I've never been a huge fan of liberal talk radio host Ed Schultz. Not because of any of his views -- they seem to be pretty mainstream, for the most part. My problem is with his constant self-promotion. He's attacked bloggers as ineffective in the past, while pushing liberal talk radio as the be-all and end-all of lefty opinion. Never mind that few people on the left or right listen to talk radio of any stripe. To Schultz, the only medium worth a damn is talk radio -- specifically, his show. Newspaper columnists and magazine writers apparently aren't crap.That said, we all have reason to congratulate Schultz, who called John McCain a "warmonger" at an Obama event.
Ed Schultz, host of a nationally syndicated radio program, was warming up the crowd Friday at a $100-a-person fundraiser for the North Dakota Democratic party in Grand Forks when he tagged the probable Republican presidential nominee as a "warmonger," Schultz acknowledged in a telephone interview Saturday.
He said he has used the term many times on the air to refer to McCain because of his support for the war in Iraq.
"He voted for this war. He's a perpetrator of the war. He's an advocate of the war," Schultz said. "In my personal definition, that's a warmonger."
Team McCain took offense with this."I would hope that in keeping with his commitment that Senator Obama would condemn such language, since it was part of his campaign," McCain said. To his discredit, Obama did just that.
I say "discredit" because there are few words in the English language that describe John McCain so well as "warmonger." With the vast majority of Americans opposed to this war, McCain will not end it. This is nothing new, I couldn't find any instance where Mcain had voted against war -- any war. In our current conflict, when the choice between President Bush and the troops comes up, McCain chooses Bush. He voted against a bill to "specify minimum periods between deployment of units and members of the Armed Forces deployed for Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom." He also voted against troop reduction. In a bipartisan effort by Sens. Jim Webb and Chuck Hagel to pass a new G.I. Bill, expanding benefits for vets, John McCain has been described as "AWOL."
While it doesn't explain his lack of support for the troops and veterans, McCain's consistent votes for military action can be explained by his temperament. John's widely considered a hothead. As far back as 1999, McCain was described as having a "volcanic" temper. It was so disturbing to those in his home state that the Arizona Republic found it necessary to issue a warning to the nation from its editorial page:
If McCain is truly a serious contender for the presidency, it is time the rest of the nation learned about the John McCain we know in Arizona. There is also reason to seriously question whether he has the temperament, and the political approach and skills, we want in the next president of the United States.
It's tempting to resort to pop psychology and believe that McCain's the stereotypical Vietnam vet with emotional problems. It's easy to say that he went nuts as a POW. But his history shows that's not the case. In High School, his nickname was "McNasty" and the editors of the school yearbook labeled him a "punk."
"His magnetic personality has won for him many life-long friends," it reads "but, as magnets must also repel, some have found him hard to get along with."
John McCain isn't some crazy vet out of bad movies, John McCain is and always has been a dick. Do we really need some High School bully who's never met a war he didn't like as President of the United States?
Yeah, I don't think so.
The next president is going to spend a large part of their first term repairing the US's reputation in the world. Either that or continue to be the global bully that George W. Bush has been. Angry phone calls in the middle of the night aren't going to be all that helpful.
For his part, Ed Schultz is sticking to his guns. "I'm sorry, John, the label sticks," Schultz told CNN's American Morning today. "John McCain is a warmonger." And a prick. The next presidency is going to have to engage in a lot of diplomacy -- leaving military action as a last resort.
John McCain is clearly the wrong man for that job.
--Wisco
Technorati tags: politics; Bush Iran; elections; 2008; republican; diplomacy; Barack Obama; Ed Schultz is wrong about John McCain -- he's not just a warmonger, he's worse
