Comments on: McCain’s Faustian Bargain Projected On Obama With New Ad

By: maryinbelltown

maryinbelltown — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:22:30 +0000

Great post. I like this:
“And this is often the way it is with people. When someone attacks you; when someone hurts you, watch the insult they first reach for, the line of attack they make—it usually says either what they fear the most, or what they are themselves. Liars think everyone lies. Men who have sold their honor for power, think that every other man with power has done likewise.”

Classic projection. Then add some scapegoating, as Republicans invite everyone to do, and you get these “weird” ads that are not that strange if you need someone to blame. I grabbed these quotations from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scapegoat

Scapegoating in psychoanalytic theory
Psychoanalytic theory holds that unwanted thoughts and feelings can be unconsciously projected onto another who becomes a scapegoat for one’s own problems. This concept can be extended to projection by groups. In this case the chosen individual, or group, becomes the scapegoat for the group’s problems. In other words, blaming another person or thing, for your own problems.

[…]the word “scapegoat” has come to mean a person, often innocent, who is blamed and punished for the sins, crimes, or sufferings of others.

When used as a metaphor, a scapegoat is someone selected to bear blame for a calamity. Scapegoating is the act of holding a person, group of people, or thing responsible for a multitude of problems.

This is where the Republicans, Rove, Cheney, Bush, now McCain go first.

By: darms

darms — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 15:10:50 +0000

Thanx for the post, Ian. I lost all respect for McCain in 2004 when he embraced GW at the convention. Schmuck. Bilmon is at Kos and has some choice words WRT “the Maverick”.

But McCain and his new team of Rovian handlers now realize they won’t have a prayer in November unless they can motivate the conservative base and (to use Lee Atwater’s charming phrase) “strip the bark” off Obama. And they have to do it NOW, so McCain can pivot back to a softer, more upbeat message in September.

By: jackie

jackie — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 12:42:20 +0000

Tom, this was really good and it ties in with everything else. I also think the whole Barak FISA ‘vote’ will become clearer quite soon.
As far as his policies go for the future of America, it’s all on his site. We just have to help get the best of it pushed through.

‘Regarding moving to the right, it could be that Obama is a biconceptual rather than purely progressive. A biconceptual can hold a mix of progressive and conservative worldviews, as long as they exist in non-overlapping areas of life. The way our brains are wired makes this possible. That’s how a person can be fiscally conservative and socially liberal, for example.

It’s possible that he could be sticking to his principles, but his principles may be a mix of progressive and conservative worldviews.’

By: ekunin

ekunin — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 12:05:19 +0000

Men who need power to fulfill themselves do anything to attain it. It is not a matter of believing something about the other guy. It is true of the lot of them. When McCain kissed Bush a year or so after Bush savaged his adopted daughter in North, or was it South Carolina, that told you all you need to know about the man. None of McCain’s subsequent betrayals tops that one.

By: rxbusa

rxbusa — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 10:21:37 +0000

Great analysis on both sides, Ian.

By: cleanth

cleanth — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 09:54:34 +0000

Very fine post, Ian. Given your demonstrably high standard of cogent posts, this is praise indeed; and deserved.

I fear that you will not see this: I write late into the night, when most threads are, perhaps, not revisited when the sun comes up again.

By: Ian Welsh

Ian Welsh — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 09:10:41 +0000

I’ve never seen any indication of that. And when you’re in a prisoner of war camp your own side doesn’t have a ton of leverage anyway.

By: Ian Welsh

Ian Welsh — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 09:09:51 +0000

Oh, I tend to believe that Obama simply is not progressive. He’s not selling out his beliefs at all. OTOH, the wiretapping vote was a violating of his word.

By: Tina

Tina — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 09:09:45 +0000

Excellent as always Ian. I too lost all respect for McCain over the torture vote, I wonder how he sleeps at night and whose screams he hears.

By: KC Bill 13

KC Bill 13 — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 07:02:49 +0000

I was talking to my 52 year old brother in Missouri last week, and he was for Hillary, but thought he would go McCain when Hillary lost the primary. Now that he has been watching, he has certainly noticed the McCain flip-flops, and he thinks he might come around to voting for the black guy.

You all do not realize what a big deal that is. This summer polling is crap. If McCain cannot win over my racist brother in MO because he has changed on so many issues, he is only going to get the low end bush base, and that will not win him the White House.