Let me introduce you to the real John McCain. I am not going to write anything that I cannot in some sense document. Sometimes this documentation will be to columns and newspaper articles written by people whose truthfulness and accuracy I depend on and who seem to have documented everything they say.
(1) John McCain appears to be an incredible hot-head. He has a long history of losing his temper very easily. Even McCain concurs with this criticism and says he is “mellowing” in his golden years. One must seriously ask the inevitable question: Do we want a hot-head making dangerous, life-impacting decisions in the White House. We’ve had hot-heads before, that’s true. The question is still an important one and only one of many I am going to put forward to you here. I suggest you read this article by Libby Quaid, an Associated Press writer: Will McCain’s Temper be a Liability?
(2) Is the Environment issue important to you? The Sierra Club, only a few days ago, gave McCain a zero rating on environmental issues based on his votes in the Senate. Zero! Zed. You heard it right! You can read the story in AlterNet, an on-line newspaper that give one an alternative source of news – often news the newspapers are not willing to touch.
(3) How about McCain and special interests? The NY Times botched this important issue a month or so by mixing it with innuendo about sexual dalliances. Nevertheless, McCain’s campaign manager is a lobbyist and so are his top advisors. Read this story from Think Progress. It’s straight-forward and factual and it’s carefully documented and supported. Public Citizen, a government watchdog group, says there are 59 lobbyists raising funds for John McCain’s campaign. That’s far more than other candidates. You may also want to read this ABC News story about McCain’s lobbyist friends rallying around him when he needed them.
(4) A Woman’s right to choose is an important issue to me and I care about where candidates stand on this one. In South Carolina, during the campaigning, McCain told one of his audiences this: “I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned.” McCain has also made it clear which way he’ll go on the appointment of Supreme Court Justices. Oh, my goodness. Here’s an MSNBC story that covers both of these subjects.
(5) Martin Luther King Day and other civil rights votes. McCain is trying to back away from this record now and says he’s changed his mind on a lot of these issues. Isn’t that convenient? However, the record stands and it isn’t a good one. Here’s an ABC News story on McCain and Martin Luther King Day. And, Color of Change presents a documentation of McCain’s voting record on civil rights issues.
(6) On torture, McCain claims opposition, but he voted against a ban on water boarding and applauded our president’s veto of the bill. Think Progress documents McCain’s votes on this issue.
(7) Children’s Health Care is a tough issue to oppose; yet the Children’s Defense Fund rates McCain the worst Senator in Congress on this issue. He both voted against the children’s health care bill in 2007 and defended Bush’s veto of it. You can go to the Children’s Defense Fund Web Site to see a score card that rates congressman and senators.
(8) How about the war issue? It appears that McCain will be every bit as hawkish as President Bush and he may be even more so. The conservative columnist and TV analyst, Pat Buchanan, says that “McCain will make Cheney look like Ghandi.” See the video here! Bloomberg News, not exactly a conservative publication, says that McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Russia, China and Iraq. Read the Bloomberg News story!
(9) The Religious Right is making up with John McCain and they’re starting to chat again. Oh, boy! I’ve had enough of the religious right in American politics. These people are whacko indeed. I don’t want them making decisions for me or having decision making influence over our President. There are a host of stories about this courtship, but the best might be the following story from Think Progress on February 28:
“Yesterday, hard-line conservative Pastor John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel, endorsed John McCain. Hagee said that McCain “is a man of principle, [who] does not stand boldly on both sides of any issue.” McCain, who had been courting the endorsement for over a year, said that he was “very honored by Pastor John Hagee’s endorsement.
“Demonstrating how wildly out of the American religious and political mainstream Hagee’s views are, McCain’s acceptance of Hagee’s endorsement was condemned today by conservative William Donohue, president of the Catholic League. Calling Hagee a “bigot,” Donahue said the right-wing pastor has waged “an unrelenting war against the Catholic Church” by “calling it ‘The Great Whore,’ an ‘apostate church,’ the ‘anti-Christ,’ and a ‘false cult system.’”
“My friends,” as John McCain is constantly saying – constantly – “My friends,” I don’t want more of George W. Bush. That’s what this election is all about. A vote for John McCain is a vote to continue the political philosophy of the Bush administration – an administration whose approval rating in America is below 30% as I write this. It will be a vote to continue favoritism for America’s wealthiest people. Few know it, but John McCain is probably the wealthiest member of the current Senate – that’s true based on the enormous wealth of his wife, an heir of the Budweiser fortune (read this Associated Press story about her). Enough already of the super rich! They’ve got this country all screwed up.
It will be a horrible day in America if we put John McCain upon the throne.
(Many thanks to MoveOver.Org for inspiring this blog!)
The following was added to the blog on 9 April 2008 [6:18 a.m.]
NOTE ABOUT JOHN McCAIN from HOWARD DEAN
Howard Dean, head of the Democratic Party sent me this note today (9 April 2008) that provides even more evidence supporting the notion that John McCain should not be President.
"John McCain is so wrong on Iraq, he can't even get the basic facts about the situation on the ground correct.
"Today, as he was questioning Gen. David Petraeus, he again confused the difference between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.
"At least five times as a candidate John McCain has stated that Iran (a Shiite nation) is supporting Al-Qaeda (a Sunni group) in Iraq. This is not some minor mistake, but a significant gaffe. He clearly does not understand the sensitive political dynamics in that region of the world.
"What's worse is that he's done it at important times when you'd expect him to be at his best -- he did it today in the Senate while questioning the commander of American forces in Iraq, and he did it on a recent trip to the Middle East.
"If John McCain can't remember such a simple fact at crucial times, how will he be able to do it as President?
"Once is misspeaking -- five times is a dangerous lack of understanding. John McCain so badly misunderstands Iraq that he's content to stay there for 100 years, something he's said multiple times. He has also failed to explain how he would pay for a war that is now costing you and me $12 billion each month -- money we could be using to help our economy here at home.
"John McCain wants us to believe that his decades of foreign policy experience make him the natural choice to lead our nation at war with terrorists.
"We just can't afford someone who just doesn't understand Iraq -- it's too dangerous."
CHANGE THE SUBJECT
Thanks to my local newspaper, I found a new and very good blog this morning. It’s called CLOTHESLINEBLOG. It’s written by Susan Lenfestey and Barbara Miller. Their stuff is insightful and humorous when it needs to be. Lenfestey was published this morning in the Star-Tribune and her column was both witty and right-on. I suggest you take a look at it. She compares the Democrats to a dysfunctional family. Or, did she say the Democrats are a dysfunctional family? Something like that. She explains that we “manage to get along when push comes to shove.” Now, she tells us that there’s talk of intervention. “This bender is a long way from over,” she says. “Somebody pour me another drink.” You can read the entire column at the StarTribune web site.
CHANGE THE SUBJECT
Garrison Keillor wrote brilliantly again this week in THE OLD SCOUT column. He concluded his touching essay this way:
“What makes no sense at all is when the arrogant idiot expects us civilians to support his unprincipled policy as a way of ‘supporting our troops.’ The troops are not mercenaries, they are American soldiers in a long proud tradition going back to General Washington's Continental Army at Valley Forge, and what gives their mission dignity and meaning is that it comes from a constitutional government in which war is not a point of personal privilege but a matter to be openly debated, opposed, protested, reported. For the troops to fall into line is a noble thing; for civilians to fall into line is shameful.”
END
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