Keith Olbermann Calls McCain Out

Last night on his show, Keith Olbermann called McCain out on his nasty, childish campaign, and it was fantastic. He hit McCain over his "support the troops" hypocrisy when indeed he has opposed supporting the troops. He hit McCain over his false assertion that Obama has changed his position on Iraq, when in fact he has been the one changing his position. He hit McCain over accusing Obama of wanting to surrender (although I wish he would have pointed out that the Iraqi government wants us out, and McCain had said he would obey the wishes of the Iraqi government). He also hit McCain on his campaign attacking NBC for simply reporting indisputable and non-controversial facts. He alluded to the fact that no one can say anything about McCain being McCain hides behind the fact he was a POW like it is a get out of lying free card (he doesn't put it quite like that, but you get the idea). And perhaps best of all, he chastises McCain for running a childish campaign, and tells him to grow up. Anyway, check it out, and see for yourself why Keith Olbermann is the only one in the traditional media who isn't afraid to cut through the bullshit and say it how it is:



I hope the rest of the media is taking notes, and perhaps snapping out of their love affair with McCain a little bit. They need to start having the courage to report the facts, without being afraid of McCain throwing a temper tantrum and crying about it. They have a job to do, and a handful of people on one channel can't be expected to do it all themselves.

Update: Wow, and apparently Olbermann isn't the only one in the media who is fed up. CNN's Jack Cafferty also finds McCain's character quite disconcerting, and he says it reminds him a lot of Bush. Here is some of the meat, reacting to McCain's shallow, insincere answers at the faith forum that I've criticized perviously:

It occurs to me that John McCain is as intellectually shallow as our current president. When asked what his Christian faith means to him, his answer was a one-liner. "It means I'm saved and forgiven." Great scholars have wrestled with the meaning of faith for centuries. McCain then retold a story we've all heard a hundred times about a guard in Vietnam drawing a cross in the sand.

Asked about his greatest moral failure, he cited his first marriage, which ended in divorce. While saying it was his greatest moral failing, he offered nothing in the way of explanation. Why not?

Throughout the evening, McCain chose to recite portions of his stump speech as answers to the questions he was being asked. Why? He has lived 71 years. Surely he has some thoughts on what it all means that go beyond canned answers culled from the same speech he delivers every day.

He was asked "if evil exists." His response was to repeat for the umpteenth time that Osama bin Laden is a bad man and he will pursue him to "the gates of hell." That was it.

He was asked to define rich. After trying to dodge the question -- his wife is worth a reported $100 million -- he finally said he thought an income of $5 million was rich.

One after another, McCain's answers were shallow, simplistic, and trite. He showed the same intellectual curiosity that George Bush has -- virtually none.

And beyond the faith forum:

John McCain graduated 894th in a class of 899 at the Naval Academy at Annapolis. His father and grandfather were four star admirals in the Navy. Some have suggested that might have played a role in McCain being admitted. His academic record was awful. And it shows over and over again whenever McCain is called upon to think on his feet.

He no longer allows reporters unfettered access to him aboard the "Straight Talk Express" for a reason. He simply makes too many mistakes. Unless he's reciting talking points or reading from notes or a TelePrompTer, John McCain is lost. He can drop bon mots at a bowling alley or diner -- short glib responses that get a chuckle, but beyond that McCain gets in over his head very quickly.

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.

Anyway, read the whole thing, it is very good. Kudos to Jack Cafferty for leaving the sugarcoating behind and laying it all out. I really really really hope this is a sign that the media is starting to wake up out of its coma. One of the last wishes of the late Tim Russert was for the media to do a better job at covering the election, because it was too important to mess up. I haven't seen any improvement since then, but I really hope they start taking pride in their vocation. It's time for journalism to stop being a joke people. You have an opportunity to do your job and do it well, and the stakes couldn't be higher. Please get to it.