News Roundup for 8/25/09

"Hannity '12" campaign poster

-Headline of the day-
"Hannity Waits for God's Call Too."

God help us. Professional liar Sean Hannity is considering a run for public office -- specifically, president -- and he's just waiting for the Almighty to give him a jingle. According to WingNutDaily, "Egged on by radio colleague Bill Cunningham, Hannity said he would consider entering the front lines of the political fray if God directs him."

"I've never made a decision in my life without -- whatever destiny God has you've got to fulfill it," he said. "I'm not sure that's my destiny." Yeah, me neither. I think your destiny might be in making victims of crippling head trauma look smart by comparison.

Still, WND says he'd be a freakin' awesome candidate, because everyone who works for the website is a certified mental patient. "Hannity would make a formidable candidate, with the likability of Reagan, good looks and strong convictions," WND reports. "He's also a polished communicator and knows the issues inside out." He knows them inside and out because he turns them inside out -- on every single issue, Hannity is not only reliably rightwing, but provably wrong. He's got all the ethical and moral clarity of Richard Nixon, the intellectual depth and ego of George W. Bush, and shares an inability to go five minutes without lying with Sarah Palin.

"Can you even imagine the fun the Democrats would have with a Sean Hannity campaign?" asks Ed Brayton. "They've got thousands and thousands of hours of TV and radio shows to go through for idiotic and inflammatory statements. It would be a gold mine."

They can start here.

Give us a week and Sean would become as wildly popular as Fred Thompson or Sam Brownback were in '08. (Dispatches from the Culture Wars)


-Deja vu-
At a town hall event in Arizona, Sen. John McCain got booed for countering wingnut claims about Barack Obama. At the event, a questioner asked McCain whether President Obama knows "that we still live under a Constitution." McCain, knowing that Obama is a constitutional lawyer, said that the president was probably aware of that.

According to the report, "He then added that Obama 'respects the Constitution of the United States,' at which point the crowd broke out in loud boos. But McCain stood firm, explaining that there's just a 'fundamental difference in philosophy and about the role of government.' 'I am convinced the president is absolutely sincere in his beliefs,' he said, again eliciting boos and jeers from the crowd."

Of course, McCain's really on his home turf here -- in more ways than one. Not only is Arizona his home state, but insane wingnuts were his '08 base:


Later, another supporter told McCain, "I don't trust Obama... He's an Arab."

McCain stood shaking his head as she spoke, then quickly took the microphone from her.

"No, ma'am," he said. "He's a decent, family man, a citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with."


They didn't like that, either. And not because it was a slap in the face of Arab-Americans.

No matter what you think of Obama these days, remember that this was the alternative. All those town hall nuts with their guns, their ignorance, and their gullibility could've been running the show right now.

Compared to that, you've got it easy. (Think Progress, with video)


-Bonus HotD-
"Coburn tells weeping victim of broken health care system that government isn't the solution."

At his own town hall event, Republican Senator Tom Coburn took a question from a crying woman who, according to the report, told him "that her husband's health insurer refuses to cover his treatment for a traumatic brain injury." Seriously, she's just as beat as someone can be, at the end of her rope, and just in complete despair.

Coburn, moved by her plight, told the woman to contact his office, so he could "try to assist her individually." Then he told her that "the idea that the government is the solution to our problems is an inaccurate, a very inaccurate statement."

OK, so you told her to look to Senator Tom Coburn's office for help, then you tell her that she shouldn't look to government for help. Seriously Tom, WTF is it that you think you do for a living? Do you think "Oklahoma Senator" is just some bullshit honorific like "Kentucky Colonel," "Miss America," or "Mayor McCheese?"

Dude, you are the government! (Think Progress, with not-so-funny video)