Six Ways of Looking At Johm McCain's Meddling In Georgian/Russian Affairs-Part 1

by: Paul Rosenberg

Sat Aug 16, 2008 at 18:30

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
Wallace Stevens

I
Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird.

On Thursaday I wrote a diary, "McCain Goes Off The Deep End--Is Anyone Watching?", in which I wrote:

In order to fully grasp what he's up too, there are five analytical frameworks that are particularly helpful to employ.  I'm going to write about them more extensively this weekend.

Well, I was wrong.  There are six analytical frameworks that are particularly helpful.  The original five I listed are on the flip.  The sixth is the notorious "stab in the back" rightwing narrative/myth, which I discussed at length in my July 20 diary, "Patriotism Smackdown: Barack Obama Vs. Hitler's Ghost? (Hegemony Is The Enemy Special Report--Pt5)".

McCain Goes Off The Deep End-Is Anyone Watching?

by: Paul Rosenberg

Thu Aug 14, 2008 at 15:15

Over at TPM, the temperamentally restrained Josh Marshall has been writing about this quite alot. For example:

Dangerous and Unstable

I know I've made this point in various ways in several posts over the last day or so. But watching John McCain speak about the Georgian crisis in the video below should deeply worry anyone interested in a sane US foreign policy -- or the safety of their children....

The people that are pulling McCain's strings are the people who want to push us into a new Cold War with the Russians -- and ironically and a bit improbably with the Chinese too....

McCain is going out of his way to cast this as a replay of 1938 and 1939. Is it really in our interest to get into a renewed Cold War with Russia right now? ....

It's sort of funny when he's just an unhinged senator. But think for a moment where we'd be if this man were president right now, as he may well be in six months. This man takes the counsel of the people who got us into the Iraq War. On foreign policy, he is in league with the people who were so extreme they've now largely been kicked out of the Bush administration. People like John Bolton and others like him.

It's beyond Obama or political strategy or dinging McCain on this or that policy.

This man is simply too dangerous and unstable to be president. People need to wake up and get a look of the preview he's giving us of a McCain presidency. [Emphasis added]

In order to fully grasp what he's up too, there are five analytical frameworks that are particularly helpful to employ.  I'm going to write about them more extensively this weekend.  But this is unfolding now and it deserves a lot sharper attention than it's been getting so far.  So a brief summary of the five frameworks is on the flip.