There are several things that frustrate me about John McCain.
1. He's not really conservative. As my husband says, he's a centrist who leans to the right. This was fairly obvious both in his acceptance speech at the Republican convention and in the debate the other night. I had the "Ooh! Ohh! I know the answer!" syndrome from elementary school (hand waving furiously in the air) going on during much of Jim Lehrer's questioning, then had to groan at McCain's often polite answers. It simply re-emphasizes that John McCain is not Ronald Reagan.
2. He still thinks he can "reach across the aisle" 35 days before the presidential election and not get it chopped off. I don't care how well McCain knows these people, but Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are not his friends (if they ever are). McCain should be running against them as well as Barack Obama. They are not "distinguished colleagues." They are the enemy. Once he's president, he can pretend, again, he's friends with them. But not now.
3. Both McCain and Palin are way too polite when dealing with the Obama campaign and the press. John McCain and Sarah Palin need to be blunt about why we shouldn't make Obama POTUS: he's a liberal who is frighteningly unprepared to be president given his behavior whenever a crisis has arisen in the last nine months (not to mention his lifetime).
The latest example for Point Number 3 is Sarah Palin's interview with Katie Couric, which is being spun by MSM and the Left as she's an idiot who doesn't read.
In order to say this, the lying liars of the Left ignore virtually everything of substance in the Palin interview to latch onto this exchange:
COURIC: And when it comes to establishing your world view, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this — to stay informed and to understand the world?
PALIN: I’ve read most of them again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media —
COURIC: But what ones specifically? I’m curious.
PALIN: Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me over all these years.
COURIC: Can you name any of them?
PALIN: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news.
As someone who's asked more than a couple of gotcha questions, I've often fantasized about how I would answer such inane questions.
COURIC: And when it comes to establishing your world view, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this — to stay informed and to understand the world?
ME: You know, Katie, I read a lot of newspapers, from my local paper to the natioanl ones. And I'm smart enough to know a "gotcha" question when I hear it. You've been playing this game the entire interview and I'm not going to give you the name of any specific publication because I know your "fact checkers" will be trying to find something sinister or stupid that was recently published in any news outlet I name. So, let's just say I read all of them. That will give the leftwing lunatics their latest talking point.
Needless to say, I don't think I'd make it to high office, not just because of my checkered past, but because I'm not polite to idiots.
Allahpundit notes that Palin discussed gays, feminism, abortion, and creationism, but her answers don't make her look like a kook, therefore, they don't get any airplay. No surprise there.
UPDATE: Newsbusters shows that, lo and behold, Katie Couric is much sweeter and nicer to Joe Biden than he was to Sarah Palin during interviews with the vice presidential candidates.
There will be a study that comes out about a month after the election which discusses the disparate treatment of Sarah Palin and John McCain with Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Of course, that won't make any difference at that point.
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