Perpetually Finding Ponies

Does anyone else feel like when McCain is speaking he's trying to figure out what it would be like to work on real problems? From having seen the disaster resulting from the kind of insulated atmosphere surrounding the occupiers of the White House, I am afraid the kind of care and handling that has surrounded Senator McCain similarly has removed his grasp of affairs.

Part of the sense of unreality is conveyed by calling for 'victory' in Iraq. Of course, the only actual victory possible to the U.S. is peace, something that will never be reached by ... making war. McCain does not seem to notice that what he is praising as succesful results of the "surge" is another evidence of the devastation we will be called on to pay for in the not so distant future.

...it was in 2004-2005 that Sunni Arab guerrillas were besieging Baghdad. In 2006-2008 the Shiite militias pushed them back and ethnically cleansed about half of the Sunnis from the city. So the most recent significant change is not a breaking of the Sunni siege but the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Sunnis from their homes. And, I'm afraid that you can't declare the war over as long as hundreds of civilians and more dozens or hundreds of "insurgents" are being killed every month. (Emphasis added.)

McCain expects to keep declaring victory while the country of Iraq is torn to shreds, and doesn't seem capable of seeing this for the tragedy it is. This is the take on his appearances in today's Frank Rich column.

Mr. McCain is a man who aspires to lead the largest economy in the world and yet recently admitted that he doesn’t know how to use a computer, the one modern tool shared by everyone from the post-industrial American work force to Middle Eastern terrorists to Pixar animators. Getting shot down over Vietnam may not be a qualification for president in 2008, but surely a rudimentary facility with a laptop is. What Mr. McCain has going for him is a press corps that often ignores or covers up such embarrassments.

The Republican’s digital ignorance is not a function of his age but of his intellectual inflexibility and his isolation from his country’s reality. To prove the point last week, he took a superfluous, if picturesque, tour of Colombia and Mexico, with occasional timeouts for him and his surrogates to respond like crybabies to General Clark’s supposed slur on his patriotism.

For connoisseurs of McCainian cluelessness, the high point was his Wednesday morning appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” The anchor, Robin Roberts, asked the only important question: Why in heaven’s name was Mr. McCain in Latin America when “the U.S. economy is really at the forefront of voters’ minds”?

“I know Americans are hurting very badly right now,” he explained, channeling the first George Bush’s “Message: I care.” As he spoke, those hurting Americans could feast on the gorgeous flora and fauna of the Cartagena, Colombia, tourist vista serving as his backdrop. “It’s really lovely here,” Mr. McCain said. Since he can’t drop us an e-mail, a video postcard will have to do.

The only excuse I can see for McCain's going to the tropics last week was an attempt to associate himself with the rescue of the hostages, and no one was fooled.

The sad truth is that this candidate is not connected with actual events, as he's been letting his campaign and his Senate office be run by others while he raises funds. This is typical of officeholders in this high-finance campaign world, and is showing the tattered edges in the candidate of the right wing being not a part of his world, the world of the voters.

It would be deplorable, except that it will likely end a candidacy in failure that this country badly needs to fail.