McCain's "Bomb Iran" Joke Draws Fire

Liberal Group MoveOn.Org To Air Ad Attacking Republican Presidential Hopeful

(AP)  The liberal group MoveOn.org is launching an ad against Republican John McCain and his joke about bombing Iran, arguing that the nation "can't afford another reckless president."

The group plans to spend about $100,000 to air a commercial on network and some cable television stations in Iowa and New Hampshire, states that hold early contests in the presidential nomination process, spokesman Alex Howe said Friday.

McCain, campaigning Wednesday in South Carolina, answered a question about military action against Iran with the chorus of the surf-rocker classic "Barbara Ann."

"That old, eh, that old Beach Boys song, 'Bomb Iran,'" he said. "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, anyway, ah ..."

His audience laughed, but MoveOn.org called the comment dangerous.

"America has lived through six years of a reckless foreign policy," an announcer says in the ad. "We're stuck in Iraq. More than 3,000 Americans are dead. And thousands more wounded.

"Now comes John McCain with his answer to what we should do about Iran. John McCain? We can't afford another reckless president."

McCain defended the joke during a campaign stop in Nevada on Thursday.

"Please, I was talking to some of my old veterans friends," he told reporters in Las Vegas. "My response is, Lighten up and get a life."

Asked if his joke was insensitive, McCain said: "Insensitive to what? The Iranians?"

The McCain campaign had no immediate comment to the ad on Friday.

The head of MoveOn said McCain displayed "more out-of-control bravado."

"At a tense moment, when cooler heads in his own party and many retired military leaders are calling on the president to negotiate with Iran, Senator McCain's outburst isn't merely inappropriate; it's dangerous," Eli Pariser, executive director of MoveOn.org Political Action, said Friday.

McCain's comments, posted on YouTube.com, had been viewed at least 118,056 times as of Friday morning.

[realpatriot1]

sickinrick,

I don't know who you think has blown off the Iranian President's sick remarks. What McCain said as a joke was not a joke. Bombing Iran means killing innocent civilians...that is sick if you think it's a joke.

[randalds]

And now, a shout out to RandalDS...

You're one of the few people on here who seems to see below the surface of things. And when you try to explain it, people don't believe you either. Frustrating, isn't it?
Posted by tucson23 at 11:06 AM : Apr 22, 2007

It is sort like beating ones head on the wall, but still it feels better to me to get it said, to get it out. Some people get it and believe what I say and that's good, but as for those that don't the majority of them are right wing trolls who'll never agree or believe the truth anyway so I don't really let them bother me too much.

Still we both have to keep up the good work right? Better to speak the truth, even to those who don't want to hear it, then to be silent and thereby let other think you agree with the madness.

[tucson23]

And now, a shout out to RandalDS...

You're one of the few people on here who seems to see below the surface of things. And when you try to explain it, people don't believe you either. Frustrating, isn't it?

[tucson23]

Your degree is just a god da*m piece of paper,
Posted by rharrin1

On the contrary, they expect a great deal from you before they give you that piece of paper. If you think that what they told you about politics and government in high school somehow gave you a good foundation of knowledge to draw on, you are sadly mistaken.

Do you tell astronomers, geologists, biologists, and historians that their degrees are just pieces of paper? I guess ignorance is bliss.

[tucson23]

LOL. I was a poly sci major in 1978 --extremely boring ***. I changed majors...
Posted by toldyouso21

I agree that it's not a degree you want unless you want to be poor or be a lawyer. I didn't learn very much until the third and fourth year, which I assume is after you (probably wisely) changed majors. Had you stayed, you would have discovered that's it's far more than memorization and regurgitation. At some point they expect you to analyze philosophy.

Politics are not constant, but our politics operates along the lines of a philosophical continuum we've been on since about the middle 1700's. If you have no knowledge of that philosophy, politics becomes just positions on issues with no big picture to draw from.

Christians are a good example of this. They vote for a party that screws the poor and starts wars of choice because that party opposes abortion and gay marriage. That's not seeing the forest for the trees. It's the difference between knowing the underlying philosophy, or simply taking positions on issues which others tell you to take.

[tucson23]

Your responses to my post are just what I'm talking about--I have no problem with opinions on policy, that's what this message board is all about. I was commenting on the fact that the first five pages of posts were arguments about who was right and who was wrong, and using newspaper articles to somehow prove your point.

The Allegory of the Cave never means more to me than in times like this. If people have spent all thier time staring at shadows on the wall (and let's face it, most people's political opinions come down to that, and nothing more), and then the philosopher comes and tells them what's outside the cave, their response is usually disbelief.

Do any of you know how the major parties decide which side they're going to take when a new issue comes up? Or do you just listen to the party leadership and adopt the talking point they give you? 99% of people do the latter, then come on message boards and insist they are right--and for proof they present a news article. Politics is not just an assortment of positions on issues; it derives from a philosophical framework that takes years of study to understand.

All I'm saying is that a little humility might be in order when you claim that your basically unfounded opinion has to be correct, while someone else's has to be wrong.

[abbe7]

Or this one for him in Baghdad, without the troops, this time ...

". . Got a round
I got a round
Yeah
Got a round round round I got a round
I get arghhhh . . ."

[abbe7]

Hit the road John and don't you come back no more, no more, no more, no more.

[mnature12]

I agree Lighten up we have had just about enough of the Liberal belly acheing about everyhting they dont like Grow up and realise that if there is a war people will get Killed that is what a war is

[walt1944-2009]

Let's look at the Republican candidates running for president for 2008 (provided George Bush does leave office!). There is Rudy "Big Daddy" Guiliani who has a family life any Republican neo-con would be "proud" of. There is "Bagdad John" McCain who sounds and acts like an older clone of George Bush. There is Tommy "foot-in-his-mouth" Thompson who insults people even when he apologizes. And there is the Mormom "hunter" who hasn't fired a gun in his life!

With that kind of line-up, its no wonder that everyone is predicting a Democratic landslide in November 2008.

[zertrat]

"Wouldn't be nice if Bush mentioned, Every country iin the UAE is supplying the Taliban with fighter's, arms & funding ???"

Wouldn't it be nice if Americans learned English? Learning proper use of the apostrophe would take a few minutes, at best. And why are Bush's friends in the UAE providing "fighter's"? Good question. The question is more relevant to Bush and his motives than to those of the UAE. The UAE are friends of Bush, not doubt about it.

[zertrat]

Plain speaking? McCain is a snake in the grass.

[j-whitman]

Wouldn't be nice if Bush mentioned, Every country iin the UAE is supplying the Taliban with fighter's, arms & funding ???

[sherrykay200]

ROFLMAO! OMG It looks like "Old Boom Boom John
McCain" 2008 GOP Presidential Campaign Has Finally "Bombed" for good! After Amnesty John
McCain made every person in Arizona angry over
his co-sponsoring the now infamous "George ******* Bush-Amensty John McCain-Teddy Kennedy
Leave No Illegal Alien Behind Amnesty And Giveaway Program" and then McCain becomes the
Number One George W Bush Buttkisser and Pulls
his Iraqi Market Photo Op Fiasco so McCain can
show us what a real Neo Con Chickenhawk Bushie
Supporter of the War in Iraq Looney Toons McCain really is,and now his "Boom Boom Bomb Iran"
Number is any wonder McCain cannot get anywhere
as a GOP Presidential Candidate for 2008? McCain
Needs To Pull A "General Douglas MacArthur and
do like the song says "Old Soldiers Never Die,
They Simply Fade Away" Right Out Of Politics!
Its time to Impeach George W Bush,Dirty *** Cheney and Democrat Co-President Wannabe Idiot
Madame Speaker Damascus Nancy Pelosi and Start
all over again in 2008! Outlaw The GOP & Democrats From American Politics Forever!

[djermano1]

It shows how much of an idiot he is. Doesn't even know the words to the song. He is a neo-con war nutcase, thinking he respresents life and good for the world. He is a sorry butt loser, a sorry butt Prisoner of War. You would THINK he loss the POW label when he returned from Vietnam, but instead he wears his label well in his heart as a Prisoner to War and death. He is nothing but a deadman in his heart. Hope you change Johnny boy, or your McCain is going to fall into hell.

[bluestardad]

ALL IT TAKES IS FOR THE CONGRESS NOT TO PASS THE SUPPLIMENTAL FUNDING BILL! WAR STOPS FOR AMERICA!

ALL IT TAKES TO IMPEACH BUSH IS FOR IMPEACHMENT PAPERS TO BE FILED BY ANYONE IN CONGRESS!

ALL IT TAKES FOR ACTION IS FOR YOU TO START WRITING CONGRESS INSTEAD OF EACH OTHER!

The President's deceit is not only an abuse of power; it is a federal crime. Specifically, it is a violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 371, which prohibits conspiracies to defraud the United States.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/
20051114/delavega

Contact your ELECTED OFFICIAL
http://www.visi.com/juan/congr
ess/

The House Speakers email address: [e-mail]

info@go
p.com Republican Party email


[e-mail] Democratic Party email

Two Nights ago Chris Matthews on Hard Ball spoke with a Republican Congressional Supporter of the War who Claimed that General Petreiaous developed this Iraq Surge plan. Chris corrected him and said something like You guys know who came up with this plan it was the American Enterprise Institute.

Contact

The American Enterprise Institute
1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036

Main telephone: [phone]
Main fax: [phone]

Corporate Relations:

Jason Bertsch
Telephone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]

Government Relations: BINGO!
Andrew Levy
Telephone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]

[firststate]

McCain is a joke. He's the same kind of sick, twisted joke as his new hero, the bushshit artist in the white house. This one-time straight-talker has sold his soul to try to get into the white house. The straight-talk express has become the Bushshit local. Nothing good can ever come from the lies told at such a fundamental level of a person's character.

He should retire to spend time with his family before his mind and/or character is gone completely and forever.

[randalds]

Posted by NFLFan752 at 05:36 PM : Apr 21, 2007

And some people should learn that re-posting the same thing 8 times in a row just makes you look like a troll. Life's too short to have to scroll through a bunch of the same posts over and over again.

[firststate]

Shouldn't American politicians place The interests of the United States ahead of the interests of every foreign country, including Israel? Even Israelis have noticed that the right wing extremist Christians in the United States are more committed to Israel than American Jews are.

[grazinggoat]

What a sick world we live in nowadays.
Posted by singinrick

-You're danm right SICKrick... coming form a neocon like you, that's quite remarkable.