ABC Panel Tears Into McCain: Not Presidential, Age Should Be An Issue

[CatWoman]

For John McCain, the panel discussion on This Week with George Stephanopoulos could not have been more brutal.

Minutes after conservative columnist George Will declared that the Senator was decidedly un-presidential is his unexpected call for the firing of SEC Chairman Chris Cox, Sam Donaldson, the long-time ABC hand, said that McCain's erratic message on the economy again raised questions about his age.

"I suppose the McCain campaign's hope is that when there's a big crisis, people will go for age and experience," said Will. "The question is, who in this crisis looked more presidential, calm and un-flustered? It wasn't John McCain who, as usual, substituting vehemence for coherence, said 'let's fire somebody.' And picked one of the most experienced and conservative people in the administration, Chris Cox, and for no apparent reason... It was un-presidential behavior by a presidential candidate."

Donaldson then jumped in: "It was two days after the he said the fundamentals of the economy were strong. His talking points have gotten all mixed up. And I think the question of age is back on the table."

It should be noted that McCain's call for the firing of Cox was dismissed right off the bat, as the president does not have the authority to axe an SEC chairman. The criticisms that Donaldson raised concerned the fact that McCain started the week by touting the fundamentals of the economy, before pivoting into fits of populist mantra and calling for increased regulation of the markets - position at odds with McCain's traditional economic philosophies.

"When I say age," he explained, "I don't know the difference between finding your talking points and not delivering the right ones, we have seen him do this frequently but this last week was the worst. Between two stops in Florida, as you say, he had to revise his thinking about what he wanted to say about the economy, wanted to feel the pain suddenly than say everything is great."

The whole, painful, episode crested with Will leveling an even harsher blow.

"John McCain showed his personality this week," said the writer and pundit, "and made some of us fearful."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/21/abc-panel-tears-into-mcca_n_128055.html

[Jade Fox]

1. Great. Now I just hope people are watching and listening.....

to the show. McCain is a loose cannon at best.

How IS McCain polling as well as he is??

[Obamanaut]

8. My wife gave me the answer as to how McCain is polling so well.

Because of Sarah, he is attracting the "dirty old man" vote.

[Hubert Flottz]

11. I'm old and dirty...but I ain't that old and dirty...

All the lipstick in the world won't help that pig on the inside.

[napi21]

2. Yea, after watching that, all I could say was McNuts bad week continues!

The only person I heard say anything positive about McNuts all morning was Boenner, and he wasn't THAT complimentary either!

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. kick

[JohnyCanuck]

4. Hey media whores, wouldn't you still like to have a beer with him?

Didn't you establishment ass-lickers try to tell us at one time that was the most important criteria for picking a president?

[annabanana]

5. my my...

Here's where we fing out how many wingnuts only listen to radio...

[Orsino]

6. Still avoiding real issues. Thanks, ABC. n/t

[Bluebear]

9. Please. This kind of on-air conversation is a gift to us.

[radfringe]

7. mccain's first reaction to anything is to attack

from bomb bomb bom iran to pulling a donald trump on cox "you're fired"

the last thing we need is a leader who acts first and then needs his "advisors" to come in and explain what he means

we've seen 8 years of a cowboy administration, I don't want a sequal

[susu369]

10. Closing the barn door

That's a bit like closing the barn door after the horse has bolted.

Those sober thoughts before McManiac was the presidential runner might have been helpful....

[kath]

12. K & R. It was BRUTAL! Highly rec watching the video -much more impressive than the transcript would

indicate.

[Supersedeas]

13. the McCain Bimbo Spokescreep for McFudge told Mika and Joe that the positions were example of

decisive leadership in the moment of crisis and that's just what American needs is knee-jerk decisive leadership???

Obama is too thoughtful....Joe and Mika just knodded along in Agreement.