A Cut-and-Paste Foreign Policy By Joe Conason
The discovery that John McCain's remarks on Georgia were derived from Wikipedia, to put it politely, is disturbing and even depressing -- but not surprising.
Commentary by Joe Conason
Most Recent Releases
August 14, 2008
August 7, 2008
His Drilling Plan Full of Holes By Joe Conason
Touring America's oilrigs and nuclear plants, John McCain sometimes sounds as if he'll produce enough wind to power the nation all by himself. So strongly does his current rhetoric smell of methane -- the gas emanating from manure -- that he might even qualify for an alternative energy tax incentive.
July 31, 2008
McCain's Oil Drilling Hoax By Joe Conason
Forced to cancel a planned visit to an oil platform off the Mississippi coast last week because of inclement weather -- and the untimely leaking of hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil by a shipwreck in the vicinity -- John McCain finally got his photo op at a Bakersfield derrick on July 28. Speaking on site, the Arizona senator delivered extraordinarily good news to the beleaguered gasoline-consuming public as he explained why we must drill offshore.
July 24, 2008
Washington's Overrated "Old Hands" By Joe Conason
Barack Obama knows which countries border Iraq; he understands the difference between Shia and Sunni; and he is probably aware that Czechoslovakia no longer exists -- but as John McCain complains, the young senator has "no military experience whatsoever." Indeed, like both of the last two presidents, Sen. Obama possesses scant credentials in national security and foreign policy.
July 17, 2008
They Must Be Joking By Joe Conason
An expression of outrage is the highest compliment that politicians can bestow upon a satirist. So when spokesmen for Barack Obama and John McCain echo each other and many another stuffed shirt in complaining about the current cover of The New Yorker, the magazine's editors and cartoonist Barry Blitt should accept such remarks in precisely that spirit.
July 3, 2008
Fake Outrage Over Clark Comments By Joe Conason
Despite all the feigned outrage fanned by the mainstream media and the right-wing noisemakers, Wesley Clark -- retired four-star general, former Supreme Commander of NATO, wounded and highly decorated veteran of ground combat in Vietnam and a military man to his core -- assuredly did not denigrate the war record of John McCain when he talked about the Republican candidate on television last Sunday.
June 26, 2008
Inventing a Country-Club Muslim Marxist By Joe Conason
Precisely on schedule, the usual assortment of right-wing operatives is preparing its expected assault on the Democratic presidential nominee. While this unwholesome phase of the election cycle is known universally as "Swift-boating" -- named after the defamatory media blitz against John Kerry four years ago -- the style and some of the personnel date back at least two decades.
June 20, 2008
Taxes, Integrity and Character By Joe Conason
Once upon a time, there was a fiscally and socially responsible senator named John McCain. Despite his presidential ambitions, the Republican from Arizona spoke out against the economic royalism of his party's leadership in the White House and Congress, and simply said no.
June 12, 2008
A Challenge Obama Should Accept By Joe Conason
To his credit, John McCain has invited Barack Obama to join him in a national "town hall" tour over the coming months, without the unneeded intrusion of celebrity journalists, network extravaganzas and all of their irrelevant impertinence.
June 5, 2008
The Running Mate Dilemma By Joe Conason
The selection of a vice president is not only an exercise in political handicapping but also a national rite of statecraft. Candidates, advisers, pundits and assorted experts try to calculate the ethnic, geographic, gender and ideological characteristics of potential running mates, but what this choice actually reveals is the character of a presidential nominee.
May 29, 2008
Blame to Share in Primary Farce By Joe Conason
When the Democratic Party's Rules and Bylaws Committee meets on May 31 to determine the status of the votes cast in the Michigan and Florida primaries, its members should try to look past self-serving campaign arguments and silly attempts to save face by bumbling party leaders.
May 22, 2008
McCain's Shocking Discovery By Joe Conason
Disturbed by troubling connections and unflattering publicity, John McCain has just purged several prominent Washington lobbyists from his presidential campaign. Surely his intentions are laudable, but if Sen. McCain is consistent in ridding his campaign of such compromised people, he will find himself riding lonesome on the Straight Talk Express.
May 15, 2008
Cindy McCain Flaunts Her Privilege By Joe Conason
Double standards are endemic in American journalism. But Cindy McCain, wife of the Republican presidential candidate, displayed poor taste in flaunting her family's special immunity from press scrutiny.
May 8, 2008
Hillary Plays the Crazy Card By Joe Conason
In this protracted and often dispiriting prelude to the general election, few remarks have been as poorly chosen as Sen. Hillary Clinton's threat to "totally obliterate" Iran.
May 1, 2008
Why Celebrate Rev. Wrong? By Joe Conason
As the Rev. Jeremiah Wright gleefully tours the airwaves, inflicting severe political damage with almost every utterance, he is proving that racism isn't the only obstacle to a black president.
April 24, 2008
The Ritual Flaying of Jimmy Carter By Joe Conason
Nobody with a functioning memory should be too quick to condemn Jimmy Carter for daring to speak with the leadership of Hamas, as nearly everyone along the American political spectrum suddenly has felt obliged to do.
April 17, 2008
Whose Elitism is Worse? By Joe Conason
It is hard to blame John McCain for mocking Barack Obama as an "elitist" following that silly remark about bitter folks who cling to guns and religion.
April 10, 2008
Are We Closer to "Victory"? By Joe Conason
Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the American forces in Iraq, is more candid than his publicity agents.
April 3, 2008
He's 'McSame' on Social Security, Too By Joe Conason
The most puzzling aspect of John McCain's political persona is his habitual attraction to George W. Bush's bad ideas. Their shared enthusiasm for invading Iraq and then escalating the war is why "McSame" will soon become the new shorthand for the Arizona Republican, replacing "maverick" -- but that isn't the only reason.
March 27, 2008
Slap Down 'Free Market' Pirates By Joe Conason
For many years, Robert Morgenthau has warned America that the nexus of capitalism and criminality poses a serious threat to our prosperity, security and growth.
