Who Can Stump McCain? Posted by Adam Blickstein

MSNBC's Chris Matthews? CNN's Wolf Blitzer? Fox News' Sean Hannity? CBS' Katie Couric? No, it's Rob Caldwell from WCSH in Portland, Maine. Not only does he ask McCain the tough questions the national press has been unwilling to ask, but he makes McCain look entirely clueless on a whole host of issues, including the non-existent national security credentials of his security blanket running mate, Sarah Palin:

The kicker is McCain can't name one area of expertise Palin has on national security, except energy, and also cites the lame Alaska/Russia proximity argument. He says she was right about Iraq and Barack Obama was wrong, even though Palin said "I've been so focused on state government, I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq." He also concedes that he's sure (very different from the word "knows") she "has the experience and judgment necessary to lead this country. He says she's better than Obama on Iran (she wouldn't negotiate with Ahmadinejad) and Russia (she wouldn't display the same moral equivalency Obama made over Georgia). Funny, McCain seems to be putting words in her mouth. It would be nice to hear what she actually thought about these issues since she's never talked about them before.

Isn't our current media environment really discombobulated when the national press is obsessed with porcine makeup while a reporter in the 77th largest market in America is asking McCain hard questions about national security, his running mate, and the blatant contradictions between his policies and his party's platform?  (Huge h/t to John Aravosis)

Comments

[Brian Hasbrouck]

well played! why isn't this being hit more?! i'm posting it on facebook and stumbleupon thanks!

[Pangolin]

Sara Palin doesn't know jack abouut energy because she doesn't seem to understand that Putin has turned off the gas to NATO once and told them he'll do it again. Georgia just got dope slapped by mamma Russia and we didn't do anything because we don't dare.

Putin has the gas valve to the EU and he knows it. Count on it getting turned off during the worst cold of the upcoming winter as a reminder.

[yogi-one]

No Substance, just fluff.

McCain: "I have taken on my own party and taken on my own President." umm...yeah, boy, he really showed Bush who was boss, huh? Speaking of which, why can't he say the president's name? He was sure fawning over all the other politicians in his party.

McCain says he has championed reform, except he is now opposed to his own reform legislation, the McCain/Feingold bill.

He managed to get the word' reform' in dozens of time. Reform what? Nothing. found myself asking after the interview "Ok he said reform a bunch of times. What was it he said he was going to reform, specifically?" NOTHING. Watch the interview again.

He says Palin's security experience is energy? Give me a break.

But I'll say one thing - if Sarah Palin can get Big Oil to give ALL American a $1400 check like Alaskans got for allowing drilling - let's see, with 250 million Americans that would be a $350 billion dollar payout by big oil - I would think twice.

Somehow, however, I doubt her energy policy will include oil socialism for the rest of us.

Palin doesn't have a clue and just said in another interview that she'd be willing to go to war with Russia if the invaded Georgia again.

First off, that would be a mistake of such disastrous proportions that McCain and co wouldn't let her do it - which means she's lying

OR

She has no idea of the geopolitics involved - which means she's ignorant.

I have a feeling it won't be long before the public realizes she's a dangerous combination of both.

[Mike]

Didn't Obama go against his party on drilling and FISA?

[lorelei]

Instead of just accepting McCain's answer to Palin's "reform agenda", why didn't Rob correct the pervasive myths about "selling the corporate jet", "firing the chef" and "giving back money to the taxpayers" when she actually sold the jet at a loss (and not on eBay), didn't fire the chef (just put her in a different spot) and didn't return OUR money. Sure, she gave money to Alaska taxpayers but did not return the millions she got for a project that went belly-up.

He should have called out McCain on the fiction.

[Augie]

It's sad that America's journalists have no time to read things in the public record . . .or watch our candidates interviews on television to be able to "ask the right questions".

Palin grinned and giggled in July when asked "would she consider being VP for McCain" on a national TV interview(was it John Gibson?)in July . . .she didn't hesitate to say that she was NOT interested in being Vice President because . . .she didn't know what the Vice President does all day in the first place.

Apparently it is what makes her so qualified by bible thumpers to be one heart attack away from Commander in Chief and it certainly doesn't hurt her in the Bible Belt since she's a loud proud cheerleader for Armageddon .....since she and her church deems Alaska as the exclusive refuge for the privileged survivors of global mass murders due to their Christian compassion for their sick and twisted world order.