Sen Kerry Blasts McCain: "Let's compare Senator McCain and Candidate McCain"
John Kerry tears the "myth of a maverick" to shreds by calling McCain out on every single one of his inconsistencies and flip-flops.
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I have known and been friends with John McCain for almost 22 years, but every day now I learn something new about Candidate McCain. To those who still believe in the myth of a maverick instead of the reality of a politician, I say let's compare Senator McCain to Candidate McCain.
Candidate McCain now supports the very wartime tax cuts that Senator McCain once called irresponsible. Candidate McCain criticizes Senator McCain's own climate change bill. Candidate McCain says he would vote against the immigration bill that Senator McCain wrote.
Are you kidding me, folks?
"Before he ever debates Barack Obama, he should finish the debate with himself."
All I have to say is: Where was this guy in 2004?
Full transcript below the fold:
DENVER--John Kerry Wednesday at the Democratic National Convention. Transcript courtesy of Federal News Service.
SEN. KERRY: (Cheers, applause.) Thank you so much. Thank you.
Four years ago you gave me the honor of fighting our fight, and I was proud to stand with you then and I am proud to stand with you now to help elect Barack Obama president of the United States.
(Cheers, applause.)
In 2004 we came so close to victory. Well, my friends, we are even closer now. And let me tell you, this time we're going to win.
(Cheers, applause.)
Today -- today the call for change is more powerful than ever, and with more seats in Congress, with more people with more passion in our politics, and with a President Obama, we stand on the brink of the greatest opportunity of our generation to move this country forward.
The stakes could not be higher, because we do know what a Bush -- what a McCain administration would look like. There's a slip. (Laughter.) It would look just like the past, just like George Bush, and this country can't afford a third Bush term.
(Applause.)
Just think -- just think; John McCain voted with George Bush 90 percent of the time. Ninety percent of George Bush, my friends, is just more than we can take.
(Applause.)
Never in modern history has an administration squandered American power so recklessly. Never has strategy been so replaced by ideology. Never has extremism so crowded out common sense and fundamental American values.
Never has short-term partisan politics so depleted the strength of America's bipartisan foreign policy.
(Cheers, applause.)
George Bush and John McCain at his side promised to spread freedom, but they delivered the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time. They misread the threat and misled the country.
(Applause.)
Instead of freedom -- (continued applause) -- instead of freedom, it's Hamas, Hezbollah, the Taliban, and dictators everywhere that are on the march. North Korea can build more bombs and Iran is defiantly chasing one.
Our mission is to restore America's influence and position in the world, and we must use all the weapons in our arsenal -- above all, our values.
President Obama and Vice President Biden will shut down Guantanamo -- (audience cheers) -- respect the Constitution, and make clear once and for all the United States of America does not torture -- not now, not ever!
(Cheers, applause.)
We must listen. We must listen and lead by example, because even a nation as powerful as the United States needs some friends in this world. We need a leader who understands all of our security challenges -- not just bombs and guns, but global warming, global terror, and global AIDS.
And Barack Obama understands there is no way for America to be secure until we create clean energy here at home -- not with a little more oil in 10 or 20 or 30 years, but with an energy revolution that begins now.
(Cheers, applause.)
I have known and been friends with John McCain for almost 22 years, but every day now I learn something new about Candidate McCain. To those who still believe in the myth of a maverick instead of the reality of a politician, I say let's compare Senator McCain to Candidate McCain.
Candidate McCain now supports the very wartime tax cuts that Senator McCain once called irresponsible. Candidate McCain criticizes Senator McCain's own climate change bill. Candidate McCain says he would vote against the immigration bill that Senator McCain wrote.
Are you kidding me, folks?
(Laughter, cheers, applause.)
Talk about being for it before you're against it!
(Cheers, applause.)
Let me tell you, before he ever debates Barack Obama, John McCain should finish the debate with himself.
(Laughter, applause.)
And what's more, Senator McCain, who once railed against the smears of Karl Rove when he was the target has morphed into Candidate McCain, who is using the same Rove tactics, the same Rove staff, the same old politics of fear and smear.
Well, not this year; not this time. The Rove-McCain tactics are old and outworn, and America will reject them in 2008.
(Cheers, applause.)
So remember, when we choose a commander-in-chief this November, we are electing judgment and character, not years in the Senate or on this Earth. Time and again, Barack Obama has seen farther and listened harder and listened better and thought harder. And time and again, Barack Obama has proven right.
John McCain stood on the deck of an aircraft carrier just three months after 9/11 and he proclaimed, next stop -- Baghdad. The judgment immediately from Barack Obama was to see an occupation of undetermined length, undermined consequences, undetermined cost that, in his words, would only fan the flames of the Middle East.
Well, guess what? Mission accomplished.
(Boos from audience.)
So who can we trust to keep America safe?
AUDIENCE: Barack Obama!
SEN. KERRY: When Barack Obama promised to honor the best traditions of both parties and talk to our enemies, John McCain scoffed. George Bush called it the false comfort of appeasement. But today Bush's diplomats are doing exactly what Obama said, talking with Iran.
So who can we trust to keep America safe?
AUDIENCE: Barack Obama!
SEN. KERRY: When democracy rolled out of Russia -- and Russia -- and the tanks rolled into Georgia, we saw John McCain immediately respond with outdated thinking of the Cold War. Barack Obama responded like a true friend of Georgia and a statesman of the 21st century.
So who can we trust to keep America safe?
AUDIENCE: Barack Obama!
SEN. KERRY: When Democrats called for a timetable to make Iraqis stand up for Iraq and bring our heroes home, John McCain called it cut-and-run. But today, even President Bush has seen the light, and he and Prime Minister Maliki agree on -- guess what? -- a timetable.
So who can we trust to keep America safe?
AUDIENCE: Barack Obama!
SEN. KERRY: The McCain-Bush Republicans have been wrong again and again and again. And they know they will lose on the issues.
So a candidate who once campaigned on the promise of a campaign of ideas, not insults, now has nothing left but personal attacks.
How insulting to suggest that those who question the mission question the troops. How pathetic to suggest that those who question a failed policy doubt America itself. How desperate to tell the son of a single mother, who chose community service over money and privilege, that he doesn't put America first. No one --
(Cheers, applause.)
No one can question Barack -- no one can question Barack Obama's patriotism. Like all of us, he was taught what it means to be an American by his family -- his grandmother, who worked on a bomber assembly line in World War II; his grandfather, who marched in Patton's Army; and his great-uncle, who enlisted in the Army right out of high school at the height of the war. And on a spring day in 1945, that great-uncle helped liberate one of the concentration camps at Buchenwald.
Ladies and gentlemen, Barack Obama's uncle is here with us tonight. Please join me in saluting this American hero, Charlie Payne.
(Cheers, prolonged applause.)
SEN. KERRY: Charlie, your nephew, Barack Obama, will end this politics of distortion and division. He will be a president who seeks not to perfect the lies of swift-boating, but to end them once and for all.
(Cheers, applause.)
This election is a chance for America to tell the merchants of fear and division, you don't decide who loves this country. You don't decide who is a patriot. You don't decide whose service counts and whose doesn't.
Four years ago I said -- and I say it again tonight -- that flag that hangs from the rafters and that you have waved here this evening, that flag doesn't belong to any ideology. It doesn't belong to any political party. It is an enduring symbol of our nation, and it belongs to all the American people.
(Cheers, applause.)
(Audience chants "U-S-A!")
After all, patriotism is not love of power, or some trick. (Chanting continues.) Patriotism is love of country.
Years ago when we protested a war, people would weigh in against us, saying, my country, right or wrong. Our answer, absolutely my country, right or wrong. When right, keep it right, and when wrong, make it right.
(Cheers, applause.)
Sometimes loving your country demands that you must tell the truth to power. This is one of those times, and Barack Obama is telling those truths.
In closing, let me say I will always remember how we stood together in 2004, the largest number of Democrats in American history, not just in a campaign, but for a cause.
Now again, we stand together in the ranks ready to fight. The choice is clear, our cause is just, and now is the time to make Barack Obama president of the United States of America.
Thank you.
*shreds (instead of shreads in the first line of this post)
Nice to see Kerry chipping away at the myth. We'll need a lot more of that as we move toward November.
New McCain bumper sticker:
"It's not my fault, I'm a POW"
The Bonesman speaks. All part of the illusion. There is no choice. We are fucked.
Great speech but people will not see it, since MSM loves to hear themselves talk.
Now i have to ban my radio station, for spreading the Rights/Biased Pundits talking points.
We need to take serious action against the MSM.
I swear i think Bush could get his 3rd term (if legal) with the MSM's slander/bias/GOP/Bush/Rove/smear/faux/racist/sexist/Neocon/Propaganda.
It's a good question: Where was this Kerry in 2003-2004? Also, why is Kerry repeating Bushco's lie that Iran is pursuing nukes? Bushco's own intelligence people concluded that Iran stopped its bomb program years ago.
As much as I'd like to see John Kerry go away and crawl back underneath the rock he's called home for the last four years, it was nice to hear someone lay bare McCain's flipflops. However, if this is the extent to which the gloves are taken off at this convention, I fear for the next four years.
Well done, JK.
Too bad that hardly anybody saw the damn thing.
The late, lamented Molly Ivins would have asked, "Who put the Tabasco in his grits?" But hey, better late than never, and no time's better than now...
Thank you so much for posting this. I, like probably a lot of others, missed it last night on C-span and as yet I have not seen it as a rerun there.
You can tell Kerry is as sick and tired of this administration as the rest of us are. He hit on the points that so many of us wanted the dems to talk about.
I wish to hell the cable channels would rerun these speeches instead of blathering on and on with their own opinions, as if their opinions matter to us. They are absorbed in their own egos to the point where they think their thoughts should be ours. I don't need some person on tv to translate speeches and ideas for me, I am capable of doing that for myself.
NoOneYouKnow @ 5:
Iran doesn't need Nukes to destroy the world. Convention short range missiles could destroy the Saudi Oil fields across the straight and send the world into economic destruction.
"All I have to say is: Where was this guy on 2004? "
Really? That's ALL you have to say?
Simple. Kerry was being HANDLED in 2004.
His people were pulling his strings. Himself, swallowed
by the campaign.
Don't see much chance of THAT happening with Obama.
quote: "All I have to say is: Where was this guy on 2004?"
Simple reasoning--he took a fall. Cause Bush was doing a peachie good job for AIPAC.
No-one in the Democratic party wants to cross Israel. I don't blame Kerry for taking a fall--as in a fix in boxing :^)
Where ever he was in '04 doesn't matter at this point. What matters is that everyone gets on those talking points about Mc's flip-flopping and fucking run with it from now to Nov.
Very smart move to separate Senator McCain from Candidate McCain. That makes it easier to attack McCain without it sounding as personal.
This morning as I watched the rerun of Biden's speech and then at the end when Obama came out, all the people in that convention center were going nuts and cheering and having a hell of an exciting time, I tried to imagine seeing the same enthusiasm next Wed. night when McCain is officially made the republicans nominee. Maybe it will happen and be the same, but it's difficult to imagine.
John J @ 4:
If people got to hear the speech's and not the Pundits they might actually learn something.
John Kerry finally found his voice, just 4 years to late.
Biden covered some of the same point as Kerry
Biden is not great at speech's, which doesn't bother me because average Joe doesn't get speech's they understand "kitchen table talk". So its a good team.
MSM reported what a bad speech Biden gave and never once discussed the actual content and points in his speech.
Good comments from Kerry. It's a bit ironic that Senator Kerry is a whole lot more effective than candidate Kerry.
Karl Rove is a fugitive from justice. He's in contempt of Congress. Beau Biden, Joe Biden's son, is the Delaware Attorney General and he doesn't deploy to Iraq until October. What will September bring?
Great line. So McCain, who was for something before they were against it? That is you to the core! And still you continue to deny. That is a definition of a serial liar.
All I have to say is: Where was this guy on 2004?
Making mistakes he has since learned from, i guess.
I'm for Obama and I admire John Kerry for pointing out the differences between Senator McCain and Candidate McCain. I just hope someone doesn't come up next week and talk about the FISA bill and distinguish between Senator Obama and Candidate Obama on that front.
The McCain campaign is already pissing on the setup for Obama's speech tonight. You gotta give them credit, they can always find something about Obama to piss on. But, when you look back, all they have managed to do is leave a puddle of urine in their wake.
One of the best lines in Biden's speech was when he said something like, every parent wants to look into their child's eyes and tell them it's going to be all right. For some reason that really got to me because so many moms and dads can't say that right now, at least not with any certainty.
Candidate Grandpa a "maverick"? The whores from the GOP and the MSM can't explain and continue to avoid the question: If this angry old lying fuck is a "maverick" how the hell does he justify voting 95% with Pres. Murderer?
Left&Left @ 21:
He's a maverick when it comes to using good judgment, common sense and being honest. He breaks away from the pack when those things are needed. Bush does the same thing so they are being mavericks together.
rehctaw @ 11:
that has long been my feeling as well. He was told he had a victory in the bag and only he could lose it, so he had to be politically correct in all he said and did. so he played nice-nice and lost because he didn't fight back. the lies were rampant and he was painted as the coward, while he had the medals and fought against an unjust war. bush shirked his duty at every instance and the swift boaters spun their lies. should the swiftboaters surface again and try their lying tactics, they will be dealt with. thank you john kerry for this time around. it's appreciated. get used saying President Barack Obama. has a certain ring to it.
pissed off patricia @ 22:
Brat & Barf Maverick!
If you want to be one of the first to find out who McCain's running mate will be you can sign up and the message will be delivered to you sometime tomorrow by pony express.
Yesterday on Morning Joe, they were talking about possible running mates for McCain. Charlie Crist's name was mentioned followed by the info that Crist was engaged. Chuck Todd said, After Friday he might not need to be.
grumble grumble...
Ok, that was a good speech, I'll give him that. I still think that Kerry is a vote-pandering out-of-touch rich idiot.
Massachusetts Democrats: Vote O'Reilly on 9/16!
Simply Stated @ 19:
All candidates change position from time to time. We have yet to find a perfect person to run. However, if we stack the FISA bill against the very long list of McCain's changes, I think on balance Obama is fine.
I was very happy to hear Kerry hit this theme, and we need to hammer it. I also was happy to hear Kerry being as good as he can be (which is very good).
There is substantial reason to believe John Kerry did indeed win 2004 election. People got out,went to vote. What happened after Americans voted however is the darker part of 2004 election. How many votes were lost,mishandled,miscounted,not counted or simply moved around so a "D" vote became a "R" vote?
John Kerry surely was not going to go ahead as President in ways that Bush/Cheney wanted. And it is very likely some post-vote tallies,sums and outcomes of results were tampered with in more than a few places. In Ohio and Florida in particular.
It is known now that the electronic voting machines are very flawed. It is well known that voter eligibility and qualification screening and filtering were employed in more than a few cases.
John Kerry surely would have not done what Bush/Cheney did do from Jan.2005 onwards in Iraq.
Yet we also know the Democrats did well in 2006 elections and still could not find a spine in WashingtonDC to go against Bush/Cheney WH over Iraq. Funding levels have never been challenged. Impeachment proceedings "taken off the table".
Pelosi and Reid have not been champions for Americans in WashingtonDC. For the telecoms they have been. A puzzle it is.
The "out of Iraq now!!" that got Democrats into the majority in House and Senate became "the surge of 2007-2008".
There is strong evidence now that "the surge" was more smoke and mirrors Bush/Cheney WH generated propaganda to further Bush/Cheney goals of Iraq becoming an American colony and location for American military bases and garrisons.
That the Iraqis are now in process of kicking out Americans the outcome of past five years of Bush/Cheney ploys,lies and war crimes in and over Iraq.
John Kerry likely did win in 2004. He gave a good speech last night. Too bad the winner of 2004 election "lost" 2004 election.
It's 4 years to late for him, and he sounds like this because there's no pressure.
Who is that guy, and why hasn't he stepped up before?
Look it's the framing.
I was alive during Vietnam and was prime meat to go to the killing fields.
Sorry ,no declaration of war, that was a little sticking point for me.
These aren't wars they are excursions in search of corporate profits.
A hero doesn't bomb innocent men, women and children ,some as babies,from 30,000'
in an unconstitutionally, undeclared war.
90+ civilians in afghanistan this week for P R O F I T ( The bombs, the plane, the fuel, the flight suit, ect.)(Did I mention the oil angle?)
I'm damn sick of supporting troops as they murder innocents.
"All I have to say is: Where was this guy on 2004?"
He learned.
Our motto going forward should be "2004, never forget, always fight back!" Republicans aren't the opposition, they're the enemy.
If you're going to compare Candidate McCain to Senator McCain, how about talking about campaign finance reform and how Candidate McCain now flouts the spending limits Senator McCain was instrumental in passing.
John McCain calls himself a maverick, but he votes with George Bush 95% of the time.
That’s not a maverick. That’s a sidekick.
John J @ 4:
People say, somebody who's a decent shot, with an average deer-rifle and a good scope, can knock a radio station off the air with only a couple of well-placed bullets to the tower...that's what I hear, anyway...wouldn't know, fer sher...just sayin'...
Kerry was this good in speeches and debates in 2004. What he was not good at was campaign strategy, media relations, ground organizing, and advertising -- i.e., hitting Bush Jr. even harder while going after the Swift Boaters.
However, the single worst Kerry moment in a speech was his long, overdramatic salute in goofy tones at the Convention: "John Kerry, repooooorting foooooor doooooooo-dy!!!"
pissed off patricia @ 9:
The problem is that they are not directing this to you! You are sharp, perceptive and discerning. But your vote is negated by just one persuadable, uniformed, sound-bite dependent sheep. How sad, but if we do nothing then nothing is what we deserve.
Kerry has always spoken directly, and for the most part on target. The problem is that few take the time to see really listen, evaluate and determine that he might be saying what they, themselves believe. It's too easy to be lazy and say oh he's craggy, dull, flip flopper, or whatever.
It's really hard to stay optimistic, damn it.
We are already hearing criticism about the roman columns that have been erected beside the podium in the stadium for tonight's speech. One of Obama's people (Robert Gibbs) blew the lid off of that this morning on Morning Joe when he showed a picture of bush making his acceptance speech in O4 and there were the same sort of columns on either side of him.
Ruthless People @ 32:
This is a war.....
Values that we all were taught, like respect, kindness, forgiveness, simply will not work with these hate spewing people. It's time to fight, and dirty if necessary....for our Nation. I MIGHT be nice after November 4th to these ugly Americans.
El Cid @ 36:
I agree, I cringed when he opened that way that night.
tjb @ 31:
Seems you did.. Afghanistan has oil now?
woo hoo, happy times are here again, the democrats are 'fighting' the Repugs -- in the press. Hey, that's good enough for me, as long as they can manage to wage a good spin campaign (maybe, for once) then all will be right, and good times are just around the corner.
Yeah, sure, right. Anyone heard anything about any prosecutions for illegal, treasonous activity yet? How about a clear commitment to uphold the constitution? Any of the hundreds of court cases actually going to trial? No?
Hmmm, funny that.
I like ex-candidate Kerry better than candidate Kerry.
in 2004 JK played NOT to lose, just like Al Gore did in 2000
now that the stakes are so much lower, they decide to become Alpha males
???
All I have to say is: Where was this guy on 2004?
Probably under the thumb of his handlers and advisors.
Sometimes I suspect the same thing is happening to Obama.
As Superintendent Chalmers said of Principal Skinner, "I swear the stick up his his butt has a stick up his butt."
AMusingFool @ 33:
Hey if we're gonna start listing Republican hypocrisies, we're going to be here all week.
This is why we need CHANGE. Not changing the GOP. They can continue to be as corrupt as they want, IMHO.
But to change the tolerance for this stuff. Because Americans are way too tolerant of corruption. And tolerance and cynicism breed corruption and hypocrisy. We're a democracy, and democracies get the governments they deserve, in the end.
Some years ago, the Vice Prime Minister of Sweden was forced to repay money and resign after revelations she'd bought a Toblerone and paid for some taxi fares on her expense-account credit card... Is there any wonder why they consistently rank in the world's top-5 on corruption?
The difference ain't culture, or laws. It's attitude.
Its almost becoming a tradition that the democrat that lost 4 years earlier comes to the convention and gives a great speech that was more charismatic than their previous run.
Remember Gore in '04? He did a great job and would have won the election, had he presented himself in '00 as he did there.
Same thing with Kerry last night.
It just makes you feel bad for the guys, really.
Alexdem @ 41:
I know they don't have oil but the right geography for moving the stuff,come on, otherwise we wouldn't be just shooting the place up for nothing if not to benefit big oil?
gwen @ 43:
Gwen,
Unless someone "body snatched" the real Sen. Kerry, trust me, this is the same guy. The GOP and the MSM slandered Kerry....and many foolish people bought into in. Live and learn because they are attempting to try the same bullshit on Sen. Obama.
if only this would have been the john kerry we saw running for president.
great speech and a nice slap to McCain and the repubic party and their smears.
Where was he?? Out of money because he accepted public financing, while Pickens was spending his billion rolling out the Swiftboaters, and ABC was busy running Unfit for Command on all its affiliates.
Kerry et al use an icepick to chip away and yet what is needed is a (proverbial) stick of dynamite.
More serpentine rhetoric from the establishment politicos. The reason I'm here and not mezmerized by the morning Joe or the mouse on CNN is because here we speak boldly and directly to the issues at hand.
Alexdem @ 41:
Alex you are either uninformed or obtuse. Either way you are out of your league here if you do not understand our true motivations for being in Afghanistan. If we go by GW's excuses for attacking Afghanistan, we should have been out of there years ago. And yet OBL is still unaccounted for and the Taliban are back. The truth is, we've settled into a nice profitable conflict that has no foreseeable end in sight. What is your endpoint for Afghanistan? What is your projected cost?
McSame The Schizophrenic Now we can add that moniker to the long litany of nicknames for Bush's PTSD "Sidekick". Love it! Truer words were never spoken. Kerry was on fire last night. Wish he presented even half that much charisma when he was running 4 years ago. As they say: "Truer things are said in jest" and he knocked it out of the park with his on-point humor about Senator McShame and Candidate McSame. He presented factual data supporting the dx that this man is not in his right mind. Actually changing his opinion in areas where he actually created the bill is borderline insane. Anyone who heard this great, factual speech by Kerry has to come away scratching their heads and thinking that McPappy needs to add another home to his list of 11 - a room at a sanitarium!
2004? skull and bones baby, he was instructed not to win.
55 rend
What, no Bohemian Grove, Trilateral Commission, Illuminati or Blue Meanies?
http://www.google.com/search?q=congress+members+criminals&ie=utf-8&oe=ut...
[Deleted. Spam. Alan Stanwyck/Neil Boortz, don't post the same comments on multiple threads. That is considered spam. And pick a name and stick with it. We don't tolerate sock-puppeteers, either. Thank you. Site Monitor]
Simon White-Thatch Potentloins @ 15:
good one.
tjb @ 48:
Not a lot of oil goes through there either.
The Soviets shot up the place for a decade, and I don't think big oil was behind that either.
Che's Lounge @ 53:
As you say, OBL is unaccounted for and the Taliban haven't been dealt with. That's why we're still there. And that's why we went in there, and that's why allies like Norway and Germany, who staunchly opposed the Iraq war, still felt this one was worth waging.
Whomever concocted "reporting for duty" should be made to report to a firing squad. And where was this defense (or any defense) against swift-boating: "How dare you criticize someone's patriotism!" Using his for before against it moniker against candidate McCain was another defense he waited four years too long to unleash. These are black and white responses that would have played well. (Let's not forget, it was really refusing to challenge the voting irregularities in Ohio that ultimately sunk Kerry's boat.)
Well, hopefully, he'll be better at defending Obama.
Kerry was busy in 2004 being called a stiff, elite, windsurfing, wonky traitor and all the Kool Kids in DC and the National Media chuckled along.
Then Bush got reelected (voting shenanigans notwithstanding) because we were in the middle of two wars and you don't want to cahnge the commander-in-chief then, do you?
All us Dems and left-wingers and progressives just couldn't believe it and now we might suffer that paradigm again....
I liked the speech, don't get me wrong... but holy flapping buckets of steaming sh*t people! THAT's what the Dems show when they "take off the gloves"?!?!
Are you kidding me? With all the GOP, Bush and McCain have done to destroy our freedoms and shred the Constitution... THAT's the best they had? (well, it was better than the drivel Harry Reid was spouting with all the fire and passion of a day old bowl of plain oatmeal)
You just watch. By the second day of the GOP Neanderthal-fest in Minnesota, the Rethuglicans and the MSM will have most Americans believing Barack Obama raped the Statue of Liberty with an American Flag while wiping his a$$ with the Bill of Rights... and then the Obama family celebrated with a meal of fresh infants.
Wake up America? Holy crap... Wake up DEMOCRATS and FIGHT!
that should be for it before against it, for those cave dwellers out there
wow, John Kerry gets a speech, Really?
We need to keep emphasising the blatant differences between Candidate McSame and Senator McCain. Not only to point out the hyporcisy that defines the GOP, but also to perhaps tap into McSame's heart where he HAS to be struggling with this conflict internally.
JayDog @ 62:
BIN-friggin-GO !
and who keeps scheduling the Dem convention BEFORE the GOP convention and thus giving them the last word ?
rehctaw @ 11:
Kerry was being handled by idiots such as Shrum, AND had to deal with the traditional media, who were treating the LIES of the swiftboaters as fact. His handlers made sure he held his tongue when he shouldn't have, and the media kept any scathing retort off the air while airing the swiftboaters over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Is that group of handlers (Shrum et al) actually a group of Republican operatives? It sure looks that way, when you see who their tactics always seem to benefit.
MCCAIN....... just breakfast at the WAFFLE HOUSE
Alexdem @ 60:
Given what you say, how do you describe the solution to those issues and what will it take to achieve those ends? And don't ask me. IMO those are not the goals.
WOW! I have not read any of the other commentors yet on this board but the last comment in this post about where this guy was in 2004 is so ridiculous it's not funny. I am sure at times he was muted and blitzed to death (Kerry that is) with suggestions of how he should run his campaign. That said it was the media that painted this guy as boring and a flip flopper. The many speeches I watched of his in 2004 were filled with the passion reminiscent of what we saw last night. Perhaps it wasn's as forceful in 2004 as it was last night but it wasn't lacking in intelligent thought and inspiration. People just bought as I suppose the guy who posted this what the media was serving them. That's too bad, last night he convinced me again he would have been an impressive President.
We need to stop the MSM from protecting McCain, the flip-flopper who would say anything to get elected.
There is a real difference between candidate McCain and the McCain of the past, and nothing emphasizes it more than this interview with Time magazine:
There's a theme that recurs in your books and your speeches, both about putting country first but also about honor. I wonder if you could define honor for us? Read it in my books.
I've read your books. No, I'm not going to define it.
But honor in politics? I defined it in five books. Read my books.
[Your] campaign today is more disciplined, more traditional, more aggressive. From your point of view, why the change?
I will do as much as we possibly can do to provide as much access to the press as possible.
But beyond the press, sir, just in terms of ...
I think we're running a fine campaign, and this is where we are.
Do you miss the old way of doing it?
I don't know what you're talking about.
Really? Come on, Senator.
I'll provide as much access as possible ...
In 2000, after the primaries, you went back to South Carolina to talk about what you felt was a mistake you had made on the Confederate flag. Is there anything so far about this campaign that you wish you could take back or you might revisit when it's over?
[Does not answer.]
Do I know you? [Says with a laugh.]
[Long pause.] I'm very happy with the way our campaign has been conducted, and I am very pleased and humbled to have the nomination of the Republican Party.
You do acknowledge there was a change in the campaign, in the way you had run the campaign?
[Shakes his head.]
You don't acknowledge that? O.K., when your aides came to you and you decided, having been attacked by Barack Obama, to run some of those ads, was there a debate?
The campaign responded as planned.
It's sad, really. At one point John McCain was his own man. And now's he just another politician, a puppet of the kill-or-be-kill political operatives he has hired to win this race for him, reduced to shaking his head silently at questions he once would have had the nerve to answer forthrightly.
he went fookin WIND SURFING
with MY MONEY
wind surfing
I still want my 50 bucks back ...
(wink)
I don't know if Kerry would have been a great president, but he would have been far better than Chimpy.
What a tragedy. He was sabotaged. They play dirty, they have more money, they control the media and they control the economy to a large degree. I don't blame him. I blame the millions of idiots who voted for dubya or who didn't vote at all.
rehctaw @ 11:
Really, cause that's exactly how I see it right now. This Country's Democrats want to know why we spent 8 year's under Clinton being bashed daily by Rush, Newt and Starr. Doing everything they could to get him and his entire administration impeached. While we did absolutely nothing.
After that we spent 8 year's under a truly criminal administration and still our Democratic leaders sat there and did . . . . absolutely nothing. People are calling for answers and instead our leaders are falling in line with the Republican's most repeated line of defense "Look, now's not the time to point fingers, we need to move forward and find solutions." Ain't that nice. No accountability. Again.
And now the Dems really can't do anything, because the country and the republicans would be asking us where we've been for the last 8 years and why we didn't speak up more forcefully before. Where were we? We were scared of being called unpatriotic and cowering over how we looked over on Fox News and are they making fun of us.
Yeah, we're doing such a great job showing the average Democrat that doesn't spend their days here on C&L why they should come out and vote for this party, when we can't even defend ourselves at our own convention.
What a shame that we're asking "Where was this Kerry four year's ago". Will we be asking ourselves that same question about Obama in four year's? Here we are once again "Taking the High Road". Cause that worked so well for us four and eight year's back. I'm scared.
[Deleted. Spam. Alan Stanwyck/Neil Boortz, don't post the same comments on multiple threads. That is considered spam. And pick a name and stick with it. We don't tolerate sock-puppeteers, either. Thank you. Site Monitor]
Just words.
Obama and Biden WON'T shut down Guantanamo.
They WON'T prosecute those who committed US sanctioned acts of torture.
They WON'T prevent torture from happening in the future.
They WON'T tell the truth about Iran.
They WON'T protect the Constitution by punishing the telecoms for violating the law.
They WON'T protect the Constitution by restoring Habaes Corpus
They WON'T protect the Constitution by revoking the Patriot Act, or it's even worse sequels.
Kerry may have delivered a heck of speech there, but it's just empty rhetoric.
He was also fond with Vietnam , he was John Vietnam Kerry, but now McCain is fond with POW and Vietnam, and then "My friends", even though everyone knows he doesn't mean it
NoOneYouKnow @ 5:
Where was Kerry in 2003-2004? The Kerry campaign was there but he did not have the push back that the Obama campaign has. Unfortunately Kerry thought he was dealing with people of character....Obama knows better.
NoOneYouKnow @ 5:
Also, why is Kerry repeating Bushco’s lie that Iran is pursuing nukes?
Because the differences between the Democrats and the Republicans are not as large or as significant as some people would like you to think.
Last night, once again, Dean said "we need to show who we are in a positive light" and that "the main message of this convention is not that the Republicans are bad, the American people already know that, the main message is that Barak and Biden are capable of leading America into better times".
Really does America know that? Is that why the polls are so close? He said Barak knows that "we need to end the old ugly confrontational politics of the Republicans . . . ". Really, and why do we need a president to do that? Why weren't we capable of doing that over the last 16 years? This is just so frustrating.
Oh, but then he prefaced those statements by assuring us that beyond popular opinion the Democrats are strong and capable of taking on these bad Republicans with such crushing words as " . . . Not that we're not going to say some things about McCain that are pretty tough, you'll hear some of those, but the main message of this convention . . .". Oh wow, I'm shaking in my boots. So far those "pretty tough" words are working out so well for us. Next week the Republicans are going to rip us to shreds but at least we were "pretty tough" on McCain.
stephennnn @ 79:
"The High Road" is the name they gave that place.
John @ 77:
So you're saying we should vote for McLame? No, let me guess . . Nader? Barr?
I believe Kerry's analysis "Senator McCain vs Candidate McCain" strikes at the heart of the matter and is a vehicle for his revenge....ie flip - flop.....McCain's Senate record must be filled with embarassing inconsistencies. Hopefully, the Obama team picks up on this theme.....Especially since McCain has taken the low road and talked about character and patriotism and not about the issues.
stephennnn @ 79:
What pushback? We seem poised to commit the same mistakes once again. And I fear in four year's when Barak Obama is addressing the next convention, you're going to blame his as well for not standing up to this administration. Where is the outrage? Where are our Leaders and what are they doing to rally the troops to vote in November. Are the polls really as close as they claim? If so we're doing a really poor job of convincing the American people that the Republicans are "bad". Are we being set up once again to wonder how in the world we could have lost? Do you honestly think that the average Democrat is watching this convention and feeling good about a party that let 16 years of Republicans walk all over us?
Aged Blue Lensman Says:
So you’re saying we should vote for McLame? No, let me guess . . Nader? Barr?
Heck no! I'm just saying that you'll save yourself a lot of grief and heartbreak in the future, if you realise that the Dems (and Obama in particular) are not some magical panacea that is going to cure all of our ills.
Kerry talked a good talk. But the things he said Obama is going to do, Obama will not do. That was my point. It was empty rhetoric played to a crowd whose votes are already sewn up.
Joe Pasetto @ 7:
Exactly. I was watching the Convention on CNN and the talking heads were just yammering away when I saw JK speaking at the podium. I flipped over to CSPAN and caught the speech.
Why the f*ck didn't the "MSM" broadcast that?????? Rhetorical question, my friends.
I see more and more messages saying something to the affect that it makes no difference which party or candidate is put in power because there is but a hairs difference between them. Ufffffff. Small wonder the Republicans have stayed in power. Small wonder that Bush was re-elected for a second term. This claim is patently FALSE!!! It is intented either to have you stay at home and not vote, or vote for a third party candidate. Come on people WAKE UP. You are being manipulated by the MSM and the corporations that want to maintain their hegemony over the American democratic process. Before election Tuesday the MSM will have you fighting amongst yourselves as to how many angels are on the head of a pin. WAKE UP!!!
John:
I hear ya - the glass is always half empty.
Where was Kerry in 2004? I think Kerry was in denial about just how low the Republican Rove Machine would go to win that election. In 2008, he's committed to not allowing that to happen again. He actually said something in his speech last night about preventing a "swiftboating" of Obama.
When Kerry -- an actual "war hero," who turned his boat back toward enemy fire, plucked a wounded comrade out of the water and got shrapnel in his flesh for his trouble -- decided to go windsurfing and put on funny hazmat suits instead of attack the slimy swift-boaters head-on, I lost all respect for him.
Of course, Ohio was stolen from him, just as Florida was pilfered in 2000.
President Gore, President Kerry. How much better things would be if they had ben allowed to take the office that was rightfully theirs.
shootthatarrow @ 29:
And it's too bad that the winner of the 2000 election (Al Gore, remember him?) "lost" that election too. Wonder what the fucktard republicans have planned for this election...
stephennnn @ 88:
My friend; it is "how many angels can dance on the head of an AMERICAN FLAG lapel pin. I won't mention the fact that I went for five and a half years without any lapels.
Donnie @ 71:
We eat our own in this party. We fear Republican spin and toss our own under the bus with abandon. We don't stand up against the Republicans and we don't stand up for each other. I agree with you completely. Most of the posters here have very short memories. We were cheering for this guy four year's ago, he was a shoe in because we were so sure that "Americans" knew how bad our Country was being run so there was no need to remind them during the convention. Our last convention sounds pretty much identical to the one we're putting on right now. I don't see any difference to what's happening four years later - we still seem so sure that "Americans" get it. What if they don't? Are we doomed again?
emmarie @ 85:
You watch to much MSM. What is going on in this election is mostly under the radar. You are being manipulalte. However, if you believe in what you say, then get out and knock on some doors, or make a contribution, write letters to the editor, or opeds, hook up with positve thinking people. There is a future out there you need to make it happen.
WE ALL LOVE A LITTLE BUSH @ 69:
So, wait... Cindy just bought John a house made of waffles? What, is that like their 14th home now?
Maybe John McCain should do something nice for Cindy... you know... buy her a necklace made out of stolen painkillers maybe?
"All I have to say is: Where was this guy on 2004?"
It's probably already been said, but he was letting Bush win... Just like Obama will let McCain win this year.
I commented on a thread below re what a great speech I thought Kerry gave so I won't repeat myself. I'd just like to ask some of you whether you have C-Span or not. I have watched the entire convention there with no interruptions for advertising, for interviews conducted by the likes of David Gregory, without editing or having to sit through inane discussions on CNN between Carvilles and Gergens. I can make up my own mind, thank you. And I can tell you that by watching the whole convention and hearing all the speeches in their entireties I have come away from the convention really stirred up and inspired. Watching it on commercial cable or networks seems analogous to me like reading a great classic like The Brothers Karamazov or War and Peace but reading only every other page. I am not certain the DNC wants all of us to do this because there is probably a lot of money involved for them going with the commercial stations, but is the only way to go.
All I have to say is: Where was this guy on 2004?
It's amazing what you can do when Bob Shrum and Mark Penn aren't telling you how to campaign...
stephennnn the differences between the Democrats and Republicans are NOT as large as you think they are.
And until the grass roots elements like you and me and others here, help elect real progressive Democrats into office, the mainstream of the Democratic party will continue to be Republican-lite on far too many issues.
Pointing this out is not a call to vote third party. And for you to suggest that it is, smacks of a "my party right or wrong" attitude, which I'd expect to see in a republican. It is pointing out that there's something very wrong with the Democratic party. And that's the first step on the long road to fixing it, not abandoning it. Admitting there's a problem which needs fixing.
Excellent speech, the best of the Convention. Go to:
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=BarackObamadotcom
and you can click on links for his FULL SPEECH (13 minutes), Bill's, Joe's, Michelle's - the whole bunch! I don't see Duckworth, and she was very good, on the message, and 500% AUTHENTIC maimed female Asian vet from Illinois, fmr helicopter pilot with mega-cojones - so smart, so positive, and attractive despite her injuries.
Since MSM is what it is, post LINKS to C&L and Tube in your blogs, email links to your friends/lists, ask them to do the same.
As to you, #76 Alan Stanwyck : "THIS IS THE POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK!" - you have our permission to go on Ambien until next week, wake up and enjoy Kool-aide from Rove and co. Your POW McInsane waits for you. Don't suffer here, you don't have to. Just go AWAY.
Lotsa trolls here today from glass-half-empty-nation- that means the convention is doing GOOD ! One has to start somewhere to reclaim our country - electing Obama seems like a good start.
O'BAMA - O'BIDEN - 0'8/ 0'12
John @ 77:
we'll see, won't we...
The difference between Republicans and Democrats is that Republicans are well paid by corporate and OTHER interests. Democrats sell out to those interests for much, much less.
Republicans are aggressive totalitarian oligarchs and Democrats are passive totalitarian oligarchs. They are wings (left and right) of some terrible beast. It's too bad that most people refuse to see it even though the evidence is endless.
There is no choice. There is only the illusion of choice.
Great job, John!
snap
John @ 86:
joe @ 48:
The problem isn't that elected officials won't do what we say, it is that not enough of us say anything at all. Most of the US polity believe their civic duty begins and ends in the voting booth, and less than half of all eligible voters even bother to do that.
In fact, participation in local politics, taking the time to learn about proposed legislation, making our voices heard by contacting elected officials, signing petitions, and, yes, I will say it... non-violent protest is all part and parcel of a successful particapatory democracy. Although I suspect a majority of those who come to sites like C&L do all or some of the above, we are not representative of the majority of Americans.
Alexdem @ 42:
BBC News (2002) Afghanistan hopes to strike a deal later this month to build a $2bn pipeline through the country to take gas from energy-rich Turkmenistan to Pakistan and India.
Also in 2002, President Bush appointed a former aide to the American oil company Unocal, Afghan-born Zalmay Khalilzad, as special envoy to Afghanistan. The nomination was announced December 31, nine days after the US-backed interim government of Hamid Karzai took office in Kabul. Khalilzad was one of the original members of the Project for the New American Century.
The US had a plan to attack Afghanistan before 9/11, ostensibly to hunt Bin Laden but really to leverage the gas pipelines for UNOCAL.
John @ 86:
My mother in law (I love her but she old and easily frightened) called and said she is almost on the bandwagon with us. So there is a point, if only the MSM blowhards would STFU during the speeches. Go CSPAN!
SilentPatriot askes "Where was this guy in 2004?"
Well he was Candidate Kerry in 2004 now he is once again Senator Kerry.
Kerry was a STRAWMAN in 2004, meant to lose the election so the work of the New World Order could continue unabated.
Why Kerry didn't actually call McCain a flip-flopper is beyond me. It was a line begging to be made.
BigIslandDave @ 92:
Huh? Totally schizoid post. You "lost all respect" for Kerry, and yet you wish he had won the election and taken the office "rightfully" his?
How the mighty have fallen. Four short years ago, Kerry was the standard bearer & leader of the Democratic Party. In 2008, his speech before the DNC was relegated to the daytime and was not covered by any of the major news networks. If the Dems are smart they will keep Al Gore far away from the Convention. Gore also carries the stench of a loser.
that was the best soundbite of the night. i am going to send it around the net. it should be a commercial in itself.
If only Kerry would've showed some spine 4 years ago. Sigh.
Isome Hussein @ 107:
Yes because they were SO effective back in '03 when they stopped the war in Iraq...
Put down the bong, moonchild...
Oh and whoever rattled off that list back around 55 you forgot the Bilderbergers and the CFR... oh wait, Obama's a CFR member... well I'm sure that's just a harmless coincidence...
the big backfire - quality.
Where was this guy in 2004? Let's see, maybe he was busy dealing with a party of apathetic assholes who were pissed off he voted for the war instead of backing him to stop another disastrous Bush term.
You people are unbelievable. The electorate is stupid, and sometimes it takes a decade to realize how retarded your decision was.
joe @ 48:
Gore and Kerry were liberated by losing. Now they can speak from the heart.
Both probably thought that if they cut into the Republicans with a verbal chainsaw that they would appear to be shrill. They probably also thought that Americans were too smart to believe the GOP bullcrap.
Things are now so screwed up that nobody cares about sounding shrill. Its time to give these incompetent and corrupt bullies the verbal pounding they deserve.
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