Dumb As A Fox

by digby

I have often wondered why John McCain never travels anywhere without Joe Lieberman and Huckleberry Graham plastered to his side. Apparently, Lieberman is there to clean up McCain’s messes. On top of his insanely ill informed (and repeated) assertions that the Suni Al Qaeda are getting training in Shia Iran, he blew it again today in Israel and Holy Joe stepped up once more to explain it:

When McCain made a foreign policy gaffe in Jordan on Tuesday, it was Sen. Joe Lieberman who quietly pointed out the mistake, giving McCain an opportunity to correct himself in front of the international press corps. In Israel yesterday, NBC’s Lauren Appelbaum reports, Lieberman once again intervened when McCain made an incorrect reference about the Jewish holiday Purim — by calling the holiday “their version of Halloween here.”

[…]

The holiday — although a joyous one — commemorates a time when the Jewish people living in Persia were saved from mass execution. When Sen. Lieberman had a chance to speak at the press conference, he placed the blame of the mistake on himself. “I had a brief exchange with one of the mothers whose children was in there in a costume for Purim,” Lieberman, who is Jewish and celebrates the holiday, said. “And it’s my fault that I said to Senator McCain that this is the Israeli version of Halloween. It is in the sense because the kids dress up and it’s a very happy holiday and actually it is in the sense that the sweets are very important of both holidays.”

[…]

McCain’s mistake wasn’t a big deal. But what is interesting, Appelbaum points out, is Lieberman’s role during this trip. In two days, Lieberman has intervened twice in front of the press — once helping McCain with a correction on Sunnis/Shiites and once putting the blame on himself regarding the description of Purim

This isn’t the first time, by far. During the primary, Lieberman had speak up and help out McCain on domestic policy as well, when he when asked a question about education in Florida:

Lieberman: You know a lot of candidates can give you a good answer on education or on health care or on any of the other things that you worry about….You gotta have a president that’s going to pull people in both parties together and say OK, you’re a Democrat, I’m a Republican, but do you know what’s more important? We’re Americans and we have a responsibility to deliver to the American people

That’s going to have to be his appeal, because his command of the issues is looking nearly as bad as Bush.(The vaunted Independents seem to be buying it.)

While it’s shocking to those of us in the reality based community that this man has reached this stage in life, having been in government for decades and run for president once already, and is still a bumbling fool, it’s important to remember that this is not a disqualifier for the presidency in the United states of America. In fact, it may even be a conscious strategy. Reagan, Bush Sr, Bush Jr all profited from their ignorance. They are the guys people want to have a beer with (or in Poppy’s case, a pork rind with), which, as we all know, is far more important to many people than intelligence or knowledge ever could be. So I would never underestimate the power of being stupid to make people want to vote for you. Americans can ‘t stand eggheads.

So, perhaps that’s why Lieberman’s with him — to clear the record and make him look even dumber than he naturally is.

But what’s Huckleberry’s job?

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