NBC's Todd described McCain's support for the war as the "maverick thing to do"
On the March 28 edition of NBC's Today, NBC News political director Chuck Todd asserted: "It would be easy for" Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) "to criticize the war. The maverick thing to do is to actually take the unpopular stand." But, while McCain has supported President Bush's decision to increase U.S. troop levels in Iraq, he has also recently touted himself as "the greatest critic of the conduct of the war and one of the earliest," as Media Matters for America noted. Similarly, in a March 21 article, the Concord Monitor (New Hampshire) reported that McCain said, "I was the greatest critic of the way the war was being conducted." Moreover, McCain joined 45 of the 48 other Senate Republicans in voting to strike a provision in the Senate emergency military funding bill that Bush opposes, which says that Bush "shall commence the phased redeployment of United States forces from Iraq not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, with the goal of redeploying, by March 31, 2008." Bush called a similar provision in the House version of the bill an "an artificial timetable for withdrawal" and said he was "not going" to "accept" it. After the Senate vote, Bush announced that he was "disappointed."
This is not the first time Todd has described as "maverick" McCain's support for Bush. As Media Matters noted, on the March 13, 2006, edition of MSNBC's Hardball, host Chris Matthews noted that McCain urged attendees at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference to vote for Bush in a straw poll of potential 2008 presidential candidates. Matthews also highlighted McCain's defense of the Bush administration's decision to allow a company owned by the government of Dubai to take over port operations in six U.S. cities. Todd responded that for McCain "right now, rallying around the president is the maverick thing to do."
From the March 28 edition of NBC's Today:
NORAH O'DONNELL (MSNBC's chief Washington correspondent): Republican Senator John McCain left the campaign trail to try to defeat the Democratic proposal.
McCAIN: What we must not do is to give up just at the moment we're starting to turn things around.
O'DONNELL: But McCain admits his support for the president's Iraq policy has hurt him with support and fundraising.
TODD: It would be easy for him to criticize the war. The maverick thing to do is to actually take the unpopular stand.
O'DONNELL: McCain's chief rivals for the Republican nomination, [former Massachusetts Gov.] Mitt Romney and [former New York City Mayor] Rudy Giuliani, also oppose a timeline for withdrawal and support a surge of U.S. troop strength.
McCower is as much a 'maverick' as dumbaya is a Texan.
McCAIN: What we must not do is to give up just at the moment we're starting to turn things around.
There's some intestinal fortitude.It would have been easy to win over Joe and Jane flag-waving meathead with the popular "giving up" position.
Yes, because McCain has such an excellent grasp on the situation in Iraq..
http://www.crooksandliars.com/Media/Download/15716/1/TSR-McCain-Ware.wmv
"What we must not do is to give up just at the moment we're starting to turn things around."
I might have missed the news that things are turning around.
But then I just checked the news. Shiite revenge squads have only killed dozens of Sunnis today as opposed to hundreds .
I guess "The Maverick" was right, things are turning around, and around, and around.
King, it is possible that they've got another #2 Al Qaeda guy waiting in the wings. That usually signals a "turning around" point.
From what I've heard they have a very deep bullpen.
Not that I know the inner workings of their organization, Mr. Gonzales if you're monitoring this thread. Don't you have other things that you should be concerned with Alberto?
Remember how Gonzo was going to be our first hispanic Supreme Court justice? Now I'm thinking, maybe not so much.
Sure things are turning around. They are bound to run out of things to blow up.
"It would be easy for him to criticize the war."
Sorry, Charlie, but it wouldn't "be easy" at all.
It would be political suicide.
And Todd is the Political Director at NBC?
Sheesh!
Right. Exactly. In regard to the rest of the sentient world... McCain is being a 'maverick'. In regard to his handlers who ring the dinner bell... he's following in line as he always has.
Calling McCain a maverick is propaganda, plain and simple.
MMFA has taken the position that being known as a "maverick" is somehow a positive thing. At least they keep writing threads about it.
I wonder, does the public-at-large want the next President of the United States to have the nickname "Maverick"? Doesn't that promote the notion of unpredictability? That doesn't sound like a level-headed, clear thinking type of person that I want running the country. So really, does this nickname help McCain in the long run?
Actually, America likes their presidents to appear like mavericks in relation to tranditional Washington politics. This is exactly why, with the exception of Bush I, the presidents from Carter on have all been governors rather than "Washington insiders". So what's an actual mega-insider like McCain to do to combat this distaste for presidential candidates coming out of Congress? Brand yourself as a maverick who actually doesn't conform to the entrenched interests that so befuddles the average American.
That does make sense. So where did the term originate? Did McCain come up with it or was it given to him by the media?
Look under Political Views in this Wiki piece. The suggestion is that McCain is considered a 'maverick' because he has opposed the Bush crew on several key issues. Frankly, considering how much pandering McCain does to Bush and the right-wing base... I think this is a bit of a fabrication meant to make McCain seem more 'mainstream' than he really is (or is allowed to be). But, that's my opinion.
You make a valid point, Bruce, but think of it this way: what word would you use to describe the opposite of a "maverick"? And would that word be a flattering one to label a candidate?
That's a good point too!
By now most people understand that the Republicans are interested in only two things: lining their pockets, and the naked exercise of power. To counter this, the Repubs have to present all their candidates as "rebels," to convince voters that their candidate isn't a corrupt, authoritarian asshole like all those other Republicans. It makes no sense if you think about it, but let's face it--most people don't.
This isn't new. Remember, Bush was sold as a moderate, with all that talk of "compassionate conservatism" and "a uniter, not a divider," and look how he turned out. Calling McCain a "maverick" is just version 2.0 of this game.
And don't forget--"Maverick" was the name of Tom Cruise's character in Top Gun. That's gotta be worth at least a million votes.
I guess the Republicans can thank Frank Luntz for soundbiting them into the majority.
So supporting unpopular things makes one a maverick? I support same sex marriage, who's calling me a maverick?
Nope - in the eyes of the Corporate Media (and coincidentally, the Repugnants) that indicts you as a co-conspirator in the "Gay Mafia". Look forward to having an FBI file as large, someday, as my own!
Dateline Washington: In political news today, John McCain legally changed his name to Pete Mitchell. When asked about the change, McCain indicates that he'd always liked the name and felt the time was right to make the change. Critics have pointed out that Pete Mitchell is the name of the charismatic, renegade pilot with the call-sign 'Maverick' in the movie Top Gun. When asked about possible subliminal associations to the word 'Maverick', the senator formerly known as McCain called such talk as, "partisan cynicism". A spokesman for Rudy Guiliani's campaign had a different take, "It's a cry for help. Maverick's character in the movie Top Gun goes crazy from post-traumatic stress disorder. Actor Tom Cruise, also mentally ill, believes in Scientology. Mc...er...Mitchell spent years in the Hanoi Hilton. You connect the dots."
Yessireee. It takes a lot of courage to pander to the Troglodytes who have your gonads in a jar. McCain has to secure the Non-thinkers' vote in order to get the Republicon nomination. Once that is achieved, he can maverick his way back toward the center.
John McCain has disintegrated, and it's fairly remarkable. There was a time when he would have made a great Republican candidate. Back in 2000, he was correct on a lot of issues. But since then, he has become, among other things, a fundamentalist kiss-a$$ and now a virtual clone of President Bush on the Iraq occupation. He has clearly lost his mind, now, when he tells 4 talk network talk shows that it's safe to walk around in Baghdad and the the chief general tooles around town in an SUV with no armor. He's off in lala land. On top of all this, the man is 70 years old! I think we are seeing the end of the political line for poor John McCain. I'm actually a little sad for him, because there was a time when I really liked him. That was 8 years ago when I lived in Arizona and he lived in reality.
Ron, is that you?
More and more, I'm getting a serious vibe that Johnny's coming down with the same affliction that Ronnie experienced in the last years of his presidency.
You know - that condition where you make new friends every day?
I think that's a very appealing quality to many GOP voters, that perpetual "Morning in America", nothing happened before today sense of history. Might work for him.
Dang. These corporate networks have two choices: the audience that lets them set those big-time ad rates or the shareholder/GE/money masters who say keep pumping the war, despite what the majority of their audience says. It seems they've made their choice.