The TPM [1]video that appears below introduces John McCain, admittedly not at his public-speaking best. The main question is not whether McCain misspeaks, however. Many highly competent people lack polished public speaking skills. Even though they often stumble while speaking, though, highly competent people ultimately display their high degree of competence. It might take a bit longer and their message might not always come out smoothly, but they eventually, even when they are nervously standing at a podium, display that they know what they are talking about. They eventually show that they are well-informed and that their minds are clicking. At their own pace, all competent people (whether or not they are polished speakers) are able to show their audiences that they can assimilate new facts and come to well-reasoned and creative solutions.
Conversely, competent people, even those who don’t excel at public speaking, don’t look uninformed and incoherent while talking in public. There is a huge difference, then, between A) not being an accomplished public speaker and B) displaying that one is uninformed and incoherent. The video below shows far more than John McCain’s lack of polished public speaking skills. Rather, it shows that he is uninformed and incoherent.
John McCain has only rarely sounded informed or coherent during this campaign. We cannot afford to elect as President a man who so rarely sounds informed or coherent. What kind of leader he would make? Can you imagine such a man trying to lead important meetings every day? Can you imagine putting the country into the hands of a man who has such trouble processing small dribbles of information when running the country requires processing such a flow of new information that is akin to trying to take a drink out of a fire hydrant? McCain drowns in small puddles of information.
Here’s my take: The Republicans don’t care much, as long as McCain is still breathing. If elected, McCain would be basically serving as a mascot for the same invisible team of people currently (mis)running the country.
This set of video excerpts is not a low blow, in my opinion. It is evidence that John McCain does not have the cognitive capacity necessary to run this country. We’ve already had eight years of cognitive incapacity and we can’t afford any more of this, given the massive looming issues with which we need to deal (e.g., energy, the economy, national security).
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWX5u69hmzY&eurl=http://talkingpointsmemo.com/[/youtube]
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