In these topsy turvy weeks of the stump, much of the focus has been on the Democratic nomination, while another painful narrative has been largely ignored. John McCain has made stops in places that have not seen any GOP attention since the mid-60s. Likely as not, without another photo-op, they will never be seen by a Republican again.

After his "the mcman, the mclegend" or whatever tour was a flop, McCain decided to take a page from Mike Huckabee and fashion himself as a compassionate conservative who loves minorities and the working poor. Since he was recently booed soundly for defending NAFTA in front of a closed steel mill in Ohio, one might surmise that the strategy is flawed.

His April 4 visit to Memphis was accompanied by a flowery sing-song speech and a weak apology for voting twice against a holiday to honor Dr. King. He looked more than uncomfortable, and sounded far less than sincere. As the rain came down, the crowd catcalled and hissed, while a black man had to hold an umbrella over his head to keep him dry.

A few weeks later, McCain marked the Civil Rights March in Selma, Alabama -- where Rep. John Lewis was almost beaten to death -- by speaking in monotone to a predominantly white crowd. Devoid of any real conviction, he was there was to get his picture taken with the famous bridge in the background. The cameras got the shot, but McCain does not see the big picture.

Today in New Orleans, he went further than any Republican candidate has dared by attacking Bush over his response to Katrina. What McCain did not tell the sparse 9th Ward crowd was the truth. While they were dying, he was having a birthday party, sharing cake and belly laughs with the President. McCain also failed to mention that he voted against every measure to provide relief, emergency healthcare or investigation in the aftermath of Katrina, and later, Rita.

So, when all of this false compassion and tardy acceptance is floated out, it should not surprise any of us that he actually is an old school guy. Lest anyone forget, he still rolls with the Boss Hogg crowd. Could the real John McCain refuse this offer from a Mayor in a small town in Alabama?

Hell no.

McCain campaign gets almost 80% off on Homewood gathering space, plus free labor from Homewood Jail inmates

Thursday, April 24, 2008
KIM BRYAN
News staff writer

Republican presidential candidate John McCain got a deal when his campaign rented gathering space from the city of Homewood for a private fundraiser earlier this week.

His campaign was given a discount of about 80 percent off the standard booking rate for Rosewood Hall. In September, Jefferson County Democrats rented the same facility and were charged the full rate.

The McCain campaign was charged $250 to use two rooms in the hall, which normally would book for $1,200 on a weeknight. The campaign also was given free labor from Homewood City Jail inmates to set up tables and chairs for the event, avoiding a $100 set-up fee, but did pay a standard $50 cleaning fee.

Homewood Mayor Barry McCulley said the rental rate was discounted because the event was on Monday, a slow day for business. City Council members say they always vote on such discounts but didn't get a say in this deal. They're upset, as are local Democrats.

"I think it's outrageous," said Robert Yarbrough, chairman of the Jefferson County Democratic Party and a Homewood resident.

"I was charged full book rate. I was never offered any free inmate services to set up for my event. Mayor McCulley owes an apology to every citizen in Homewood as to why he arbitrarily changed the fee for this out-of-state senator from Arizona."

Yarbrough rented the entire hall, three rooms, on Thursday nights in September 2006 and September 2007 for the Democratic Blue Dot Ball fundraiser. The weekday fee is $1,700 for all three rooms, according to the official rates. Yarbrough said the Democrats paid more than $2,500 for all charges each year.

McCulley said he and City Council President Ginger Busby agreed on the lower rate for McCain's event. He said minor policy changes such as this don't require council approval.

Busby says there was a miscommunication.

"The mayor asked me if the hall could be free for the McCain event, and I said absolutely not," Busby said. "He then asked if it was appropriate to charge a lesser fee for Mondays. I said as long as it didn't cost the city money, it could be considered."

Busby said she did not know what the charge was or that city inmates were involved. She didn't attend the event and was at a soccer game Monday night, she said.

City Councilman David Hooks said that the council typically debates and votes each time there is a request to discount or waive the rent, but that didn't happen this time.

"I'd be concerned with the legal ramifications of that, from the city's perspective," Hooks said. "It could be a problem for the city to have made in-kind donations to a political candidate by charging less rent or having inmates do work for the event."

The Birmingham News

Boss Hogg crowd? Have you priced '69 Chargers lately?

Once the Democrat race is settled, all eyes will be on McCain as voters now know more about Hillary and/or Obama than they ever cared to know.

Some democrat PAC ought to string together those boos for a national TV spot.

You nailed it my friend, a 527 could have a field day with one Google search:

"Results 1 - 10 of about 152,000 for john mccain booed youtube. (0.26 seconds)"

Ouch.

I think Boss Hogg had a '70 Caddy with horns on the grille. If that aint a McCainmobile, I dunno what is!

:0)

It just doesn't look good for my guy...

From the department of craziness comes consistent revelations about Senator McCain and the practice of voodoo in his campaigns. First, a flashback to the 2000 election season:

A Candidate's Lucky Charms

John McCain Is Hoping Superstition Will See Him Through

By Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 19, 2000

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- If John McCain wins today's South Carolina primary, some will credit his tax plan, while others will point to his war record. Those in the know, however, will attribute victory to the Spring Hill Lizard.

The reptile, believed to have mysterious powers, is the property of one Lanny Wiles, McCain's trip director. Wiles used it to help Texas A&M beat Nebraska, and to force a golfing opponent to miss a $100 putt. He employs the lizard (which isn't a lizard at all but a certain spell cast by wiggling the right pinkie) only on rare occasions, such as today. "We use it only if we're at Def Con One," says John Weaver, McCain's political director and occasional witch doctor.

This isn't the first campaign to honor strange superstitions. During Bill Clinton's 1992 run, James Carville was known to wear the same underwear for days at a time when things were going well. But this time, there's a new twist: The candidate himself is the leading shaman. He keeps on his person a lucky compass, a lucky feather, a lucky penny and, at times, a lucky rock. He assigns Weaver to carry his lucky pen--a Zebra Jimnie Gel Rollerball (medium, blue)--at all times. For added luck, he wears his magical L.L. Bean rubber-soled dress shoes.

"I'm wearing my lucky shoes from today till Sunday," McCain says from his bus on Wednesday. At the moment, his pockets contain the compass, feather (from a tribal leader) and penny (flattened, in his wallet). When McCain once misplaced his feather, there was momentary panic in the campaign, until his wife found it in one of his suits. When the compass went missing once, McCain assigned his political director to hunt it down. Weaver found it, and it remains safe, knock wood.

Primary day requires additional rituals. By the time you read this, Steve Dart, McCain's lucky friend, should have arrived in South Carolina from California. He has been present with McCain for every Election Day since McCain first won a seat in Congress. McCain must sleep on a certain side of the bed, particularly before an election (and he never puts a hat on a bed--bad luck). Rain is good for Election Day, as are motion pictures. McCain requires himself to view a movie before the vote is counted. He fell asleep in his hotel room in New Hampshire before he watched a movie on primary day, but his staff didn't panic. "We have superstition fire walls," says Todd Harris, a spokesman.

That's for sure. Even some foods carry special powers. McCain insists that he and his staff eat barbecue--"our lucky food," says Cindy McCain, the candidate's wife--before each debate, sending Wiles out to find ribs or pulled pork even in New Hampshire or Michigan.

"It's in the ancient tradition of slaughtering the hog before you slaughter the opponent," explains Mike Murphy, McCain's strategist.

McCain's staff and family have embraced their candidate's hocus-pocus. Cindy McCain may well don her lucky purple suit today, and Rick Davis, the campaign chairman, will likely sport his lucky tie, with the state of New Hampshire on it. Murphy should bring out his magic Hawaiian shirt and "the lucky khaki socks with the palm trees." And Weaver may even send for his lucky football ("I save it for the big enchilada," he maintains). But one thing is for sure: Mark Salter, McCain's chief of staff, will not shave his beard, grown during McCain's New Hampshire surge, until the nomination battle is over.

McCain's superstitions have origins in the military. His grandfather, during World War II, kept a lucky crushed cap, and the whole crew on his ship believed in its powers. "When it would blow off people would dive for it," says Salter.

McCain himself, when flying during Vietnam, insisted that his visor be cleaned by his parachute rigger immediately before each flight. "A lot of guys are superstitious who are aviators," the candidate says. "It's either a pilot thing or a stupid thing."

Don't tell Jim Merrill it's a stupid thing. Merrill, McCain's South Carolina director, blends secular rituals with the sacred. "I try to hit confession prior to the election--I don't want anything to be blamed on me," he says. Yes, and then what? "I hit one bucket of golf balls in the morning." Merrill didn't observe this superstition during his last race, a gubernatorial campaign, and his candidate lost, needless to say.

Even those who never entertained superstition in their lives succumb to the voodoo. "I've started wood knocking," says John Raidt, McCain's policy guy. "You see everybody else doing it." McCain staff meetings must sound like a game of knock rummy.

McCain and his aides, so absorbed in their supernatural arts, haven't stopped to consider that their practices might seem a bit bizarre to the uninitiated observer. Weaver is surprised such a question would even be asked. "We've never read chicken entrails or anything like that," he says. Pausing thoughtfully, he adds: "Maybe when we get to Michigan . . ."

Washington Post

Fast forward to 2008 and not a whole lot has changed for the Senator. With all of the controversy surrounding spirituality in the current campaign, there is still no doubt where John McCain invests his faith. He does not believe in God nearly as much as his lucky trinkets:

McCain: Triskaidekaphobic!

By Joseph Curl
Senior White House correspondent
April 11, 2008

Sen. John McCain is famously superstitious -- he won't take a salt shaker from a passer's hand: bad luck -- and now those black rituals are permeating his campaign and the people who work for him.

"That's an ugly habit I've picked up myself," said Brooke Buchanan, the senator's national press secretary. "We were in Kansas City last Sunday and someone mentioned winning in November and three of us knocked on wood. We don't want to jinx anything. We're all very superstitious people."

Top adviser Mark Salter has also been infected. "I grew a beard in 2000 and didn't shave until the campaign was over and I did it this time, too. That's my little superstition. I probably won't shave it until November," he said, adding that he's not sure if McCain "considers it lucky or if he considers it an eyesore.

McCain has a whole slew of superstitions and rituals, many stemming from his days as a Navy fighter pilot, a notoriously superstitious bunch. He won't throw a hat on a bed (bad luck), and he carries a lucky feather, a lucky compass, and a lucky penny -- and nickel, and quarter.

"He had so many of them that we had to cut down -- it was like a change purse in his pocket," Buchanan said with a laugh. He carries a lucky penny given to him by New Hampshire Union Leader Publisher Joseph W. McQuaid just before McCain pulled off the win there Jan. 8 (the penny was found heads up, of course).

McCain also carries a nickel he found outside his Columbia, S.C., hotel just before the primary there (and his second primary win gave him momentum into Florida, ending the race). He's also got a quarter in there, "but I think he just found that on the ground," Buchanan said. "It's always what he finds heads up." Still, it's what she called a "a lucky drummer boy quarter" -- a 1976 commemorative quarter for the bicentennial.

He doesn't have a dime, but almost picked one up in January. When he went to the GOP debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, the Arizona senator noticed a shiny dime on the floor of the stage. He stooped for a closer look, but it was tails up -- rejected. (Question: What if you drop a quarter on the floor in your bathroom and it ends up heads down? You could never pick it up, right?)

He's got more stuff on him, too. On St. Patrick's Day in Chicago, "this guy had a lucky four-leaf clover that was laminated," Buchanan said. "He pulled it out of his pocket and told the senator it had brought him good luck and now the senator carries it around in his wallet."

"Am I superstitious? I'm that,'' McCain said. "But I don't think I'm alone there.''

Certainly not among his staff.

"I've always been superstitous as well, like I hate the number 13," Buchanan said. Good thing she doesn't spend much time at the Crystal City headquarters of the campaign. While the elevator button for the campaign floor says "M," it actually is the 13th floor.

"Why did you have to bring that up? It is the M floor -- the M floor, for McCain!" she said laughing.

Washington Times

I guess an ancient candidate would practice an ancient religion. Perhaps, everyone will be wearing garlic necklaces at the GOP convention. We will just have to wait and see.

It's not looking good for that guy that called his wife a CUN@.....

Yep, he is not looking good right now:
http://members.cox.net/azsoutheast/McCain_Rino.jpg

You guys are just jealous. Anyone his age who can attract a wife like he did with her own jet has to have something going.

She does have flashes of hotness. She's a very " Sex Club " type.

I saw this recently:

"We in Holland cannot figure out why you are even bothering to hold an election.

On one side, you have a bi*** who is a lawyer, married to a lawyer, and a lawyer who is married to a bi*** who is a lawyer.

On the other side, you have a true war hero married to a woman with a huge chest who owns a beer distributorship.

Is there a contest here?"

"You guys are just jealous. Anyone his age who can attract a wife like he did with her own jet has to have something going."

Perhaps, Deane. However, it is true that once a person (she) has accumulated fantastic wealth, they lust for power. Martha Washington came from well to do parents and married into even greater wealth in her first marriage (before George). Julia Tyler, wife of Pres. John Tyler, brought great wealth into their marriage. Rachel Jackson, wife of Pres. Andrew Jackson brought huge family wealth into that marriage, her second. So there is some precedent to support the hypothesis as applied to the presidency/first ladyship. The there's Maria Shriver, wife of Ahhhhnnnnnullllldd.

Well, John Kerry did pretty well for himself too, with his second wife. Not sure if she is as wealthy as McCain's wife, but I don't recall people saying Kerry must "have something going" for him. Oops, that's right, he's a Democrat.

Andrew

I believe Kerry married two wealthy women in a row, IIRC. This couldn't have been by design could it?

Anyone his age who can attract a wife like he did with her own jet has to have something going.

Power
Fame
99% of the women on planet earth would go for that.... She just has the wealth.
Too bad Johnny Mc thinks she's a CUN*...

Too bad McCain is so old and becoming senile. Why he can't even remember how against some things he was only a year ago.

John McCain's temper is well documented. He's called opponents and colleagues "shitheads," "assholes" and in at least one case "a fucking jerk."

But a new book on the presumptive Republican nominee will air perhaps the most shocking angry exchange to date.

The Real McCain by Cliff Schecter, which will arrive in bookstores next month, reports an angry exchange between McCain and his wife that happened in full view of aides and reporters during a 1992 campaign stop. An advance copy of the book was obtained by RAW STORY.

Three reporters from Arizona, on the condition of anonymity, also let me in on another incident involving McCain's intemperateness. In his 1992 Senate bid, McCain was joined on the campaign trail by his wife, Cindy, as well as campaign aide Doug Cole and consultant Wes Gullett. At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain's hair and said, "You're getting a little thin up there." McCain's face reddened, and he responded, "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt." McCain's excuse was that it had been a long day. If elected president of the United States, McCain would have many long days.

Just think of all the grade schoolers, quoting their President --if McCain were the President, they will have a field day with it!

I could add to my budding collection, starting with my "Go Fuck Yourself" Dick Cheney coffee mug! Maybe get a plate, saucer, glass and silverware with notable quotables from the Republican party!

Uh oh, a Baptist minister asked John McCain about his pet name for Cindy:

Watch the painful footage

Clive businessman Marty Parrish was escorted from Sen. John McCain's town hall meeting by Des Moines police and members of the Secret Service after asking McCain if he had called his wife Cindy an expletive in 1992.

Parrish, an ordained Baptist minister who holds a master's degree in political science, was questioned by Secret Service agents before being released. He was not charged in the incident.

In an interview with IowaPolitics.com, Parrish said his intentions were simple in posing the question to McCain.

"We have a man whose temper can get the best of him," Parrish said. "What I am worried about is his temper. Our country is in a serious crisis. This election is the most significant one since 1860. It appears America is asleep -- so I stood up and asked the question."

John McCain: No You Can't -- Like Hope, But Different

By the way, since April 25th, the Google search has added another 4,000 links. That seems to be about one for each soldier we have lost in Iraq.

"Results 1 - 10 of about 156,000 for john mccain booed youtube. (0.30 seconds)"