I never post anything political but...

[Victoria]

John McCain (R-Ari), Republican Senator and Presidential candidate, was reported by the Boston Globe to have an INTERESTING solution if and when he becomes President.

“The Republican hopeful said that as president he would appoint Alan Greenspan to lead a review of the nation's tax code -- even if the former Federal Reserve chairman, now 81, was dead, the Associated Press reported.

“ ‘If he's alive or dead it doesn't matter. If he's dead, just prop him up and put some dark glasses on him like, like 'Weekend at Bernie's,’” McCain joked. “Let's get the best minds in America together and fix this tax code.”

:lol:

OMG, don't quit your day job.

[dluddy]

Yea, I think the train has run off the track

[FasTTaP]

Let's all hope he does not quit his day job and not get promotion

[Victoria]

Let's all hope he does not quit his day job and not get promotion

I just phoned my boyfriend and told him this story. Especially the bit about "Weekend at Bernie's". LOL, WTF. You know what he replied?

"I wonder how Andrea Mitchell is going to report that?"

:lol:

EDIT: Clarification for non-Americans. Andrea Mitchell is the senior political correspondent at NBC, and the wife of Alan Greenspan. Normally, she would be exactly the reporter assigned to mention this kind of flub, but I'm guessing (hoping) NBC have the good taste not to make her...

[Pugwash]

OMG, don't quit your day job.

It worked, didn't it? We're discussing McCain as a candidate, for one reason or another.

[Victoria]

It worked, didn't it? We're discussing McCain as a candidate, for one reason or another.

True. True.

But also in a commentary that makes him look like a geeky Senior running for Student Government President, trying to make his juvenile audience laugh by showing them how cool he is: "And if elected, I will run the Principal's underwear on the flagpole, and cut classes by 30 minutes, HAHA!"...patently NOT as potential leader of the United States of America.

BTW, not the first time he's come out with a joke most people would refer to as being "out of left field".

[Pugwash]

BTW, not the first time he's come out with a joke most people would refer to as being "out of left field".

... and you remembered! He's doing his job very well as one of the not-as-famous-as-my-rivals candidates needing to be remembered for something ... anything!

[Victoria]

... and you remembered! He's doing his job very well as one of the not-as-famous-as-my-rivals candidates needing to be remembered for something ... anything!

Nono. John McCain is one of the more famous candidates, who most Americans would know by sight AND name. Only Rudy Giuliani tops him.

These kinds of schoolboyish retorts makes any Senator look bad, not good. This is not a question of, as Spaniards say, "Talk badly about me, but talk" or even "bad publicity is still publicity".

These jokes take away from his standing, IMO. Even Reagan cut out the "we'll begin nuking the Soviet Union in 30 minutes" kind of (off-air) jokes because it's not something a President, let alone a presidential HOPEFUL, says.

[ratchpot]

Those kind of jokes tend to erode whatever statesman-like qualities a candidate has. If a politician wants to be funny, one of the best ways of doing that is for him (or her) to make a witty retort to an opponent. That fits more within the typical boundaries of acceptable political behaviour (probably at the expense of addressing the point at hand though).

[Victoria]

Those kind of jokes tend to erode whatever statesman-like qualities a candidate has.

That's an excellent point, Ratchie.

One thing I have noted is that Americans expect and like their Senators to be almost seignorial. They don't mind that at all, when it comes to them -- out of character to the egalitarian American spirit.

You know what they say about US Presidents: that their personality has to be in line with an average American wanting to sit down and have a beer with them.

I'm guessing the good Senator from Arizona just wanted to be more jokey than Senators usually are thought of.

Interesting bit of trivia, since there are so many Senators who are Presidential frontrunners.

Only 2 Senators have ever been DIRECTLY elected to the Presidency FROM the Senate in the history of the US Presidency:

Warren G. Harding (1921-1923)

John F. Kennedy (1961-1963 - won by just a peep over 100,000 votes over Nixon)

2 out of 43. No one until over 100 years of Presidents. Tough odds Senators McCain, Clinton and Obama.

EDIT: Just realised both these gentlemen served at eerily close dates, and both died in office. And both were serial womanisers.

EDIT #2: I'm threadjacking my own thread! Here is a WONDERFUL quote I just found on Warren G. Harding by one of the finest journalists the US ever produced, HL Mencken:

"He writes the worst English that I have ever encountered. It reminds me of a string of wet sponges; it reminds me of tattered washing on the line; it reminds me of stale bean soup, of college yells, of dogs barking idiotically through endless nights. It is so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it. It drags itself out of the dark abysm of pish, and crawls insanely up the topmost pinnacle of posh. It is rumble and bumble. It is flap and doodle. It is balder and dash."

...string of wet sponges, stale bean soup, pish, rumble and bumble LOL! I'd kiss the first NYT reporter that ever wrote such things today about ANYONE.

If a politician wants to be funny, one of the best ways of doing that is for him (or her) to make a witty retort to an opponent. That fits more within the typical boundaries of acceptable political behaviour (probably at the expense of addressing the point at hand though).

Especially salient last point, agreed.

[archibald]

Those kind of jokes tend to erode whatever statesman-like qualities a candidate has.

But doesn't hurt his ability to be elected, as the "statesman" currently holding the job proves every time he opens his pie hole.

[jkerouac]

In previous elections McCain's maverick comments and personality gave him notoriety.

He spent the last four years toeing the line and fawning over Bush to please the Republican king makers and it hasn't gotten him anything but also-ran status.

So what does he have to lose by shooting from the hip a bit?

[capt_cope]

While I'm obviously familiar with the name and face, McCain really doesn't creep into my mind very often. But if worse comes to worse I'd have to vote for him. I don't support socialism, and that rules out all the Democrats (speaking of Dems, I am seriously starting to think my neighbors to the south are going soft in the head. Has anyone listened to Obama talk? I'm embarrassed he's an American).That's the problem with America, when the libs take over and start destroying our country in earnest, there's nowhere to go. The Liberals can all run to Canada when someone starts talking about a draft. Where can I go when they start nationalizing health care? I may have to look into a private island.

[Victoria]

But doesn't hurt his ability to be elected, as the "statesman" currently holding the job proves every time he opens his pie hole.

Guys, this isn't a strictly political thread. Let's try to keep it upbeat and needle people, if you like, but not talk politics per se.

Like this:

"A Slip Of The Tongue: Offhand Remarks That Derailed High-Powered Careers"

$8.95 from Amazon!

I'm sure it didn't make it, because it's fairly recent, but we all know how many malapropisms the current US President has offered the world (LOL! I love the one about "sharing their love with women" for OB-GYNs).

Did you know that Segolene Royal, the recent Presidential candidate, nominally a Socialist (really she was wishy-washy about most things) said this:

Last January, French Socialist Segolene Royal referred to "bravery" in a presidential campaign speech. The Socialist candidate used the pseudo-word bravitude instead of the correct bravoure. In English, Madame Royal's unfortunate utterance reads:

"As the Chinese say, one who has not gone to the Great Wall is not brave. One who goes to the Great Wall conquers braveness (bravitude)."

Bravitude is almost as good as misunderestimating.

And in a country like France, where the French prize their language, OMG! No wonder she lost.

So yeah, I challenge ya'll to speak of politics without getting specific and bitter. Can we do that?

[Pugwash]

Where can I go when they start nationalizing health care?

To hospital.

For free.

See? That's the kind of witty retort you're allowed to make as an elder statesman.

[Guest TTK]

Sorry Pugs.....how do you arrive at the conclusion that it's free.....I paid N.I. stamps for years.....none of my Doctor / hospital visits / prescriptions were ever 'free'......so....unsure as to how you've reached that conclusion.....not that I ever begrudged anyone who didn't have the ability to pay......!

[Pugwash]

I paid N.I. stamps for years.....none of my Doctor / hospital visits / prescriptions were ever 'free'

Fair enough, you know and I know it's really flat-fee medicine and not free per se, but since when do witty retorts ever have to be pedantically accurate?

[Victoria]

Fair enough, you know and I know it's really flat-fee medicine and not free per se, but since when do witty retorts ever have to be pedantically accurate?

I suppose when you have fellow pedants like me around to correct you.

One of my favourite off-the-cuff retorts was by a local Republican lady politician, who was being challenged by an extremist opponent in any way he could to take headlines away from her (she basically has the seat for life, if she wants). It went something like this.

"In the Netherlands, they have have a more humane system. When you're dying, they allow you to end your life assisted by a medical doctor. In the US, we even have the death penalty!! I'm here to change that to the European way, because what kind of system is that???"

She replied, "Because in the US, we kill convicted murderers not grandmas".

She brought down the bloody house.