Letters to the Editor
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Ayep
I hope concerned citizens are capturing many of these moments on video for eventual publication on YouTube.
This guy has no business being President.
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damn
for a candidate to have to ask a staffer what his position on a seminal issue is is laughable.
and scary.
someone here recently compared McCain to Bob Dole. I see the similarity more and more. his staff will give him a list of phrases to work into an interview or debate, and he'll just list them off without even bothering to turn them into sentences.
for me, this election is shaping up as another "hold your nose and pull the lever" situation.
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Abortion is an issue that Obama is going to have a harder time explaining...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/17/politics/main2369157.shtml
Being the most "pro-abortion Presidential candidate in history" is going to require some explaining. And I don't think the abortion issue killed the electoral chances of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush or George W. Bush too much. In between them? Bill "let's make abortion safe, legal and rare" Clinton.
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wow, just wow
wow.
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Image vs. Reality
It's looking to me like the election in November is going to hinge on the Democratic candidate's ability to break through the fawning coverage the media seem poised to bless McCain with and get people to actually SEE that his image as a moderate straight talking maverick is simply not the reality, and that a vote for McCain is essentially a vote for no real change in the policies regarding Iraq and the economy (among other major issues)that have proved so disastrous over the last seven years. If Obama (or Clinton) can do that, either one will win in a landslide. There is so much deep dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs that by all rights either Democrat should be at least a full twenty points ahead in the polls. But if the right wing noise machine and their MSM enablers succeed in foisting that false image of McCain on the country, I deeply fear for our future.
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What a maverick
The MSM has wisely stopped using the adjective "maverick" to describe this tired old wingnut, but his capacity for pandering and general conservativism still hasn't seeped out. The Challenge of this election cycle will be getting the word out on the real John McCain and getting past the media kneepads.
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Aw, Joe
You're trying to do a good thing here, so don't blow it by being a jerk about McCain's daughter. She's not a teenager and what she does to her hair or what music she listens to isn't relevant.
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Children should be off limits
Seriously, Presidential Candidate and First Children should be off limits. There's no reason to bring them into the debate unless you are talking about a specific point of policy that child is advocating.
It's petty and mean, and the political party of the person doesn't make it any less mean and petty.
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Flip flop
I had already heard about McC's flip flops on abortion, because I subscribe to an email list in support of maintaining abortion rights. And, of course, he's also opposed to funding sex education because he has to "support the president's policy," if he can ever get a staff member to tell him what that is.
In the words of MoveOn:
"10 things you should know about John McCain (but probably don't):
1. John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has "evolved," yet he's continued to oppose key civil rights laws.
2. According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain "will make Cheney look like Gandhi."
3. His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bush for vetoing that ban.
4. McCain opposes a woman's right to choose. He said, "I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned."
5. The Children's Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in Congress for children. He voted against the children's health care bill last year, then defended Bush's veto of the bill.
6. He's one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires. The Associated Press reports he and his wife own at least eight homes! Yet McCain says the solution to the housing crisis is for people facing foreclosure to get a "second job" and skip their vacations.
7. Many of McCain's fellow Republican senators say he's too reckless to be commander in chief. One Republican senator said: "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He's erratic. He's hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."
8. McCain talks a lot about taking on special interests, but his campaign manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The government watchdog group Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money for his campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates.
9. McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right in recent years. The pastor McCain calls his "spiritual guide," Rod Parsley, believes America's founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a "false religion." McCain sought the political support of right-wing preacher John Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for gay rights and called the Catholic Church "the Antichrist" and a "false cult."
10. He positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a 0—yes, zero—from the League of Conservation Voters last year."
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Criticizing Presidential offspring
Presidential offspring who are minors should be left alone, yes. However, if 24 yr old Meghan McCain wants to write a public blog about her dad's Presidential campaign, then she opens herself up to commentary. It may be good, it may be bad, but them's the breaks when you put yourself out into public. She doesn't have to be involved in her dad's campaign, but she's chosen to do so. Ergo, she's fair game for the pundits. Same goes for Chelsea Clinton, or any other adult child of a Presidential candidate.
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For lack of an edit function...
That last line should read: Same goes for Chelsea Clinton, or any other adult child of a Presidential candidate who actively campaigns for their parent.
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It's the 'Culchure' stoopid....
In the UK we didn't have an abstinence program but we did have a comprehensive sex education policy. Even so we had the highest rate of teen pregnancies in europe and at a rate probably higher than in the US also. This suggests that cultural influences other than a simplistic eitheror based 'sex education v abstinence program' have a greater role to play.