McCain: Sings "Bomb Iran" to the Tune of Beach Boys' "Barbara Ann"

I’ll say this for McCain: he’s good copy.

You had that one hour tour of that Baghdad market to prove things were safer now. (He wore a bulletproof vest and was escorted by company of soldiers, armored humvees, attack helicopters and hidden sniper teams, all so he could get his picture taken proving how safe it was now--thanks to his escalation policy.)

And this week he offers this:

McCain sings "bombs" to Iran
Thu Apr 19, 2007 3:46PM EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican 2008 presidential hopeful John McCain crooned the words "Bomb Iran" to a Beach Boys' tune in joking response to a question about any possible U.S. attack over Tehran's suspected nuclear weapons program.

"That old Beach Boys song, Bomb Iran ... bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb," the Vietnam War veteran warbled softly to the band's "Barbara Ann" when he was asked when the United States would send an "airmail message" to Iran.

The singing performance during a campaign stop on Wednesday in South Carolina drew chuckles from the audience and has already been viewed almost 11,000 times on the Internet video sharing site YouTube after being posted on Thursday.

The one thing that McCain had going for him, versus the other Republican leaders, was “gravitas”—the appearance of being a serious character, treating serious issues seriously. And now he’s thrown that away. Like I’ve said before: his is the “Bizarro” presidential campaign. This is the kind of “joke” that you hear on Howard Stern. The only ones who are laughing at that are Giuliani, Romney and Gingrich.

At the end of the news story, the reporter observes:

… McCain's run for the White House, his second, has experienced some difficulties.

No kidding! One of the difficulties is McCain! I think he’s really losing it. The headlines about the daily murders in Baghdad seem to have driven him over the edge. Now he seems to be going after some kind of recording contract, instead of the presidency.

And I really don’t want to do this, but the fans expect it of me:

The album will be called “John McCain and the Surge.” The tracks:

“Escalate!”--a cover of Kool and the Gang’s “Celebrate.”
(“Es-ca-late them troops/Come on!)
(There a party goin’ on right here/
we got a troop surge/
to last throughout the years/
so send your taxes/
and your children, too
/we gonna bomb Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan too…)

“Blowin’ Up Teheran”—his version of Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind”
(“The answer, my friends/is blowin’ up Teheran/The answer is blowin’ up Teheran”)

“Ahmadinejad”—McCain’s clever reworking of John Lennon’s “Imagine”
(Ahmadinejad’s/no problem/
It’s easy if we try/
raise hell above him/
death rains from the sky/
Imagine all his people/
fleeing down the streets…
(Boo-oom!)… You may say that I’m a dreamer/
Oh shut up, you little queer/I hope someday you’ll join us/
And the world will live in fear…)

Another Beach Boys' cover, this time to "Sloop John B"
(You hand out the IEDs/
And that’s botherin’ me/
From Baghdad to Basra, our troops have been blown/
I say alright/
You guys wanna fight/Yeah yeah
This ain’t no joke, folks/
I’m bombin’ your home.”)