Compulsory Ring Kissing Under Fire

by digby

John Amato caught the winner of this week’s McCain manlove contest:

ACOSTA: But it was earlier this week in Alexandria, Virginia, where he [McCain] visited a high school—a uh, high school…Episcopal high school in Alexandria, Virginia–where apparently a student there started heckling the Senator and John McCain then had to respond. So here is John McCain responding to what appears to be a student heckler earlier this week in Alexandria, Virginia:

STUDENT: We can see that this isn’t completely absent, uh, political motivation isn’t completely absent, yet we were told this isn’t a political event. So, what exactly is your purpose in being here, not that I don’t appreciate the opportunity, but I’d just like some clarification.

MCCAIN: I knew I should have cut this thing off. [laughter] This meeting is over. [laughter] Um, this is an opportunity and part of a series of visits that I’m playing…paying…we started in Mississippi, uh, where my family’s roots are back to the middle of the 19th century, to here. We’re going from here to Pensacola, Florida, to Jacksonville, Florida, and a couple of other places where…we’re going to Annapolis, where I obviously attended the Naval Academy. And it’s sort of a tour where we try to not only emphasize the values and principles that guided me and I think a lot of this country in the past, but also portray a vision of how I think we need to address the challenges of the future, and a lot of that is in retrospect, but a lot of it is also advocacy and addressing certain challenges that face the nation. I hope that attendance here was not compulsory.

ACOSTA: So there you have it, John McCain, who is no stranger to incoming fire, able to handle that heckler there…

First of all, the question was perfectly legitimate, not a heckle at all. Second McCain tries to claim it isn’t political, which is completely absurd since he’s the presumptive Republican nominee for president of the United States. And then this bozo compares this perfectly reasonable question to McCain taking incoming fire!

Is there really no occasion where the McCain’s Hannah Montana fanboys don’t find it necessary to mention his mighty warrior mien? Even questions from high schoolers?

I can’t take another four years of codpiece worship. I just can’t.

*A little side note apropos of nothing much: Back when I was in high school a thousand years ago, a country singer named Wanda Jackson gave a concert and used the compulsory occasion to bring students to the Lord. I was interviewed by one of the reporters for the school paper about the experience and I complained vociferously about being forced to take part in a religious ceremony. And in my first exposure to the press, I was misquoted at length, saying I thought it was “a great thing that so many people were brought to Jesus in my school.” It was, to say the least, a formative experience.

.