From Reuters
PIPERSVILLE, Pennsylvania - Republican presidential candidate John McCain got a new campaign plane on Monday with one apparently unexpected surprise: his name is on the side.
…McCain expressed surprise when reporters riding with him mentioned it being emblazoned across the Boeing 737-400.
“Really? Is it?” McCain said after the flight. “I thought it just says Straight Talk Express.”Assured that his name also adorned the plane, McCain described how it felt: “Whoops! I feel wonderful,” he said. “Maybe it’s a little added free publicity, I don’t know, at various airports.”
Really? “Free publicity?”
I’m not a fan of the “CEO President” concept, especially when our current CEO has an executive history of running organizations towards either bankruptcy or the bottom of the standings - both of which he’s managed to do to us. But there’s something to be said for having a little knowledge of the harsh, cold world of “buying stuff.” My friend Chris Kelly pointed this out to great effect the other day - when you’ve spent your entire adult life collecting your paycheck from the government, it becomes less and less surprising that your money comes from a vast pool of people, few of whom you’ll ever actually meet. And their largess buys you things - like buffet lunches and Sansabelt slacks and… Boeing 737’s. Thanks, masses!
But what’s disturbing to me isn’t just that not knowing what’s painted on the side of your new campaign plane - the one you’re currently sitting inside of - seems a wee bit out touch. And it’s not just that McCain might be the first president to demonstrate that he’s literally not detail-oriented. No, it’s that the fruits of donated money can mean so little to him that not only does he not oversee what his new jet plane looks like, but that he can sit inside his multi-million dollar aircraft, acquired with the cash of thousands of supporters, filled with thousands of dollars of ever-more-expensive fuel, and retooled and decorated with hundreds of man-hours of planning, sweat, and thought - that he can then sit on that plane, and when he finds out his name is on the side, his first thought is -
“Hey! Free publicity.”
Fanny Roborat
28 comments
tim
July 1, 2008 at 12:34 pm
1You’ll have to forgive John. He hasn’t paid for anything with his own money since he bought that “Sorry you’re on crutches and got all fat, but I found a beer heiress who can walk and everything and I’m leaving you now” card for his first wife at the Hallmark store.
YLlama
July 1, 2008 at 1:35 pm
2Perhaps if we banned the use of the word “free” by politicians from here on out?
David
July 1, 2008 at 4:31 pm
3Not only does he not know what the real world is all about, I honestly doubt he has any idea where it is. tim captured the essence of JSM.
just plain Jack
July 1, 2008 at 5:43 pm
4In today’s America, it seems as though everything can be reduced to a Top Ten list. So, why not Incurious George.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/07/01/the-10-most-awesomely-bad-mom ents-of-the-bush-presidency/
margaret
July 1, 2008 at 7:11 pm
5Happy Birthday, Adam!
Zee Man
July 2, 2008 at 3:22 am
6C’mon, Adam. Senator McCain has a lot on his mind these days - like, for instance, when will one of the reporters actually do a little research, put his name in the Google and bring up that whole Keating 5 thing? And which is worse, trying to explain it away or, at his advanced age, claiming that he doesn’t remember? Big stuff like that. Give him a break already! Jeez - he’s a geez. Lighten up!!!
Oh, yeah, happy birthday, Young Guy!
Dale
July 2, 2008 at 10:02 am
7I´m voting for President Qantas!
(Greetings from Spain, all. Let me know if you want me to bring anything back.)
Steve
July 2, 2008 at 10:07 am
8Oh, come on. There are plenty of substantial things for which we can criticize McCain but an offhanded remark that was probably a joke?
In a way, it is “free publicity” since we’re talking about it here (and not those things of substance).
SeattleDan
July 2, 2008 at 2:54 pm
9Dale, can I get some boots of Spanish Leather? Size 12, please.
Anonymous Mother of All Felbers
July 2, 2008 at 3:05 pm
10Margaret’s dh is your astral twin!
wow!
piglet
July 2, 2008 at 5:27 pm
11Did anybody hear Seymour Hersh on Fresh Air on Monday (re his new piece in the upcoming New Yorker), about Cheney and Co.’s plan to cause covert chaos in Iran until we will be forced to go in there and bomb things up a bit? You know, to fix it? Maybe around October?
Should I be stocking up on survivalist provisions? Tilling up my lawn for more garden space? Panicking?
gillian
July 2, 2008 at 5:35 pm
12Wow is right, Edith! (May I call you “Edith”?) When Molly arrived last night - an hour and a half late, I might add - as always making others wait for her. Jimmy was about to drive me crazy with - “How should I act? What does she like to do? What are her favorite types of music? movies? food groups? constellations? subjects in high school? (I advised him not to go there. Academics were never really her strong suit.) Was she a Dali kind of art lover, or does she lean more towards Monet?” (Actually, it’s velvet paintings of Elvis and of kittens, but I didn’t want to bust his bubble, so I said I had no idea.)
When she arrived and came in the front door, we both screamed, I gave her a great big hug, told her she looked great (she looked absolutely amazing!!!), asked her about the trip, gave her another hug, and then remembered about Jimmy. I turned around to introduce her and he was standing about 10 feet away completely and totally slack-jawed and, as best I could tell, not breathing. I thought we may have hit a crisis point of some sort, but Molly walked right over to him, punched him on the arm, mussed his hair, locked her arm in his and led us all to the supper table. That broke the spell, Jimmy took in a lung full of air, and they were fast friends after that.
And you’ll never guess what they have in common - Formula 1 racing. Yeah, who would have guessed that in a thousand years? Apparently Molly’s been watching it for a while now on the Speed Channel. She knew all the drivers from the past decade - Nelson Piquet, Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell, Allain Prost - all of them. Well let me tell you, Jimmy was “some impressed”, as they say here in New England. They’re over at Jimmy’s right now watching one of his VCR tapes of the 2003 Italian Gran Prix. At least, that’s what they said they were going to do. But knowing Molly….
David
July 2, 2008 at 5:46 pm
13Yes, piglet, I caught the interview while painting the inside of a garage for a friend. Gotta get the New Yorker article. If Cheney/Bush get their way, I think panic might be the appropriate response, since all efforts at reason over the past thirty years have netted us nothing but jeers from the right as they have steered the ship of state and the state of the world dead ahead toward the abyss, essentially regardless of who was president, exploiting the hell out of the myth that the Republicans are good for the economy and strong on foreign policy. Jeebus, what Americans can be induced to believe.
Dammit, SeattleDan, you beat me to the punch. And I also wear size 12. So make it two pairs, Dale. So Dylan or Baez for the song, SeattleDan. Did you have a preference between their two recordings. I am an all-of-the-above on Dylan/Baez singing Dylan songs. And bullshit to anyone who says Dylan couldn’t sing.
Obama 47 - McCain 42, and Wes Clark was dead on. Fuck the blathering heads, the whole damned lot of them.
Vinnie
July 2, 2008 at 5:56 pm
14Yo, Dale! So you’re in Spain now, huh? Guido and I are down here in Fuertaventura. Yeah, da Pope only needed ta talk wit’ Franco about somethin’ or ot’er, so we hopped on a plane and we’re here for a week! Come on down. Da weat’er is great! Did ya know dey got topless beaches here, too? Well, dey certainly do!
SallyHusseinMutant
July 2, 2008 at 8:47 pm
15What’s with prefacing anything with “Whooops!”? Dim or schoolgirl?
Dale, we like all flavors of sherry, and in FW/D we don’t have basements so I won’t do anything mean with Amontillado in any quantity.
Gillian, I have been following your Jimmy/Molly comments (coverage?novela?) and they are utterly charming!
Piglet–I heard “Fresh Air” and I trust Hersch whenever I hear and read him. He doesn’t write without doing his homework.
Isn’t there a Rod Stewart “Boots of Spanish Leather” on an old Jeff Beck album? I barely remember.
Have I posted enough questions? Are they all rhetorical?
Dale
July 3, 2008 at 5:48 am
16Ummm Vinnie? Generalísimo Francisco Franco is (still) dead.
No beaches for me, but if you want to hang out in the Inquisition archives, I´ll be here all summer!
Vinnie
July 3, 2008 at 6:24 am
17Yo, Doc. It’s prime time for tannin’, beer, playin’ in da waves, listenin’ da tunes on da radio, and more beer. Basides, I got all dese dust allergies and Guido and I done perfected all our stress positions and utter such techniques, so we don’t need ta do no studying about dat stuff. Even if they was all sanctioned and used by da Church.
No beach? No fun? Ya sure ya got dose priorities of yours in da right place? I may need to come up dere next week, take ya ta dinner and tawk some sense into dat over-educated head of yours. I don’t know how dese t’ings work. When dey pound all dat knowledge inta your head, does da common sense come out da utter side?
Wrong Franco, Doc. Franco Zeffirelli and da Pope are tighter dan ticks dese days. Generalísimo Francisco Franco - not so much.
David
July 3, 2008 at 4:21 pm
18OK, Dale, now I’m envious, and my former colleague who taught history and is fascinated with European history of the era is beyond jealous.
SallyHusseinMutant, only Bob Dylan and Joan Baez count, unless there has been some recent imaginative cover of the song. The line, I think, is Spanish boots of Spanish leather, certainly not Made in China boots of Spanish leather.
Samuel
July 3, 2008 at 5:22 pm
19Hola , mi amigos , salutaciones desde soleado México! And what a trip this has been! Yesterday, the Colombian president, delayed a much planned and dangerous rescue of hostages in the jungle, so that Mr. McCain would be in Bogota when the news was announced. I guess we know who El Presidente is pulling for in the November election. That only cost Mrs. McCain a $150,000 donation to President Uribe’s favorite charity in the Cayman Islands to make sure that this historic moment of victory took place with McCain and Uribe together on stage and in front of the cameras. A bargain, I’m sure, compared to what it would have cost to do the same bit of political theater in Japan or in Belgium.
I, of course, maintained a low profile at the back of the stage. I did happen to glance out into the crowd and noticed a man who looked strangely familiar jumping up and down, waving his sombrero, and bellowing “Senor Lemuel! Senor Lemuel!” I remember him now. He was one of my
drug mulestechnicians when I was here several years ago on a business trip. I pretended to get a cell phone call and turned away. Since I had the phone out, I called security and had them drag him out of the crowd, instructing them to not beat him with their iron pipes (for old time’s sake) and into an unmarked van. They drove away at high speed - problem solved!Today, we are in Mexico. More smiles, more waves to the crowds of adoring peasants, more pollo burritos, more time in the toilet. It will be good to get back home.
siobhan
July 3, 2008 at 6:35 pm
20Anyone know the triplets in Labors of Love? Kaz I sure as hell don’t.
Vinnie
July 3, 2008 at 7:16 pm
21Well, now I know w’at da important meetin’ between Franco Zeffirelli and da Pope was all about. Franco talked da Holy Fat’er inta allowin’ all dose hundreds of paintin’s of da Virgin Mary breast feedin’ da baby Jesus to be brought out and displayed again. Some of da more snooty of da faithful, have been complainin’ for decades about da nudity in some of da early Christian art. I know I always enjoyed dose paintin’s as I was growin’ up; started me on da road ta art appreciation at a tender preteen time of my yout’.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/2185823/Vatican -approves-breast-feeding-pictures-of-Virgin-Mary.html
David
July 4, 2008 at 4:43 pm
22What the hell do the snooties think Mary fed the baby Jesus, Infamil? Like maybe she had a local shop she could send Joseph to?
Thank god she didn’t try to breast feed him in an airport.
Dee
July 5, 2008 at 4:46 pm
23Tomorrow morning I head off to that beautiful beach on Topsail Island for a week of sun and liquor. Or, if it rains, just liquor. I’ll check in from time to time just to gloat.
Incense Mather
July 5, 2008 at 5:57 pm
24Gloateth not, lest a rip tide arise and smite thee. On the other hand, thou shouldst enjoy thyself to the fullest measure.
SallyHMutant
July 5, 2008 at 9:56 pm
25Dee, enjoy! Dee, and everybody, what are gas prices doing to vac.s of you and yours? We really need to get to Colo. But there is no practical train route and my husband won’t go anywhere without our German Shepherd. Yikes, how much is our vac. going to cost this year?
SeattleDan
July 6, 2008 at 11:18 am
26Dee, have a mint julep for me. Or whatever it is you’ll be drinking.
Sally, having just completed our move, I really hesitate to total up how much we spent on gas. It was a move of about 115 miles, nothing too far away. But with four U-Haul truck loads, three U-haul van trips, plus what we just put into the car, it was a lot of money. Vacations this year are going to have to be close to home.
Sharon Hussein
July 6, 2008 at 12:49 pm
27SallyHussein, I’m still a poor graduate student (only 2 more classes after this summer!!), so I’m sticking close to home. But NEXT summer, I may take a whole month off and take the train on a circuit around the lower 48.
piglet, I just hope the voters remember the old Texas saying, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…we won’t get fooled again!”
Interesting story in the NY Times about another threshold that’s opened a few more eyes: the $100 fill-up.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/business/06tank.html
Dirk's Diary
July 6, 2008 at 7:03 pm
287-06-08
Dear Diary,
Cheney’s up to no good again, I can feel it in my bones. At the last cabinet meeting, he let us know in no uncertain terms, that the honorific “Mr. Vice-President” was no longer cutting it as a sufficiently respectful title. He insists we refer to him as “His Eminence, #1 Angler Supreme”. Mr. Bush raised his hand and suggested that perhaps the VP was out of order. The #1 Angler Supreme whipped out his fly rod, cracked the President in the head, and raised an impressive welt. Cheney said that “No, George, you’re out of order. Remember what we talked about while Laura was locked up in one of my bunkers? Do you want her to be locked up again, this time in the “Naughty Bunker”, with all those 500 out of control Teslacoils plugged in, arcing randomly, and looking for a ground?” Mr. Bush said “No, Mr. Cheney, I wouldn’t want that. Please. Go ahead; run the meeting. Forget I’m here, sir.”
Cheney and David Addington are rumored to be busily blackmailing various mid-level intelligence agents in the CIA and the NSA. The intel from these two agencies will, in the near future, present very damning evidence and, accompanied by satellite photos, prove that Iran is indeed manufacturing WMD’s and nuclear warheads. I think he’s planning to go in with stealth bombers and secure the Iranian oil fields before the election. Surprise us in, say, October…
I can’t resign my post or leak this information. Cheney says he knows where my children live. (He does!) I guess my only outlet is you, Diary. Thanks for being here for me.
Dirk