On What Is McCain an Expert?

Eugene Robinson points out today in his op-ed that John McCain is actually still something of an unknown, and has some issues with his expertise.  Heck, even he doesn’t know things about himself, such as how many houses he owns.  Apparently, according to Robinson, McCain doesn’t officially speak for his own campaign.  Seriously, though, Robinson has a good point.

• McCain was going to have his staff get back to The Politico on the number of houses he and his wife own.  Did he really think that they wouldn’t report this?
• McCain’s running on at the mouth about the economy was not his official policy, his staff hastened to clarify.  After all, McCain doesn’t know much about economics.  That’s why he has people like Phil Gramm speak for him, saying that it’s all in our heads.
• “We are all Georgians.”  Really?  He thinks that Georgia should be a member of NATO and that NATO should go to war to protect Georgia.  (So does Obama, which I disagree with.)  Or, maybe, did this rhetoric come from his foreign policy aide who was a lobbyist for Georgia?
• McCain apparently does not know the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite.

McCain isn’t an expert on the economy and doesn’t appear to be an expert on foreign policy, despite his protestations to the contrary.  He loses to Obama on the issues, and the only thing McCain said that was fundamentally different was that he did not want any timetables on an Iraq withdrawal.  That rug has been pulled out from under him today as the Bush administration agreed to a timetable with the Iraqi government.

So what can McCain do?  Try to make the election about Obama instead of about important issues.  That’s a sure sign of a loser, in my opinion; the only thing that’s worse is that many Americans might fall for it.  Heck, the Republican Party is so lackluster and has drifted so far from its roots that Susan Eisenhower, Ike’s daughter, has left the party.  George W. Bush carries much of the blame for that, with his neo-con movement.  John McCain is a continuation of that.  It’s yet more proof that John McCain should not be elected.  (And I don’t say this as someone voting Obama as a no vote to McCain, like many of McCain voters feel about Obama.  Their votes are votes against Obama rather than for McCain.  What does that say about McCain and the state of the Republican Party?)

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An aside — I will be away from the blog from Saturday unti Wednesday of next week.  My family and I go to a conference every year at this time, so I probably will not be able to blog during the Democratic Convention next week (until Thursday).  But I will be back at it then!