What’s driving you crazy?

 

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That John McCain, he’s got a million of them … quip-flops that is.

The latest came in an unannounced stop of the McCain/Bush campaign at a Pittsburgh, PA, restaurant.  A reporter asked McCain about an Associated Press story concerning U.S. trade with Iraq.

Despite increasingly tough rhetoric toward Iran, which President Bush has called part of an “axis of evil,” U.S. exports to the country grew more than tenfold during Bush’s years in office - even as he accused it of nuclear ambitions and sponsoring terrorists.

Cigarettes, the reporter said, topped the list

With $73 million, the value of cigarettes sold to Iran was more than twice that of the No. 2 category on the export list - vaccines, serums and blood products.

“Maybe that’s a way of killing ‘em,” Senator McCain said.

Oops!
What happened next is not reported in all accounts, but it was at www.theage.com (and other places).

His wife, Cindy, sitting next to him, poked him in the back,

It was then he added:

“I meant that as a joke, as a person who hasn’t had a cigarette in 28 years.”

Cindy corrected him again.  It’s been 29 years.

However, McCain has yet to come out and apologize to the tobacco industry and tobacco lobby and tobacco farmers.  After all, he made a great GOP slip in linking cigarettes with death.  That could cost him . . literally.  Those sessions most likely will occur behind closed doors.

Of course this brings to mind the ever popular McCain cover the Beach Boys “Barbara Ann” with his own words - “Bomb! Bomb! Bomb! Bomb! Bomb Iran.”

Another joke, the campaign insisted.

However many of McCain’s followers who are far from warm and fuzzy and must lap  this stuff up like beer.  It shows his tough guy image without having to call his wife profane names or grab someone by the collar.

Oh, but he apologized.  That makes all the difference in the world.  See, he isn’t so bad after all, he didn’t mean it. (Wink! Wink! Nudge! Nudge!)

In the end, he gets it both ways.  To some is the elderly gentleman who mispoke.  That’s fine; we’ve become used to that.  At the same time is the hero of the hell hath no fury like a demagogue scorned club and the “stomp around and strike with a big stick” crowd.

By the way, Sen. Barack Obama  response was:

“It’s that kind of mixed signal that has led to the kind of situation that we’re in right now,” Obama said Wednesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Pretty obvious he wasn’t going for laughs, but it’s possible the straight man/woman didn’t set him up right.

I wonder what McCain would have said had the reported quoted the following to him about our trade with Iran under Boy George Bush?

U.S. government figures showed at least $148,000 worth of unspecified weapons and other military gear were exported to Iran during Bush’s terms.

However, a review found that $106,635 in military rifles and $8,760 in rifle parts and accessories shipped in 2004 actually went to Iraq.

The wrong country was entered on the shipping record, Treasury Department spokesman John Rankin said.

The remaining military gear is likely $33,000 in military apparel shipped to Iran under the humanitarian exemption to the trade sanctions, Rankin said.

If Iran is supplying the insurgency in Iraq with arms, does Sen. McCain wonder if we sent them there?

I know I do.