Things That Irritate Me Posted by Ilan Goldenberg

John McCain, a man with a long long record on national security, comes out and says some half reasonable things about non-proliferation and working with Russia and the press and foreign policy community simply suspend all disbelief and just swoon. 

Seriously, rather then just reading the speech one might consider the fact that this is a man who has actually called for kicking Russia out of the G8 and even in the speech yesterday continued to call for national missile defense -  something that would greatly damage any possibility for cooperation with Russia.  A man who has a long history of saying belligerent things about allies and foes.  A man who has joked about bombing Iran.  A man who voted against ratifying the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.  A man who has a long record of showing a penchant for using military force.  A man who with this type of history would be unlikely to achieve any of the main goals he seems to lay out in the speech

But instead you get all kinds of liberal foreign policy wonks saying nice things about his speech and ledes like:

Senator John McCain distanced himself from the Bush administration on Tuesday by vowing to work more closely with Russia on nuclear disarmament and to move toward the elimination of tactical nuclear weapons in Europe.

Come on people a little reality check please.

Comments

[gregorbkny]

After reading yesterday's commentary here, I hoped the Times would have something that reflected the conflict and called BS. But when I saw the article and noted the author, I realized I had to lower my expectations. So the one actual mention:

But Mr. McCain’s talk of nuclear cooperation with Russia raised questions about how receptive Moscow might be to Mr. McCain if he were elected, when another of the senator’s proposals — excluding Russia from the Group of Eight industrialized countries — seems sure to test relations.

Seemed to me surprising. From anyone else I say it was pathetic, but it's par for the course from Bumiller. I guess we're lucky it wasn't by Nagourney. He'd never dream of writing such dissent from the Myth of the Maverick.

[peace]

It seems to me that the mainstream press is making the same mistake with McCain that they have made with Bush by going on spin alone and ignoring both of their positions and voting record. The MSM somehow believes that McCain is the moderate Alan Alda character from the fictional T.V. series the West Wing.