A McCain Moment

Yes, I forgot for a moment (I'm 69), a McCain moment, not how many houses I have--at last count I had one--but to push the French press down before I poured my wife's morning coffee.

Oops!

I didn't forget that al Qaeda is Sunni and Iran is Shiite, but McCain has. Should we call each one a McCain Moment? Ah, yes, he's so experienced: he's repeatedly blamed Iran for supporting al Qaeda, when both entities are dedicated to destroying each other. Oh well, they're both Mooslims!

Just like Obama (rhymes with Osama), er, he isn't?

Maybe McCain's supporters just "forgot" when they started sending those viral emails about Obama's schooling in a "radical madrassa." Just a McCain moment , each of them.

Maybe the press is guilty of McCain moments, too, since only paid advertising can point out that McCain ain't the "straight talker" he claims to be; the press "forgets" to play any of that. How did he come to be the nominee? By backtracking on virtually every "maverick" position he ever took, from torture to birth control.

Yup, he's agin' it. After all, some birth control methods are considered akin to abortion, which he's been against for awhile (but not always); the IUD, for example, and the morning after pill.

Maybe the feminists who said they'd vote for him because Hillary lost, were also having McCain moments?

The real question is: what is a McCain moment? Is it like a "senior moment?" That's the most charitable construction; the poor guy is old and confused, but that's all. It's telling though, if that rich old guy is running for President.

Or maybe a McCain moment is more like Marie Antoinette's "Let them eat cake!" Gosh, all you sans-culottes, she was just making a joke! Gosh, all you elitist, latte sipping radical leftists out there, he was only making an honest mistake. After all, doesn't anyone who's anyone have trouble remembering how many houses they have?

Anyone who's anyone appears to be people earning over $5 million a year--like our dear friend John. Anyone earning less is just middle class.

What! You say someone earning $4.99 million a year isn't in the middle class? It's why we still have to have tax cuts for virtually everyone, because our middle class--those with incomes below $5 million--need to be helped out by Uncle Sam. I guess there are a few people with incomes above that, but even they shouldn't be taxed any more, according to McCain; that would be a tax increase. According to some of his supporters, at least, to tax the wealthy--you know, all those people who persuaded the poor and those with darker complexions to take out risky mortgages and made out like bandits, or maybe were bandits--those are the most enterprising and "most productive" people, so you can't tax them.

This is why McCain's moment is not just a senior moment; it is that, but it's also emblematic of McCain's understanding of the world out there.

My only criticism of the Obama campaign's ad on a McCain moment was that it didn't run his actual tape. Were there copyright issues preventing it?

After the disaster of Valentinian III, and of Emperor Maximus, his extremely wealthy replacement, the Roman Empire settled upon genial incompetents to carry on the business of Empire, but McCain isn't even genial; he flies off the handle rather unpredictably. I might too, at his age (three years my senior) if I had been tortured and then had cooperated with the enemy lo those many years ago.

But do we really want a President McCain having McCain moments, and then exploding in a towering rage with his finger on "the button?"