A Snake Oil Salesman by Association

Posted by Mary Mancini on June 25, 2008 under Liberate Your Radio from The Right |

Taibbi of Rolling Stone on John McCain’s favorite author, stated as such at his Nashville Town Hall meeting:

Standing at the meeting, I didn’t write Osteen’s name down in my notebook — apparently because my brain refused on some level to accept that McCain had actually said it. Of all the vile, fake, lying-ass, money-grubbing shyster scumbags on the face of this planet, there is perhaps none more loathsome than Osteen, a human haircut with plastic baseball-size teeth who has made a fortune selling the appalling only-in-America idea that terrestrial greed is actually a form of Christian devotion. “God wants us to prosper financially, to have plenty of money, to fulfill the destiny He has laid out for us,” Osteen once wrote. This is the revolting, snake-oil-selling dickhead that John McCain actually chose to pimp as number one on his list of inspirational authors. So much for “go, sell everything you have and give to the poor,” and all that other hippie crap from the New Testament.

So funny I spit club soda out my nose. Tickles.

More important, though, is the subtext of this article. Each time Taibbi asks someone who spews the anti-Obama talking points they got from their sister’s best-friend’s neighbor’s uncle to elaborate on, they are stymied. What we can learn from this is to take the time to press these right-wing echo chamber minions. Don’t roll your eyes and walk away. Ask the “why” and the “what” and “what do you mean, do you have any specifics?” And no, we might not change their minds, but it sure will be fun to watch them squirm.