Ye Gods--if people actually read anymore, this TIME interview would doom McCain's chances.

[Bicoastal]

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1836909,00.html

Some choice excerpts:

There's a theme that recurs in your books and your speeches, both about putting country first but also about honor. I wonder if you could define honor for us?

Read it in my books.

I've read your books.

No, I'm not going to define it.

But honor in politics?

I defined it in five books. Read my books.

**************************************
Your campaign today is more disciplined, more traditional, more aggressive. From your point of view, why the change?

I will do as much as we possibly can do to provide as much access to the press as possible.

But beyond the press, sir, just in terms of ...

I think we're running a fine campaign, and this is where we are.

Do you miss the old way of doing it?

I don't know what you're talking about.

Really? Come on, Senator.

I'll provide as much access as possible...(?)

**********************************************************
In 2000, after the primaries, you went back to South Carolina to talk about what you felt was a mistake you had made on the Confederate flag. Is there anything so far about this campaign that you wish you could take back or you might revisit when it's over?

(Does not answer.)

Do I know you? (Says with a laugh.)

(Long pause.) I'm very happy with the way our campaign has been conducted, and I am very pleased and humbled to have the nomination of the Republican Party.

You do acknowledge there was a change in the campaign, in the way you had run the campaign?

(Shakes his head.)

**************************************
A lot of people know about your service from your books, but most people don't know that you have two sons currently in the military. Can you describe what it means to have Jack and Jimmy in uniform?

We don't discuss our sons.

**************************************

Seriously, if this is the way this guy reacts to a few harmless, mildly intrusive questions from 2 TIME magazine reporters--how do you think he's going to do in a debate with a former President of the Harvard Law Review?

[Klukie]

1. I anxiously await the debates.....

McCain will go berserk, I just know it.

[niyad]

3. with any luck, that growth on the side of his face will explode with his apoplexy.

[roguevalley]

29. I would bet he has stage one melanoma. any doctors around? swollen

gland perhaps.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. Wow, how bizarre!

He was there voluntarily, right?

The debates will be most revealing........I hope.


And...here's to more transparency in government! My feeling is, that if he somehow wins, there will be much less of that...

[Bicoastal]

8. The two reporters were INVITED to interview him.

He can dish it out, but man, he sure can't take it.

[JBoy]

17. Maybe he forgot. He probably yells at his gardener to get off his lawn.

[calimary]

22. Which lawn? He has at least seven of 'em...

:evilgrin:

[ErinBerin84]

4. I wish that the media could just start paying back for McCain's shitty treatment of them lately

but I guess there's too much "corporate interest" for them to do that.

[JeffR]

5. link here:

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1836909,00.html

[SeaLyons]

6. Strange....

the debates are going to be great.

[Cha]

7. Rec'd and a Kick so more peeps will read this

on the net, anyway!

[Barack_America]

9. Ambien or dementia?

Take your pick.

[blondeatlast]

10. Sure, he wrote his own "auto"biography. sure he did, yup, no doubt about it.

THIS IGNORAMUS WANTS TO BE YOUR PRESIDENT, AMERICA. STOP HIM.

[Bicoastal]

11. Kicked--added a new excerpt.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

12. K&R #5!

Proud to be sending this to the Greatest Page!

:kick:


:patriot:

[bluethruandthru]

13. Wow!

This is unbelievable...even for McPOW! I guess he feels he's entitled to be president because he was a POW..and the hell with anyone who thinks he needs to answer any questions!!

[tblue37]

14. Those questions were more than just "harmless"--they were deliberate softball set-ups.

The "honor" question and the one about his sons were intended to give him a chance to hit it out of the park on two points that are among his strongest suits where the electorate is concerned. The reporter was trying to help him.

I think, too, that it isn't just testiness. I think he can't do interviews anymore because he is too confused. It could partly be caused by the Ambien, which is known to make one mentally fuzzy, but it is also quite possibly related to early-stage dementia.

[tblue37]

15. Notice that his comments about the campaign were completely canned.

He has been told what to say, and he inserts his memorized points wherever he thinks he can get away with it. He is afraid to try to talk about anything else, because he knows he will commit some sort of bizarre gaffe.

[smoogatz]

16. Wow. What a freak.

Hemorrhoids acting up again, Grampy?

On edit: this is actually pretty significant. I think the fact that they printed the whole interview (even the cranky, non-responsive bits) is a pretty good indicator that McCain's long honeymoon with the press is finally over. My guess is that this is vintage McCain: we're just not used to seeing the unedited version.

[shadowknows69]

18. Yeah I can't believe they even printed that drivel

Was there more of it in the print version? That wasn't the entire interview was it?

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

19. I was saying the same thing. I should go back and kick my own thread. m/t

[flpoljunkie]

20. This is what happens when you hire Rove's thugs and sell your soul to win an election

[PA Democrat]

21. Why bother to give an interview if you refuse to answer the questions?

This guy is way too belligerent, way too angry to be trusted as the CIC. Is angry because he doesn't WANT to answer the questions or because he CAN'T. He seems to have huge gaps in his memory, major confusion of basic facts, major issues in dealing with people.

[BlooInBloo]

23. With a suitably compliant press/electorate, it allows you to (falsely) talk about...

how *open* you are - regardless of the fact that you didn't answer any of the questions.

[SurfingAtWork]

24. He comes off as quite a dick.

[VolcanoJen]

25. Three Cheers for President McCranky!!!!

How could anybody want to vote for this dismissive little pissant???

[jackstraw45]

26. Read "my BOOKS?" You didn't WRITE them, Mr. McCain. They were written by Mark Salter...nt

nt

[Disturbed]

28. McNasty is an "arrogant,, petty, small-minded" Asshole, like his buddy.

“Hypocrisy, my friends, is the most obvious of political sins — and the people will punish it,” John McCain

[maximusveritas]

27. "When I was a POW, I had much tougher questions to deal with"

Wanna bet that's his response if questioned on this? He can get away with anything. The press is scared to challenge him. That was true for Bush as well until well after the Iraq debacle, but it's even more true for McCain.