6/23/2008

Noun, Verb, 9/11 Redux

Back during the Republican primaries, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani had a well-known habit of peppering virtually everything he said with some sort of reference to the 9/11 attacks. It got so ludicrous that Senator Joe Biden quipped that "there's only three things [Giuliani] mentions in a sentence - a noun, a verb, and 9/11."

Well, it now seems that John McCain is giving Rudy a run for his money in that department. When not promising endless war in Iraq or continually throwing previously held positions out the window in pursuit of votes, the presumptive GOP nominee has jumped on the all-terrorism-all-the-time bandwagon.

Fortune
asked him a pretty straightforward question: "What do you see as the gravest long-term threat to the U.S. economy?" McCain could have talked about skyrocketing energy or health care costs, or the rising inequality of our new Gilded Age, or the soaring national debt. Nope, he had something else in mind - eventually, as Fortune explains:
He's looking not at us but into the void. His eyes are narrowed. Nine seconds of silence, ten seconds, 11. Finally he says, "Well, I would think that the absolute gravest threat is the struggle that we're in against radical Islamic extremism, which can affect, if they prevail, our very existence. Another successful attack on the United States of America could have devastating consequences."

It's like McCain is determined to bring every caricature of a fearmongering Republican to life. Lately, it seems that his answer to every question somehow involves "Islamic extremism" or the War on Terror™. Doesn't matter what the subject is - it could be energy costs, college tuition or the duck-billed platypus, he will find a way to work in a "be afraid, be very afraid" angle.

And he wonders why no one is taking him seriously.

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