We're being told McCain will unveil a new stump speech this week. Two key lines have emerged. First:

"My friends, we've got them just where we want them."

Is there anyone in the country--heck, is there anyone in his own campaign--that truly believes this?

The second line that is being circulated is this:

"What America needs in this hour is a fighter; someone who puts all his cards on the table and trusts the judgment of the American people. I come from a long line of McCains who believed that to love America is to fight for her. I have fought for you most of my life. There are other ways to love this country, but I've never been the kind to do it from the sidelines."

There is an almost uncomfortably pathetic tone to these words from McCain. He might as well be saying, "Look, I admit that I don't have any plans to move the country forward, but vote for me--please--because I fought for you."

In his book, McCain admits to wanting the presidency as a matter of ambition. He sees it as "the prize."
Screw the rest of you--he wants the prize above all else. Once he's in the White House, the rest will all somehow magically work itself out.

Sorry, Johnny. That's just not good enough. You may have fought for us (like the nearly 3 million others who fought in Vietnam), but the highest office in the land is not something that we "owe you" in gratitude.

We need answers. We need help. We don't see any sign of that coming from you.

Right where you want them? Puh-leeze.

Help me understand this exchange from last night's VP debate:

IFILL: Can you think of a single issue--and this is to cast light for people who are just trying to get to know you in your final debate, your only debate of this year--can you think of a single issue, policy issue, in which you were forced to change a long-held view in order to accommodate changed circumstances?

PALIN: ...But on the major principle things, no, there hasn't been something that I've had to compromise on, because we've always seemed to find a way to work together. Up there in Alaska, what we have done is, with bipartisan efforts, is work together and, again, not caring who gets the credit for what, as we accomplish things up there.

Now my (apparently outdated) dictionary defines "compromise" as "an accommodation in which both sides make concessions" ...or to put it another way, working together. So she doesn't compromise but they worked together? I'm confused.

And as long as I'm being picky, that same whacky dictionary defines "conservative" as "resistant to change."
So how can McCain keep making the claim that his is a campaign for change?

Up is down? Black is white? Huh?

"I'll reform Wall St. and fix Washington -- I've taken on tougher guys than this before," McCain says in his new ad on the economy.

What kind of bullsh*t is that? The country is looking for answers and he's looking for a fight?
This ad reminds me of the old Duracell commercials where tough guy actor Robert Conrad said, "I dare you to knock this off my shoulder."
It said nothing about the battery but everything about Conrad's image. McCain's ad says nothing about the economy but, once again, tries to draw a line to his supposed tough guy image. That's all he has to run on.
Sorry, I don't need someone with a giant chip on his shoulder as my president. We've had eight year of that already.
"Reform" and "fix Washington" have been tossed around so much by the McCain campaign that the words no longer have meaning (but they are easy ones to remember and recite for the GOP rank and file).
Give me solutions, not commissions.

Listening to NPR on my drive home last night, I heard a McOperative discussing how the “maverick” (gahhh! I hate that term!) candidate’s acceptance speech would not try to top the masterful Obama speech of the week before. He said the public would see a speech with a different tone, and he used a phrase that jumped out at me for its familiarity: “lowered expectations.”
I recall that “lowered expectations” was how the GOP prepared us for the early W years. (The phrase was used again at the start of TheSurge™.) I don’t have access to LexisNexis, but I invite anyone that does to run a search of “lowered expectations” and its variants in relation to the Bush presidency. I’ll bet you get a lot of hits. Bush’s people said it time and again. So, how’d that work out for ya?
What? Bush f*cked up again? Well, whose fault is that? We told you not to expect too much from the guy. If you had high expectations you should have elected Gore. (Oh that’s right, you did. Thanks Supreme Court and Diebold!)
After eight years of “lowered expectations,” isn’t it time that we have higher expectations for what our leaders say and do, especially when they do it in our name?
Barack Obama made many specific promises in his acceptance speech and on the campaign trail, and I fully expect the American public and the press will hold him to those promises and go after him if he doesn’t follow through. I believe he feels the same way, and that makes me optimistic.
I was looking for those same kind of specifics in McCain’s speech last night, too. Unfortunately I didn’t hear any. It was almost as though McCain suddenly remembered he had to give a speech and just pulled one from the shelf, dusted it off, and went on stage.
Defining? Yes, but certainly not in the way they had hoped.
Following the speech, one floor delegate gushed, “He said all the right things.” And I couldn’t agree more. He said all the “Right” things. McCain offered nothing but the same tired laundry list of Republican flash points: lower taxes, conservative judges, and terror, terror, terror.
It was like throwing meat to hungry dogs--the same vacuous slogans we’ve heard before, guaranteed to get a Pavlovian round of cheers (for lower taxes) or jeers (for Obama).
How does that represent change? It doesn’t. And they know it. The dictionary definition of “conservative” is “tending to oppose change.” Let McCain say anything he wants; we won’t hold him to any promises he makes because we’re supposed to have “lowered expectations,” just like with Bush.
Four years from now, will it be: What? McCain f*cked up again? Well, we told you not to expect too much from the guy. If you had high expectations, you should have elected Obama. By the way, did you know John McCain was a POW?