Democracy Now! looks at the real John McCain
By Nicole Belle Tuesday Feb 05, 2008 11:45am
Download | play Download | play (h/t Heather)
Democracy Now's Amy Goodman speaks to author Matt Welch on the subject of his book, McCain: The Myth of a Maverick. What is so striking is how this myth of being a maverick has continued long into his congressional career and is exhibited in the votes he's receiving from the anti-war crowd despite being more pro-war than any other GOP candidate.
It’s really interesting that in the primaries so far, if you look at the exit polls, among people who voted in the GOP primaries who consider themselves antiwar, anti-the-Iraq-war, and among voters who consider themselves angry at George Bush—and that’s a quote—and among independents, McCain is beating his opponents by two-to-one. If you actually look at people who describe themselves as just Republicans, McCain has not yet won a single primary. So he is basically winning the GOP primaries on the back of the antiwar vote, when in fact he would be the most explicitly interventionist president since Teddy Roosevelt, and he certainly makes George Bush look gun-shy by comparison.
Seriously, that's taking voting against your own interests way too far.
Transcripts of video below the fold. Full program and transcripts available here.
MATT WELCH: John McCain, being the third generation here with a lot of expectations on him, rebelled against those expectations. He finished near the bottom of his class, 894th out of 899 at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. And he was a real sort of maverick in the kind of Top Gun way, always getting into trouble, sneaking off to drink beer and smoke cigarettes and date strippers, and had a pretty colorful kind of straining-at-the-leash type of life, because he knew he didn’t really have a choice but to fulfill his sort of family’s destiny.
And he became a flyboy in the Navy and was involved in one of the worst—and in fact, I think the worst—Navy sort of tragedy after World War II, which was the Forrestal fire in Vietnam, which killed 130-plus men. He tumbled off the nose of his airplane as it was sort of exploding on the deck of this aircraft carrier in Vietnam. And then on his—I believe his fifth mission was flying over Vietnam on a—Hanoi on a bombing run and was shot out of the sky and, of course, became a prisoner of war for five-and-a-half years, where he, you know, withstood torture with great bravery and distinction. He eventually cracked, like most prisoners of war do under the duress, and taped some statements, you know, disparaging his country and apologizing for his crimes, but stuck it out and then came back to the US in ’73 and became the Navy liaison to the Senate and eventually started his political career in 1982.
AMY GOODMAN: And that political career, he started in Congress?
MATT WELCH: He started in Congress. He humorously—he had divorced his first wife, married a young woman named Cindy—Cindy McCain now, Cindy Hensley. Her father was—owned the exclusive beer distributorship for Budweiser in Maricopa County in Arizona, and so was—had a lot of money. And he was shopping around basically for a congressional seat. On the day that Congressman John Rhodes announced that he was resigning—or actually even before he announced, but on the day that he decided that he was resigning from his seat, John told Cindy, you know, buy a house in the district. So he kind of moved to Arizona with the explicit idea that he would immediately run for Congress and then use that as a springboard to run for the Senate seat when Barry Goldwater retired in 1986.
And what’s very little sort of understood—one of many things that’s little understood about John McCain is that from the beginning he was spending crazy amounts of money. You know, he’s this champion of campaign finance, but he wildly outspent his opponents in Arizona time and time again, especially at the beginning of his career, with his father-in-law’s money, with money from Charles Keating and money from other people, and built up this political career and ended up going to the Senate and becoming the maverick we all know and love.
AMY GOODMAN: It’s interesting, Matt Welch, looking at the talk show programs yesterday, one of the commentators is Torie Clarke, Victoria Clarke, former Pentagon spokesperson. She was on George Stephanopoulos’s show yesterday on ABC talking about McCain, but they didn’t identify her as a former press secretary for John McCain—is that right?—in his early years.
MATT WELCH: Yeah. You know, I think that’s pretty standard fare, regrettably, in Beltway talk shows. Everyone has long and tangled relationships with everybody else, and people just don’t really feel like revealing it one way or the other.
But, you know, getting back to his military history, this is something, again, that is not very well understood. Not only were his parents—father and grandfather in the military, but his father used to go around giving these lectures about how, you know, the naval gap between the US and the Soviet Union was threatening democracy, how we—his nickname was Mr. Sea Power. You know, he would recite British colonialist poetry around the dinner table. They were constantly talking about the necessity for just a huge US navy to guarantee the world’s security. That is the background that John McCain was just marinating in from the time he was a child. And for much of that period, whenever his father or grandfather was not out at sea, they were living on Capitol Hill, usually in some Washington, D.C. capacity. So he was sitting around the breakfast table with senators and congressmen from the time he was a kid. There’s this big notion that he’s a man of the people, which is actually the name of a biography of him, when in fact, down the line, he’s been very much an elitist his entire life, for both good and for ill. He has just been surrounded by, you know, top historians, top senators and congressmen and top military brass.
But this tradition that he comes from is incredibly interventionist and expansionist. It’s really interesting that in the primaries so far, if you look at the exit polls, among people who voted in the GOP primaries who consider themselves antiwar, anti-the-Iraq-war, and among voters who consider themselves angry at George Bush—and that’s a quote—and among independents, McCain is beating his opponents by two-to-one. If you actually look at people who describe themselves as just Republicans, McCain has not yet won a single primary. So he is basically winning the GOP primaries on the back of the antiwar vote, when in fact he would be the most explicitly interventionist president since Teddy Roosevelt, and he certainly makes George Bush look gun-shy by comparison.
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John McCian has been getting the anti war vote .....WTF ? how is this happened ? are Americans really that DUMB ?
i don't believe this, the MSM has not reported these claims... until the corporate media reports on something it is nothing but gossip. therefore, mccain is still a straightalking maverick. facts be damned.
/snark off
andy @ 1:
yeppers
This is what astounds me when there are so many individuals who post here and claim, 'If Hillary gets the nomination I'm voting McCain! At least you know where he stands.' There are so many things wrong with that philosophy, the atoms in my poor brain are trying to force themselves from my skull.
The man has spun around almost entirely in terms of his views in the last few years, and that's ignoring his typical Republican policies: lower taxes for the rich, which will 'trickle down'; get rid of the damn immigrants; kill the damn Muslims in the Middle East; fuck abortion; fuck gay civil unions; fuck civil rights trumping national security. I could go on all day. Men like McCain are bound to bankrupt the U.S. once and for all.
Is this better or worse than anti-war Dems voting for Clinton?
Anti-war liberals keep pulling the lever for pro-war hawk and Bush enabler Hillary Clinton, too. If Maverick and Billary are the Repub and Dem candidates, the neocon red carpet to the Oval Office is well & truly assured.
Yeah... No compromisin' McCain! He "won't compromise on torture"! And of course, by "won't", he meant "will". Why? Cause he's a maverick!!!
[Deleted]
Meat @ 4:
Those are Hillary policies as well. Don't be fooled by the tears and her talking out of both sides of her mouth. Look at her voting record. Then ask why she didn't even read the NIE before sending American boys and girls into a meat grinder. Ask her how she feels about the one million dead Iraqis and four million ethnically-cleansed refugees, and whether her failure to even mention them makes her a racist, or just a liberal without a conscience.
Yes. Yes, we could.
Why are these Democracy Now things always aimed at Republicans? And when someone points out the blatant lies put out by Hillary and Bill, they are shouted down, ridiculed and ignored? It's a two way street people.
The same cabal thats been supporting Bush Co is behind McCain.
I said last year McCain will be the Pub front runner.
And I am going to stick with that prediction.
ConcernedCanuck @ 9:
The truth is that the people in the media (both sides) have unwittingly internalized the process so thoroughly they do not even know they are mere mindless cogs in a larger and ominous corporate/state machine.
I suspect we're talking about the some of the same geniuses who still think Saddam was behind 9/11.
Good for McCain, though. Convincing the ignoramuses to vote for you is half the battle.
L.A. Confidential @ 10:
Hey picture this ......McCAIN/GIULLIANI..... ticket, the neo-cons were behind Ghoul, now they're flocking to McCainiac.
Meat @ 4:
I agree. If the anti-war Republicans are voting for McCain because they feel he is some how anti-war himself then they could be in for a big surprise. Just by looking at McCain's background we can see that he will go to any lengths militarily and will tax and spend at will to accomplish his objectives. Hell, even the American Conservative Magazine has a cartoon of McCain holding the world in his hands and gazing at it like a potential Dictator.
The mere mention of "Keating" is enough to make me hold my nose and say Pee-yoo.
andy @ 13:
No matter who's President Americans are looking for guarantees.
Unfortunately, there are none.
Good for kind-hearted Hillary, too. Her convincing the bleeding heart libs to draw a line in the sand and rubber-stamp Bush's racist criminal war policies is the other half of the battle.
Mission. Accomplished.
BTW yesterday was "Colin Powell Day." Funny how that day five years ago has been lost down the memory hole, but then the attention deficit and collective amnesia of the American people pretty much guarantees that even blogs like C&L will remember Britney's shaved head more vividly than the day America waved a vial of detergent around and sold the world a gigantic LIE that Hillary applauded with a standing ovation.
Oh, it's true. It's damned true.
First Ronny Ray-gun, then Dubyah and now this insane warmonging old fool. Man you Repubs love your phony fucking "heroes".
I'm having a dream, a good dream but a dream all the same.
Hillary gets the nomination, Barack is bankrolled by Bloomberg and makes a successful independent run.
Well a fella can dream can't he?
Mike Mid City @ 19:
In order to dream you need to be asleep.
Well got to go. The computer isn't going to shovel snow for me.
People who are against the war are backing John McCain?? I don't get that. I really don't understand how that works. I can only imagine that it comes from tsomebullshit assumption (which is dreadfully wrong) that, because he was a POW, he would be more restrained in committing military troops to combat. I don't know where people are getting this ridiculous notion from - McCain has been (second only to Lieberman) one of Bush's biggest cheerleaders for the war. Like I said, I really don't get it.
Samson- @ 3:
I'd like to draw your attention to the 2004 Presidential Election. If it wasn't stolen then the answer is yes. If it was stolen then no, not dumb just screwed.
Someone out here said that McCain is popular among people who don't pay attention. Might be the most insightful blog comment I've ever come across...
L.A. Confidential @ 21:
Silly me, assumed L.A. Confidential was in the sunny So. Cal. location. (ass+u+me) Good thing I'm not voting for a Authorization to use force.
OK, McCain hasn't been a good Senator... but let's not get into Swiftboating. He served his country to the best of his abilities in the military-- and he deserves some props for that.
Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran. What an honorable human being Mccain is.
gene214 @ 22:
Hopefully, this is good news for dems - plenty of time during the runup to the general election for his crazy war-mongering ways to come into full view.
L.A. Confidential @ 20:
My bad, should have said daydream. It's like I'm back in the third grade again. I hear and see what is going on in the world but am still looking out the window and thinking about how things should be.
I'll never understand people voting against their own interests. Like farmers and trailer trash voting for Bush. Who cares about the new backruptcy laws when there are gay people to persecute. The VP, even votes against his own daughter's best interest, that is just sick.
Sorry, what was the question again?
gene214 @ 22:
By the same measure, Can't we equally deduce that the majority of Californian liberals are warmongers and war cheerleaders too? Last night most of 'em pulled the lever for warmonger and war cheerleader Hillary Clinton.
It is a vexing irony.
Blue Lensman @ 28:
Have you people heard the Dem candidates talk? Hillary is just as gung ho to attack and bomb, bomb Iran. Obama wants to open dialogue, after he bomb, bomb, bombs Iran. I'm starting to think these rich American political leaders either are way out of touch with reality, or could give a flying fig what anyone, including the electorate think of them.
Tim @ 27:
That video would be in every commercial for the election if I were in charge of a 527, inter spaced with well timed "My Friends".
THE REPUBLICANS ARE A NON FACTOR.
Another thing; how does bombing innocent Vietnamese farmers and being a POW who eventually broke make one a hero?The entire image of this this nutty opportunist has been a myth.
gene214 @ 22:
The only explanation is that people are just anti BUSH war and think McCain could handle it better, which is bollox, or they have heard him say "i was against the way Bush went to war" and have misinterpreted that and they actually think he's anti war, but what he actually meant was he would have sent more soldiers into the meat grinder a lot quicker.
Is our electoral process entering the realm of reality?
Prediction:
Hillary/Bob Kerrey vs. McCain/Huckabee
John @ 26:
I can't argue with that. However, its not his past military service record that concerns me. What concerns me is his current pro-war position. If he means and ever attempts to carry out what he says then he will almost certainly have to have some sort of forced conscription in place. Even John McCain knows that the U.S. military ground forces are stretched to the breaking point and have almost no reserves left to take on a new conflict. He would also have to know that simply bombing another nation will do nothing but force a retaliation. If voters are looking at McCain like some sort of strategic genius then they are dead wrong.
I hope John McCain is the nominee, because he seems like the one most likely to melt down in the days leading up to the election.
And that can only help Obama (or, well, Hillary)!
John @ 26:
Yeh you have to sympathize with a guy who drops bombs on villages of women and children, but wait oh yeh he was tortured therefore we must worship him, god forbid we don't worship a victim.
They cant stop the truth from coming out...
Their are patriots and whistleblowers in every state ready to set the record straight.
They know who the real McCain is.
Another scandal..
The scandals surrounding George W. Bush's pal from Dallas, (HUD) Secretary Alphonso Jackson are now being reported .. Jackson is accused of retaliating against the Philadelphia Housing Authority for refusing to transfer a $2 million property to a land developer tied to --> Pennsylvania Republican Senator and Philadelphia resident Arlen Specter.
Speaking of Myths...
..the case resulted in a congressional investigation of a labyrinth of covert operations involving drug and arms smuggling.
--> not one person has been held accountable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inslaw
Follow the Money.
Follow the Corruption.
It leads through the Justice Department
Stop the war - vote
McCain / Hillary 2008
The average voter is similar to "Bub" the zombie from Day of the Dead.
My wife, an uber-liberal, was rooting for McCain on the repub. side because of something she saw on CNN. Suddenly, "mini-Bush" is a gentle moderate. McCain is a 71 year old neo-con from Hell with nothing to lose. I had to give her the StirFry Pork Slap. ;-)
Tim @ 27:
If we are truly honest, we can at least concede McCain was trying to be funny.
The joke fell flat on it's face, it was sick and disgusting, totally unfunny, loathesome and shameful. But we can still presume it was off-the-cuff stoopidity and not exactly a policy position.
The same cannot be said of Hillary's "AYE!" vote on H.J.Res 114.
Supposedly, Hillary's experience, sage leadership and sound judgment meant she didn't even need to read the NIE report and use common sense. All she had to do was stick her finger in the air and see which way the hatred was running.
Naturally, the Hillarytards will dodge and weave and tapdance on the head of a pin insisting that vote wasn't a vote for war -- they'll say it was just a vote of trust in George W. Bush to do the right thing (as if that passes for sound judgment).
No matter that the actual resolution, written in bold, was officially titled, quote, "Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002."
Hard to spin your way out of that one.
But spin she has! And quite successfully.
Almost as big a shame as that is when the vote came for Congressional oversight of Bush's war, and Hillary voted against that too.
Hillary took the peoples power -- the Constitution requirement for Congress to declare war -- abdicated her responsibility, forfeited the peoples' power, and giftwrapped it to King George and said, "be like the boy."
Experience. Responsible Government. Sound Judgment and Leadership.
It's enough to bring a tear to the eye.
andy @ 1:
Not dumb. Poorly informed.
Remember, 90% of the public doesn't get information like we do - they get it through the MSM, which as we're well aware, is a pretty shitty way to get your information.
andy @ 1:
Yeah... pretty much.
Sad isn't it?
andy @ 1:
Actually they are really really smart. Don't you get it since a lot of states are allowing all the independents to participate in either primaries there are a lot of moderates and candidates that are content with either Hillary or Obama that are voting in the republican primary to pick the worst possible candidate to ensure democrats control the white house in Jan. It's pretty crazy and I have seen that happen here in MA where I live. I had a lot of people vote in Republican primaries when I know for a fact they are Democrat leaning voters.
JJohnson @ 45:
Probably a combination of dumbness ignorance, which is of course is the MSM's fault, eh it's just depressing, those votes should be going to a true anti war candidate like ron paul, who by the way shits on McCain with regard the economy as well.
Left&Left @ 34:
It doesn't. Today, the word "hero" is meaningless and is pretty much applied to every service person or veteran. Heck, I served in the Marines and to this day I am slapped on the back, usually by right wingers and called a "hero". Funny, but in my time in the service I don't recall doing anything that I would consider heroic but they slap me on the back none the less.
Actually I just confuse people. They think I'm some extreme liberal, but I served and they didn't.
Not surprising - the media promotes the 'maverick' story all the time, but the Republican party proved who they are last night: a war monger and a fundamentalist preacher. Exactly what the country needs for the 21st century. I pray that somehow these fools are exposed for what they are, but prayer is about all that is left - the press will never tell the truth.
StirFry @ 43:
You wouldn't happen to have about 70 million more of those slaps handy, would ya?
This little guy is pro-war too
All ready to ship out to Iran
http://merrimusings.mu.nu/arch.....undhog.bmp
JJohnson @ 45:
Lame excuse. If trusting shitty MSM information sources isn't dumb, it's moronic.
How many times will Americans let somebody kick them in the testicles before they wake up to the fact that maybe the person doing the kicking isn't their friend?
How many times should Americans be expected to eat spoonfed dogshit that their overlords call "chocolate ice-cream", before they realize, hey, the "chocolate ice-cream" our slavemasters are feeding us smells and tastes an awful lot like rancid festering dogshit?!?!!!
Total idiocracy.
The guy was right the first time. Most Americans are ignorant clueless dolts, and they are comfortable with that, so long as they get to keep patting themselves on the back, putting hands over their hearts and repeating to themselves the myth that they live in the Greatest Nation In The History Of Mankind.
ysbaddaden @ 50:
You know, I get that to. Odd isn't it? How the Liberals that stand up to the Bush regime's criminal acts and warmongering are the same ones, that 9 times out of 10 turn out to be veterans themselves.
I feel a little freaked out that it appears to be turning out the way I called it, many months ago.
To rib a Republican friend, I told him it would be Hillary vs. McCain. He doesn't like either.
And I thought about it, after blurting it out. I came to the conclusion that this would be the most divisive lineup we could have. It would give the media and talking heads tons of meaningless material to lather over. It would let the talking heads go on and on for hours with hate and about hate. It will divide the people against each other.
Don't expect much discernment and balance out of a "news" organization whose first words after Gerald Ford died were "East Timor." Amy Goodman and Democracy Now are a-preachin' to a pretty small choir.
andy @ 1:
Yes... they really ARE that dumb.
As long as they're allowed to vote?
This nation is doomed.
:(
caveat: "they" are Republican voters of course.
What Democrat would vote for McCain?
He is dangerous. A vote for him is a vote for WWIII
Yellowbird @ 58:
Personally, I think most people are willingly ignorant. I mean, I've ran into people that have never heard of Dennis Kucinich or Ron Paul yet they have heard about John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Mike Huckabee because they sit down on their couch, turn on the tube and stare at the television. Then they go about their lives content thinking that they have gotten the full picture when in reality they received almost nothing. They listen and buy everything that the mainstream media tells them and do not seek out any other information eventhough they have a world of information at their finger tips (I.E. internet).
Don’t Be Fooled by the Myth of John McCain
andy @ 1:
No, Americans are not that dumb, but, if the nutty stuff being spewed in the blogosphere is any indication, quite a few are allowing their various agendas and obsessions to interfere with their discernment and judgment. Don't forget that something like 70% of the country was for invading Iraq when it was believed they had WMD. If anything, McCain is getting the anti-unneccessary-war vote.
Pat Buchanan was on the Today Show and he had the best quote about McCain. He said, "If McCain gets elected, he'll make Cheney look like Ghandi."
Well people. If all else fails. Join the Army. Travel to exotic places. Meet interesting people. Kill them.
liberalista @ 63:
To be honest, that can be true for any of the GOP candidates in this election cycle.
If a GOPer gets into the whitehouse somehow, then it is clear to me that them Mayans or Aztecs (forgot whom) were on to something when they put earth's expiration date on 2012. There is no way this planet can handle another GOP administration...
ConcernedCanuck @ 64:
Technology has advanced to the point that you no longer get to meet interesting people. Productivity increase is on the march!
I meant that you don't get to meet the people you are about to kill.
Joementum @ 12:
Couldn't have said it better myself, and some of you wonder why we are where we are.
Interesting find on yesterday's polls
TOTAL VOTES CAST
Clinton: 50.2% (7,347,971)
Obama: 49.8% (7,294,851)
http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/02/super_tuesday_the_most_intere...
Joe O. @ 55:
It turns out that most people who deal first hand with the realities of war are the least likely to repeat the experience, much less allow other people to go through the same shit. Alas, there is the occasional psychopath who actually enjoyed their combat experiences.
StirFry @ 43:
I am a bit confused, why would a professed über liberal root for any conservative candidate, or the GOP in general?
Just another example of how out of touch with reality Republicans/onservatives are.
Tyler Durden @ 67:
Many years ago, I gave one of those 3d video games at Dave & Busters a try. After playing Doom, Quake and Descent III for a time, I found it easy to get a fairly good score.
The attendants turned out to be Navy Recruiters. One told me that I had the highest score ever for a first timer and wanted to schedule a date and time for more testing and training. The other said I was too old. I couldn't be properly retrained for the sort of moral ambiguity needed for operating remote drones.
I mentioned that with technology like that, a person could operate an aircraft to fly a mission and never even know if it was real or a simulation. Using military GPS, the pilot could see a simulated target, while guiding a real drone. He agreed. He said they could fly any aircraft this way. I pointed that with such a system, the pilot never had to know what they were shooting at or bombing because the simulation would show whatever the military wanted the pilot to see. He said he couldn't talk about the technology anymore. He said I could learn all about it if I passed the tests and enlisted, otherwise the conversation was over.
Powkat @ 51:
Amen, I agree the press is totally corporate controlled at this point no thanks to Repulicrats Reagan and Clinton enabling media monopolies in the 80's and 90's. Their fascism is sadly nearly complete at this point. Obama is our last hope, if he loses I'm happily moving to Europe.
Just a note. Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton have voted exactly the same way on all the major Iraq-related resolutions to come up while they were both in office. There was only one difference for real bills and that was for an amendment to include further Iraq military funding in the regular budget. Hillary voted yes and Barack did not vote. That's it. Now if you compare this to McCain who in the course of those same years didn't find a military appropriation bill for Iraq he didn't like, unless it had a timeline or required actual rest for the people we're sending into the meatgrinder. Voting records are available and cut right through the propaganda mess.
andy @ 1:
yes, especially republicans
McCain Confirms It: A Vote for Him Is a Vote for a Third Bush Term
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Mon, 02/04/2008 - 1:24pm. Alerts
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
DNC Press
Washington, DC - During appearances on Fox News Sunday and CBS's Face the Nation, John McCain made it clear: a vote for him is a vote for a third Bush term. Echoing his earlier statement that we could be in Iraq for 100 years, he said again that he would continue Bush's never ending civil war in Iraq. "We have to take care of the world's security," McCain said.
"The choice between the Democrats and Republicans couldn't be more clear. A vote for John McCain is a vote for a third Bush term with a never ending war in Iraq and an economy that favors those at the top. A vote for a Democrat is a vote to bring our troops home from Iraq, for an economy that works for all Americans, and a return to America's priorities," said Democratic National Committee Press Secretary Stacie Paxton.
McCain: A Third Bush Term
"They want to have the government run the health care system in America. I want the private sector to do it. On the issue of national security policy, there are very sharp differences... They want to withdraw from Iraq and if we do that al Qaeda wins." [Face the Nation, 2/3/2008]
"I have a strong conservative record and I'm proud of that record and I also believe on the national security side it's going to be a clear difference between me and Senator Clinton or Senator Obama. A clear difference on whether we're going to increase spending or decrease spending, increase taxes or decrease taxes, whether we're going to withdraw from Iraq or we're going to see this thing through to the success." [Fox News Sunday, 2/3/2008]
McCain's 100 Year War in Iraq: "We have to take care of the world's security"
"...This strategy is succeeding. Ad I believe that if we had set a date for withdrawal or if we do set a date for withdrawal, al Qaeda will then win and we'll see chaos and genocide in the region. That's another significant difference that Senator Clinton and I have...and I look forward to discussing it. It's not a matter of how long Americans stay. It's a matter of American casualties. And those casualties are coming down and we can eliminate them. Look, we're in Kuwait right next door to Iraq. We're in turkey. We're in Bosnia. We're all over the world. One of the obligations, unfortunately, of being a great superpower is that we have to take care of the world's security." [Fox News Sunday, 2/3/2008]
McCain: More of the Same Bush Supreme Court
"I would appoint justices such as the ones I've strongly supported and gotten through the Senate with the help of many others or help along with others. Only those who strictly interpret the constitution of the United States and do not legislate from the bench... If you have justices that have a clear, conservative, a clear, strict interpretation of the constitution of the United States, then you don't have to worry about what their decisions will be." [Fox News Sunday, 2/3/2008]
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/alerts/331
need I say more?
Mike Politik @ 76:
Ah but it's not republicans voting for him, go read the exit polls, it's the "undecided" "moderates" and these weirdo "anti war" people who are voting for him, it looks very much like he will become the rep nominee without a huge amount of repubs voting for him.
Boy, are the repubs going to be p!ssed when they find out they just elected Clinton again.
Well, at least four and perhaps eight more years of clinton may be enough to force the neocons to be held accountable for paying back the nation and humanity for all their crimes and corruption.
Thanks bushies.
Hmm, the primaries aren't even over and the "Swiftboat" campaign has already started questioning McCain's military service. Gotta love politics.
Meat @ 4:
i am so glad that you believe all this shit you just said. your buddy mccain was about to leave your party in 2000 when he was checking out joining the dem party at that time. maybe you had better check your facts better, mccain has flip-flopped already many times. and he is far from truthful. you gop'ers really are a lost bunch of sheep.
The McCainchurian Candidate continues his unchallenged march to the whitewash house. Ain't it peculiar how the media aren't too swift with the facts here but repeated the swift boat lies without checking.
Fortunately, the only people who will vote for him are the ones who already are. If McCain is the rethugnican nominee, there's no way he can appeal to the "base". Romney would get enough votes to win without the evanjelloheads, but he won't get the nomination.
andy @ 1:
if you have to ask! certainly , thier dumber then a box of snot!
ConcernedCanuck @ 9:
You obviously never listen to Democracy Now! Or your are confusing the name of that show with something else. Their show is definitively not in bed with the Democratic Party, far from it. You will listen to more substance reporting about either side on one single show than a whole year (I am generous) of reporting from the corporate media.
Amy Goodman conducted the most substantially critical, even entertaining interview that Bill Clinton will ever have to face. She didn't have to bring up Monica one single time for Bill to loose his cool.
http://www.democracynow.org/2004/6/22/bill_clinton_loses_his_cool_in
The problem with voting for McCain is you don't know where he stands. The right fear him not because he isn't conservative enough but because he will smack them down.
Maria @ 84:
Thank you, I will check that out. I just find it odd with all this Republican Party bashing, and then the excuses of "well they are just yellow Dems" or "they are blue Dems" or......and then they say, "VOTE DEMS".......if the entire Republican Party is corrupt because of a few individuals, does the actions of a few Dem individuals not make their party completely corrupt as well?
We need to restrict the franchise to those who can get a 70% or above on a current events quiz.
andy @ 78:
People really are that dumb (add in the media) -- also I think it was a brilliant strategy that Coulter and Limbaugh came out AGAINST McCain.
Think about it -- what would drive a large number of "undecided", "moderate", "anti-war" people to McCain faster than Coulter and Limbaugh saying they hated the guy? They don't care if they turn away hard line Republicans because the numbers aren't there.
Reverse psychology on a mass scale.
Nice swiftboat crooksandliars.
just the facts...bush sucks and mccain is worse...
Do you want four more years of this!?
Helen Thomas rips Bush.
Yesterday at a speech in North Carolina, long-time UPI correspondent
Helen Thomas sharply criticized President Bush and his administration,
calling it “one of the most secretive in history.”
“This man has forgotten the poor and the sick,” Thomas said. “We are hated around the world.”
11:09 am | Comment (41)
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/06/helen-thomas-rips-bush
McCain Confirms It: A Vote for Him Is a Vote for a Third Bush Term
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Mon, 02/04/2008 - 1:24pm. Alerts
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
DNC Press
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/alerts/331
McCain calls Democrats 'the enemy' on Super Tuesday...
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/McCain_calls_Democrats_the_enemy_on_0205.html
Mccain is a real threat, impeach these crooks BEFORE they can steal another election!!!
Oh my goodness. He drank beers and dated strippers?
What would all the sweet little old church ladies who are supporting Hillary think?
Oh my.
Hey, Repugs are retarded. What more can you say?
STOP giving money to campaigns, THEY ARE RIGGED!!!! Democracy is Dead. If you question what I am saying, why is it every big City has only one news paper. How can their be a democracy when newspapers staff is gutted to just a handfull of people.
There is a lot missing in the above piece discussing the book on McCain. Here are a few gems you may want to know. 1. He started cheating on his first wife because when he came home from Vietnam he saw that she had been disfigured in an accident and it was during this cheating period that he met his current wife, Cindy. Shortly after they met, he divorced his first wife. Her family money was what financed his campaign for congress as he never would have had enough money on his military salary. So his current trophy wife was also his meal ticket into politics. 2. A big chunk of Cindy Hensley's family money came from bootlegging and in fact her father was convicted at least once for Federal crimes related to the family business. Also one of the Hensley family associates was implicated in the death of an AZ reporter. These family connections and McCain's divorce are all well documented in a big piece written for the AZ Republic that can be found here:
http://www.arizonarepublic.com/special39/articles/1003mccainbook4.html
So basically McCain was a screw-up until he got into politics. He had a short amateur boxing career, was a serial philanderer and problem drinker but he got a big break by being able to marry into a family with lots of money at the expense of a wife who was cast aside as damaged goods.
wow before i read this post I already disliked McCain for flip-flopping on major issues and for having a terrible temper. He doesn't even deserve to be in politics. Also, I can't BELIEVE that anti-war people are voting for him! He's clearly pro-war and he stated himself that he didn't care if we are in Iraq for 100 years...check out this video, it's pretty funny.
http://campaigncircus.com/video_player.php?v=7536
John McCain tumbling off the nose of his aircraft when it caught on fire, which killed 130 men on the USS Forrestal?
This is said with the implication that he CAUSED the death of 130 men, or that he was somehow responsible for the fire. How absurd! This is entirely irresponsible. It's the type of thing that drives me away from the left and toward the right.
Anyone who wants to check the truth can find out that McCain almost died in an ordinance fire, which he wasn't the cause of in any way. He barely escaped the flight deck fire by leaping off the nose of his aircraft, since it was surrounded by a burning deck. You can even find the video of the entire event online.
I ask that John Amato of Crooks and Liars, which I've recommended to my friends and read religiously, research this and issue a statement of retraction about this clear hatchet job.
While I disagree with many of McCain's policies, I at least respect history, and to have the transcript of this errant report on this site severely worries me that the high standards of our standard bearers, like you, John, will further divide us.
Thanks!
Obama's speech (October, 2002):
Good afternoon. Let me begin by saying that although this has been billed as an anti-war rally, I stand before you as someone who is not opposed to war in all circumstances.
The Civil War was one of the bloodiest in history, and yet it was only through the crucible of the sword, the sacrifice of multitudes, that we could begin to perfect this union, and drive the scourge of slavery from our soil. I don't oppose all wars.
My grandfather signed up for a war the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed, fought in Patton's army. He saw the dead and dying across the fields of Europe; he heard the stories of fellow troops who first entered Auschwitz and Treblinka. He fought in the name of a larger freedom, part of that arsenal of democracy that triumphed over evil, and he did not fight in vain.
I don't oppose all wars.
After September 11th, after witnessing the carnage and destruction, the dust and the tears, I supported this Administration's pledge to hunt down and root out those who would slaughter innocents in the name of intolerance, and I would willingly take up arms myself to prevent such a tragedy from happening again.
I don't oppose all wars. And I know that in this crowd today, there is no shortage of patriots, or of patriotism. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other arm-chair, weekend warriors in this Administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne.
What I am opposed to is the attempt by political hacks like Karl Rove to distract us from a rise in the uninsured, a rise in the poverty rate, a drop in the median income - to distract us from corporate scandals and a stock market that has just gone through the worst month since the Great Depression.
That's what I'm opposed to. A dumb war. A rash war. A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics.
Now let me be clear - I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power. He has repeatedly defied UN resolutions, thwarted UN inspection teams, developed chemical and biological weapons, and coveted nuclear capacity.
He's a bad guy. The world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him.
But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history.
I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda.
I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars.
So for those of us who seek a more just and secure world for our children, let us send a clear message to the president today. You want a fight, President Bush? Let's finish the fight with Bin Laden and al-Qaeda, through effective, coordinated intelligence, and a shutting down of the financial networks that support terrorism, and a homeland security program that involves more than color-coded warnings.
You want a fight, President Bush? Let's fight to make sure that the UN inspectors can do their work, and that we vigorously enforce a non-proliferation treaty, and that former enemies and current allies like Russia safeguard and ultimately eliminate their stores of nuclear material, and that nations like Pakistan and India never use the terrible weapons already in their possession, and that the arms merchants in our own country stop feeding the countless wars that rage across the globe.
You want a fight, President Bush? Let's fight to make sure our so-called allies in the Middle East, the Saudis and the Egyptians, stop oppressing their own people, and suppressing dissent, and tolerating corruption and inequality, and mismanaging their economies so that their youth grow up without education, without prospects, without hope, the ready recruits of terrorist cells.
You want a fight, President Bush? Let's fight to wean ourselves off Middle East oil, through an energy policy that doesn't simply serve the interests of Exxon and Mobil.
Those are the battles that we need to fight. Those are the battles that we willingly join. The battles against ignorance and intolerance. Corruption and greed. Poverty and despair.
The consequences of war are dire, the sacrifices immeasurable. We may have occasion in our lifetime to once again rise up in defense of our freedom, and pay the wages of war. But we ought not - we will not - travel down that hellish path blindly. Nor should we allow those who would march off and pay the ultimate sacrifice, who would prove the full measure of devotion with their blood, to make such an awful sacrifice in vain.
Lets turn the page,
VOTE OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT!
To 97: note well. Unlike you, I cannot read this piece and find any suggestion
that McCain was responsible for the Forrestal fire. So this goes to show: we all
must be in recognition of the fact that each of us can view the exact same words
and come to very different conclusions about the author. If as here the author
has shown an inclination toward fairness and truth, then we cut him some slack
and do not presume such dire undertones in words not explicitly in evidence here.
Accordingly, I do not find that any retraction by the author is required in this case.
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