Mr Blog » election08

McCain: “If you can’t beat ‘em, Join ‘em”

MrBlog — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:07:08 +0000

John McCain was driven out of the 2000 Republican primaries by a very ugly, and deeply personal, smear campaign. Voters were asked, “Would you be more or less likely to vote for John McCain…if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child?” (At the time, McCain was campaigning with his dark-skinned daughter, Bridget, adopted from Bangladesh.) It was a despicable and vicious smear. And it worked.

Shortly after losing the 2000 election, McCain told an interviewer that there must be “a special place in hell” reserved for the rumormongers of this so-called “whisper campaign.” When asked about it by a South Carolina voter he responded by saying “I promise you, I have never and will never have anything to do with that.” He denounced such practices as “cowardly” and he called upon all GOP Primary candidates to join him “in pledging not to engage in such despicable tactics throughout the balance of this campaign.”

But, just as he has set aside so many other moral standards under the pressure of a campaign in freefall, Sen. McCain has chosen the low road once again. With polls in swing states moving in Obama’s direction and with the electoral map steadily turning against McCain, he has become what he decried in 2000. Rather than show how he would lead us through the greatest economic crisis in seventy years, he is content to use the same tactics he despised eight yeas ago, orchestrated by some of the same people that he once said were reserved “a special place in hell.”

From “push polls” to “racially tinged” attacks, to inspiring Open Racism and Death Threats McCain is stooping increasingly lower and lower. The results are disturbing – We’ve seen what amounts to angry mobs at McCain/Palin rallies shouting “treason” and even “terrorist” and “Kill him!” all without the slightest protest or denunciation of such behavior from the McCain camp.

Where is the outrage that we saw in 2000 now, Sen. McCain?

Obviously the senator has learned his lesson. The smear campaign of lies against McCain in 2000 was very effective. Bush made up a double-digit poll deficit in the primaries to beat McCain in racially charged South Carolina. So with his hopes of winning on the issues or his plans for the future dwindling, McCain is turning to the only thing left – the old GOP standby: appealing to fear and hate. But this time it’s different. This time we have a black candidate. This is beyond reckless – and McCain knows it.

UPDATE: More results of thinly veiled racism, from Andrew Sullivan:

McCain-Palin supporters at a Palin rally tell us what they think of the “terrorist” running for president. More accusations from McCain supporters in Pennsylvania that Obama is a “commie faggot” and a Muslim terrorist here.

Comments include: “He’s Got The Bloodlines” “Look at his name” “The name says it all”

Or these accusations from McCain supporters in Pennsylvania that Obama is a “commie faggot” and a Muslim terrorist:

All you need to know about John McCain

MrBlog — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 20:00:29 +0000

Haven’t we already had this kind of representaton for long enough?

Senate puts Lipstick on the Bailout pig and rams it down our throats

MrBlog — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 05:46:17 +0000

The pundits were right in saying the scandalous Bailout Bill, aka “Leave No Banker Behind”, would probably pass in the Senate, despite overwhelming opposition of average Americans, on the left and right. After all, only about 1/3 of the Senators are up for reelection, so most of them can assume voters will forget by the time their re-election comes up. For example, here’s what my California Senator Dianne Feinstein said (via CBS News):

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) says she’s voting yea despite receiving 85,000 calls against it — out of 91,000 total calls.

How’s that for contempt?

According to a half-dozen offices, the phones and fax machines and e-mail folders were piling up with constituent reactions. The phone lines and email servers became jammed. The Wall Street Journal has called it “Voter Fury”, “an intense outpouring of voter anger”, and a “Populist Revolt”. The New York Times went so far as to call it “Class Warfare”. And note that these are from the traditional press (you can imagine what the alter-media has been saying). And yet, it passes the Senate by a huge margin anyway. So much for democracy and representation of the people.

Some experts think the bill will still have trouble in the House because more Representatives will soon face the wrath of the voting public if they pass something the people clearly don’t want. We’ll see.

There is one other person who cast a YES vote tonight who is hoping for votes in just a few weeks: Sen. Obama – and he is losing my support because of it – I think I can remember that long. His vote tonight shows that he does not represent “Change We Can Believe In” – he represents no change at all. As a result of Sen. Obama’s vote tonight in favor of this shameful 451 page Wall Street bailout bill, I regret that I must withdraw my support for his candidacy. Not that he cares, for sure, but I wanted to get that on the record. And, no, I won’t be voting for the McCain/Palin ticket instead (McCain also voted for the bailout, for whatever that is worth).

Are we not beyond being just annoyed yet? Are you not outraged that not only are the people responsible for this mess not going to jail, they are not even losing their jobs!

The “other” Mrs. McCain

MrBlog — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 18:33:53 +0000

If you want to know about John McCain, don’t ask Cindy, ask Carol
McCain, the former Mrs. McCain.

McCain likes to illustrate his moral fiber by referring to his five
years as a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam. And to demonstrate his
commitment to family values, the 71-year-old former US Navy pilot pays
warm tribute to his beautiful blonde wife, Cindy, with whom he has
four children. But there is another Mrs. McCain who casts a ghostly
shadow over the Senator’s presidential campaign. She is seldom seen
and rarely written about, despite being mother to McCain’s three
eldest children.

She was the woman McCain dreamed of during his long incarceration and
torture in Vietnam’s infamous ‘Hanoi Hilton’ prison and the woman who
faithfully stayed at home looking after the children and waiting
anxiously for news. But when McCain returned to America in 1973 to a
fanfare of publicity and a handshake from Richard Nixon, he discovered
his wife had been disfigured in a terrible car crash three years
earlier. Her car had skidded on icy roads into a telegraph pole on
Christmas Eve, 1969. Her pelvis and one arm were shattered by the
impact and she suffered massive internal injuries.

For nearly 30 years, Carol has maintained a dignified silence about
the accident, McCain and their divorce. But last week at the bungalow
where she now lives at Virginia Beach, a faded seaside resort 200
miles south of Washington, she told The Mail on Sunday how McCain
divorced her in 1980 and married Cindy, 18 years his junior and the
heir to an Arizona brewing fortune, just one month later.

‘My marriage ended because John McCain didn’t want to be 40, he wanted
to be 25. You know that happens…it just does.’

In 1979 – while still married to Carol – he met Cindy at a cocktail
party in Hawaii. Over the next six months he pursued her, flying
around the country to see her. Then he began to push to end his
marriage. Some of McCain’s acquaintances are less forgiving, however.
They portray the politician as a self-centered womanizer who
effectively abandoned his crippled wife to ‘play the field’. They
accuse him of finally settling on Cindy, a former rodeo beauty queen,
for financial reasons.

Ted Sampley, who fought with US Special Forces in Vietnam and is now a
leading campaigner for veterans’ rights, said: ‘I have been following
John McCain’s career for nearly 20 years. I know him personally. There
is something wrong with this guy and let me tell you what it is:
deceit.

“When he came home and saw that Carol was not the beauty he left
behind, he started running around on her almost right away. Everybody
around him knew it. Eventually he met Cindy and she was young and
beautiful and very wealthy. At that point McCain just dumped Carol for
something he thought was better.”

‘McCain is the classic opportunist. He’s always reaching for attention
and glory,’ he said. After he came home, Carol walked with a limp. So
he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona . And
the rest is history.’

Ross Perot, a billionaire Texas businessman, and a former presidential
candidate, who paid her medical bills all those years ago, now
believes that both Carol McCain and the American people have been
taken in by a man who is unusually slick and cruel – even by the
standards of modern politics.

From systocracy.com:

Obama on why people are sick of politics

MrBlog — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 21:36:13 +0000

He has the courage to talk about what nobody else in politics is talking about. Instead of listening to the rhetoric, listening to the media spin, the Republican spin, or any other spin, listen to the man himself – if you listen, you will be refreshed.

The transformation of John McCain

MrBlog — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 21:11:44 +0000

Jon Stewart compares John McCain’s 2008 RNC acceptance speech promises with those of George W. Bush in 2000.

Have we not had enough of “the big lie”?

MrBlog — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 18:29:58 +0000

Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin have both jumped off the “Straight Talk Express”. The Louisville Courier-Journal reports:

Poor John McCain. Body-snatchers seem to have replaced his brain with that of a dishonest political hack.

How else to explain the disappearance of the Sen. McCain that we thought we knew? You remember him — the fellow on the “Straight Talk Express.”

No more.

Sen. McCain now resorts to what can only be called lies. If they were simply mistakes, he would surely correct them. Instead, he repeats them.

Examples, from factcheck.org:

John McCain

Sarah Palin

We checked the accuracy of McCain’s speech accepting the Republican nomination and noted the following:

McCain claimed that Obama’s health care plan would “force small businesses to cut jobs” and would put “a bureaucrat … between you and your doctor.” In fact, the plan exempts small businesses, and those who have insurance now could keep the coverage they have.
McCain attacked Obama for voting for “corporate welfare” for oil companies. In fact, the bill Obama voted for raised taxes on oil companies by $300 million over 11 years while providing $5.8 billion in subsidies for renewable energy, energy efficiency and alternative fuels.
McCain said oil imports send “$700 billion a year to countries that don’t like us very much.” But the U.S. is on track to import a total of only $536 billion worth of oil at current prices, and close to a third of that comes from Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom.
He promised to increase use of “wind, tide [and] solar” energy, though his actual energy plan contains no new money for renewable energy. He has said elsewhere that renewable sources won’t produce as much as people think.
He called for “reducing government spending and getting rid of failed programs,” but as in the past failed to cite a single program that he would eliminate or reduce.
He said Obama would “close” markets to trade. In fact, Obama, though he once said he wanted to “renegotiate” the North American Free Trade Agreement, now says he simply wants to try to strengthen environmental and labor provisions in it.

Sarah Palin’s much-awaited speech at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night may have shown she could play the role of attack dog, but it also showed her to be short on facts when it came to touting her own record and going after Obama’s.

Palin may have said “Thanks, but no thanks” on the Bridge to Nowhere, though not until Congress had pretty much killed it already. But that was a sharp turnaround from the position she took during her gubernatorial campaign, and the town where she was mayor received lots of earmarks during her tenure.
Palin’s accusation that Obama hasn’t authored “a single major law or even a reform” in the U.S. Senate or the Illinois Senate is simply not a fair assessment. Obama has helped push through major ethics reforms in both bodies, for example.
The Alaska governor avoided some of McCain’s false claims about Obama’s tax program – but her attacks still failed to give the whole story.
Palin claimed to have stood up to Congress on the subject of the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere,” the Gravina Island bridge in Ketchikan, Alaska… This is not the first time Palin has cited her choice to kill the bridge in 2007 as an example of her anti-waste stance. When she was running for governor, however, Palin expressed a different position. In 2006, the Ketchikan Daily News quoted her expressing optimism and support for the bridge at a Ketchikan campaign stop.
The bridge reversal is not the only matter throwing doubt on Palin’s credentials as a government waste reformer. Watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense has reported that the small town of Wasilla, Alaska, which had not previously received significant federal funds, hauled in almost $27 million in earmarks while Palin was mayor.

I have to wonder, given what the current administration has done for the last eight years, five of those years with a Republican controlled Congress, what would the Republicans actually have to do to lose support? If misleading the American people into an endless war in Iraq, the abysmal response to Hurricane Katrina, soaring gas and food prices, a meltdown in the housing market, and exploding debt, and all the lies – oh the lies – aren’t enough, what would it take?

It doesn’t make me proud to be an American. These people do not represent American ideals at all. They may pander to Americans’ fears very effectively, but it’s absolutely unbelievable that it works. It certainly looks to me like the people supporting McCain are simply voting against Obama, which is just sad, given what they are voting for instead.

McCain is saying the EXACT SAME things that Bush said. Why is anybody believing it? Because they want to believe it. Well, those people can kiss my ass. They are not Americans. We do not belong in the same room. We do not fight for the same things. We do not belong to the same country, to the same culture, to the same community. This is the result that the “uniter not a divider” has produced.

This election year marks a turning point for me. If you can vote for these people, we can no longer agree to disagree. You are destroying my country, hurting my family and making us less safe. It’s now personal. The time to “give everyone their space” is past – not in my house. I can no longer grant you my hospitality. I assume you are intelligent and rational and therefore you must accept the cause and effect of your actions and the actions of those you support – yet you continue to support them. How are you not insulted with how stupid they must think you are to fall for their BS? You have made your choice and that choice means you intend to continue to cause me, my family, and my country harm – which means we cannot be friends.

Palin – really?

MrBlog — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 08:25:55 +0000

Haven’t we already tried putting an inexperienced and ethically challenged Governor of a big-oil state into the White House? How’s that working out for us? Lest we forget, have a gander at these: