to vet his speeches in advance to make sure they accord with his actual opinions. I’m smelling an excellent opportunity for planting a mole here.
loquacious mute
NO! PLEASE NOT THE LIME GREEN JELLO. I PROMISE I’LL BE GOOD
loquacious mute
I’ll check it out. There is a war over at Taylor Marsh. I am almost positive it is mostly Republicans (pretending to be dems)fighting with those who have chosen to endorse Obama and the few diehards Hillbots/RNCers keep repeating the same, Rezko, Ayers, Wright…blah blah blah arguments over and over again it really is quite tedious. Wish they could come up with some new talking points. The Obama people though are more on their toes and are countering quite well.
slightly_peeved
“McCain reads everything that’s on the teleprompter.”
“Oh yeah, I know..”
“No, I mean EVERYTHING that’s on the teleprompter.”
McCain’s next speech in San Diego…
Conservatively Liberal
One ‘contributing member’ of His44 came in during the pissing contest with the admin there and said that she supports Hillary, even if she takes it to the convention, but if it is Obama in November then she is voting for him. Not McCain. That set off a shitstorm that I am still reading about. Some of the McCain supporters tore into her and she came back at them like a lioness, all claws and teeth. Damn good of her!
The ‘contributing member’ says that they gave $100.00 to the His44 site (what a waste of good cash), and she really rips in to the McCain lovers questioning her ‘Hillaryness’. ;) It doesn’t help when another member there digs up the contributing members past posts to prove that she is telling the truth, but the one who comes to the rescue is also suspected of being a troll! I would swear that some evil genius composed this as a play of sorts, it is that funny.
Good to hear! :D
jake
WASHINGTON — In a prepared statement yesterday President McCain announced that the US was at war with Iran. “Look, I’ve told you kids before, prepared statements don’t count,” President McCain said while Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Israel, Turkey and Saudi Arabia exchanged long-range missile fire. When asked if his statement about prepared statements was also prepared Mr. President became crotchety and he attacked the assembled reporters with his big brass ear trumpet.
Bwahahaha. [Dry washes hands]
cleek
there’s a reason you get 360,000 hits when you google “McCain contradicts himself”
McCain Contradicts Himself on His Temper
McCain Contradicts Himself on Campaign Website
McCain Contradicts Himself On Torture
McCain Contradicts Himself on Sadr’s Influence
McCain Contradicts Himself Regarding Major Shiite Cleric
McCain “contradicting” himself on talking to Syria
McCain Contradicting Himself on Nuclear Policy
McCain contradicts himself repeatedly
McCain contradicting himself all over the place
McCain Contradicts Himself At Least Twice
McCain’s reversal on warrantless spying
McCain argues with himself
McCain’s Lying Problem
McCain Contradicts Himself Twice on Meet The Press
etc..
Napoleon
The government does not use the accrual method of accounting.
D-Chance.
OMG. Barack Obama… trophy wife.
GoMS
Holy fuck, someone tell McCain to stop smiling like a retarded Jackal. Christ, it is not hard to tell he is being coached on appearance. All that time in a Vietcong ground jail sure knocked the wind out of his sincerity!
Chinn Romney
So let me get this straight: We’re not discussing whether or not this addled Geezer is ready for the Old Soldiers Home, we’re discussing whether or not he should become the next Leader of the Free World? God help us all.
KCinDC
Speaking of Jonathan Martin (who still hasn’t posted a correction, despite commenters supplying the video), can anyone tell me what exactly the point of this is? Isn’t calling those “tennis shoes” decidedly more uncool than wearing them (if that’s even the point)?
If this outfit garners ridicule, are there any conceivable clothes Obama could have been wearing when biking with his kids that wouldn’t have? Birkenstocks? Cargo shorts? Dockers? Wingtips? Bike shorts? Doc Martens?
NCProsecutor
The correction is up.
NCProsecutor
And really, it isn’t half-bad.
rea
McCain isn’t wearing an American flag lapel pin, the commie . . .
Cris
via D-Chance:
Erotic fan fiction has reached the Democratic primary. Good lord * choke *
Michael57
The meltdowns over at Hillaryis44 and Taylor Marsh have not yet hit The Confluence. They are ruled with an iron fist by some guy named Boston Boomer who simply deletes any comments he doesn’t like. Anyone who says Hillary’s policy positions are closer to Obama’s than to McCain’s, for instance, is labelled a troll and expelled. It’s very ugly. Before you know it, there will be about 100 posters over there all looking suspiciously around at each other to see who will next become a troll.
eric
I bet in John McCain’s mind he really does believe that he didn’t say it. It was from prepared marks — someone else wrote it — so therefore he didn’t really SAY it — he just READ it.
dj spellchecka
i’m assuming that since everybody, both left and right, thought that was a terrible speech, mccain took them at their word and decided it didn’t actually happen.
schtum
It’s perfectly believable that he doesn’t remember what he said. He sounded like he was reading the speech for the first time as he delivered it, so he was probably focusing more on pronunciation than comprehension.
renard
The problem with both Bush and McCain is that they aren’t smart enough to string more than 4 words together by themselves, so they hire other people to string them together for them. The problem with that is when you are asked a question about what you said is that you really dont know what you said because you didnt think of it or write it.
jibeaux
Well, if you had given that speech, would you really want to then go back and watch it?
Blue Buddha
I’m putting my money on both.