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Me#1You#10
Site Admin
Joined: 06 May 2004
Posts: 6503
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 Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 12:47 am Post subject: "Why They Can't Vote for McCain" |
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Judging by my "news alerts", this commentary by Mona Charen is getting some attention. This is, undoubtedly, a conversation that must be entertained, perhaps as one might lance a boil. Let's get on with it and get it resolved, one way or the other...
| Quote: | Why They Can't Vote for McCain
By Mona Charen
Townhall.com
Friday, February 8, 2008
I posted a squib on the National Review website about a robo call I received from John McCain (Virginia's primary is Tuesday). The call stressed that he would, if elected, be a down-the-line limited government conservative who would never raise taxes, would defend life, would enforce immigration laws and would win the war on terror. The candidate is trying, I said, to meet conservatives "more than halfway." The response of readers was, shall we say, emphatic.
One lady wrote that she would never vote for him as "He is the most disloyal, ill-tempered man and he brings out the worse in all of us...." Several readers made the point that after decades of suffering abuse at McCain's hands, conservatives are not going to fall into line for him now, no matter what blandishments he offers.
I know how they feel. The problem with McCain is not just that he strays. George Bush has strayed from conservatism, too. So has Fred Thompson. Certainly Mitt Romney has as well. But Sen. McCain has a knack for saying things in just the tones and accents that liberals prefer. In 2000, he condemned the late Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson as "agents of intolerance." In 2004, when Sen. John Kerry was getting his comeuppance from the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, vets who had known him during the war and couldn't remain silent as the Democratic nominee distorted his war record, McCain weighed in by calling the Swift Boaters "dishonorable and dishonest." When the Bush Administration was being vilified as a nest of Torquemadas for using waterboarding on three occasions, McCain came forward to condemn waterboarding as torture.
McCain was a Vietnam hero. Conservatives in particular revere him for this. Indeed, his return from the political grave can probably be traced to the moment (Oct. 22) when he joshingly referred to having missed the Woodstock music festival in 1969 because "I was tied up at the time." In that instant, he came to personify for many the conservative side of the great 1960s chasm that (Barack Obama's irenic rhetoric notwithstanding) continues to divide our society. Not only was he not smoking pot and lolling in the mud with his girlfriend, you could almost hear Republicans telling themselves, he's standing up to torture at the hands of America's enemies!
And yet, a better man would not stoop to suggesting that military service is the only way to show love of country and sneer that -- unlike Romney -- he served for "patriotism, not profit." Profit is a four-letter word in the McCain vocabulary, whether applied to "Big Pharma" or other businesses.
McCain reaches too hard and too transparently to turn everything into a contest about military service. When Romney observed that Bob Dole wouldn't necessarily be the one he'd want an endorsement from, McCain pronounced himself "very sad and disappointed to see that kind of comment about a person who was an American war hero" and demanded that Romney apologize!
There is a strutting self-righteousness about McCain that goes hand in hand with a nitroglycerin temper. He flatters himself that his colleagues in the Senate dislike him because he stands up for principle whereas they sell their souls for pork. Not exactly. He is disliked because on many, many occasions, he has been disrespectful, belligerent and vulgar to those who differ with him.
Bradley Smith, former commissioner of the Federal Election Commission and the leading legal scholar on campaign finance issues, experienced the McCain treatment firsthand. Because Smith opposed limits on political speech, he was denounced as "corrupt" by the senator (as was Commissioner Ellen Weintraub). Smith, who lives modestly, jokes that his wife has complained about the absence of jewels and furs.
Though he served on the commission for five years and made several attempts to meet with McCain to discuss the issues, Smith was rebuffed. The two did accidentally meet outside a hearing room in 2004 when they were both scheduled to testify before the Senate rules committee. At first, McCain grasped Smith's outstretched hand (Smith was in a wheelchair, recovering from surgery), but when he recognized his campaign finance opponent, he snatched his hand back, snarling, "I'm not going to shake your hand. You're a bully. You have no regard for the Constitution. You're corrupt."
Smith, a soft-spoken scholar, ardent patriot and lifelong conservative Republican, cannot, as a matter of honor, pull the lever for McCain. He is far from alone, and that is the Republican Party's heartbreak in 2008.
Mona Charen is a syndicated columnist, political analyst and author of Do-Gooders: How Liberals Hurt Those They Claim to Help.
Townhall.com |
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Theresa Alwood
Rear Admiral
Joined: 05 Jun 2004
Posts: 631
Location: Florida
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| Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 3:45 am Post subject: |
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I think we will hear more stories about Senator McCain once he wins the GOP nominee and then we will all lose because those of us who are struggling with even trying to see if we can come to terms and pull the lever for this man - this will seal his fate and he will lose the White House altogether. I have heard several rumors about how nasty and mean McCain is and I am sure the stories will hit the media because we all know the MSM wants a real democrat not one that just plays democrat 90 % of the time.
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Born to raise a little hell! |
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baldeagle
PO2
Joined: 27 Oct 2004
Posts: 362
Location: Grand Saline, Texas
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| Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 3:48 am Post subject: |
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The next 4 years will happen. That is reality. That is what IS!
Whether one goes to the polls and pulls a lever for McCain, or the eventual Democratic Nominee (if they manage to ever select one), or writes in Bambi, or decides to stay home and catch up on their reading, the eventual winner, and occupant of the White House for the next 4 years is going to be either McCain or Clinton/Obama.
"None of the above" will not be on the ballot and there are no "do-overs".
Please decide who you think will do the least harm for the next 4 years and VOTE.
McCain's speech yesterday before CPAC. Here are just some of the things McCain said he would do:
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Continue to carry the fight to the Islamic radicals and goons wherever we can get to them.
Close the borders .. tight .. before any consideration is given as to what to do with the illegals who are already here.
Not sign a bill with earmarks in it. ANY earmarks in it.
Reduce the size of government.
Not allow the expansion of entitlement programs
Make the Bush tax cuts permanent
Cut corporate tax rates.
End AMT
Develop free market solutions for health care, and respect for the right of free individuals to make choices for themselves. |
He has also stated numerous time in various venues that he will nominate "strict constructionists" to the Supreme Court.
Now, I am willing to believe a lot of bad things about John McCain. I am as aware as anyone else of his record.
But I do not believe that he is a liar.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/JohnMcCain/2008/02/07/john_mccain_addresses_cpac
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"In a word, I want an American character, that the powers of Europe may be convinced we act for ourselves and not for others; this, in my judgment, is the only way to be respected abroad and happy at home." --George Washington |
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RacerJim
Seaman Recruit
Joined: 28 Aug 2004
Posts: 43
Location: Rockville Maryland
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| Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 1:41 pm Post subject: |
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John McCain may well have his faults but either of the alternatives, Clinton or Obama, is downright SCARY!
I believe most Veterans would agree that the first and foremost duty of POTUS is to defend and protect America from all enemies foreign and domestic to the best of their ability, all other duties being subordinate to that.
In my humble opinion, John McCain is the only candidate, on either side of the isle, who will actually do that without any regard whatsoever to the potential negative political repercussions. |
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