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The perfect is the enemy of the good
Perfect = Hillary/Obama or Obama/Hillary or Kucinich/Gravel or whatever other outcome you imagine would have made you happy even if in reality it had no real chance of ever happening or even if in reality it would have meant throwing the election to McCain.
Good = Obama/Biden
Evil = McCain/some-other-warmonger
You have to choose between Good and Evil.
If you say that the Good and Evil choices aren't different enough to matter, then (a) you're lying for rhetorical effect but it only makes you look like a moron, and (b) you really are a moron, and (c) your choices are still only Obama or McCain, and either you're going to help get McCain elected or you're going to help get Obama elected.
Pick one. Throw a little hissy fit first if you find it cathartic. But then pick one of the two available options.
Comments (9)
Evil = McCain/some-other-warmonger
Let's use McCain's words from Saddleback against him, shall we?
Does evil exist and do we ignore it, contain it, negotiate with it or defeat it?
McCain: Defeat it.
McCain, even if we have to chase you all the way to the gates of hell...
August 23, 2008 7:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain can't find his own houses, so for all he knows, bin Laden might be hiding out in one of them.
A clear cut choice: Obama or McCain;
Which one do you want to name a replacement for Supreme Court Justice, Stevens.
Wake up women. Your personal freedoms, and control of your own bodies are on the line. If McCain wins, you can say goodbye to your reproductive freedom rights.
August 24, 2008 1:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Barr?
August 24, 2008 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
While I can appreciate the sentiments expressed here, and I do see the GOP operatives and tactics as evil in practice and intent, I also cannot see the person of Mr. McCain as Evil.
McCain is in reality an embittered older man who still chafes at the fact that the US lost the War in Vietnam, he believes we coulda, shoulda or woulda "won" his war if only for some fortitude that was lacking... Never wanting to fathom the idea that we were in fact wrong in concept and execution there in Vietnam.
And so you have the exhortations about "victory" in Iraq that echo Nixon's "honor" rhetoric of McCain's bygone era - long after the "Victory" in Iraq has already gone to the Iranians... no matter what we do now.
Better I think to paint McCain as a sad man still fighting the last war and still clinging to the illusions of his youth - more regrettable than evil.
August 24, 2008 5:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Perfect way to frame the discussion if the goal is to continue a republican shift to Barack in the general election. There is no reason why he can't double the 20 percent of the GOP vote he got in the open primaries and caucuses.
August 24, 2008 6:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
What you say is definitely true. However, it's something else that makes McCain evil: his ambition to become president at all cost. He said this in his own book about his 2000 run:
We could clearly see the effect of that when he decided to run again in 2007. Before that, he was quite a decent man, certainly one of the more likable Republicans, and he held a few very moderate principles (being against torture, against Bush's tax cuts, would permit abortion in case of rape etc.). However when he became one of the front-runners in 2008, he basically sold his soul to the devil (i.e. Bush, Rove, Schmidt), the same people who ruined his 2000 campaign in such a brutal way.
If you look at him today and compare him to himself 2 years ago, you can see that the old John McCain is completely gone. What he looks like now is either a puppet of his party bosses and campaign managers, or a hollow clueless old man.
That's why it's so dangerous to elect him, because if elected, it won't be him running the country, but his puppet masters with their own hidden and unverifyable agendas.
August 24, 2008 7:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
So to clarify: evil is not John McCain, but the *thing* that has obsessed him.
August 24, 2008 7:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
"I also cannot see the person of Mr. McCain as Evil."
I plead guilty to overheated rhetoric.
The choice is still Obama or McCain. Some people try to obscure this choice with vague statements about other options, but they have to be vague about what they mean because the fact remains that ultimately we'll have Obama, or we'll have McCain.
Others try to obscure this choice by talking about the big-picture long-term strategy, and where they'd like to see things end up eventually. They confuse the short-term binary choice between Obama and McCain with the longer-term big-picture of where they'd like things to go eventually. It doesn't change the fact that we'll either have McCain or we'll have Obama as our next President.
So for November it comes down to choosing McCain, or choosing Obama. That's the point.
August 24, 2008 5:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanx for the replies friends, I meant no offense to you bob - I just had a gut reaction to the post and wanted to post an emotional response - and one not as well written as yours.
That said - the things that McCain brought forward at the Saddleback event made some things very clear; his intent, were he given the choice to literally wipe-out the entire center to liberal wing of the existing High Court - and that should scare the living daylights out of not just minorities & women but also any moderate republicans and or independents anywhere in all parts of the country.
So yes the kind of coup that the reactionary wing is contemplating for the country and the courts is in fact Evil - and on that score we Agree 1,000%
ps - the "ambition" quote from McCain's book is available in audio - and I wish the Obama folks would use it in an appropriate ad - when they make charges against us - the Obama people.
OBAMA R US ;)
Take care,
JHC
August 24, 2008 8:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
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