Join President McCain in Fantasy Land

One criticism that many conservatives-- including John McCain-- have leveled at Barack Obama is that he is offering a 'false hope' and that he is offering an overly rosy vision for America. Well holy fucking shit folks... check out McCain's new 2013 ad.

I'll take Sen. Obama's inspirational realism over that cartoon fantasy any day. He may play the 'hope' card like nobody's business, but at least he a) offers substantive details on what he plans to do (McCain, on the other hand, intends to accomplish his goals by sheer force of will), and b) doesn't believe himself to be some sort of magician. Fixing all of our problems is a long-term project, and I feel that Obama gets that.

Furthermore, what makes this 'fantasy land' to me more so than the usual campaign promises is that for any of this to be accomplished would require betraying the ideology that not only the GOP operates under, but also that McCain's entire campaign has been built on up to this point. It operates under a delusion that the free market will deal with the energy/climate crisis (regulation bad! government bad!), that merely his awe-inspiring presence in office will get the Iraqis and others in the Middle East to "stop the bullshit" as he once insisted so that we can begin our peaceful 100-year occupation, that he will 'strengthen the border' (how?), that he will fix the strawmen healthcare problem which he believes to be lack of 'choice', that he will save the economy from the damage done to it by the policies he's endorsed, and that he will do all of this while cutting down on what he perceives as 'wasteful spending'. All in his first term.

It should be remembered that George Bush ran in 2000 as a different kind of conservative too. That, umm, didn't turn out so hot.

[PS- Watch Straight Talk McCain flop around like a fish when questioned on this.]