THE GUN TOTING LIBERAL™

For a stroll down memory lane for those who have short memories, the tactic used in Tennessee against Mr. Ford was to “scare” those voters with missing teeth by playing campaign ads to suggest a vote for Mr. Ford was a vote for a black man to come and have sexual relations with their gap-toothed daughters. See that original ad at Truthdig. And before you jump to any conclusions, NO, I’m NOT insinuating everybody in Tennessee meets the above cliché; only those mindless robots who based their too-important vote based upon racial stereotypes. I run across them all the time in my Great Home State Of Alabama, too. It’s shameful to be a blatant, brainless racist. It’s even more shameful when powerful groups seek to exploit those blatant, brainless racists for their own gain.

[Hypothetical, of course] President McCain: “Iranian president Ahmadinejad said what in his letter addressed to me? That’s it — airstrikes on Tehran — right now!”

Adviser: “But… but… SIR! Have you bothered to read his letter for yourself yet? It’s four pages long…”

[Hypothetical] President McCain: “Absolutely NOT. This is the LAST time that Ahmadinejad character is gonna call us ‘Great Satan’. Fetch the Join Chiefs of Staff NOW!”

Yes, I’m well aware of the fact that some of you reading this post are asking yourselves, “What’s wrong with that? GO JOHN!” Well, let’s substitute China then. Or Russia. Or Canada. The point is, this spectacle has pointed out to all prospective voters the fact that Señor McCain has demonstrated a very serious and potentially lethal flaw; the very same flaw we’ve seen in his buddies, President “Surge” W. Bush and Vice President Dick “Shotgun” Cheney. Look where it has gotten us.

Allow me to bring up a private discussion I had last night with a very dear, close friend — a publicly elected G.O.P. official from the State of Louisiana who shall remain nameless. He is a reluctant “unofficial” adviser to the McCain Campaign; has spoken many times to the man on the phone but until yesterday, had never had a “private sitdown” with the man when he rode into New Orleans for his Katrina photo-ops. I already knew my friend wasn’t too impressed with some of the man’s politics, but I had to give him a ring to ask him if his opinion had changed after meeting him “manu-emanu” (and that was a direct quote from MOI). As always, I would never quote my dear friend without his permission — sometimes he says “yes”, much more often, the answer is “no”. This is a paraphrase of our conversation; the part I can share:

MOI: “So, hey, my friend — now that you’ve had a chance to sit down with Panama John (he hates when I call him that), has your opinion changed at all?”

McCain “unofficial” Adviser: “You know, he’s a dumbass. Stubborn, won’t listen to anybody. I told him he has no business poking his nose into the G.O.P. of North Carolina’s politics and he won’t listen to me or anybody else. Just a dumbass. A very nice man, a very good man whom I happen to highly disagree with on a lot of things but definitely a dumbass.”

He further went onto explain to me how (in his opinion) when President Bush (another close friend of his) walks into a room, “Believe it or not”, he said — “he has a very powerful presence. People immediately stop what they’re doing and take immediate notice. John McCain does not have that same quality…” My friend also said he had told “Panama John” he was wrong to criticize President Bush over Katrina to which, of course, Señor McCain also disagreed. All in all, I didn’t get the idea my friend and the man he is advising didn’t really hit it off to well.

And that’s about all I feel comfortable in sharing from my otherwise, very private conversation. Why did I bring it up? Because it is directly related to the referenced articles and brings a fourth opinion into the equation for our consideration. You’ve now got the New York Times’, Michelle Malkin’s, mine, and now, a G.O.P. insider of the McCain Campaign’s opinion to consider.