Check those talking points, Senator McCain

By Michael J.W. Stickings

With McCain these days, it's all about sending more troops to Iraq. A terrible, terrible idea, as I've argued here and here, but at least he's been fairly consistent, and repetitive, in his promotion of the neocon position. So it was quite odd that he had to rely so heavily on his notes with Stephanopoulos yesterday. Did he forget his talking points? How "weird," as Atrios puts it.

Steve has the video at The Carpetbagger Report. It's definitely worth watching -- not just to witness a seemingly un-confident McCain but to familiarize yourself with the usual talking points. We're going to hear a lot more of them over the next couple of years.

(Although as awkward as McCain seems to be here, he's still a vast improvement over Bush in terms of style and the appearance of credibility. But Bush has so lowered the standard of political discourse, or oratorical persuasion, that pretty much anyone who can string a few sentences together coherently and without succumbing to gross ineloquence seems to be an improvement.)