Needlenose

Recoiling from John McCain’s speech at the Republican convention last night, Scarecrow noted McCain’s disingenous claim to be not “my own man anymore… [but] my country’s,” and retorted:

His campaign… has become little more than pumped up self praise, relentless narcissism over a sense of honor he no longer displays.

Ezra Klein hit the same point from a different angle:

For all that he mocks Obama for being “the one,” it is McCain who has rested the weight of a presidential candidacy atop his person….

The signs wave. “Country First,” they read. And then, below: “John McCain.” Such public declarations of patriotism are not about why John McCain loves this country. They are about why this country should love John McCain.

Not coincidentally, Media Matters found a statistical measure of McCain’s self-adulation:

Last week, in an apparent effort to paint Sen. Hillary Clinton as self-absorbed, the AP’s Ron Fournier counted the number of times she used “some variation of the pronoun ‘I’” in her convention speech. Fournier came up with 17….

… When can we expect Fournier to tally up the number of times John “cause greater than self” McCain used the pronoun “I” in his convention speech? It’s well over 100 — and that doesn’t even count variations.

It’s not really surprising — it’s part of the personality-trumps-issues approach the GOP always favors — but on a personal level, it is revealing. As Democrats are wont to do, Barack Obama is running for president because of policy goals he wants to achieve.  But for McCain, being president isn’t about doing anything for the American people — it’s the world’s biggest gold watch, a reward for being who he is.

That’s the real message of McCain’s candidacy:Â if you’re out of a job, or can’t get health care, or are having trouble with your mortgage, or have a family member on his or her fifth tour of duty in Iraq… you just need to put your petty little personal problems aside.

Because John McCain has been a goddamned selfless patriot his entire adult life, and it’s time for you fuckers to pay him back.

(Cross-posted at Firedoglake.)

Now the rovin’ gambler he was very bored
He was tryin’ to create a next world war
He found a promoter who nearly fell off the floor
He said I never engaged in this kind of thing before
But yes I think it can be very easily done
We’ll just put some bleachers out in the sun
And have it on Highway 61.

– Bob Dylan, “Highway 61 Revisited”

The Washington Post a couple of days ago caught a key moment of John McCain’s arrogant foolishness regarding the Georgia-Russia spat, one that deserves more attention:

Aides to Republican Sen. John McCain were scrambling last Thursday morning even as his plane was descending into Des Moines. Russia had escalated its aggression in the bordering Republic of Georgia, they told reporters, and McCain wanted to seize the moment.

On the ground in Iowa, advance men raced to erect a podium on the tarmac, just feet from McCain’s plane. The Republican nominee strode to the microphone for the first of several blistering statements condemning Russia’s moves, delivering his comments well before President Bush spoke publicly about the incident.

Josh Marshall and Kevin Drum have already weighed in today on this unseemly showboating. Says Drum:

What this demonstrates is McCain’s urgent, deep-seated desire to believe that he, John McCain, is right smack in the middle of world historical events, a desire remarkably similar to one we’ve seen from George Bush since he took office. That temperament hasn’t worked out so well for the past few years, and I’m not sure the country is ready for a repeat.

It’s not just that, of course, but the McCain camp’s immediate reaction of “Hey, this is good for us!” and rushing to get their guy’s mug on as many TV screens as possible right away. Some people have complained about the Democratic nominee-to-be’s low profile during the crisis, but I wouldn’t be surprised if once Obama does step forward for extended comment, he draws attention to the intentional contrast.

After all, do we really want a presidential candidate — much less a President — whose instinctive reaction to an international crisis is unabashed glee?

(Cross-posted at Firedoglake.)