Memo to McCain: I am NOT your friend!

Have you noticed John McCain's tendency to inject the phrase 'my friends' liberally (pun intended) throughout his speeches? To quote them in text would bore you to tears, so I encourage you to listen to this clip

Why does he do it? Has the king no advisors willing to tell him that he has no clothes? Here are some thoughts that spring to mind every time I hear McCain's "my friends" mantra:

1. insincere
2. trite
3. banal
4. desperate
5. artificial
6. repetitive
7. irritating
8. insipid
9. platitudinous
10. boring
11. disingenuous (I'll do anything to work that word into a conversation)
12. meretricious
13. never had a real friend

Oh yes, and he attaches that pasted-on phony smile at the same time. Does he really believe that we cannot see through this facade? The not-so-subliminal message he sends is that his words cannot be fully trusted. Granted, most politicians tend towards the insincere and self-serving. So why does McCain insist on driving this fact home in every speech?

Good grief, Charlie Brown, I've just experienced an epiphany! Just as the 1984 Democratic Party presidential candidate Walter Mondale repeated in his speeches that he would be an honest politician and admit that he planned to raise our taxes (editors note: Mondale only carried his home state of Minnesota), so McCain's 'straight-talk express' is training (pun again intended) us to closely read between his lines and parse every word to find out what he is actually saying. Sounds like fun, kids!

Maybe Minnesota will again buck the trend and give McCain a victory in that state, annointing him President of Minnesota. Further memo to McCain: it gets mighty chilly up north. Oh, what's that...you haven't visited Minnesota in over two years? And you expect to be President?