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Weblog Opinions on John McCain Blogs on McCain via:
Search Blogs for "John McCain": News on McCain via: >McCain Media Free Ride >>McCain Lobbyists >>McCain Media Myths "The media, usually known for their ravenous appetite for scandalous behavior, have conveniently left out the legendary tales of the senator's hair-trigger temper, his mean and vulgar sense of humor, and his questionable ties to shady characters. While reporters spill gallons of ink on McCain's admirable qualities, they have shoved to the side his unattractive traits, features of the McCain personality and record that he is no doubt all too happy to have the public overlook." "If one looks beneath the surface, one can find a treasure trove of stories and anecdotes about a McCain that would be unrecognizable to many Americans: short tempered, foul mouthed, bullying, and unscrupulous." -via BOOK: "Free Ride: John McCain and the Media." DoubleTalkExpress - TheRealMccain.com - McCainSource.com - Truth-About-McCain - McCain Insults - StopJohnMcCain2008.com McCain TV McCain Military Judgement  McCain:
"Mission Accomplished".
Countdown:
McCain's "100 Years" War. [10 Million year update].
[McCain's
Iraq War.] How do you get to 100 years in Iraq? Six months at a time.
McCain
Iraq: "100 years, or a 1,000 years, or 10,000 years" in Iraq. McCain: "There's
going to be other wars".
McCain
falsely claims Sadr ordered the ceasefire in Iraq.
McCain
Won't Sign GI Bill?.
McCain
Iraq judgement 2002/09/24: "I
believe that the success will be fairly easy,"
2003/01/22: "We will win it easily.".
McCain's
Iraq 100 Years, 1000 Years, 10,000 Years.
Mcain's
pattern of falsehoods on Iran/alQaeda.
McCain's
strategy in Iraq "not tougher ... dumber".
McCain
"has no idea who the players are" in Iraq and Iran.
McCain
falsely asserts Iran trains al Qaeda (he's corrected by Lieberman).
Obama
on Iraq and McCain.
McCain's
Baghdad Iraq marketplace still unsafe and now controlled by radical Islamic
cleric Moqtada al Sadr's Mahdi army .
McCain's
March 2003 military judgement: "we will be welcomed as liberators" in Iraq.
McCain's
2002 military judgement: "We're not going to get into house to house fighting
in Iraq."
Less
Jobs and More Wars.
Bomb
Iran.
John
McCain's chart-topping single "Bomb Iran."
2002-09-29 McCain's
2002 military judgement: "We're not going to get into house to house fighting
in Iraq."
319 Missed Votes (58%)
John Sidney McCain III is Bush the 3rd News Subjects:
John McCain News
+News Topics:
McCain Weblog News Educational Reference, History, Facts, and Opinions on John McCain. Ctrl F "Control F" to find: McCain Campaign Finance McCain Economics McCain Environmental Record McCain Falsehood McCain Flip Flop McCain Health McCain Healthcare McCain Language McCain Math McCain Media Base McCain Military Judgement McCain Money McCain Money Lobbyists McCain Race History McCain Religion McCain Science McCain Temper McCain Torture |
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McCAIN: "They're the government; sooner or later we are going to have to deal with them, one way or another, and I understand why this administration and previous administrations had such antipathy towards Hamas because of their dedication to violence and the things that they not only espouse but practice, so . . . but it's a new reality in the Middle East. I think the lesson is people want security and a decent life and decent future, that they want democracy. Fatah was not giving them that.""
VIDEO: "Harwood: McCain has benefitted from very friendly press." ... "... [John Harwood] said that the McCain campaign is already “trying to work the referees in advance” to argue that Obama gets more favorable media coverage than McCain." ... "But Harwood noted that some would find McCain’s strategy “ironic” because the press — whom according to Harwood were McCain’s “base” in 2000 — have been “very friendly” to McCain over the years:" "HARWOOD: Now John McCain has benefited from very friendly press coverage for many years, but he’s going to try to argue, which will have a corollary benefit of rally conservatives if he can pull it off, of saying the press wants Obama to win. I’m pushing back…"
" -Meet the Press via ThinkProgress"RUSSERT: In 2000, John McCain referred to the press as his base."
"HARWOOD: They were his base."
VIDEOS: [Where is the equivalent 24/7 media tv loop of McCain's bigoted militant extremist preachers Hagee and Parsley?]
McCain Money, McCain Media Base
"WSJ's Henninger called Cindy McCain's refusal to release tax returns "a fairly marginal issue," but WSJ urged Heinz Kerry to release hers: Summary: On Lou Dobbs Tonight, Wall Street Journal deputy editorial page editor Dan Henninger said of Cindy McCain's refusal to release her tax returns: "I think it's a fairly marginal issue." But in a July 2004 editorial, the Journal asserted that it was "past time" for Sen. John Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, to release her tax returns, stating, "Their assets should be disclosed to the voters so that they can assess whether there are any potential conflicts of interest."" ... "The editorial's subheadline stated: "His divorce records are his own business. His wife's tax returns aren't." The Journal claimed: "The Kerrys would be the richest couple ever to live in the White House, and with wealth comes responsibility. Their assets should be disclosed to the voters so that they can assess whether there are any potential conflicts of interest." In calling on Heinz Kerry to release her tax returns, the Journal also cited the role Heinz Kerry's wealth purportedly played in her husband's presidential campaign. But Cindy McCain's personal fortune has reportedly played a role in the presidential campaign of her husband as well." -MediaMatters
VIDEO: "Cindy McCain Refuses to Release Her Tax Returns." ... ""This is about transparency."" ... ""Trust but verify"" -CNN view Citizens for Ethics [Cindy McCain was invested with corrupt money man Charles Keating for whom John McCain crossed ethical lines to protect from a federal investigation. The larger question is whether Cindy McCain is invested in any of the other entities that John McCain has done questionable corporate/government special favors for: Don Diamond, Steven A. Betts or Fred Ruskin, Paxson, Cablevision, EADS, the purported Russian mobster, or the repressive totalitarian Myanmar government, and that's just the short list, the more good journalists investigate the more questionable associations they are finding.
It's also noteworthy that the tax cuts for the elite rich that once offended John McCain when it didn't matter (they went through despite his bark no bite objections), the same tax cuts McCain has now flip-flopped on now that it DOES matter have tremendously benefited his $100 MILLION wife's estimated fortune.]
VIDEO: "Cindy McCain Refuses to Release Her Tax Returns... Ever." -NBC via TPMtv http://www.google.com/search?q=Cindy+McCain+Keating "Obama lets McCain have it: McCain comments "offensive" and he is "losing his bearings"." -America Blog
McCain Religion, McCain Media BaseVIDEO: "[McCain's endorser] Pastor Hagee Blames Homosexuals For Katrina! AGAIN!" -Countdown
McCain Religion, McCain Military JudgementVIDEO: "McCain's "Spiritual Guide" [Rod Parsley] Wants America to Destroy Islam." [Comment at Digg.com] ... "You may have heard of Rev. John Hagee, the McCain supporter who said God created Hurricane Katrina to punish New Orleans for its homosexual "sins." Well now meet Rev. Rod Parsley, the televangelist megachurch pastor from Ohio who hates Islam. According to David Corn of Mother Jones, Parsley has called on Christians to wage war against Islam, which he considers to be a "false religion." In the past, Parsley has also railed against the separation of church and state, homosexuals, and abortion rights, comparing Planned Parenthood to Nazis." ... "John McCain actively sought and received Parsley's endorsement in the presidential race. McCain has called Parsley "a spiritual guide," and he hasn't said whether he shares Parsley's vicious anti-Islam views. That's because the mainstream media refuses to ask. And so, we've taken matters into our own hands, joining Mother Jones to present the truth about McCain's pastor." ... "Since the media won't question McCain about his deeply bigoted pastor, it's up to you to call attention to this issue. Make McCain's pastor problem a major story by forwarding this video to your family, friends, and colleagues." ... "We can't let McCain get away with aligning himself with a religious leader who's called for an all-out war on Islam, someone who draws no distinctions between Muslims and violent Islamic extremists. Now is the crucial time to act." -Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films [John McCain's "spritual guide," Reverend Rod Parsley is a militant extremist who has an unholy and un-Christian worldview. McCain's seeking out associations with bigoted extremists like Reverend John Hagee and "agents of intolerance" like Reverend Jerry Falwell shows a pattern of right-wing extremism by McCain that has been whitewashed by the main-stream media. McCain's alliances with Parsley, Hagee and the late Falwell are not the actions of a "moderate" and certainly not the actions of a "maverick" who in wiser days rightly condemned such extremists as "agents of intolerance." Shame on McCain for dishonorably betraying his purported principles and shame on the media for concealing McCain's associations with such extremists. If McCain doesn't want the label "warmonger" than he needs to stop associating with warmongers.] http://google.com/search?q=McCain+Hagee http://google.com/search?q=McCain+Parsley http://google.com/search?q=McCain+warmonger http://news.google.com/news?q=McCain+warmonger
VIDEO: "In 2003, McCain Claimed ‘Mission Accomplished’ In Iraq, Now Claims ‘I Thought It Was Wrong At The Time’." ... "... McCain himself used the term “mission accomplished” when talking about the Iraq war on at least two occasions in 2003:" [red emphasis added] "– “Their morale could not be higher. This is a mission accomplished. They know how much influence Saddam Hussein had on the Iraqi people, how much more difficult it made to get their cooperation.” [This Week, ABC, 12/14/03]"WATCH: ""Mission Accomplished" Anniversary, Senator McCain.""– During an appearance on Fox News, host Neil Cavuto said, “many argue the conflict isn’t over.” McCain answered, “Well, then why was there a banner that said mission accomplished on the aircraft carrier? Look, the — I have said a long time that reconstruction of Iraq would be a long, long, difficult process, but the conflict — the major conflict is over, the regime change has been accomplished.” [FOX, Your World With Neil Cavuto, 6/11/03]"
[McCain's Military Prior Judgements:]
"... a McCain presidency will actually be a “third Bush term.”" -ThinkProgress
[2003:]
"– “I believe that this conflict is still going to be relatively short.” [NBC, 3/30/03]""–- “It’s clear that the end is very much in sight.” [ABC, 4/9/03]"
[2005:]
"–- “I think the situation on the ground is going to improve,” he says. “I do think that progress is being made in a lot of Iraq. Overall, I think a year from now, we will have made a fair amount of progress if we stay the course. If I thought we weren’t making progress, I’d be despondent.” [The Hill, 12/8/05]"
[It's noteworthy that prior to those military misjudgements, McCain falsely claimed in 2002 that:][2002:]
"“Because I know that as successful as I believe we will be, and I believe that the success will be fairly easy, we will still lose some American young men or women.” [CNN, 9/24/02]""“We’re not going to get into house-to-house fighting in Baghdad. We may have to take out buildings, but we’re not going to have a bloodletting of trading American bodies for Iraqi bodies.” [CNN, 9/29/02]"
[2003 January 22nd:]
"“But the point is that, one, we will win this conflict. We will win it easily.” [MSNBC, 1/22/03]"
[FOUR YEARS INTO THE IRAQ OCCUPATION, From a 2006 December 25th Associated Press news article:]"In Baghdad, a Christmas patrol." ... "Christmas was another working day for many in the [American] battalion, heading out to cordon off a dangerous section of eastern Baghdad and go house to house searching for insurgents, weapons and bomb-making materials." -By Will Weissert -AP
McCain Language, McCain Temper"McCain Refuses to Answer a Town Hall Question." ... "A man stood and, referring to an anecdote in a new anti-McCain book, asked the Republican presidential candidate if he had actually used a crude epithet in addressing his wife." ... "The original questioner was referencing the recently released anti-McCain book, “The Real McCain,” by Cliff Schecter, who reports that McCain blew up at his wife, Cindy, in front of Arizona reporters during his 1992 re-election campaign to the Senate. Schecter, who chronicles a number of alleged events where McCain’s temper flared, wrote that McCain called his wife a “trollop” and another term, one of the crudest words used to refer to women." -Laura Meckler VIDEO: "Baptist Minister Asks McCain: "Did You Call Your Wife A [****]?"" -HuffingtonPost "Baptist minister nabbed by Secret Service and cops for asking McCain if it's true he called his wife a [****]." ... "... three reporters say McCain did call his wife the c-word. I think that's a character issue conservative Christians, and a lot of Americans, might just care about. It hardly deserves being picked up by the cops and the Secret Service." -America blog "Questioner booted for rude language says he's worried by McCain's temper." ... "Clive businessman Marty Parrish was escorted from Sen. John McCain's town hall meeting by Des Moines police and members of the Secret Service after asking McCain if he had called his wife Cindy an expletive in 1992." ... "Parrish, an ordained Baptist minister who holds a master's degree in political science, was questioned by Secret Service agents before being released. He was not charged in the incident. Parrish asked whether McCain called his wife Cindy an expletive related to the female anatomy, as has been alleged in the book "The Real McCain," written by Dem strategist Cliff Schecter." ... "McCain's response got him a round of applause from the crowd: "There's people here who don't respect that kind of language, so I'll move on to the next questioner in the back."" -Chris Dorsey [Instead of simply saying NO, McCain deftly avoided answering the question of whether he'd hurled profanities at his wife, which leads to the obvious conclusion that McCain did indeed use the offensive, disrespectful language towards his wife. That McCain would use such language towards his wife in his 50's, and reportedly in front of witnesses, suggests McCain has a severely uncontrollable temper
More importantly, while there have been numerous anecdotes of McCain's abusive language, McCain's temper has at times gone beyond profanity and included physical attacks.
McCain has reportedly scuffled with both indicted Republican Rick Renzi, and Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley. And those two were his friends. There has also been reporting that McCain scuffled with elderly Strom Thurmond, in that physical altercation they reportedly "didn't part friends."] More about: Rick Renzi
McCain Healthcare, McCain Economics, McCain Money"The True McCain Health Plan: Wealth Transfer From Voters to Corporations." ... "The McCain plan, if enacted, would result in an enormous transfer of wealth from the general public to large American businesses." -RJ Eskow "John McCain On Healthcare: The Ultimate Hypocrite And Yes, Liar." ... "Roger Hickey has a great post at ourfuture.org on the "dangerous fraud" that is John McCain's healthcare plan. As I point out ad nauseam in The Real McCain, McCain's positions are not simply fraudulent. The "straight-talker" rarely limits himself to simple dishonesty." ... "Here is a man who has been on government healthcare his entire life (daddy was an Admiral) -- all seven decades -- who dares deride it by saying, "Unlike my opponents, I do not believe that all of our nation's problems can be solved by turning control over to our government...."" ... "No, only his own healthcare is worthy of that." ... "In case you missed McCain's position: Government healthcare is good enough to pay his hospital bills -- with your "taxes" to quote him -- but it is not good enough for the rest of us -- oh and by the way, can you spare $1000 "my friends?" That means a lot coming from a guy who enjoys lounging at 8 different houses on his wife's inherited dime, and laughably calls other candidates "elitist."" ... "With straight talk like that, who needs mendacity? " -Cliff Schecter [With McCain's wife worth an estimated $100,000,000 (that's $100 MILLION), it's noteworthy that American tax dollars are paying for McCain's deluxe government health care.]
"Ignoring McCain's "greeted as liberators" assurance [in March 2003], Wash. Post editorial credited him with prewar "foresight"." ... "... as Media Matters for America has_noted, in the days immediately preceding and following the invasion McCain affirmed Bush administration statements that U.S. forces would be greeted as "liberators." ... "before the war, McCain echoed Vice President Dick Cheney's well-known prewar prediction about the success of the mission in Iraq:" "Immediately after the invasion, McCain again echoed Cheney's optimism:"
- "On the March 12, 2003, edition of MSNBC's Hardball, host Chris Matthews asked McCain: "Do you believe that the people of Iraq or at least a large number of them will treat us as liberators?" McCain answered: "Absolutely. Absolutely.""
"Additionally, in an interview with Salon.com published on June 13, 2003, on the same topic McCain stated: "Now, I think it's entirely appropriate now that regime change has been orchestrated -- and though the danger is certainly not over, the mission is 'accomplished' -- it's appropriate to have a hearing."" -MediaMatters.org
- "On the March 24, 2003, edition of Hardball -- several days after the U.S.-led coalition had invaded Iraq -- McCain said: "[T]here's no doubt in my mind that we will prevail and there's no doubt in my mind, once these people are gone, that we will be welcomed as liberators.""
McCain Military JudgementVIDEO: "McCain's Yes, No, Maybe. ["John McCain on the Iraq-Korea Analogy."]" ... "Behind the recent "100 years" brouhaha has been Sen. McCain's claim that we should be seeing our occupation of Iraq following the model of our long-term troop deployments in Germany, Japan and South Korea. But yesterday, the Huffington Post noted that McCain actually hasn't been consistent on this point either -- sometimes saying we need to leave soon and that Iraqis will never accept a permanent US presence and other times that he thinks they'll be fine with it and that he'd be happy staying for 100 or 1,000 years." -TPMtv [John McCain's shifting the Iraq-Korea military comparison goalposts.]
- January 31, 2005 "On Korea Analogy: No."
- June 10, 2007 "On Korea Analogy: Could Be ["I don't know, really"]."
- August 20, 2007 "On Korea Analogy: Maybe."
- November 27, 2007 "On Korea Analogy: No."
- January 3, 2008 "On Korea Analogy: Yes."
VIDEO: "Candles. [5 Years into McCain's 100 Years in Iraq]." -karinmoveon [On May 1st 2003, Republican President George Bush declared, "Major combat operation in Iraq have ended," under the now notorious "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" sign.] [On April 9th 2003, Republican Senator John McCain declared, "It's clear that the end is very much in sight."]
VIDEO: "McCain Ups the Ante to One Million Years [in Iraq]." ... "John McCain on ABC's Good Morning America, January 9, 2008" TPMtv
McCain Healthcare, McCain Money, McCain Economics"Why John McCain Wants You To Give Up Your Health Insurance: The McCain Agenda: McCain believes that Americans use too much health care, and he has created a plan that will make care less affordable so millions of Americans will use less." -By Ezra Klein
McCain Money Lobbyists, McCain Healthcare"McCain introduced at health care event by health care lobbyist." -ThinkProgress.org
McCain Military JudgementVIDEO: "McCain: "Mission Accomplished"." -Double Talk Express
"The McCain Health Plan: Millions Lose Coverage, Health Costs Worsen, and Insurance and Drug Industries Win." ... "McCain’s plan is a dangerous fraud." ... "[McCain and his lobbyist advisors have] ... adopted the most extreme right-wing ideological approach, premised on the idea that the big problem in health care is that Americans have too much insurance – in their words, we don’t have enough “skin in the game” – and that only when we have to buy health care with money that comes directly out of our own pockets will consumers force doctors, hospitals and insurance companies to become more efficient." ... "So that’s the theory. But it is contradicted by the facts. Most of us already pay part of our premiums out of our own pockets, and we increasingly have to shell out for co-pays in order to get to see a doctor. The result—in practice—is that most people, even those with good insurance, now think twice or three times about even getting regular preventive health checkups. Having lots of “skin in the game” has meant that millions of Americans don’t get health care they need—and that’s one of the big problems in U.S. health care driving costs up, not down." ... "But McCain, like George Bush, pays more attention to ultra-conservative theory than he does to the facts. So McCain wants to tax workers’ health care premiums that are paid for by employers. Ask any expert, conservative or liberal, and they will tell you the result will be companies will stop providing health care as an employee benefit. Fortune Magazine quotes one of their experts on the impact of McCain's plan: “I predict that most companies would stop paying for health care in three to four years,” says Robert Laszewski, a consultant who works with corporate benefits managers." ... "Now keep this in mind: McCain and his corporate advisers don’t dispute this. The massive upheaval that would result – millions of families losing their health coverage on the job and then having to try to find an insurance company that would sell them a new policy that would cover their families—that’s not an unintended consequence of his proposal. That chaotic loss of health security is exactly what McCain intends to happen. " -Roger Hickey
McCain Health"The Folly of McCain-Care." ... "In just the last few weeks, this issue has started to become a political liability for McCain, thanks mostly to Elizabeth Edwards, who--in addition to being a well-known cancer patient--is also a well-known policy wonk. Edwards has given a series of speeches in which she has pointed out that neither she nor McCain himself, who is a three-time melanoma survivor, could buy individual insurance under his plan, since insurers would disqualify both of them for pre-existing conditions." -Jonathan Cohn
McCain Military JudgementVIDEO: "[McCain] In His Own Words." ... "100 Years in Iraq? Yes, he really did say it. Again and again. We explain the whole story in today's episode of TPMtv." -TPMtv "The Case of the Missing Education Policy: The McCain Agenda: Want to know what John McCain's plans are for fixing America's education system? Good luck. His last major statement was during his 2000 campaign." -Dana Goldstein
McCain Media Base, McCain Healthcare, McCain Falsehood"CNN continues trend of uncritically airing McCain's false attacks on Dems' health care plans." -MediaMatters.org VIDEO: "[McCain] Pop-Up Double Talk, Episode 2: Health Care." -Double Talk Express
"The McCain Agenda." -Prospect.org
McCain Language, McCain Military Judgement, McCain Religion"[McCain] The Militarist: Presumptive Republican nominee John McCain may protest that he hates war, but no American leader has promoted it more avidly. McCain is not only the most hawkish neocon on the horizon; he genuinely sees war as America's most ennobling enterprise." -Matthew Yglesias VIDEO: "TPMtv: Sunday Show Roundup: McCain's "Respectful" Campaign." -TPMtv
VIDEO: "[McCain Healthcare] Feeling the Pain." -SEIU
"McCain’s principles are leaving, on a jet plane." ... "John McCain, back when he was a champion of campaign-finance reform, fought for a measure requiring presidential candidates to pay the actual cost of flying on corporate jets. Around the same time, McCain also vowed not to rely on his wife’s considerable personal wealth to finance his presidential campaign." ... "It looks like both of those commitments, like far too many of McCain’s promises, are a little shaky.""[O]ver a seven-month period beginning last summer, Mr. McCain’s cash-short campaign gave itself an advantage by using a corporate jet owned by a company headed by his wife, Cindy McCain, according to public records. For five of those months, the plane was used almost exclusively for campaign-related purposes, those records show." ... "Mr. McCain’s campaign paid a total of $241,149 for the use of that plane from last August through February [five to seven months], records show. That amount is approximately the cost of chartering a similar jet for a month or two, according to industry estimates.""The problem in this instance is three-fold — the two commitments McCain was willing to break, and then the possible end-run around public financing." -Steve Benen
VIDEO: "McCain and Iraq: "100"." -DNC
McCain Military Judgement, McCain Language, McCain TemperVIDEO: "John McCain's Serious Foreign Policy." ... "John McCain was on a conference call with right-wing bloggers yesterday and boasted:" "I think that people should understand that I will be Hamas's worst nightmare."... "More disturbingly still, this chest-beating threat from McCain is merely the latest in a long line of adolescent, mindlessly belligerent war cries emanating from the Serious foreign policy candidate. In a GOP debate in May of last year, he bellowed that he would "follow [Osama bin Laden] to the gates of hell" only thereafter, according to ABC News, to then "crack[] a smile which gave the impression to some viewers that perhaps he viewed his own answer as being over the top." But he's since repeated that demonic formulation on numerous occasions, followed by the same creepy, self-satisfied smirk:" [Watch VIDEOS, also "McCain Smiles: "Gates of Hell,"" and McCain "facial expression"] ...
"And here was McCain's sober, Serious prescription in 2006 for ending sectarian warfare in Iraq:""One of the things I would do if I were President would be to sit the Shiites and the Sunnis down and say, "Stop the bullshit."""Add to that his merry singing of the joys of dropping bombs on the Iranian people, and it's clear that McCain's foreign policy approach seems even more childishly bellicose than the current occupant of the Oval Office." ... "McCain's foreign policy approach actually seems to be a less restrained and less complex rendition of Bush's "Bring-em-on" swagger that has really worked miracles in Iraq." -Glenn Greenwald
[ Glenn's use of sarcasm (above) sometimes eludes people.
McCain claims he would "follow [Osama bin Laden] to the gates of hell" except McCain doesn't know the road or even have a map.
When Republican President Bush said "bring em on" it recklessly endangered American troops by stupidly provoking an unpredictable enemy to literally attack our American troops. Beyond Bush's offensive disregard for American troops' lives, the statement broadly illustrated Bush's (and with few exceptions, the majority of Republicans) complete misunderstanding of international politics, it's relationship to military strategy, and the use of both to effectively secure America's national security.
John McCain's belligerent language for domestic political gain has international consequences both militarily and politically. This is something McCain has tried to use against Barack Obama when Barack said that he would follow up on actionable intelligence if Pakistan's Musharraf was unable or unwilling to do so. The irony being that Osama bin Laden is likely IN PAKISTAN and instead of following bin Laden THERE McCain is leading America into a war with IRAN with ignorant (or deceitful?) statements conflating Iran (which is Shia) with Al Qaeda (which is Sunni). The Shia Iranians are natural adversaries against the Sunni Al Qaeda. McCain's repeated misunderstanding of this shows disturbing ignorance of the military realities of the region or worse it represents the kind of systematic deceit that was used to help lie America into war with Iraq (all while Osama was reportedly rebuilding in Pakistan for incursions back into Afghanistan).
McCain doesn't know the Road to the Gates of Hell any better than he understands the antagonism between Shia and Sunni.
Barack Obama has a clear understanding of the Road that needs to be taken to secure America's security, and Hillary Clinton can be trusted to at least ask for directions.]
"Will McCain denounce Floyd Brown? It's time for the GOP to finally repudiate the creator of the infamous Willie Horton ad, who is back smearing Obama [with the North Carolina attack ad helping John McCain]." ... "He has given conservatism a rank smell for two decades -- and if there is a racist odor to the coming general election campaign, it is likely to emanate from his vicinity." ... "He lurks on the fringe of presidential politics because the Republicans tolerate and sometimes secretly encourage him, so long as they can claim that they have no connection with his schemes. Those denials have always been implausible -- and as he ramps up for a new season of divisive attacks, the question is whether the mainstream media will give Brown the kind of scrutiny he deserves." ... "Indeed, the Bush campaign had encouraged the makers of the Horton ad and certainly never made any serious effort to punish or even discourage the group. Two years later, in fact, significant evidence emerged that indicated possible collusion between Brown's gang and the official Bush cohort, specifically between Bush media consultant Roger Ailes, the future boss of Fox News Channel, and Larry McCarthy, the consultant hired by Brown to make the Horton ad." -Joe Conason
McCain Media Base"McCain Tips Hand, May Run Dishonorable Campaign." ... "The common wisdom among many is that in the case that Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee, the GOP hit machine will work as follows: A Republican crosses the line in attacking Obama, the media repeats the attacks over and over and over again in questioning whether it is right for the attacks to be put forward, John McCain quasi-denounces the attack, then a subsequent round of discussion (and replaying the attacks) goes on in the media. In such a situation, the attacks get out without McCain looking bad. Indeed, we've seen such a game play out surrounding an attack ad revolving on Reverend Wright that the North Carolina Republican Party is attempting to put on the air." ... "But there is a flaw with this common wisdom: McCain's clear willingness to resort to the lowest common denominator on his own." -Jonathan Singer "McCain Campaign: Associating Obama With Terrorists Is Fair Game." -Eric Kleefeld
McCain Temper"What McCain meant when he promised a ‘respectful campaign’." ... "Back in November, when most of the Republican presidential candidates were taking cheap shots at Democratic candidates, John McCain said he was above such behavior. “I think people want a respectful debate and a respectful discussion. And if they don’t, then obviously, I’m not the person to be their candidate,” McCain said at the time. “Legitimate policy differences, those should be debated and discussed. But I don’t think you should take shots at people.”" ... "It was an odd thing to say given McCain’s record of being a hothead who drops F-bombs on his colleagues who dare to disagree with him, but it was the kind of sentiment that sounded quite pleasant. After all, who’s against “respectful discussion” that focuses exclusively on “legitimate policy differences”?" ... "The problem, of course, is how McCain defines “respectful debate.” To borrow a line, McCain keeps using the phrase, but it doesn’t mean what he thinks it means." -Steve Benen "Despite saying he’ll ‘do everything’ in his power to stop NC [attack] ad, McCain hasn’t spoken to NC GOP head." -ThinkProgress "John McCain's Miserable Record on Hurricane Katrina." ... "... McCain's record on Hurricane Katrina suggests that he was part of the problem, not the solution. McCain was on Face the Nation on August 28, 2005, as Katrina gathered in the Gulf Coast. He said nothing about it. One day later, when Katrina made landfall in Louisiana, McCain was on a tarmac at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, greeting President Bush with a cake in celebration of McCain's 69th birthday. Three days later, with the levees already breached and New Orleans filling with water, McCain's office released a three-sentence statement urging Americans to support the victims of the hurricane." ... "McCain may talk sympathetically about New Orleans' recovery this week, but the record shows that when it mattered most, McCain failed to act." -Jonathan Stein
McCain Military Judgement, McCain Language, McCain Religion"Homeland Security Report Sharply Rebukes McCain’s ‘Islamic Extremism’ Rhetoric." ... "A recent DHS [Department of Homeland Security] report has concluded that linking Islam to terrorism offends moderate Muslims and gives extremists “religious legitimacy,” adding any such language should be avoided:" "Such words may actually boost support for radicals among Arab and Muslim audiences by giving them a veneer of religious credibility or by causing offense to moderates. […]""The report also stressed that “lingo like ‘Islamo-fascism’ is out, too,” a term that conservatives — including President Bush — consistently use to rally the country around a militant response to terrorism and terrorists." -ThinkProgress.org"U.S. officials may be “unintentionally portraying terrorists, who lack moral and religious legitimacy, as brave fighters, legitimate soldiers or spokesmen for ordinary Muslims,” says a Homeland Security report. […]"
"“We should not concede the terrorists’ claim that they are legitimate adherents of Islam,” the report said."
McCain Religion, McCain Money, McCain Temper"Charles Krauthammer: Dishonest Hypocrite." ... "... if Krauthammer wants to pretend that he's concerned about "the character and beliefs of a man who would be president," perhaps he can use his national platform to delve into the character and beliefs of John McCain. A few potential areas of concern:" "Any character issues there that you want to talk about, Chuck? I didn't think so." -Barb in MD"McCain seeking out and embracing endorsements from "men of God" who accuses the Catholic Church of conspiring with Hitler, who believe that Hurricane Katrina was a just punishment for the people of New Orleans, and who believe that our nation's destiny is to destroy the "false religion" of Islam. Kind of trumps what Reverend Wright had to say, doesn't it?" "McCain, who in his official capacity as a Senator, protected his Republican brethren from being exposed in the Jack Abramoff scandal." "McCain's anger management issues that have led to his trying to have women fired for crossing him and spewing profanities at colleagues who disagree with him. A temper so vile that Republican Senator Thad Cochran once said that the thought of McCain as President "sends a cold chill down my spine."" "McCain admitting to multiple affairs while married to his first wife, finally divorcing her to marry his current, millionaire wife who is 18 years his junior, which transformed him from a run of the mill adulterer into a cradle-robbing gigolo."
"The Swiftboating Begins." ... "What matters is going on the offense against the author of the typically bizarre, distracting, and hideous rightwing attacks: John McCain." ... "It ought to be beneath senator McCain to have his side label Obama as a terrible person because he has failed to shun a fellow who did wrong 40 years or is not a patriot because he neglected to wear a flag on lapel, or declined to disavow a Korean War vet and pastor because he spoke too harshly one Sunday. McCain went to Vietnam to re-open peaceful relations, so he knows the place of forgiveness. He is a man of military honor and knows how to respect a friend and a foe. Hence, it ought to be beneath McCain to tolerate attacks against Obama that closely resemble the despicable charges Bush launched against McCain in South Carolina in 2000. It should be the case that McCain doesn't just pretend to stop these attacks, but actually does so. Aside from his laissez-faire positions on iraq and the economy, McCain's primary disqualification for the oval office is that he knows these vile, crazy attacks are wrong for America but he won't stop them." -Reed Hundt
McCain Money, McCain Falsehood"McCain falsely claims he ‘never voted for a single earmark or pork barrel project.'" ... "claimed that he had “never voted for a single earmark or pork barrel project.” But, as NBC’s Adam Aigner-Treworgy points out, that isn’t true:" "While it is true that McCain has never sponsored an earmark — by the strict definition of the word — he has certainly voted for bills with earmarks, including some of the specific projects he criticizes most vocally on the campaign trail."-ThinkProgress
"McCain Wraps Up Poverty Tour With Speech At ‘Business Awards’ Banquet." ... "It’s fitting that McCain would end a tour of the poorest parts of the country by talking to wealthy Americans. After all, he is offering a $1.7 trillion dollar tax cut for corporations, despite U.S. corporate taxes being the fourth-lowest [PDF] in the industrialized world as a share of the economy." ... "Throughout this week, he has touted tax relief for the poor. But adults working full time earning minimum wage and living in poverty would not even receive a tax cut from McCain, as a Center for American Progress Action Fund analysis [PDF] reveals: "McCain Tax Plan Gives Nothing to Families in Poverty."-ThinkProgress
POOR FAMILIES
Single Parent with One Child
Single Parent with Two ChildrenANNUAL INCOME $12,000
$24,000TAX CUT $0
$0
"Flashback: As Katrina hit, McCain celebrated 69th birthday with Bush." ... "... as Newsweek notes, on Aug. 29, 2005, when Katrina had just hit New Orleans, McCain was posing with President Bush for his 69th birthday:" "It was Aug. 29, McCain’s 69th birthday, and on the tarmac, Bush presented his old political rival with a cake. The two posed, holding the cake up for cameras, and within seconds, went their separate ways. The cake, melting in the 110-degree Arizona heat, was left behind, uneaten.""“Yet on the issue of New Orleans, it’s still unclear how different McCain and Bush actually are,” Newsweek writes, noting that McCain has visited the Ninth Ward only twice since the storm. “The senator won’t present his own plans for recovery, at least not today.”" -ThinkProgress
VIDEO: "[McCain] Pop-Up DoubleTalk, Episode 1: New Orleans." [What John McCain SAYS (especially in front of the cameras for his media base) and what John McCain DOES are Two Different Things.] -DoubleTalkExpress
McCain Money"McCain Uses Prison Labor." ... "I guess that's what happens when a very_wealthy Republican realizes that there aren't many people who want to donate to, or volunteer for, their campaign. They hit up a town with a captive labor force for some free elbow grease." -Natasha Chart "An Alabama mayor gives the McCranky campaign all-but-free space rental and totally free inmate labor. So what else is new with Today's GOP?" -DWT
VIDEO: "[McCain Katrina "response"] Let them eat cake." ... "On the Morning Katrina Struck New Orleans, and Hours After the Levee Breach, McCain Was Enjoying Birthday Cake With President Bush. From the White House Website: "President George W. Bush joins Arizona Senator John McCain in a small celebration of McCain's 69th birthday Monday, Aug. 29, 2005, after the President's arrival at Luke Air Force Base near Phoenix. The President later spoke about Medicare to 400 guests at the Pueblo El Mirage RV Resort and Country Club in nearby El Mirage. White House photo by Paul Morse"" [Newsweek reports that the cake was "left behind, uneaten": "The two posed, holding the cake up for cameras, and within seconds, went their separate ways. The cake, melting in the 110-degree Arizona heat, was left behind, uneaten." While New Orleans was getting battered by Hurricane Katrina, McCain and Bush were posing with a photo-op prop of a perfectly good cake that was "left behind, uneaten."] - DoubleTalkExpress "GOP Bigot Eruption: McCain Again “Fights” His Party’s Racist Impulses." -Oliver Willis
McCain Media Base"Get Used to This Bull****." ... [re: the grossly offensive and subtly racist Republican ad being run by McCain's media base for free against Obama.]" "Step 1: GOP wingnut (is that redundant?) says something offensive, writes a nasty editorial, creates a vicious radio or tv spot."
"Step 2: Ad receives widespread coverage and national attention."
"Step 3: McCain condemns the ad/editorial/whatever."
"Step 4: Chris Matthews and other bobbleheads in the media show off their man-crush for McCain while praising his integrity AND showing the offending ad/editorial on national television."
"Step 5: I scream at the television and send another 25 bucks to the Obama campaign."
-John Cole
McCain Religion"Hagee Says Hurricane Katrina Struck New Orleans Because It Was ‘Planning A Sinful’ ‘Homosexual Rally’." ... "On September 18, 2006, Pastor John Hagee — whose endorsement Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said this past Sunday he was “glad to have” — told NPR’s Terry Gross that “Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans.” “New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God,” Hagee said, because “there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came.”" ... "On his radio show yesterday, right-wing talker Dennis Prager asked Hagee to respond to “the various charges made against him” in a fact sheet put out by the Democratic National Committee. Asked about his comments on Hurricane Katrina, Hagee said “the topic of that day was cursing and blessing”:" "HAGEE: Yes. The topic of that day was cursing and blessing. … What happened in New Orleans looked like the curse of God, in time if New Orleans recovers and becomes the pristine city it can become it may in time be called a blessing. But at this time it’s called a curse."
"Prager followed up by asking if all natural disasters are a result of “the divine hand” and if there is “any natural disaster that is not the result of sin?” Hagee responded by saying “it’s a result of God’s permissible will” and “that there was going to be a massive homosexual rally there the following Monday,” which he said “was sin”[.]" ... "In February, after working hard to gain Hagee’s endorsement, McCain said he was “very honored” to receive it." -ThinkProgress.org
"'Reformer' McCain Repeatedly Did Favors For Wealthy Donor." -HuffingtonPost on NYT article
McCain Temper, McCain Language"John McCain's uncontrollable rages." ... "Michael Leahy of the Washington Post chronicles a lifetime of abusive outbursts by Sen. John McCain." ... "Here ar[e] some of the highlights: McCain became embroiled in a profanity-laced shouting match with Senator John Cornyn in 2007, according to the article. He also had some kind of confrontation with Rep. Rick Renzi in 2006, a conflict that was reportedly touched off by McCain calling Renzi "boy" too often. McCain got into a famous shoving match with Chuck Grassley in 1992. In 1989 McCain shocked the capitol by getting in Sen. Richard Shelby's face." ... "The public has a right to know what measures, if any, McCain has taken to allay a destructive pattern of behavior that has plagued him since childhood." -Lindsay Beyerstein More about: Rick Renzi
McCain Media Base, McCain Money, McCain Math, McCain Falsehood"Stephanopoulos left unchallenged McCain's assertion that "every time you have cut capital gains taxes, revenues have increased"." ... "Summary: This Week's George Stephanopoulos did not challenge Sen. John McCain's assertion that "history shows every time you have cut capital gains taxes, revenues have increased -- going back to Jack Kennedy." Stephanopoulos did not note that, notwithstanding a potential short-term revenue increase, many economists have challenged the claim that revenue goes up over the long term as a result of capital gains tax rates being cut. " -MediaMatters.org
McCain Media Base"Kurtz: ‘Fox Should Mention’ That Karl Rove Is ‘A Maxed-Out Donor To McCain’." ... "On Sunday, Fox News Sunday hosted former Bush adviser Karl Rove — who has been a Fox News contributor since Feb. 5 — to offer supposedly independent analysis of the presidential race. As Think Progress noted, Fox refused to mention or acknowledge that Rove has been described as an informal adviser to the McCain campaign and is said to have provided electoral maps to the campaign." -ThinkProgress
McCain Money, McCain Money Lobbyists"Another McCain scandal for the media to ignore." ... "Wouldn't you like to pick up a piece of land from the Army — with special water rights where water is all-important — for a quarter of a million bucks and sell it at a $20 million profit two years later? You can. Just make friends with John McCain." ... "Why the New York Times chose the eve of the Pennsylvania primary to run this story. virtually guaranteeing that it won't develop any legs, is beyond me. Note that since McCain's wife — the one with the money, the one who was in a business deal with Charles Keating at the time when her husband helped Keating bilk the taxpayers of $2.3 billion — has refused to release her tax returns, we can't know what sort of financial goodies Donald Diamond has managed to slip her over the years." -Mark Kleiman
VIDEO: "McCain Flip-Flops In 30 Seconds: Hagee Endorsement A ‘Mistake,’ But ‘I’m Glad To Have’ It." ... "Last February, hard-line conservative evangelical Pastor John Hagee endorsed Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) candidacy for president. Despite Hagee’s history of controversial and bigoted comments –- such as calling Catholicism “The Great Whore” and blaming Hurricane Katrina on gays –- McCain said he was “very honored” to receive the endorsement, one which he also reportedly sought." ... "... McCain has been confused quite a bit lately on a wide range of issues:" "– McCain has said waterboarding “should never be condoned in the U.S.” but [McCain] voted against a bill banning the CIA from using torture, specifically including waterboarding."
"– McCain says he is “a consistent supporter of educational benefits” for the military but has indicated he will not support the bipartisan 21st Century GI Bill."
"– On at least three occasions, McCain baselessly claimed Iran is training Al Qaeda in Iraq but argued the error was an isolated slip of the tongue."
"– McCain falsely suggested that Al-Qaeda in Iraq is a “sect of Shi’ites.”"
"– McCain falsely claimed Moktada al-Sadr “declared the cease-fire” after recent fighting in Basra and has said he is both a “major player” in Iraq and that his influence “has been on the wane for a long time.”"
"– Economists and nonpartisan analysts have said recently that the numbers in McCain’s economic plan simply “don’t add up.”"
"– McCain has made the elimination of earmarks a cornerstone of his presidential campaign but he [McCain] can’t name any [earmarks] he would eliminate."
"– In a matter of one day, McCain said Americans are both “better off” and “not better off” than they were before President Bush took office." -ThinkProgress.org
McCain MoneyVIDEO: "Fabulous Life of John McCain." ... "In the US Senate, John McCain is the eigth-richest, worth a minimum of $28 million dollars. [Or well over $100 million dollars for the "MCCAINS" net worth depending on who's counting, as for average American economic problems, to McCain they are "psychological."]" ... "He has nine properties from Arizona to Virginia with an estimated worth of over thirteen million dollars, including a 2.7 million dollar condo on gorgeous Coronado Island." -[McCain] DoubleTalkExpress
McCain Campaign Finance, McCain Money Lobbyists"McCain finds a loophole in McCain-Feingold." ... "I see that John McCain, having cheated on the public-funding rules for the primaries, has now figured out a loophole in the McCain-Feingold legislation that will allow his fat-cat friends to give his campaign $70,000 each instead of $2300 each." -Mark Kleiman
McCain Race History"McCain's Exploitation of John Lewis." ... "On Monday morning, John McCain traveled to Selma, Alabama, to give a speech about patriotism and courage--that is, to expropriate the patriotism and courage of a Barack Obama supporter [60's civil rights leader John Lewis]." ... "McCain, of course, was not part of the civil rights movement. In fact, in 1983, he was one of 77 Republican House members to vote against the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. He has never been close to Lewis, according to an associate of Lewis. He did not tell Lewis he would be making this speech, and he did not invite Lewis to attend the event." -David Corn
"John McCain, Charles Grassley Physical Altercation Confirmed By Washington Post." ... "Sunday's Washington Post features a front-page story examining the notorious temper of Sen. John McCain, including a first-hand account of McCain's physical altercation with fellow GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley." "It was early 1992, and the occasion was an informal gathering of a select committee investigating lingering issues about Vietnam War prisoners and those missing in action, most notably whether any American servicemen were still being held by the Vietnamese. It is unclear precisely what issue set off McCain that day. But at some point, he mocked Grassley to his face and used a profanity to describe him. Grassley stood and, according to two participants at the meeting, told McCain, "I don't have to take this. I think you should apologize."" ... "McCain refused and stood to face Grassley. "There was some shouting and shoving between them, but no punches," recalls a spectator, who said that Nebraska Democrat Bob Kerrey helped break up the altercation.""Earlier this month, The Huffington Post first reported on charges leveled in Cliff Schecter's book, The Real McCain, that McCain had physically attacked GOP Arizona Rep. Rick Renzi. At the time, McCain issued a non-denial denial, saying the reports about his temper were either "false or exaggerated."" ... "But in the Washington Post today, McCain aide Mark Salter confirmed that Renzi and McCain had a very heated exchange:""Reports recently surfaced of Rep. Rick Renzi, an Arizona Republican, taking offense when McCain called him "boy" once too often during a 2006 meeting, a story that McCain aides confirm while playing down its importance. "Renzi flared and he was prickly," McCain strategist Mark Salter said. "But there were no punches thrown or anything.""" -Huffington Post More about: Rick Renzi
McCain Flip Flop"McCain’s flourishing flip-flop list." ... "" -Steve Benen
McCain Money, , McCain Flip Flop"Sugar Momma Cindy: Is John McCain A “Kept Man?”" ... "Among other journalistic crimes in his softball interview on This Week, John McCain was allowed by George Stephanopoulos to waffle unchallenged on the question of tax cuts. McCain now fully embraces the cuts that he once said "offended his conscience."" ... "But the question of how much McCain has personally benefited from those tax cuts gets more pointed as Cindy McCain refused this week to release her tax returns. CNN in the video above [see video here] had no problem creating a graph of the personal wealth of candidates that left out Cindy McCain's assets, but included those of Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton. Just a wee bit misleading." ... "The McCain campaign cites the decision of Theresa Heinz-Kerry as a precedent for not releasing Cindy McCain's returns. But As Media Matters notes, there's a big difference:" "These media reports, therefore, have advanced the McCain campaign's comparison between Cindy McCain's limited release of financial information and Heinz Kerry's, and in doing so, ignored a key distinction in the information they released: Unlike Heinz Kerry, Cindy McCain did not release sufficient information for the public to determine the extent to which she benefited from the tax cuts her husband supports extending.""Stephanopoulos never asked if John McCain's flip-flop on tax cuts has benefited Sugar Momma Cindy, or how we would know." -Jane Hamsher
VIDEO: "McCain Flip-Flops, Supports Immediate Reversal of Roe v. Wade." ... "In 1999, the “moderate” version of John McCain said that overturning Roe v. Wade would be dangerous for women and he would not support it, even in “the long term.”." ... "This morning on ABC, McCain — now aggressively courting the likes of Jerry Falwell — expressed his unequivocal support for overturning Roe v. Wade. Watch it:" -ThinkProgress.org "McCain now supports the immediate overturn of Roe v Wade." ... "St. McCain really is crashing and burning on his supposed principals trying to woo the right wing extreme Christian wing of the GOP. Now he says he wants to immediately overturn Roe v Wade after he was against it." "STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me ask one question about abortion. Then I want to turn to Iraq. You're for a constitutional amendment banning abortion, with some exceptions for life and rape and incest."
"MCCAIN: Rape, incest and the life of the mother. Yes." [red emphasis added]
"McCain wants a constitutional ban on abortion." ... "McCain used to say that Roe should be overturned and the issue of abortion "returned to the states"--which would be functionally equivalent to an abortion ban for most women. Now he says he favors a South Dakota-style abortion ban for the entire country." ... "John McCain is not principled and not moderate. He's a power-grubbing old man who sees his last chance to be president slipping away." -Lindsay Beyerstein
"McCain and Abortion: The Dance of Disingenuousness Continues." -Scott Lemieux "McCain supports overturning Roe." ... "He’s been wishy-washy on abortion in the past, back in his media-friendly “maverick” days, but now that he’s running for president he’s turning into the social conservative he needs to be to have any hope of making it through the GOP primaries." ... "Yes, Sen. John McCain told ABC’s George Stephanolpoulos this morning that he would support the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court." -Michael J.W. Stickings
McCain Military Judgement, McCain Falsehood"Ken Pollack: Al Qaeda is a great "catch-all" term [when McCain makes false military claims]." ... "The New York Times today examines John McCain's very Bush-like propensity to run around slapping the "Al Qaeda" label on everyone we're fighting in Iraq, even though . . . it's completely false to describe them that way. The article, needless to say, asks war cheerleader and Extremely Serious Middle East Expert Kenneth Pollack of the Brookings Institution what he thinks about that and he replies with one of the most striking statements in a while:" "Some other analysts do not object to Mr. McCain's portraying the insurgency (or multiple insurgencies) in Iraq as that of Al Qaeda. They say he is using a "perfectly reasonable catchall phrase" that, although it may be out of place in an academic setting, is acceptable on the campaign trail, a place that "does not lend itself to long-winded explanations of what we really are facing," said Kenneth M. Pollack, research director at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution."
... "Poor John McCain can't be expected to be accurate in describing the identities and goals of all our Enemies while on the campaign trail. That's far too complex to bother the shallow American voter with. So it's "perfectly reasonable" -- that's really the phrase Pollack used -- to just call them all "Al Qaeda," because it's not as though that term packs any sort of emotional punch or is likely to mislead people in thinking about whether we should withdraw. It's just convenient shorthand for "Arabs who think that we shouldn't be occupying Muslim countries" and, notwithstanding the fact that it's completely false, there is no reason whatsoever to object to McCain's efforts to mislead Americans into thinking that Iraqi insurgents are the same people who attacked us on 9/11." ... "It's unclear how anyone -- particularly given McCain's sloppy, manipulative use of the term "Al Qaeda" when discussing Iraq generally -- could have ruled out that McCain was being purposely misleading in trying to exaggerate the "Iranian threat," a centerpiece of his campaign, by actively linking them to "Al Qaeda."" -Glenn Greenwald
McCain Economics, McCain Money, McCain FalsehoodVIDEO: "McCain Tries To Run From Bush, One Day After Declaring ‘Great Progress Economically’ During Bush’s Tenure." ... [In one interview McCain says:]
"So despite all this “great progress,” Americans are still “hurting badly”? Maybe that explains why McCain has said that many of the country’s economic problems are just “psychological.”" ... "The Wonk Room has more here and here on McCain’s misguided economic plans to help the American public." -ThinkProgress.org
"I think Americans are hurting, and hurting badly. In fact, I think Americans are not better off than they were eight years ago...."
[But when asked the day before whether "... if Americans were asked, are you better off today than you were before George Bush took office more than seven years ago, what answer would they give?" McCain said:]
"... you could make an argument that there’s been great progress economically over that period of time."
"McCain: ‘A lot of our problems today are psychological.’." -ThinkProgress.org
VIDEO: "[McCain thinks Americans are better off, the facts show otherwise.]" ... [McCain thinks Americans are better off. Since Bush came into office:] "Household Income Down $1000. Unemployment Up. Highest Inflation in 17 Years. Gas Prices Up 200%. 1.8 Million Jobs Lost." -DNC "John McCain Lives Elite Lavish Lifestyle with Several Servants But Won't Release Wife's Tax Info." ... "No wonder the GOP nominee favors tax cuts for wealthy--he lives a lavish super-rich lifestyle on his wife Cindy's secret 100 million dollar fortune! He won't tell the American people exactly how rich she is, but his own tax returns give a sneak peak. Now this is a true elitist life-style with servants, care-takers at some of his reported 8 homes, and personal assistants." "...Charlie Gibson...." ... "... ask him, just for me: are you seriously claiminging that your family couldn't pay another 2 percent of a tax rate to fund the war you claim to support or the Vets that you stiff on the new GI Bill? Instead he makes my kids borrow it from the Chinese so that he can live his elitist lifestyle! That's a sin." ... "The AP reports as much as it can, given McCain's elitist secrecy about his family fortune:" " -Faithful Progressive"McCain reported paying $136,572 in wages to household employees in 2007. Aides say the McCains pay for a caretaker for a cabin in Sedona, Ariz., child care for their teenage daughter, and a personal assistant for Cindy McCain."
McCain Economics, McCain Money"McCain Gas Tax Holiday Worth Only 60 Cents a Day." -ThinkProgress.org
"10 Debate Questions John McCain Will Never Be Asked." -Perrspectives.com [Red emphasis added]
- "1. Do you agree with Pastor John Hagee that war with Iran is the fulfillment of biblical prophecy?"
"In February, you shared a stage with Pastor John Hagee and said you were "very proud" to have his endorsement. You also called the Reverend Rod Parsley, a man who said of Islam "America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed", your "spiritual guide." Do you believe America's mission is to destroy Islam? Do you join Pastor Hagee in believing the United States must attack Iran to fulfill the biblical prophecy of Armageddon in Israel in which 144,000 Jews will be converted to Christianity and the rest killed? Is that why you joked about "bomb bomb Iran?" If not, why will you not renounce the support of Hagee and Parsley?"- "2. Doesn't your legendary temper make you too dangerous to be trusted with the presidency of the United States?"
"Your anger, even toward friends and allies, is legendary. You purportedly dropped the F-Bomb on your own GOP colleagues John Cornyn and Chuck Grassley. In the book, The Real McCain, author Cliff Schechter claims you got into a fist-fight with your fellow Arizona Republican Rick Renzi. Allegedly, you even publicly used a crude term, one which decorum and the FCC prohibit us from even saying on the air, to describe your own wife. Which if any of these episodes is untrue? Don't your anger management problems make you too dangerously unstable to be president of the United States?"- "3. Doesn't your confusion regarding basic facts about the war in Iraq, including repeatedly citing a nonexistent Al Qaeda-Iran alliance, make you unfit for command?"
"On four occasions in one month, you confused friend and foe in Iraq by describing Sunni Al Qaeda as being backed by Shiite Iran. Then you showed a misunderstanding of the U.S. chain of command when you claimed you would not back shifting forces from Iraq to Afghanistan "unless Gen. [David] Petraeus said that he felt that the situation called for that," a decision which Petraeus himself told you and your Senate colleagues only the week before rests not with him but with his superiors. Doesn't your lack of understanding and judgment when it comes to basic facts of America's national security disqualify you as commander-in-chief?"- "4. Given your past adultery, should Americans consider you a moral exemplar of family values?"
"You are the nominee of a Republican Party which claims to support so-called "family values." Yet you commenced an adulterous relationship with your current wife Cindy months before the dissolution of your previous marriage to your first wife Carol. Should Americans consider you to be a moral exemplar of family values?"- "5. Doesn't your flip-flop on Jerry Falwell being an "agent of intolerance" show your opportunistic pandering to the religious right?"
"In 2000, you famously called the late Jerry Falwell "an agent of intolerance," a statement which may have cost you the decisive South Carolina primary. But as you ramped up your next presidential run in 2006, you embraced Falwell and gave the commencement address at his Liberty University. When Tim Russert asked that spring if you still considered him an agent of intolerance, you said, "'no, I don't."Why shouldn't the American people consider you a flip-flopping opportunist who cynically courted the religious right to further your 2008 presidential ambitions?"- "6. Given your wealth and privileged upbringing, aren't you - and not Barack Obama - the elitist?"
"You have called Barack Obama an elitist. Yet you recently returned to your exclusive private high school, one which now costs over $38,000 a year to attend. Your wife is the heiress to a beer distribution company, reputedly owns 8 homes and has a net worth well over $100 million. Your children all attended private schools, academies which also happened to be the primary beneficiaries of funds from your
