McCain and the Rage Celebrities;
Does he Need to go to Rehab?
McCain had pledged to run a clean campaign, but like Mike Tyson when he's in the mood to munch ear, the Republicans just can't control themselves. First they tried to blame Barack Obama for the current price of energy, which is actually so high because Republicans have been in Big Oil's back pocket and in denial about the need for alternative energy programs on a Manhattan Project scale.
Now they are comparing Barack Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, apparently intending to suggest that he is a celebrity with no substance.
I was thinking about the celebrities that might be compared to John McCain, who is notorious for his rage issues. He flies off the handle at people at the slightest provocation and gives them a tongue lashing they can never forget. I personally wouldn't want him anywhere near the Bomb.
So wouldn't he be most like Naomi Campbell and Amy Winehouse?
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But this could be a fun game. I challenge all my colleagues in the blogosphere to come up with other McCain celebrity match-ups and good rationales (which the GOP attack ads lack).
posted by Juan Cole @ 7/31/2008 01:06:00 AM
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15 Comments:
This is too web-centric, I realize, but I think Ann Althouse is a reasonably close match. both have anger mangement issues, both of them just make stuff up and they pretend to be something they're not.
Sorry, Professor Cole, but I don't think we should help the right wing trivialize this election.
The party of Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger accuses the Democratic candidate of being an empty celebrity...
"The price of oil is high because Big-oil has the Republican party in its back pocket." That's a pretty bold statement, and certainly one which lacks any economic explanation. How about dramatic worldwide increase in demand from China, and other Asian countries, tighter supply in the oil producing countries, instability in the middle east (of which the GOP is a major player...seems to be against the interests of Big-oil), terrorism in Nigeria, the 4th largest exporter of oil, and a speculative bubble (though I think this only accounts for 5-10% of the increase). But no, it must be the Republican party...I am not a Republican, but Juan is usually more articulate and reasoned than this.
The increased demand has caused prices of energy to go up because supplies have not expanded greatly. Only 8 big new fields were found in the 1990s. But energy supplies could have been expanded greatly if in 1981 the US government had, in the wake of the first oil shock, mounted a big Manhattan Project-style program to make breakthroughs in solar energy. Look into who in Congress consistently voted to give hidden subsidies instead to Big Oil and blocked funding for alternative energy. Ted Stevens is the tip of the iceberg.
The high road that some commenters prefer is all very nice, but the party of Richard Nixon et al will continue with this strategy until the price it has to pay exceeds the payoff. In my opinion, history indicates that this will not happen until it finds itself on the receiving end of the same strategy, to which it's really much more vulnerable. When all is said and done, this strategy, really, is all it has.
I'm actually having a hard time coming up with appropriate rage celebrities; for all that is distasteful about many, I find them all more sympathetic than McCain.
imho, the intellectual lightweight Senator McCain likening Mr. Obama to an ‘airhead’ female blonde stereotype celebrity persona is not unlike one of those infuriating, "Karl Rovian" self-projections (where you pre-empt/accuse your opponent(s) of that which you, yourself are guilty). Considering how the American electorate is media-saturated with the politics of anxious masculinity, the apparent gender slur, implicit of the McCain campaign's anti-Obama advertisements should not be overlooked. With reference to a phrase from popular American culture: “[My opponent is like] a .22-calibre mind in a .457-magnum world.” in reality. . .
Senator Obama says we should escalate the War by at least two Combat Brigades ~ that's 10,000+ ground troops to Afghanistan; while Mr. McCain suggests we Stay the Course = remain huddled, confined to base ~ largely irrelevant and in an entirely defensive posture ~ stuck in situ in Baghdad. While these two political candidates snipe at one another, and the relentless, hideous calculus of our troops' KIA/WIA attrition continues unabated, the apparently desperate Pentagon has gone all AirWar haywire on us:
“Afghanistan Hit by Record Number of US and NATO Bombs” <=> “Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan Unifying a Violent Resistance Movement Against US and NATO Occupation Forces”.
Obama '08 = Nixon '68 ?
Mr. Obama and this AirWar haywire Pentagon, '08 remind me of Mr. Nixon and that Pentagon, then: coming into '68 with their "secret plans" to end the war, while bombing the hell out of them. The few rational, intellectual members remaining within our Officer Corps must be frustrated now to the point of outrage: what a damn waste of fine infantry.
Sean Penn in his Mr. Madonna days.
Russell Crowe.
Brit Hume and Bill O'Reilly - although they're not "Hollywood."
(There's nothing wrong with doing substantive analysis and also having some fun - especially when the fun is mocking the latest flimsy conservative attack.)
Russell Crowe would make a good McCain celebrity. Wasn't he the guy who through a telephone at a hotel concierge?
Jake Page
Brilliant. And I think mockery is an excellent way to counter the ridiculous nonsense coming out of McCain's piehole. Mock him, and with any luck we'll set off his legendary hair-trigger temper. And then point to what McCain doesn't want to talk about, like the lies that launched the Iraq war, the economy, the Republican culture of corruption....
I'd say John McCain is Clint Eastwood during the '80s - coasting. He'd had an admirable oeuvre of work but skating by on the adulation of the press and his name during that decade. Or one could say Aerosmith during the late '70s and mid to late '80s....just completely fell off the face of the earth. Thing is, those celebs had second acts.
Can we extend it to cartoon characters? Two that tend to fly off the handle explosively are Donald Duck and Yosemite Sam.
I have said before, and will reiterate here, that I believe outright MOCKERY of the Republicans is our greatest potential weapon against their assault on logic and reality. The key to being able to mock is being thoroughly informed on all the issues, so any and all BS can be immediately and strongly refuted. It is the duty of every progressive citizen to know the facts, and publicly correct anyone talking shit.
Miss South Carolina
Every question answered with nonsense but overlooked by "judges" (media)
How about Ted Nuegent? That guys is a whacky right-winger.
Or, what about John Holmes?
Ricky From Omaha
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