Calling John McCain at 3 am

If experience is the measure by which we are to select our preferred presidential candidate in the 2008 election cycle then all I can say is: We are fucked! Let's face it the candidates with the most experience are Hillary Clinton (according to her) and John McCain. Now we should remember that the experiences of both of these candidates led them to vote in favor of abdicating their constitutional role to declare war against Iraq and allow Bush carte blanche to do whatever he has seen fit as it pertains to the invasion and occupation of Iraq. (Bush has seen fit to interpret the same abdication as giving him the authority to attack Iran. But that is another cartoon and another post.) Neither Clinton or McCain have the wisdom to be the President of the United States. Of course Bush didn't have either wisdom or experience and look what he has done to make the world more unstable.

Experience...Red Phone...3am...

The inspiration for this cartoon came after I came across this! Who would have thunk it...being inspired by Tom Daschle. It certainly wasn't divine inspiration. I have yet one more cartoon in the works (I just need to draw the damn thing) stemming from the 3 am phone call...

In a strange way I suppose that I should be thanking Hillary for providing me the material that I have been using to hoist her upon her own petard.

Thanks Raw Story.

The Red Phone

It's 3 am and the red phone in the White House on Pennsylvania Ave. is ringing. Who is going to answer the phone? If you want someone with experience then you'll have to accept that between the Hillary Clinton and John McCain, then McCain is the candidate for you. After all, McCain has more experience than either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.

Of course, the same experience that Hillary claims would make her a better commander-in-chief is the same experience (when her husband was the president) that led her to vote in favor of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Her experience was surely lacking when she voted to support Bush's personal vendetta against Saddam Hussein cause he tried to kill his father. Why should her experience be any more valuable now then it was back then?


An aside: If Hillary is the DNC candidate it will be interesting to see her try to out-hawk McCain on Iran. Oh boy I can already imagine the cartoons...

The Call at 3 AM

I was watching the news, and Hillary was talking about her victories in Rhode Island and Ohio. Her first victories after losing 12 states in a row to Obama. She was on the stump throughout her "victory" speech while in Ohio. Hillary began touting her commercial and her argument that Obama doesn't have the experience necessary to take the call at 3 am. To Hillary's way of thinking, she has the experience (most of it her husband's) to answer the "red phone" if there were an emergency at 3 in the morning.

Now, as she spoke I got to thinking about if Hillary does become the Democratic Party presidential nominee and faces John McCain in a presidential debate. I started to wonder about the intellectual honesty of Hillary Clinton. Imagine that while in a debate with McCain the moderator asks Hillary Clinton:

"During the Democratic Primary you ran a commercial that accused Barack Obama of lacking the experience it takes to respond in a moment of crisis should the call come in at 3 am. Now, your opponent is a former POW, a decorated military man who has served his country for the better part of 30 years. If the phone rings at 3 am, do you still want the person in this debate with the most experience to take that call? And is that person you?"

If Hillary Clinton is "intellectually honest," then she would have to defer to John McCain. Let's face it, if you want the person answering the phone at 3 am to have the most experience, then McCain wins hands down against either Democratic Party candidate.

It was funny that Bill Bennett said on CNN that McCain would be able to use the Hillary "3 am" commercial against Obama by changing the ending that showed McCain answering the phone. Bennett was right. But Bennett was also short-sighted. McCain will be able to take Hillary's vaunted commercial and use it against her. And she won't have her experience to stand on.