McCain Sings ‘Bomb Iran’
April 19, 2007 | Permalink
At a campaign stop in South Carolina yesterday morning, Sen. John McCain had the following exchange with voter:
Questioner: It is well documented that we have for quite a long time now known where the real problem is in the middle east. And in fact the president adequately described it as the axis of evil. I guess my question is how many times do we have to prove that these people are blowing up people now, never mind if they get a nuclear weapon. When do we send them an airmail message to Tehran?
[gasps followed by applause]
McCain:You know that old Beach Boys song ‘bomb Iran’? Bomb bomb bomb, well anyway…
As an aside, former CIA director James Woolsey had the same response to a question about Iran two months ago.
McCain followed up with a serious response to the question, but I think it’s important to underscore two points:
- Jokes are important - very important. It’s a bonus in many ways for presidential candidates to be affable. That being said, there are appropriate jokes and inappropriate jokes. Politically speaking, it’s simply not smart for a politician, a United States Senator, a presidential candidate, or a president to joke about bombing another country. Aside from his position on Iraq, his questions of party loyalty and concerns about his age, Sen. McCain is also working against the impression that he may not be stable enough to be president. Although whimsical, McCain singing “bomb Iran” isn’t really going to help him with the voters that he needs to be targeting in order to win the nomination (and ultimately the general election). I don’t want to make a bigger deal of this than it is, but this response certainly alerts us to watch out for other similar responses that could tell us something more substantial about what the Senator’s administration would look like.
- In general, there does seem to be some very strong rhetoric regarding Iran from both sides of the aisle (John Edward’s speech to comes to mind). I wonder if the candidate’s positions and plan for dealing with Iran are getting enough attention in the press. From this point forward, we at 2008 Central will be focusing closely on rhetoric and policies relating to Iran.
Yikes.
I was unaware that of the comments McCain made, thanks for sharing and for linking to one of my articles.
Be well and enjoy the day.
[...] ← Candidate Reactions To Supreme Court’s Ruling On Partial Birth Abortion McCain Sings ‘Bomb Iran’ [...]
Bah Humbug. This is just an expression of right wing Americana. If it keeps the world on its toes, then who cares. World peace will come when America plays the Imperial March rather than Hail to the Chief.
It was just a bad joke, in my opinion.
Consider Reagan’s quip, uttered into a microphone and now famous: “My fellow Americans, I’m pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.”
Reagan went on to become the single most popular president in the history of the United States.
Oh, and John, posting above, is too right!
McCain is correct as well, had Jimmy Carter not had manure up his neck, we would have bombed Iran into a smoking cinder in 1979, and foregone an awful lot of the problems we are now having to deal with.
Rather than extinguishing the problem, Carter irrigated it. Bad President, bad move.
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