Wow, McCain really is stupid

By Michael J.W. Stickings

TP: "For the second time during their taxpayer-funded overseas trip, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) was forced to correct Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) after he made an incorrect statement. Speaking in Israel yesterday, McCain referred to the Jewish holiday Purim as 'their version of Halloween.' After McCain spoke, Lieberman stepped in and gingerly took blame for McCain's mistake, saying that he had given McCain the false impression of the holiday's meaning." (NBC has the story here.)

Yes, that's right, McCain said that Purim is the Jewish Halloween.

Just to be clear, here's the Wikipedia entry for Purim: "Purim (Hebrew: פורים Pûrîm 'lots', related to Akkadian pūru) is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people of the ancient Persian Empire from Haman's plot to annihilate them, as recorded in the Biblical Book of Esther (Megillat Esther). According to the story, Haman cast lots to determine the day upon which to exterminate the Jews.

McCain got it mixed up, you see. Lieberman told him about the costumes and candy, you see, and McCain connected the dots. A simple mistake. Right?

Wrong.

And yet:

Klein: "The mass media is shying away from the substantive story that has developed all week showing McCain's carefully crafted, though completely baseless, 'expertise' in foreign policy disintegrating. He's as much an 'expert' as the perpetually angry old man down the street screaming at the kids to stay off his lawn. Instead, the media jokes around about McCain getting a little confused -- mixing up Purim with Halloween and Iran with al-Qaeda. Purim/Halloween... doesn't mean squat. Iran equals al-Qaeda... that kind of boneheaded ignorance on the part of the entire Bush Regime is what got us into the disastrous situation we're in now. It's more than squat. It should be a disqualifier.

Greenwald: "Reporters have already decided that John McCain is a Serious, Knowledgeable Foreign Policy Expert -- and an honorable, truth-telling gentleman -- and therefore there is no reason to tell voters about evidence that demonstrates that he's anything but that. Evidence that reflects poorly on McCain's foreign policy seriousness or character is actually suppressed or concealed because they think it can't be newsworthy, because such evidence just can't be true, by definition."

Well, this reflects poorly. And it should at least disqualify him from the media's loving embrace.

It isn't his tongue slipping, after all, it's his ignorance, stupidity, and insensitivity coming out.

Again.