JOHN McCAIN: "BROKEN"

Take a look at Senator McCain's new ad:

Now let's take these point-by-point shall we?

"Washington is broken": Hey John, you're the guy touting your TWENTY SIX years of experience in that place you're identifying as "broken". Wouldn't this make you part of the problem? At least Obama can claim he's running after one term because he knew right away the place was screwed up.

"We're worse of than we were four years ago": First off, you weren't saying this just a few weeks ago. Remember when your campaign was telling the American people they were "whiners"? And also, if we really are worse off than we were four (or eight) years ago. What does it say about you that you voted with Bush 95% percent of the time in 2007? The country has known we were going in the wrong direction for years - and yet it seems like you just got on board with the idea.

"Only McCain has taken on Big Tobacco": McCain supported a 1998 bill that called for a $1.10 (per pack) tax hike for cigarettes that would have funded underage smoking education. It failed at the time. When asked recently if he still supported the tax hike? "McCain today does not support raising taxes on cigarettes," his adviser said.

"Taken on drug companies": And yet he employs numerous lobbyists on his campaign staff (who advise him daily) who've made millions arguing on behalf of these same drug companies.

"Fought corruption in both parties": Are you kidding me? McCain was corruption enough for both parties in the late 80's. His "Keating Five" shenanigans cost the American taxpayer some 125 billion dollars, while he consistently took favors and made thousands from a con artist.

via Wikipedia:
Between 1982 and 1987, McCain had received $112,000 in lawful political contributions from Keating and his associates. In addition, McCain's wife Cindy McCain and her father Jim Hensley had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators. McCain, his family, and their baby-sitter had made nine trips at Keating's expense, sometimes aboard Keating's jet. Three of the trips were made during vacations to Keating's opulent Bahamas retreat at Cat Cay. McCain did not pay Keating (in the amount of $13,433) for some of the trips until years after they were taken, when he learned that Keating was in trouble over Lincoln.

"He'll battle Big Oil": This one's a laugh because his flip-flop is still hot off the presses. McCain opposed off shore drilling for years, and then - when opportunity knocked - he flipped, and immediately raised $750,000 dollars from that nasty "Big Oil" for his campaign. Coincidence? Me thinks that'll soften McCain's "battling" just a bit.

"He's the Original Maverick": Sadly, the "Maverick" who once resided inside McCain is long gone. He's sold out any of that individual spirit, and now backs things that he never would have touched almost weekly.

In fact, a recent article in the New York Times shed some light into McCain's campaign since Karl Rove's hacks (like Steve Schmidt) came aboard. It seems "The Maverick" enjoys using his cell phone to solicit advice from a wide range of close personal contacts, but those varying opinions have led to some new rules on the campaign:

Mr. Schmidt has sought to cut down on Mr. McCain's use of his cellphone and limit the people who have regular access to Mr. McCain in an effort to keep him more focused, advisers said.

So John McCain wants to be in control of the country - and yet he can't even be trusted with his cell phone?! If I'm not mistaken, the whole charm of "Straight Talk" was that it wasn't committee-based bullshit - but rather opinions STRAIGHT from McCain. Now he can't be trusted to "stay focused" on the message of the day?! I guess that's one more attribute down the drain.

Ready to lead? Yeah right.