Don't Know Nothing

Not having spent time around the man I can't say for sure, but given some hints here and there in the press and elsewhere I think I've figured out how John McCain operates. Despite his reputation for "straight talk" he's just the ultimate pandering politician, and this isn't simply cynical politics but something woven deep into his persona. He likes to please! And how better to please the chattering classes, enamored as they are of their own smarts, than to agree with them! About everything! All the time! That's how they know he's a straight talking smart dude, because he just throws what they say to him back at them with a knowing nod.

So you get these Joe Klein contortions.

Matt Yglesias notices that John McCain has gone back to his old, irresponsible, incendiary baloney-slicing on Iraq. You may recall that on the night McCain won the Republican nomination, he--accurately--emphasized sectarian violence as the major threat if the U.S. didn't leave Iraq carefully. Now he's back to his utterly bogus "victory" or "defeat" in the war against Al Qaeda.

Joe Klein knows what the "real" John McCain thinks! That real McCain is the one that sat down and chatted with Joe, or someone Joe knows and trusts, and said some stuff that Joe is more likely to agree with. Then poor John McCain has to go face those stupid voters and tell them some other stuff and it's all so sad.

My question for our press corps on the sainted John McCain - has he ever shown any core understanding on any serious issue? Yes we know he spent time in a POW camp - awful - but that doesn't mean he has any clue or expertise about what's, you know, actually going on in Iraq.