Always strive to learn something useful. --Sophocles

"If John McCain had been elected, people would be questioning him too."
— Rep. John Campbell on "birthers"

I was surprised to find out that there is a birther controversy regarding McCain. His father was a naval admiral, and John was born at a military hospital in Panama. So Campbell might be right, the birthers might be nagging McCain had he been elected in the previous cycle.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/mccain/citizen.asp

"I've been around here 20-some years. First time I've ever seen a member denied an extra minute or two to finish his remarks. And I don't like it."
-- Sen. John McCain, complaining about Sen. Al Franken's objection to extra time for Sen. Joe Lieberman, December 17, 2009

"I object."
-- Senator John McCain, denying Sen. Mark Dayton extra time, October 10, 2002

"I object."
-- Sen. John McCain, denying Sen. Robert Byrd extra time, a few minutes later

I'll bet politicians hate the online world for how rapidly it can prove they talk out of both sides of their mouth. I guess I misheard the original, I thought it was Franken asking for a little extra time, and someone else shut him down.

"For eight U.S. presidential elections during the period 1960-2004, the rapid blinker during debates received fewer overall votes than his opponent. In seven of these eight elections, the rapid blinker also lost the electoral vote and was defeated at the polls."
-- Journal of Psychology observation, cited on net in reference to McCain blinking 3,000 times during the third debate

Huh. I wonder what Obama's blink rate was.