John McCain's Current Stump Speech

If you've managed to stay awake for more than 10 seconds while listening to Republican Presidential candidate John McCain, it's pretty obvious that he's got a great speech writer. A speech writer with whom I don't agree on pretty much anything, but one who can certainly work those talking points. Too bad McCain delivers it with the same gusto I use when describing dental appointments.

I've heard bits and pieces of it over the last two days. One, he says that we absolutely must drill into every extra bit of untouched land in the United States if we want gas for less than $20 a gallon. I'm not even going to bother disproving this, because it is asinine and others before me have explored the subject in great detail. Rather, I am more focused on what he continues to say after this: "anyone who tells you any differently is either inexperienced and doesn't understand the current situation, or is lying to you."

This is basically the playground equivalent of calling Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama a "poopy head", and when Obama responds, saying "I know you are but what am I?"

I know that standards of political campaigning aren't particularly high these days, but this line of attack strikes me as particularly desperate. Does McCain really think he's going to be able to dispute every point Obama makes in each of their three debates with this little ditty? It is a weak, weak debate tactic.

I'm going to hope that McCain's campaign team are smart enough to realize in a debate, this is going to look like what it is -- a dodge of the issue. Of every single issue. But will the scripted responses be any better? What if an issue comes up and McCain has to go off the cuff?

I'm going to bet the McCain team is already dreading the debates.

Every time I hear McCain speak, I wonder what happened to the maverick he supposedly used to be.