Jack Cafferty isn’t here today for the Cafferty File because of some tragic news.
His wife of 35 years, Carol, passed away unexpectedly this morning. Carol was everything to Jack. The dedication of his book reads, “for Carol, my wife, my life.”
Jack wrote about how she was the inspiration for him to get sober and straighten up his life: “In all the years that we’ve been married, she has always brought to the table her unshakable grounding in something a lot more real than being on television or being recognized in the corner drugstore. She has been my rock, having done a magnificent job of keeping me from getting full of helium and drifting off the surface of the earth… She was all the incentive I needed to make painful but transforming changes – to get sober and stop smoking. I knew that I’d lose her if I didn’t. She’s an amazing woman who simply wasn’t worth losing.”
One story Jack loves to tell is how he and Carol met – when he was a local news anchor in Kansas City. They started to meet regularly for a quick meal between his shows and became good friends. Whenever Jack had to leave, his exit line was “We’d better wrap this up. Got to get back to the station.” One night Carol finally asked, “What kind of a gas station do you work at? You’re always wearing a tie.”
Jack explained it was a television station. He loved the fact that she had no clue and couldn’t care less that he had been on air there every night for four years. He later described that as one of his life’s “twenty-four-carat moments” that made his heart soar. He said to himself then that he might marry her because “it can’t get any more honest and pure than that.”
Brutal. And to answer Wolf Blitzer's and Jack Cafferty's question as to whether we're going to see any interviews with Sarah Palin, no we won't. The McCain camp said today that until the media gives her a pass, they won't let anyone interview her. Nice. So we all get to roll the dice and just guess whether she's qualified.
[McCain campaign chair Rick] Davis demurred when asked when Palin will sit for interviews with major news organizations, pointing out that now would not be the right time given the "combative" attitude the media has seemingly adopted toward Palin
Not to mention, wasn't it the McCain campaign recently whining about how many articles there are about Barack Obama, and how the media refuses to cover McCain? Now that the media wants to cover the McCain campaign, McCain and Palin are AWOL. Actually, what's really going on here is that the McCain campaign is afraid to let Palin say anything after all the revelations about her this weekend. Anyway, here's the Cafferty video:
The McCain people aren't going to be happy about this. Cafferty eviscerates McCain. Talks about McCain's military record, his adultery, and more. McCain is going to blow a gasket - I'd love to see what private threats the campaign is making to CNN right about now...
It occurs to me that John McCain is as intellectually shallow as our current president. When asked what his Christian faith means to him, his answer was a one-liner. "It means I'm saved and forgiven." Great scholars have wrestled with the meaning of faith for centuries.....
One after another, McCain's answers were shallow, simplistic, and trite. He showed the same intellectual curiosity that George Bush has -- virtually none.
Where are John McCain's writings exploring the vexing moral issues of our time? Where are his position papers setting forth his careful consideration of foreign policy, the welfare state, education, America's moral responsibility in the world, etc., etc., etc.?
John McCain graduated 894th in a class of 899 at the Naval Academy at Annapolis. His father and grandfather were four star admirals in the Navy. Some have suggested that might have played a role in McCain being admitted. His academic record was awful. And it shows over and over again whenever McCain is called upon to think on his feet.
He no longer allows reporters unfettered access to him aboard the "Straight Talk Express" for a reason. He simply makes too many mistakes. Unless he's reciting talking points or reading from notes or a TelePrompTer, John McCain is lost. He can drop bon mots at a bowling alley or diner -- short glib responses that get a chuckle, but beyond that McCain gets in over his head very quickly.
I am sick and tired of the president of the United States embarrassing me. The world we live in is too complex to entrust it to someone else whose idea of intellectual curiosity and grasp of foreign policy issues is to tell us he can look into Vladimir Putin's eyes and see into his soul.
George Bush's record as a student, military man, businessman and leader of the free world is one of constant failure. And the part that troubles me most is he seems content with himself.
He will leave office with the country $10 trillion in debt, fighting two wars, our international reputation in shambles, our government cloaked in secrecy and suspicion that his entire presidency has been a litany of broken laws and promises, our citizens' faith in our own country ripped to shreds. Yet Bush goes bumbling along, grinning and spewing moronic one-liners, as though nobody understands what a colossal failure he has been.
I fear to the depth of my being that John McCain is just like him.
JACK CAFFERTY: Don't bet on John McCain becoming the next President of the United States. That is the message coming from several presidential scholars and historians. Politico reports, these historians paint a bleak picture for McCain. They also say Barack Obama has the best chance for any democrat perhaps since Roosevelt beat Hoover in 1932. The historians say it should be an overwhelming democratic victory, noting McCain is facing one of the worst political environments for the party in power since World War II. There's also this, only twice in the 20th century has the candidate from the same party from a two-term president go on to win the White House. The last time it happened, in 1988 was when President Bush's dad replaced Ronald Reagan. But remember, Reagan was more than twice as popular as the current president is now. McCain does have some advantages, including the fact that most people don't see him as a traditional Republican. Also, he could appeal more to moderates than Obama if the public would end up seeing the democrat as far left. And McCain might benefit from left over divisions in the democratic party from the long running primary season. Meanwhile, a new Gallup poll suggests the American people agree with these historians, 52 percent of those surveyed think that Obama will win regardless of who they support. 41 percent say McCain. And the world is weighing in too. A PEW poll, 25,000 people in 24 countries found that in all but two nations people put more faith in Barack Obama than in John McCain to do the right thing when it comes to world affairs. One of the two exceptions, that would be the United States.
So what did China's thugs do in response? They acted like thugs and went ballistic on CNN. Message to China's leaders: The reason you get so much bad press is because you are murderous communist dictator thugs, and the entire world knows it. The only reason any nation is nice to you is because you're big, not because you're nice, not because they like or respect you. They respect your size and your power. Don't confuse that with anyone having forgotten that at the end of the day, you're still dangerous petty dictators, and we all look forward to the day you're overthrown. Oh yeah, and your dog food stinks too. You can watch Cafferty's comments here.
CNN's Jack Cafferty gave a big shout out to our buddies at CREW today. It's about Dick Cheney hiding the list of conservative religious nuts who have visited him at the vice president's mansion.
Cafferty, as usual, cuts to the chase. The video is posted on Yahoo, and it's a bit hard to find. You need to go this page, then find the Cafferty video on the page (currently it's the top video, but it won't be forever). Really poorly-designed Web page, if the video isn't on top there is no permanent link to it, so it will simply become lost and no one will link to it. Good idea, poor execution.
