That article doesn't say much of anything about Romney.

DamnYankees: That article doesn't say much of anything about Romney.

Apparently, neither does Romney.

Traveling with the Romney campaign is a less intimate experience. On a flight from Iowa to New Hampshire, the former Massachusetts governor walks down the aisle to shake staffers' hands but turns around before he reaches the section where reporters sit.

News conferences are generally kept to 15 minutes or less, and Romney answers most questions with well-polished soundbites.

Traveling with the Romney campaign is a less intimate experience. On a flight from Iowa to New Hampshire, the former Massachusetts governor walks down the aisle to shake staffers' hands but turns around before he reaches the section where reporters sit.
News conferences are generally kept to 15 minutes or less, and Romney answers most questions with well-polished soundbites.

Well, he only has so many phrases in his loop.
If you don't want to hear his sound-bite, don't pull his little string.



Of course, we do have a choice.

You may or may not like McCain's politics, but there's one thing about everyone's got to admit:

He sounds like a very nice fella to be around, and he probably would have made a fantastic grampa to look up to.

Tatsuma: You may or may not like McCain's politics, but there's one thing about everyone's got to admit:
He sounds like a very nice fella to be around, and he probably would have made a fantastic grampa to look up to.

Perhaps, but his family is probably annoyed by the amnesty he gave neighbor kids on his lawn.

Tatsuma: You may or may not like McCain's politics, but there's one thing about everyone's got to admit:

He sounds like a very nice fella to be around, and he probably would have made a fantastic grampa to look up to.

I agree 100%
I disagree with McCain on a lot if not most of the issues.
And I love to mock the candidates for being plastic or evil or religious nut cases, but I simply cannot mock McCain.
I deeply hope he doesn't become president, however, because I think the pressure would kill him. I doubt he would live through the first term.
He has served America all his life. He needs to relax and rest. Maybe plant a garden.

Well, yeah. McCain is a real, decent human being. Romney is PoliticalBot serial number 12365783SAYWHATYOUWANTTOHEAR.

Snarfangel: Perhaps, but his family is probably annoyed by the amnesty he gave neighbor kids on his lawn.

Nah, not his family, just his colleagues

bitteroldman: I agree 100%
I disagree with McCain on a lot if not most of the issues.
And I love to mock the candidates for being plastic or evil or religious nut cases, but I simply cannot mock McCain.

Yup. The term "Real American Hero" might be cliché, but that terms apply to McCain without any irony

I deeply hope he doesn't become president, however, because I think the pressure would kill him. I doubt he would live through the first term.

Ah, I don't know. He's a very tough nut to crack. And his mother is still alive at 93, so you never know.

He has served America all his life. He needs to relax and rest. Maybe plant a garden.

Somewhat agreeing to this. I know that a lot of people heard about McCain being a PoW, but I'm not sure that many young people today know about what he went through, and the courage he displayed while doing so, so here's a small account of what happened to him:

Prisoner of war

On October 26, 1967, McCain was flying as part of a 20-plane attack against a thermal power plant in central Hanoi, a heavily defended target area that had previously been off-limits to U.S. raids. McCain's A-4 Skyhawk was shot down by a Soviet-made SA-2 anti-aircraft missile while pulling up after dropping its bombs. McCain fractured both arms and a leg in being hit and ejecting from his plane. He nearly drowned after he parachuted into Truc Bach Lake in Hanoi. After he regained consciousness, a mob gathered around him, spat on him, kicked him and stripped him of his clothing. Others crushed his shoulder with the butt of a rifle and bayoneted him in his left foot and abdominal area; he was then transported to Hanoi's main prison. Although badly wounded, his captors refused to put him in the hospital, deciding he would soon die anyway; they beat and interrogated him, but McCain only offered his name, rank, serial number, and date of birth. Only when the North Vietnamese discovered that his father was a top admiral did they give him medical care and announce his capture; at this point, two days after it went down, McCain's plane going missing and his subsequent appearance as a POW made the front page of The New York Times.

McCain spent six weeks in a hospital, receiving marginal care, was interviewed by a French television reporter whose report was carried on CBS, and was observed by a variety of North Vietnamese, including the famous General Vo Nguyen Giap, many of whom assumed that he must be part of America's political-military-economic elite. Now having lost 50 pounds, in a chest cast, and with his hair turned white, McCain was sent to a prisoner-of-war camp in Hanoi in December 1967, into a cell with two other Americans who did not expect him to live a week (one was Bud Day, a future Medal of Honor recipient); they nursed McCain and kept him alive. In March 1968, McCain was put into solitary confinement, where he would be for two years. In July 1968, McCain's father was named Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Command (CINCPAC), stationed in Honolulu and commander of all U.S. forces in the Vietnam theater. McCain was immediately offered a chance to return home early: the North Vietnamese wanted a mercy-showing propaganda coup for the outside world, and a message that only privilege mattered that they could use against the other POWs. McCain turned down the offer of repatriation due to the Code of Conduct of "first in, first out": he would only accept the offer if every man taken in before him was released as well. McCain's refusal to be released was even remarked upon by North Vietnamese officials to U.S. envoy Averell Harriman at the ongoing Paris Peace Talks.

In August 1968, a program of vigorous torture methods began on McCain, using rope bindings into painful positions and beatings every two hours, at the same time as he was suffering from dysentery. Teeth and bones were broken again as was McCain's spirit; the beginnings of a suicide attempt was stopped by guards. After four days of this, McCain signed an anti-American propaganda "confession" that said he was a "black criminal" and an "air pirate", although he used stilted Communist jargon and ungrammatical language to signal the statement was forced. He would later write, "I had learned what we all learned over there: Every man has his breaking point. I had reached mine." His injuries to this day have left him incapable of raising his arms above his head. His captors tried to force him to sign a second statement, and this time he refused. He received two to three beatings per week because of his continued refusal. Other American POWs were similarly tortured and maltreated in order to extract "confessions". On one occasion when McCain was physically coerced to give the names of members of his squadron, he supplied them the names of the Green Bay Packers' offensive line. On another occasion, a guard surreptitiously loosened McCain's painful rope bindings for a night; when he later saw McCain on Christmas Day, he stood next to McCain and silently drew a cross in the dirt with his foot (decades later, McCain would relate this Good Samaritan story during his presidential campaigns, as a testament to faith and humanity). McCain refused to meet with various anti-war peace groups coming to Hanoi, such as those led by David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, and Rennie Davis, not wanting to give either them or the North Vietnamese a propaganda victory based on his connection to his father.

In October 1969, treatment of McCain and the other POWs suddenly improved, after a badly beaten and weakened POW who had been released that summer disclosed to the world press the conditions to which they were being subjected. In December 1969, McCain was transferred to Hoa Loa Prison, which later became famous via its POW nickname of the "Hanoi Hilton". McCain continued to refuse to see anti-war groups or journalists sympathetic to the North Vietnamese regime; to one visitor who did speak with him, McCain later wrote, "I told him I had no remorse about what I did, and that I would do it over again if the same opportunity presented itself." McCain and other prisoners were moved around to different camps at times, but conditions over the next several years were generally more tolerable than they had been before.

Altogether McCain was held as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for five and a half years. The Paris Peace Accords were signed on January 27, 1973, ending direct U.S. involvement in the war, but the Operation Homecoming arrangements for POWs took longer; McCain was finally released from captivity on March 15, 1973, having been a POW for almost an extra five years due to his refusal to accept the out-of-sequence repatriation offer.

How many of us would be able to go through this, and came out as he came out? Not only survive, but survive in a way that would not mean a future of rocking back on forth in a padded room occasionally throwing feces around?

I know there are plenty of internet tough guys on Fark, but that guy is a special breed of man, one in short supply, especially in today's society

bitteroldman: He needs to relax and rest. Maybe plant a garden.

The only problem with that is people like him tend to live off the stress...Take that away for a well deserved "rest" and he'll do what my grandpa did. Drop dead of a heart attack 6 months later. :o/

can I jump on the McCain bandwagon? I've pretty much given up on the democratic party until the baby boomers die off.

/where is there room for the centrists in American politics?
//yes McCain isn't a centrist, but "least of all evils" is sadly our last choice.

Is this McCain guy you people are talking about that took it up the butt from Bush in the 2000 primaries and still shoved his tongue up Bush's ass after? This is the guy you want running the free world?

Longtime Lurker: can I jump on the McCain bandwagon? I've pretty much given up on the democratic party until the baby boomers die off.

/where is there room for the centrists in American politics?
//yes McCain isn't a centrist, but "least of all evils" is sadly our last choice.

McCain is one of the largest Warmongers running for office. Do you really want to see World War 3 erupt in your lifetime?

Longtime Lurker: yes McCain isn't a centrist, but "least of all evils" is sadly our last choice.

Just curious why you feel a pro-business, western state republican who believes in global warming and is not beholden to the religious right, and has adopted children of color isn't centrist?

His entire political career has been built on reaching across the aisle with right democrats and making bipartisan legislation that passes.

If McCain isn't a centrist I don't know who the hell would be.

Bored Horde: Longtime Lurker: can I jump on the McCain bandwagon? I've pretty much given up on the democratic party until the baby boomers die off.

/where is there room for the centrists in American politics?
//yes McCain isn't a centrist, but "least of all evils" is sadly our last choice.

McCain is one of the largest Warmongers running for office. Do you really want to see World War 3 erupt in your lifetime?


is that really any different than the passive support that's been given to the war by Clinton? Neither of them is going to make a difference in Iraq...

There's more to running the country than just Iraq.

/Richardson 08 dammit
//Obama 08 probably done
///McCain 08?

////wow, all of those above choices suck...

This is what I don't get about our front running politicians, McCain and Hillary Clinton* excepted. The media has made it obvious that they love it when a politician strokes them and gives them lots of attention. This has been true back to at least JFK. He frickin wined and dined some of the top opinion-makers of 1960, and actually listened to them and opened up to them. They loved it.

It's not enough to win (McCain and Bradley), but geez don't make them your enemy at least.

*she's screwed because the media decided in 1993 they hated her.

FriarTuck: Longtime Lurker: yes McCain isn't a centrist, but "least of all evils" is sadly our last choice.

Just curious why you feel a pro-business, western state republican who believes in global warming and is not beholden to the religious right, and has adopted children of color isn't centrist?

His entire political career has been built on reaching across the aisle with right democrats and making bipartisan legislation that passes.

If McCain isn't a centrist I don't know who the hell would be.

well I'm a democrat, so I'm completely biased...

Tatsuma, McCain's been eating out on his days in the Hanoi Hilton for his entire career. What you should be asking is whether he can govern.

McCain's bullheadedness is of Bush-like proportions, and his temper is legendary. Maybe that bullheadedness got him out of 'Nam alive, but it won't make him a good President.

I'd rather have a beer with McCain than Romney myself (if Romney drank beer), but in 2000 I thought I'd rather have a beer with Bush than Gore. Look where that got us.

/still rooting for Ron Paul
//completely nuts but mostly harmless
///calmer anyway
////great with kids too

Clinton v. McCain = EPIC FAIL for America.

/no matter who wins.

Hillary is a centrist. Close your ears to the rhetoric and look at her policies -- she's a centrist just like Bill.

And I was hoping for a real, live, left-winger this time. *Sigh*

If McCain isn't a centrist I don't know who the hell would be

The guy singing Bomb Iran is a centrist?

The guy pluggin' War Eternal as he glories in the safety of the Baghdad markets?

You actually think that guy is a centrist?

Maverick? No yer thinking of James Garner's tv show or Tom Cruise in that extended ad fer the USAF.

McCain is more wot you'd call a deluded old man.

A Clinton V McCain Debate would be kinda boring ya gotta admit.

Both candidates would have to take breaks in the middle to take naps and have their depends changed.

/Think about it.

McCain speaks with a very matter-of-fact style that makes him sound condescending. I don't like that.

I have no sympathy for McCain:

I WANT TO VOTE FOR ROMNEY BECAUSE HE LOOKS PRESIDENTIAL AND SAYS HE'LL BUY ME A CAR! BUT I'M AFRAID OF JESUS SO I'LL PROBABLY VOTE FOR HUCKABEE.

/damn caps lock keeps sticking.

HL : "Veteren news correspondent reveals John McCain will talk about anything with reporters while traveling aboard his 'Straight Talk Express' campaign bus, while Mitt Romney won't even go near them between his campaign stops"

Sooo..., Romney is Hillary Clinton in disguise?

//Seriously, in a non-hit-piece you compare more than two data points.
//This is a hit-piece.
//And - no - Romney ain't my first choice.

zenobia: Hillary is a centrist. Close your ears to the rhetoric and look at her policies -- she's a centrist just like Bill.

And I was hoping for a real, live, left-winger this time. *Sigh*

Socialized healthcare wasn't centrist in 1993, and it isn't centrist now.

If nothing else, TFA explains to me why the press seems so much more attached to McCain than Romney. Just like everyone else, once you start hanging with random people, you grow to like them more.

/ask my co-workers

given mccain's voting record on civil-liberties; if i thought that those farkers claiming to be libertarians were being honest, i would be surprised that so many of them support mccain

/Voted for McCain once, won't do so again.
//Unless Hillary is nominated (maybe).

FTFA: What ends up on the Reuters file and in our blog is pretty much focused on the campaign. That means I mostly can't share what I've learned about McCain's college wrestling career (ignominious) and the time he visited Atlantic City as a boy (he saw a diving horse and comedian Henny Youngman).

Wow, just Wow.

Re-read some of HST's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 recently.

After reading this say-nothing know-nothing article on the campaign trail '08 I'm seriously tempted to dig up the bones of HST in order to try cloning Hunter S Thompson just so's I'm not subjected to this drek any longer.

Seriously, are there any political journos left in the States who aren't unredeemable, hacks, flacks and shills?

Just one, fer Christsakes.

/askin' too much again?

If McCain isn't a centrist I don't know who the hell would be

I hate Hillary, but she is more of a centrist than McCain is. Hell, so is Obama.


Just because McCain pissed off the religious right by insulting them whiel a senator doesn't mean he is a centrist.

Socialized healthcare wasn't centrist in 1993, and it isn't centrist now.

For hte majority of the western world it is...

Just curious why you feel a pro-business, western state republican who believes in global warming and is not beholden to the religious right, and has adopted children of color isn't centrist?

Which of those things has anything to do with being centrist?

Pro-business? I have no idea what that even means, but both parties are very much pro-business and indeed beholden to corporate interests. That doesn't make him a centrist.

Western state? Guess I don't understand what geography has to do with being a centrist or not. Would he suddenly become a left winger if he was from New York or a cray right winger if he hailed from Texas?

Republican? I doubt there are any true centrists in the republican party. They have shifted the whole thing far to the right. Nowadays mainstream democrats are right of center themselves.

Believes in global warming? That just makes him sane. Not believing in global warming isn't a non-centrist position... it just makes you a nutjob.

Not beholden to the religious right? That is a huge plus, but that doesn't make him any more ore less centrists. How does he stand on the issues they support is the question, not whether he is beholden to them.

adopted a child of color? That's nice too, but has aboslutely nothing to do with his political beliefs or practices....

bitteroldman: I agree 100%
I disagree with McCain on a lot if not most of the issues.
And I love to mock the candidates for being plastic or evil or religious nut cases, but I simply cannot mock McCain.

McCain deserves heaps of mock for spending most of his life attacking (rightly) the religious right, but then as soon as he wants to be president pandering to them like a lost dog.

It was pathetic and exposed him as a pure hypocrite.

Plenty of other things (like his completely dishonest Iraq tour) derserve our scorn as well. McCain looked like a decent person a decade ago. Now he looks as corrupt as any of hte rest. fark him.

I'm surprised the spelling nazis haven't hounded subby yet.

Why are people saying "Obama's mostly done, looks like Hillary vs McCain now, epic fail" when Obama has gotten more votes than Hillary, has two more delegates (38 to 36, superdels don't count because they can change at any time) and is looking to be the favorite going into SC?

Echoic: Why are people saying "Obama's mostly done, looks like Hillary vs McCain now, epic fail" when Obama has gotten more votes than Hillary, has two more delegates (38 to 36, superdels don't count because they can change at any time) and is looking to be the favorite going into SC?

Because the evil liberal (lol) media said so.

They want Hillary to win because under Clinton I they saw the largest growth in their ability to become a monopoly power in the history of the republic.

sarcastrophe: zenobia: Hillary is a centrist. Close your ears to the rhetoric and look at her policies -- she's a centrist just like Bill.

And I was hoping for a real, live, left-winger this time. *Sigh*

Socialized healthcare wasn't centrist in 1993, and it isn't centrist now.

It's a good thing that Hillary has never proposed socialized health care then, isn't it? Seriously, where do you get this made-up crap from? Hillary Care (Health Security Act) 1993 gave states the ability to implement their own health care system based on a set of federal minimum guidelines. It did not call for government run health care except to say that states could setup a single payer system if they wanted one. Hillary's new proposal calls for private insurance companies to handle insurance, not the government. In addition, you get a tax rebate for purchasing private insurance. How exactly is that socialized medicine, again? Oh yeah...that's right. It isn't.

Too much far right wing extremist propaganda = stupid
You = stupid

Doc Lee: You = stupid

President Mitt scares me as much as President Hillary. I don't trust either of them as far as they can throw what's left of the raw baby seal they just fought over.
When are we going to get Plurality With Elimination (run-off) voting?

I like McCain's willingness to work toward goals (see Feingold and McCain).

I hate his willingness and seeming eagerness to keep us embroiled in countries in which we do not belong, or bring us into more countries.

We need a president that can help fix our internal problems first for 8 years. Then we'll see about a president that will help the world. Feed yourself first so you can live to feed many others; don't give away your food to help one person only to starve yourself and the people you could feed in the future.

mathmonkey: When are we going to get Plurality With Elimination (run-off) voting?

It would diminish the power of the two major parties in this country - so I wouldn't hold my breath.

Ceph: We need a president that can help fix our internal problems first for 8 years. Then we'll see about a president that will help the world. Feed yourself first so you can live to feed many others; don't give away your food to help one person only to starve yourself and the people you could feed in the future.

WTF are you talking about? Are we starving? Is our government broken? The only things we need to do is balance the budget and start to pay down the debt. Interest rates will have to rise, and we'll probably go through a short recession, but we're not on the brink of epic collapse, as you seem to paint it.

So, as long as McCain keeps the Heathers of the media thinking that he is their pal, he will continue to get the kissass coverage that he gets.

They were saying on MSNBC last night that McCain was obviously the strongest candidate in the race, even though that other guy has more delegates.

If Romney spent some time handing out nicknames to the media like Bush did, he would get the kissass coverage that Bush got then and that McCain has always got.

If the Colts were playing this game they'd be up 14 points.

*sigh*

McCain is loved by the press. He is a republican who loathes republicans of all shapes and sizes, especially dedicated conservative voters. This gives him lots of clout in the media because this is what they are looking for, a non conservative who wants big government, environmental regulations, writes bills like the McCain Feingold act and the McCain Kennedy immigration act. He is a liberal, not a centrist. He is only a "conservative" on a few tax policies and on his spending, but he only wants to cut pork and earmarks, not to reduce the size of the government's ability to run people's lives.

So the media love a turncoat republican who stabs conservatives in the back, and McCain loves to answer their softball questions. Romney on the other hand doesn't get red carpet treatment from the media, he gets the "So how will you ruin the nation" questions, ones phrased specifically to make him look bad. ones like, "What do you think it is about your Mormon faith that hurts you the most in your race for the presidency?" sure, they are gonna ask McCain stuff like that.

barneyfifesbullet: So, as long as McCain keeps the Heathers of the media thinking that he is their pal, he will continue to get the kissass coverage that he gets.

They were saying on MSNBC last night that McCain was obviously the strongest candidate in the race, even though that other guy has more delegates.

If Romney spent some time handing out nicknames to the media like Bush did, he would get the kissass coverage that Bush got then and that McCain has always got.

umm, Romney wants the media as far away from him, for good reason. His "lobbyist incident" should be proof enough of that.

Doc Lee: sarcastrophe: zenobia: Hillary is a centrist. Close your ears to the rhetoric and look at her policies -- she's a centrist just like Bill.

And I was hoping for a real, live, left-winger this time. *Sigh*

Socialized healthcare wasn't centrist in 1993, and it isn't centrist now.

It's a good thing that Hillary has never proposed socialized health care then, isn't it? Seriously, where do you get this made-up crap from? Hillary Care (Health Security Act) 1993 gave states the ability to implement their own health care system based on a set of federal minimum guidelines. It did not call for government run health care except to say that states could setup a single payer system if they wanted one. Hillary's new proposal calls for private insurance companies to handle insurance, not the government. In addition, you get a tax rebate for purchasing private insurance. How exactly is that socialized medicine, again? Oh yeah...that's right. It isn't.

Too much far right wing extremist propaganda = stupid
You = stupid

which is a great program, because it will basically accomplish a lot of nothing.

Echoic: Why are people saying "Obama's mostly done, looks like Hillary vs McCain now, epic fail" when Obama has gotten more votes than Hillary, has two more delegates (38 to 36, superdels don't count because they can change at any time) and is looking to be the favorite going into SC?

because I have no faith that women and baby boomers will make an intelligent decision on super tuesday...

MikeyFuccon: Tatsuma, McCain's been eating out on his days in the Hanoi Hilton for his entire career. What you should be asking is whether he can govern.

and Hillary's whole career has been built on being married to Bill Clinton.

At least, McCain's one is much more credible

Shaggy_C: Ceph: We need a president that can help fix our internal problems first for 8 years. Then we'll see about a president that will help the world. Feed yourself first so you can live to feed many others; don't give away your food to help one person only to starve yourself and the people you could feed in the future.

WTF are you talking about? Are we starving? Is our government broken? The only things we need to do is balance the budget and start to pay down the debt. Interest rates will have to rise, and we'll probably go through a short recession, but we're not on the brink of epic collapse, as you seem to paint it.

Agreed. We are our own worse enemy when it comes to some stuff, but we are hardly spiraling to our doom.