The Seven Words That Killed John McCain's Presidential Campaign

..."The fundamentals of our economy are strong"

Howard Dean had 'YYYYEEEEEEEEEHHHAAAAAAAAAAA'

John Kerry had 'I voted for it before I voted against it'

Ronald Reagan killed Carter with "...there you go again."

Now John McCain just had his tombstone moment. He made the unfortunate mistake of walking lockstep with the President and the administration on this one just DAYS before the Economic Tsunami hit and he was forced, along with the bumbling President, to retract those statements and ring the alarm bells. It's the equivalent of a carnie assuring nervous parents that 'this ride is absolutely safe' just minutes before their children are crushed under thousands of pounds of smoking, twisted steel.

Those seven words painted John McCain not as a maverick and a shaker-upper but as a mouthpiece for Nero's administration while Rome was ablaze.

In his heart, I honestly believe that John McCain is a good man and that he was a reformer at heart. But in selling his soul to the very people who sank his campaign in 2000, he's been looking less like the driver of the Straight Talk Express and more like just another neocon card in Bush's deck. That's honestly the last thing I expected of him.

It sucks that he had to do that in order to gain support from his own party. They couldn't take him as he was because the GOP, at its core, is not about expressing your ideas...it's about kissing the ring and falling in line with the party's ideals or else you don't get a shot at the title.

Something tells me after this is all over and John's back in Arizona, he'll actually cry in a room alone knowing that his blind lust for a job made him do things that 5 years of physical torture in a dark pit couldn't do...break his spirit and make him compromise his core beliefs.

As far as his decision to postpone his campaign and the first Presidential debate, he apparently won't even need an airplane to fly back to Washington to singlehandedly save the U.S. economy. I mean, without him, we're all doomed, right??? Sure, he's admitted that he doesn't know much about the economy but a little thing like that won't stop him.

What's he going to do? Serve coffee and donuts to the actual Economists who will be solving this crisis?

Maybe the truth lies somewhere in the middle

We get so caught up this time of year in partisan politics (myself definitely included). We're pulling for our team. Red vs. Blue. Sox vs. Yanks. Bloods vs. Crips. It's tribalism in its purest form that transcends the concepts of unity, truth and fairness in its most extreme cases. But there's a political reality that we hate to face.

The Left and the Right NEED one another.

Trust me when I say that the kid in the Che Guevara t-shirt with the eyebrow ring does NOT want to live in a 100% Leftist country with the central government controlling how many children he can have as in China or whether or not he may own a television set or a cell phone as in Cuba. You don't want to go full on Socialist with 60% tax rates and overt economic redistribution so you definitely don't want to go full-on North Korea style Communism.

At the same, Ma and Pa O'Shansky out in the suburbs of Indiana...you REALLY don't want a completely Conserative, completely deregulated, socially intrusive system of government where there IS no central government to speak of. It's the Wild West. Tax money doesn't go to protect the common peace so you'd better save up for a better and bigger gun than the local roving band of thieves and rapists. Also, you'd really hope that nothing catches fire because there's no organized fire department and the roads, bridges and tunnels you take for granted everyday...forget it. All financed and maintained through the tax money that you railed against. You'll have to home school your children as there is no longer such a thing a public school and literally take your chances when you put your money in a bank as there are no government protection ensuring your money. If you lose your job, there's no unemployment insurance. When you grow old, you'd better hope that you'd played the stock market correctly or its Cat Food Fridays for you as Social Security is a chapter in a history book.

The truth of the matter is that both of the dominant political philosophies NEED one another because there is one concept that ACTUALLY keeps America strong and secure. It's not Liberalism. It's not Conservatism. It's EQUILIBRIUM. Balance. A mixture of the two.

It's knowing that someone out there is ensuring that the water that comes out of your tap is clean and safe without paying a 70% tax rate. It's knowing that every element of that cheeseburger you're biting into was inspected by a human being at some point in its development. It's having banks and mutual funds and money markets but having them regulated so that robber barons and crooks can't just steal your money...and if they do, there's a government agency that exists to go after them.

It's the constant tug-of-war between Democrats and Republicans that keeps this nation strong, sharp and responsive and responsible to the people of this nation.

So Democrats, while we don't like Karl Rove or Dick Cheney...they are not Satan (I'm pretty sure, at least)

Republicans, the word Liberal is not a dirty word and we don't spend all our time smoking weed, having unprotected gay sex and figuring out ways to spend your money. We totally use condoms.

I kid. I kid.

Either way, this is my call for people, during the 24-hour news spin cycle that FoxNews, CNN and MSNBC has us in, to reisist the temptation to hate and mistrust thy neighbor. Republicans can be funny and Democrats love their children.

We all want a safe, prosperous nation with a stable, growing economy and a completely fair and just social and judicial system. We just have different ideas of how to get there.

What part of 'small town values' was Sarah Palin's $2,500 RNC jacket part of?

I don't know many small town hockey moms who own $2,500 Valentino jackets?

Wake up, people. Anyone running for President or Vice President is NOT LIKE YOU...

They are, by nature, elite. Being elite isn't a bad thing. It's a good thing. But what is bad is playing the 'baby-holding, straight-talking, PTA-directing, hockey-momming' role when you're SWIMMING in cash and not feeling any of the effects of the downturning economy.

It's like that slumlord who parks his Mercedes 10 blocks from his tenement and changes out of his suit into overalls so that he can play the role of 'long-suffering small-business owner who's just like his tenants' to keep them from beating him to death for the lack of heat and hot water in December.

McCain's New Campaign Slogan: "Yeah......What HE Said"

Funny...who was that war hero who was openly mocking the message of hope and change just a couple of months ago???

Why that would be John S. McCain.

In the biggest speech of his life, guess who switched from a platform of 'experience' to one of change and hope for the future???

Why that would be John S. McCain.

I was honestly expecting him to say "Yes, we CAN bring about change that we can believe in, my friends..."

Dancing John McCain is deseprate...he brings on an exciting neophyte to boost ratings...he's switching his message left and right...he's pimping his service record...even longtime Republican Congressmen are saying that they've never heard John go into such explicit detail about his years in captivity.

John "Whatever Works" McCain has jumped the shark and is gassing up the motorcycle for another run.