Live From New York … McCain Acting Himself!

Cindy McCain looked like an actress playing Cindy McCain.

John and Cindy’s performances literally gave me the creeps. Even the audience could be heard sounding uneasy. Do you laugh at the man parodying himself with looks of genuine smiles and glee?
The McCain masks fell during these performances, and SNL is evil genius at work to set the tone so well that got them to drop their acts and be themselves. But the real McCoy McCains are revealed to be Ron Popeil hucksters, and they will sell anything to anyone. Comedy revealing truth – what tragedy!
I can’t imagine that they picked up votes.
I could hardly stand to watch them – Dorian Greys facing their portraits. Eeeewwww.
And Tina doing her Sarah aside – pres in 2012 schtick with McCain reacting with genuine laughter. No wonder she gave him a Fey smile – I think she feels pity and sympathy for him. He is not an unredeemable figure – just a permanently wounded one who will forever howl at real and imagined enemies.

All the SNL shows, the past 6 weeks, have given me the creeps. Or, rather, the attention paid to them, the supposed relevance assigned to them, by the media, has given me the creeps.

I’m with Michael on this one. I found McCain very likable in this skit. That doesn’t mean I’m voting for him, though.
It gets me to wondering why his own campaign people can’t make him look so appealing. Maybe what it shows is that its now time for the Republicans to go out and get new campaign professionals.

Agreed, the Republican campaign people destroyed the McCain campaign. The Rovian tactics worked well for Bush, but not for McCain. I am sincerely hoping that people are actually sick of this kind of campaigning.
Obama is running a great campaign, the best presidential campaign I’ve ever seen, and I’m hoping the Pfouffe genius lets the election be the success Obama will need to govern effectively, with less of the divisiveness the Republicans have shown us the last eight years. Enough.
Of course, knowing these Republicans, I’m sure they’ll find plenty of ways to be obstructionist and continue to put themselves before country. McCain’s “Country First” slogan has just made me laugh with its hypocrisy.

Likeable or not (my husband thought he was, I thought he wasn’t) – the thing that struck me most about McCain’s appearance on SNL is the timing.
This was the rueful, poking-fun-at-your-mistakes appearance a candidate does AFTER losing an election. not the eve before an election.
After spending an evening making fun of himself for LOSING THE ELECTION, what do you do next? Go out and continue to campaign?
I thought it was bizarre.
And when he pulled the “double reverse maverick” stuff – I wanted to say, “But that’s exactly what you’ve been doing for the last 2 months!”

McCain has more going for him than we’ve seen this campaign season. Of course he’s likeable – he’s got to be likeable. He’s certainly no brain, and his viewpoints are unappealing. He’s survived in politics for years and years, so it’s gotta be his personality.
McCain’s handlers were so afraid of a fatal gaffe that they muzzled him. That also ended the public’s view of the panache that reporters found endearing. It’s a question then, whether you let the campaign collapse all at once, or leave people wondering why he was nominated in the first place.
McCain is a mischievous bad boy, a fighter pilot, a war hero. Too bad for him that he had to follow the dismal results of George Bush, another roguish pilot. We’ve seen so many policy failures that bad boys are no longer charming. Give us the guy who does his homework.

“He’s potentially likable.” He’s a whole lot more likable than the guy who threw Hillary the finger after finally being hit in the 21st debate.
And he has a sense of humor – something totally lacking in Obama- who thinks a snide hip-hop face-scratching routine is funny.

He’s definitely a good guy – likable and dedicated to his countrymen – the problem is that if he dies we’re left with Palin, the worst VP pick in my lifetime. Also, he is inept when it comes to the economy, slightly more inept than the democrats.

I’m glad somebody else noticed how Fey broke character at the end and turned to him with that appreciative smile. That struck me too, and it seemed to me a warranted recognition of just how far the McCain’s were willing to go in mocking themselves. The only benefit I see McCain getting from the appearance is that it made him seem less angry and bitter, and I don’t think that helps him at all with his supporters, who want him to be angry and bitter. I kind of saw it as a signal to the rest of us that he and his 2008 campaign are ultimately two different things. Maybe he wanted to make that point while he still had everyone’s attention. He knows as well as everyone else that he isn’t going to win Tuesday.
And really, the only thing I hate about McCain’s campaign is Sarah Palin. I disagree with McCain on many things, but at least he’s a serious, competent, intelligent guy. Palin is the one who represents the politics of proud stupidity. She’s the one who appeals to the childish narcissism of people who think the election is a season of “Survivor” or some other reality TV show where you choose the person you most identify with and root for her to win. McCain has been desperately pandering to that sensibility, but Obama has at times too, in his own way. But Palin’s whole political existence depends on it.
It’s going to be so good not to have to hear her wretched voice after the election. And I’ll bet there’s nobody who agrees with me more on that than John McCain.

I’m not complaining as I believe McCain would be a disaster of a president, but his handlers have totally botched this campaign by muzzling the real man and presenting him as an angry, hateful, xenophobic, race-baiting thug. I saw him at the Al Smith dinner a couple weeks ago and couldn’t help myself — he was warm, witty and immensely likable. If he hadn’t handed his campaign over to that clown Steve Schmidt and had run as the real John McCain, with all his many faults and career missteps, he would’ve had a real chance to win. As it is, we can only blame/thank McCain himself for agreeing to shelve his more likable self and instead running as a cartoonish, hateful little man.