I’m in England at the moment, where I’m getting an, um, interesting perspective on the American presidential campaigning. So just to be perverse, all this week I’m highlighting YouTube video of Republican candidate John McCain, for two reasons. 1) He’s a nut, and as many people as possible need to know that before they go to the polls on November 4. And 2) The possibility that McCain could potentially be derailed as a candidate through his own words — as propagated on YouTube — is a banner moment for the Internet. Theoretically, this kind of material has always been available before… if the mainstream corporate media deigned to air it. Today, we can see it for ourselves… as long as the word about it gets out.
Even worse than McCain’s performance of the “Beach Boys’ classic” is his later justification of it:
Basically: Lighten up, he says. Geez, have a sense of humor. It’s funny to joke about bombing other countries.
Also, calling a high school student “a little jerk” is funny, so if it offends you, lighten up.
(In the interest of equal time, I welcome hearing about any similarly scary YouTube video of Barack Obama. Just drop me an email with a YouTube link.)
