"I Hope Castro Dies!" It's only a matter of time before McCain shoots himself in the foot.

[Bicoastal]

From CNN: "INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Likely Republican presidential nominee John McCain says he doesn't look for any major political reforms in Cuba until after Fidel Castro dies, adding he hopes that's not far off.

As McCain put it during a campaign stop in Indiana Friday, "I hope he has the opportunity to meet Karl Marx very soon."

This is the sort of coarse, unthinking comment that hothead John McCain is well-known for on Capitol Hill. Until now, he's been lucky only because most of these comments somewhat reflect the GOP mindset (ie One hundred years in Iraq, Bomb Bomb Iran), but it's only a matter of time before he slips up one time too many and says something even the GOP finds really damaging...

Which is beautiful, because this exactly the sort of thing both Barack Obama AND Hillary Clinton are quite good at--keeping cool under pressure and not making verbal gaffes when the cameras are on.

We're sitting in the catbird seat, folks....

[Tom Joad]

1. I hope mccain gets the mental health care he sorely needs.

[lazer47]

16. The most obvious case of untreated PTSD on record.

[lapfog_1]

2. That doesn't sound very, uh, Presidential.

But then, neither has anything uttered by *.

[lligrd]

3. Not So Sure, Look At All The Gaffes * Makes

yet they still supported him. Of course, I find it rather ironic that at McCain's age, he is hoping anyone kicks the bucket.

[Bicoastal]

6. But even the Repubs knew that Bush is a lousy speaker--and his gaffes are harmless.

McCain, on the other hand, has already made several potentially dangerous gaffes, all in his supposedly-expert area of foreign policy--and it's pretty clear they're due to hot-headedness, not stupidity.

That's the difference.

[lligrd]

9. Harmless? I Don't Think Anything About This Administration

has been harmless.

[Bicoastal]

13. You know what I mean...

Mispronouncing "subliminal" and saying "Is our children learning?" is funny enough, and suggests a severe mental deficiency, but these words don't actually hurt anyone.

Saying things like "bomb bomb bomb Iran" and "I hope Castro dies," on the other hand--they could have severe consequences, and Independents may not want to support someone who makes one of these inflammatory comments too many.

[Colobo]

4. McCain is no spring chicken...

[shain from kane]

5. Castro is probably on an opiate derivative right now. He knows that he is going to die.

Whether that opiate is being provided by the religion of his youth, or medical science, is a matter of speculation.


From the internets ---

Marx is saying that religion’s purpose is to create illusory fantasies for the poor. Economic realities prevent them from finding true happiness in this life, so religion tells them that this is OK because they will find true happiness in the next life. Although this is a criticism of religion, Marx is not without sympathy: people are in distress and religion provides solace, just as people who are physically injured receive relief from opiate-based drugs.

The quote is not, then, as negative as most portray (at least about religion). In some ways, even the slightly extended quote which people might see is a bit dishonest because saying “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature...” deliberately leaves out the additional statement that it is also the “heart of a heartless world.”

What we have is a critique of society that has become heartless rather than of religion which tries to provide a bit of solace. One can argue that Marx offers a partial validation of religion in that it tries to become the heart of a heartless world. For all its problems, religion doesn’t matter so much — it is not the real problem. Religion is a set of ideas, and ideas are expressions of material realities. Religion is a symptom of a disease, not the disease itself.

[Forkboy]

7. That wont hurt him at all.

Hell, it'll probably help.

[Bicoastal]

8. It's a good harbringer of gaffes to come.

[NorthernSpy]

11. Huckabee has already cited the prospect of a McCain "Macaca Moment"...

... as a reason to stick around for the rest of the race.

[Forkboy]

15. The point is, it's only a gaffe to people like us.

I promise you if you ask people who they like more, McCain or Castro, it'll be overwhelmingly in McCain's favor, probably even among many Dems (I've seen some pretty strong anti-Castro stuff here over the years from a few people). This won't hurt him at all, and not many will see this as a gaffe.

The "bomb Iran" stuff on the other hand I think we can use to our advantage. :)

[Tom Joad]

10. that's nothin' Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, fascist, Florida, called for Castro to be

murdered.
she supports murder and mayhem on a daily basis. Nothing unusual for a member of Congress.

http://politicalquote.blogspot.com/2006/12/ileana-ros-lehtinen-calls-for-castros.html

[AtomicKitten]

12. McCain is full-tilt batshit crazy.

Obama will make short work of this loon using his own breathtakingly ignorant hubris, like this particular comment.

[Tom Joad]

14. umm, didn't we think that of what Gore would do to Bush, too?

and though, yes, gore did get more votes, it was much closer than we could have imagined.
we can only hope america has grown a bit wiser since then.

[AtomicKitten]

17. Obama operates outside the box of conventional wisdom.

He rallies people to a common purpose, pushing ideology aside, and don't forget he has the moral high ground on this issue of war. I anxiously look forward to Obama ripping Mc Cain a new one on defense (which has been for the most part historically offense); I think we have all been waiting for a repudiation of the US's catastrophic and morally bankrupt foreign policy.

[Tom Joad]

18. I do hope that his initial criticism of the war will be helpful

and that after he is elected we make sure he very rapidly ends this illegal occupation.