One of the few reasons to watch CNN is Jack Cafferty and his extremely low tolerance for nonsense. In his Op-Ed piece Is McCain Another George W. Bush? he lays out quite a few points that underscore the truly lightweight candidacy of the Arizona senator. He's called to task for lacking intellectual curiosity; for giving answers that were "shallow, simplistic, and trite" at this past weekend's Rick Warren-sponsored Q&A; and despite having reached the age of 71, for seemingly having very little in the way of insight for someone who's lived a long and eventful life.
But Cafferty pulls out all the stops in his final paragraphs:
"I am sick and tired of the president of the United States embarrassing me. The world we live in is too complex to entrust it to someone else whose idea of intellectual curiosity and grasp of foreign policy issues is to tell us he can look into Vladimir Putin's eyes and see into his soul.
George Bush's record as a student, military man, businessman and leader of the free world is one of constant failure. And the part that troubles me most is he seems content with himself.
He will leave office with the country $10 trillion in debt, fighting two wars, our international reputation in shambles, our government cloaked in secrecy and suspicion that his entire presidency has been a litany of broken laws and promises, our citizens' faith in our own country ripped to shreds. Yet Bush goes bumbling along, grinning and spewing moronic one-liners, as though nobody understands what a colossal failure he has been.
I fear to the depth of my being that John McCain is just like him."
Bravo, Mr. Cafferty. However, the problem is that if we were not a nation plagued with simpletons, brainwashed to think that intellect and knowledge is effette, elitist, and practically un-American, we would not be in this mess. W and McCain give those basic, one-dimensional answers because they know they work. A vast chunk of the American people do not care for the truth; they want to be told what they want to hear. I don't think it can be called pandering if these people want to be pandered to. God help us.
