McCain Mocked Mayors and Governors During GOP Primary [VIDEO]

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12 September 2008

This was bound to happen. Someone dug up video of John McCain during the republican debates in which he appeared to mock Mitt Romney (once a governor) and Rudy Giuliani (once a mayor) when talking about national security experience.

McCain smacked Romney and Giuliani at the time for lacking a strong background on issues related to foreign policy. He was neither impressed nor won over by the argument that being a mayor or a governor was a qualifier for President. See video:
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McCain, making the point of his alleged preparedness to be president, said "I need no on-the-job training."  He then goes on to point out, in a condescending way, that among his competitors were a mayor and a governor.

Here's the full quote:
"I have had a strong and a long relationship on national security, I've been involved in every national crisis that this nation has faced since Beirut, I understand the issues, I understand and appreciate the enormity of the challenge we face from radical Islamic extremism. I am prepared. I am prepared. I need no on-the-job training. I wasn't a mayor for a short period of time. I wasn't a governor for a short period of time."
Now that McCain has snatched Sarah Palin from Alaska, somehow being a mayor or a Governor have become stellar accomplishments worthy of the presidency of the United States; the same accomplishments which McCain said made Mitt and Rudy somehow woefully disqualified last year.

Worse still, Palin was mayor for less time than Giuliani and was governor for less time than Romney.

McCain has made it quite simple for the Obama campaign to run ad campaigns featuring nothing but John McCain's words from the past. Certainly, overestimating the public's ability to tell truth from lies never got Al Gore or John Kerry elected.

Just like how McCain was caught on video saying he voted with George Bush 90% of the time, taking McCain's words and using them against him could be a devastating way to go after the 72 year old GOP nominee.

Speaking of Mitt Romney, he was singing a totally different tune before the republican convention.

Romney is on video months ago being asked whether McCain can stand up to Barak Obama in the general election.

SEE VIDEO:
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ROMNEY: I think it would be very hard for John McCain to beat a Barak Obama. I think John McCain would suffer the same fate that Hillary Clinton and Chris Dodd and Joe Biden suffered when they faced Barak Obama in Iowa. People want change. They do not want a Washington insider. They don't believe an insider can turn Washington inside out.
Well what did McCain do by the time his failed message of 'experience' became no longer viable? He stole Barak Obama's message and used it as if it were his own. 

I remember a certain Senator from New York who tried that same thing at the end of the Democratic primary. It didn't work for her. And she was an actual woman and didn't have to rely on a female candidate!