Maybe he's talking about Bush and Cheney sometime next year?

I do like watching McCain kill himself politically, (would be nice to have Obama carry around 500 electoral votes) but you know; McCain just looks pathetic and sad....

If I hear him refer to people as "my friends" one more time I think I'll throw-up.

@3 No kidding, I was only drinking when he said that last night during the debate and my drink was gone before the third question was done.

Either Palin's a really good poker face or she missed it completely.

That is a subconscious scream for help.

Palin has learned to tune out McCain like she probably tunes out Grand Pa.

Who's the low-rent Paris Hilton impersonator standing over McCain's right shoulder?

Ive said it before, and I'll say it again. Being a POW doesn't make you capable of being President, but it sure as hell makes you capable of having PTSD.

I love the look of satisfaction he gets when he is actually able to deliver a line.

@8,

I think that's his daughter. It figures that when she finally ditched the funereal outfits she was wearing, she'd go totally in the opposite direction and look almost as tarted up as her stepmother.

OMFG.. He's losing it! This has officially become sad.

Palin's "tell" is her instant head movement. She damn well heard it.

Im for Obama 100%.
But it is a gross display of poor taste to mock a living war hero. Even Obama has stated McCain is an honorable man.
That he is old, is a fact and a society that disrespects its most vulnerable " children and seniors" is not to be respected. McCain was tortured in a living hell hole in Vietnam, you could see his fragile tortured body on display during the debate. For a senior to put in the hours, and arduous work in such an endeavor is truly inspirational.
Yes, he is not the right man for the right time. But he is a good man and an American patriot. We should not mock him or embrace those who are indifferent to his efforts for this nation.

@14, while you're of course right in principle, that actual people actually meeting McCain in reality or talking about him in the public sphere should treat the man with the deference and respect his status as a war hero would dictate, complaining about commenters on a blog are mocking him is like complaining about the physics in a Spongebob cartoon.

McCain's time (if there was to be one) should have been 2000. (and if we had a choice of McCain and Bush back then I suppose McCain would have been the lesser of two idiots).

Bottom line is McCain VOLUNTEERED to go through this process. And if people are offened by it as it degrades a war hero, I point to John Kerry. PLUS, since our Presidents are border line royalty I want them to have to crawl through mud and shit during the election process. God knows they'll treat us like shit after November 4th.

Can honour set to a leg? no: or
an arm? no: or take away the grief of a wound? no.
Honour hath no skill in surgery, then? no. What is
honour? a word. What is in that word honour? what
is that honour? air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it?
he that died o' Wednesday. Doth he feel it? no.
Doth he hear it? no. 'Tis insensible, then. Yea,
to the dead. But will it not live with the living?
no. Why? detraction will not suffer it. Therefore
I'll none of it. Honour is a mere scutcheon: and so
ends my catechism.

He may have been an honorable man once, Don. He has given raped that honor in his lust for power. He is honorable no more.

McCain is not a good man. Bad people can go through hell and back, but that doesn't magically make them good.

@14 - If McCain was sitting in the park, or at a bus stop, or in a Denny's, then I would agree with you, even if he was ranting like a lunatic.

But, he's running for President of the United States. What is possibly the most difficult job in the world does not mix well with senility.

My grandma is almost 90 and still wants to drive her car. Sorry, not inspiring.

...to his efforts for this nation.

Fuck that, he's currently doing fuck-all for the nation. He's in it for his cronies and more war.

#14
my lovely grandmother church going grandmother won't let the staff in the 'home' give her a bath because she doesn't want 'them bulldaggers playing with her pussy'. i love her and she will always be one of the most influential people in my life,but sometimes she says and does things that disqualify her to be on the bible study board..
no one, and no one here is mocking or questioning his 'war hero status', whatever that means to you. however, the man is running for the president of the united states and possibly the leader of the free world. and if don't find his gaffes humorous, i'll find them frightening beyond belief

@9: Yes. I have a dear friend who has PTSD from Vietnam. He is lovely, but erratic and he'll be the first to tell you that he can not be in a stressful job (in fact, he is on disability for life and can't work at all due to his PTSD). I say there is no way in HELL McCain survived that experience with no lasting mental damage. Is there any more stressful job in the world than being POTUS in 2008?

The fact that no one, neither next to him or in his audience, showed any indication they noticed, proves that no one, not even his own supporters and surrogates, actually listens to him.

BTW what is being screamed in the background? "No Iran War"?

I'm with 13 -- Palin's head turns first one way, then the other exactly at the moment he says it. I think she's scanning to see if anyone else caught it or if anyone is signaling her to step in and mitigate.

@21, Riz, does your grandma really say bulldaggers?!

Riz has told me some stories. Bulldagger is the least of it.

Yeah, she heard it and looked off stage at someone to see if they caught it but good for her for not overreacting.

The old man is done.

@14 Define "hero". My understanding is that McCain was on bombing runs to murder civilians. That's not heroic.

He endured torture for several years. He came out of it saying that he would hate gooks for his entire life. He just re-confirmed that quote in the very recent past. All that is horrific, but not heroic.

And after Viet Nam, what? Nothing. Nothing remotely heroic.

He should get automatic respect for his age, yes, I agree entirely. Except his extreme contempt for and his actions to destroy anything and everything good about this country means he's not even worthy of that respect. You can lose even that -- especially that -- which you did not earn.

Finally, if he wants to be left alone, I would completely support his withdrawal from this election and from all of public life and I would happily leave him alone for as long as he should live.

I agree that Palin heard it--it seemed like looking for someone to help in case he started/continued raving.

As for the call to respect the old man who's given so much for the country...I hear you, and I agree in theory. I respect his history and experience, and I will not jump on a bandwagon to mock him for the sake of mockery.

I will add my voice to all those who say, respectfully, neither person on the McCain/Palin ticket is qualified to lead on a national level. Let's see if Palin can successfully finish her term as Governor in Alaska. Let's see if she runs for national office in 2010--if she runs, wins, and serves in Washington DC. It'll be the AK voters' decision, and she'll be surrounded by other voices.

McCain has had a long career. I hope he decides to spend the last years of his life doing something that brings him joy, as long as he isn't responsible for anything that matters to me.

@21: Sorry to chime in off-topic here, reverend dr., and you probably won't look back to see this, but I've been through your sitch and I never miss an opportunity to speak up on behalf of people in nursing homes. If your lovely grandmother would prefer to be bathed by a buff young buck instead of a "bulldagger," she has that right. Almost every facility has CNA's of both genders; just talk to the social-services person or the director of nursing. Moreover, she can be strategically draped to maintain her sense of dignity during bathing and handed a soapy washcloth by the aide, who turns away after instructing her to "wash underneath." Well-trained aides can do this with no problem, and enlightened management allows them the time to do it right. In actuality, lots of elders have issues around bathing for a variety of reasons. Sensitivity, creativity and adequate training can almost always solve the problem. If the home can't do the job without stress and tears, let alone (illegal) physical or chemical restraints, they're incompetent and need to be reported. End of story.

#30..
much thanks for your concern and advice. she's okey dokey on the bathing tip and i'm fairly sure that my mom who does the lion's share of caring for her makes double sure that her fears , however couched in curses and slurs, are respected. the incident i related happened her first night of residency. since then she's adjusted and acomodated the staff and her surrondings quite well.. although her occasional outbursts startle her associates in her bible study group, they've become use to her.
oh ..and #25 no one had never heard say either 'pussy' or 'bulldagger' in the other 90+ years on the planet and she doesn't use those words anymore. but she has a mild dementia and liable to say all sorts of things now.