Hey, John McCain, where’s that other envelope?
Early in last Friday’s debate, John McCain trotted out this bit of his stump speech:
Eisenhower, on the night before the Normandy invasion, went into his room, and he wrote out two letters.
One of them was a letter congratulating the great members of the military and allies that had conducted and succeeded in the greatest invasion in history. . . .
And he wrote out another letter, and that was a letter of resignation from the United States Army for the failure of the landings at Normandy.
Somehow we’ve lost that accountability.
Now, as it happens, McCain’s account wasn’t entirely correct. Will Bunch dug up the original “other” letter, and Eisenhower doesn’t offer to resign — but the general did conclude by saying, “If any blame is found attached to the attempt, it is mine alone.” So the broad point about accepting responsibility remains.
Which brings us to the tragicomic events of yesterday’s political circus. Beginning with the announcement of a tentative bailout deal over the weekend, McCain’s surrogates fanned out to every TV news show they could to open the letter of (self-)congratulation on St. John’s behalf, pointing to his melodramatic “suspension” of his campaign as the essential turning point that made the agreement happen.
Finally, McCain stepped forward to thank himself in a Monday morning appearance in Ohio… just hours before the bailout failed to pass in the House of Representatives.
McCain’s attitude now, via CNN:
During a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa, on Tuesday, McCain appeared to distance himself from Monday’s House vote, saying the congressional inaction had “every American and the entire economy at the gravest risk.”
“Yesterday, the country and the world looked to Washington for leadership, and Congress once again came up empty-handed,” he said.
Y’know, like he hadn’t gone to Washington himself, and tried to hog the credit when he thought there would be some. This comes after yesterday’s attempt to blame Barack Obama and congressional Democrats — everyone, it seems, but himself.
What happened to that other envelope, Senator? The one with the other letter inside it?
Stumble it!
Tags: $700 billion bailout, McCain, WH 2008
September 30th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
When I heard him start that anecdote, I thought he was going to give the famous ‘three envelopes’ joke:
“A fellow had just been hired as the new CEO of a large high tech corporation. The CEO who was stepping down met with him privately and presented him with three numbered envelopes. “Open these if you run up against a problem you don’t think you can solve,” he said.
Well, things went along pretty smoothly, but six months later, sales took a downturn and he was really catching a lot of heat. About at his wit’s end, he remembered the envelopes. He went to his drawer and took out the first envelope. The message read, “Blame your predecessor.”
The new CEO called a press conference and tactfully laid the blame at the feet of the previous CEO. Satisfied with his comments, the press — and Wall Street – responded positively, sales began to pick up and the problem was soon behind him.
About a year later, the company was again experiencing a slight dip in sales, combined with serious product problems. Having learned from his previous experience, the CEO quickly opened the second envelope. The message read, “Reorganize.” This he did, and the company quickly rebounded.
After several consecutive profitable quarters, the company once again fell on difficult times. The CEO went to his office, closed the door and opened the third envelope.
The message said, “Prepare three envelopes.”
October 6th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
[...] risky, but difficult. Doing so successfully would require McCain to take control of the narrative (something he seems to utterly fail at) starting with his own image. McCain needs to stop taking cheap shots at Obama which just make him [...]