Tonight is the last of the three “debates” (sic) between the candidates for the Presidency of the United States of America.
Last week, That One™ goaded Honky:
I am surprised that, you know, we’ve been seeing some pretty over-the-top attacks coming out of the McCain campaign over the last several days, that he wasn’t willing to say it to my face. But I guess we’ve got one last debate. So presumably, if he ends up feeling that he needs to, he will raise it during the debate.
Any politician with half-an-inch of brain and three millimetres of history should be able to deal with that one by leaving the issues of That One’s “links” with William Ayers and Rev. Jeremiah Wright well out of tonight’s debate.
Honky apparently has neither half-an-inch of brain nor three millimetres of history:
I was astonished to hear him say that he was surprised that I didn’t have the guts” to bring up Ayers, McCain said on KMOX, a St. Louis radio station. I think he is probably ensured that it will come up this time.
Whoopsie. Can’t wait to hear That One’s clearly well-planned response. (Wonder if it has anything to do with Palin’s links to a church that actively seeks to convert Jews to Christianity?)
But it’s symptomatic of McCain’s current inability to do anything other than in response to That One’s words and actions.
Last week, That One’s campaign (and, mercifully, some independent commentators) suggested that McCain might want to tone down the hateful, inflammatory, and at times racist, rhetoric being employed by some of his more rabidly unhinged supporters.
24 hours later, McCain grabbed back the microphone from one of the Angry Mob who called That One “an Arab” and the cries of the nutjobs seem to have abated for now.
On Monday, That One unveiled his 73rd economic rescue plan of the month. 24 hours later, McCain unveiled his new economic rescue plan in response.
There is a malaise of confusion within the McCain camp that has been well documented on the other side of the pond.
Several party leaders said Mr. McCain needed to settle on a single message in the final weeks of the campaign and warned that his changing day-to-day dialogue — a welter of evolving economic proposals, mixed with on-again-off-again attacks on Mr. Obama’s character — was not breaking through and was actually helping Mr. Obama in his effort to portray Mr. McCain as erratic.
“The main thing he needs to do,” said Vin Weber, a former Republican congressman from Minnesota, “is focus on a single message — a single, concise or clear-cut message, and stick with that over the next 30 days, regardless of what happens.
“He’s had a lot of attack lines. But it’s time to choose.”
Voters are looking for a leader who might help rescue them, not a reckless gambler whose lurching responses to the economic meltdown (a campaign “suspension,” a mortgage-buyout stunt that changes daily) are as unhinged as his wanderings around the debate stage.
It’s almost possible to feel sorry for McCain. He was by a country mile the best Republican candidate in 2000 and should have beaten Dubya hands down. It’s a genuine shame that someone so qualified for the candidacy (though not, I contend, the office itself) should have had to spend eight years kicking his heels, watching a clown in a cowboy outfit fuck it up so spectacularly, only to have to try to pick up the pieces at too advanced an age and after way too much shit has gone down.
John McCain has been aiming for the White House for a quarter of a century and it is primarily events outside his responsibility that have only fairly recently thrown him off course. It’s only within the last few months that his own behaviour can be cited as partly responsible for the spanking he’s seemingly going to get at the polls.
Nevertheless, there is only one candidate now setting the agenda and – with any luck – tonight should see That One land the final sucker punch that Honky appears so keen to walk onto.