Now that the whole nominee thing is effectively squared away, we find good old Johnny McCain stumbling toward senility at every possible turn.

Saturday evening, the presumptive Republican Presidential Nominee declared, “I’ll admit to you that it’s tough, it’s tough in some respects.”

What’s tough, you ask? Senator McCain stuttered the above in response to the question, “How can I be proud of my country?”–a question asked by a man who noted he was educated at Princeton and earned over $300,000 annually.

I’m incredibly anxious to see how the media handles this one. It seems whatever Faux News can get their slimy little fingers on in order to somehow criticize Michelle Obama turns to Conservative hate gold. (‘Terrorist fist bump’ anyone? ‘Obama’s baby mama?’)

I expect at least 60% less coverage of McCain’s utterance than there was of Mrs. Obama’s “proud of my country” gaffe.

And while it might be difficult to totally disagree with Mr. McCain here, considering the atrocities occurring daily in the Middle East, the handling of the Gulf hurricanes last year, the treatment of our returning veterans, and so on and so forth, the fact remains that this is a man who cannot even remember what talking points he’s spewed this week.

Consider some of his yammering on Meet The Press (R.I.P. Mr. Russert) juxtaposed against his now-infamous comatose green-screen stump speech (bottled hot water to dehydrated babies, eh?) to a few hundred supporters (on the same night Senator Obama clinched the Democratic nomination and spoke to a crowd pushing 30,000).

What we have here is a failure to communicate. A consistent failure to communicate, that is.

A vote for John McCain is a vote for a man who can’t even position himself. And it’s a vote for a continued mess in these United States.

How can we be proud of our country? Vote for change.