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McCain the "moderate"?
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| MisterOpus1 |
Really?
We all know where McCain has stood on Iraq - steadfastly by Bush's side including Bush's "last push" to send 20,000 more troops to Iraq:
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/ml...cs/15866440.htm
Despite what General Abizaid had mentioned the futility of such a plan:
| quote: | | ABIZAID: Senator McCain, I met with every divisional commander, General Casey, the core commander, General Dempsey, we all talked together. And I said, in your professional opinion, if we were to bring in more American Troops now, does it add considerably to our ability to achieve success in Iraq? And they all said no. And the reason is because we want the Iraqis to do more. It is easy for the Iraqis to rely upon to us do this work. I believe that more American forces prevent the Iraqis from doing more, from taking more responsibility for their own future. |
But let's move to some more domestic issues. We all remember McCain's recent kiss-up to the religious nutbag Jerry Falwell earlier this year, right?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...6051300647.html
Well it appears to be a little more of a lovefest than originally thought. Just recently McCain hired a key Falwell staffer to his presidential campaign:
http://www.dailypress.com/news/loca...dlines-virginia
This guy has been training Falwell's followers to confront "the culture of moral default":
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11078887/site/newsweek/
Which I guess we can all interpret as those damn gays who created 9/11 I suppose.
Of course the McCain camp is trying hard to downplay such a hire:
| quote: | The Rev. Jerry Falwell, chancellor of the Lynchburg university, said he has not endorsed a candidate, and O’Donnell’s appointment should not be interpreted as a signal that he is backing McCain…”Senator McCain is getting a real winner, and I’m sure Brett will be a great help to him,” Falwell said. “He’s getting Brett at the peak of his production.”
http://www.dailypress.com/news/loca...dlines-virginia |
Ahh yes, just look the other way as I attempt to garner up the religious fringe voters, please.
Anyhoo, what else? Oh yeah, just this morning McCain stated he support overturning Roe v Wade:
| quote: | 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.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So is President Bush, yet that hasn’t advanced in the six years he’s been in office. What are you going to do to advance a constitutional amendment that President Bush hasn’t done?
MCCAIN: I don’t think a constitutional amendment is probably going to take place, but I do believe that it’s very likely or possible that the Supreme Court should — could overturn Roe v. Wade, which would then return these decisions to the states, which I support.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And you’d be for that?
MCCAIN: Yes, because I’m a federalist. Just as I believe that the issue of gay marriage should be decided by the states, so do I believe that we would be better off by having Roe v. Wade return to the states. And I don’t believe the Supreme Court should be legislating in the way that they did on Roe v. Wade.
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/11/19...rtion/#comments |
Nevermind what our little flip-flopper said back in '99:
| quote: | I’d love to see a point where it is irrelevant, and could be repealed because abortion is no longer necessary. But certainly in the short term, or even the long term, I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade, which would then force X number of women in America to [undergo] illegal and dangerous operations.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-sr...ccain082499.htm |
It's gotta be hard to appeal so desparately to those fundies!
Oh, and in case anyone forgot where McCain was with the lovely little GOP intervention with Terry Schiavo:
And just for kicks, let's throw in his stance on Medicare:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/...09/ai_n15643757
and social security:
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/03/25/O...hn_McCain.shtml
While I can appreciate his desire to a compromise on judicial appointees and stopping a possible filibuster last year, as well as his stance on gay marriage, I think it's clear that he's positioning himself to lure in the faithful religious voters as much as he possibly can. I think it's also a matter of time before he flip-flops on his advocacy for gay marriage and will call for a ban alongside of the fundies as well.
My point here is simple - this guy is the furthest thing from a moderate with stances such as these. One or two of these positions here and there I might consider as a moderate, but taken as a whole these stances are clearly that of a far-right agenda, nothing else. |
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| josh4 |
| Opus, I really think you'd be much happier if you had a blog of your own to write in. Maybe consider applying for one of the already established blogs. |
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| MisterOpus1 |
| quote: | Originally posted by josh4
Opus, I really think you'd be much happier if you had a blog of your own to write in. Maybe consider applying for one of the already established blogs. |
Bleh. Too much time. I do that and I'd feel way too committed to it. Besides, I like this place I've called "home" for so many years...:D |
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| pkcRAISTLIN |
plus, some of us would miss the grumpy old bastard.
hmmm, i used to like mccain (insofar as i might like any US politician, esp a republican) but fooling around with the religious right aint my idea of a top candidate.
is it likely the roe v wade decision would be overturned? |
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| MisterOpus1 |
| quote: | Originally posted by pkcRAISTLIN
plus, some of us would miss the grumpy old bastard.
hmmm, i used to like mccain (insofar as i might like any US politician, esp a republican) but fooling around with the religious right aint my idea of a top candidate.
is it likely the roe v wade decision would be overturned? |
Hard to say, though I would probably lean toward the "unlikely" camp for a number of reasons. First, it's very well set in established law with something like 30 or so cases supporting it and have therefore given it legal precedent. Second, despite the majority of the U.S. public agreeing on restrictions for abortion, the majority also believes Roe v Wade should be upheld. For these reasons (and probably others I'm not thinking of ATM), I think the religious folks in the Republican party understand that they cannot outright attack Roe but instead have slowly chipped away at it with a given number of restrictions here and there.
And admittedly, this is one of those issues that I really don't have a strong stance on - I've been a fence-sitter for some time and will probably continue to do so. |
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| stevieboy32808 |
| Oh goodness, again with the McCain guy. He's all over the place. I wonder why so many people are entertaining this guy's run for presidency. It feels like people just got bored one day and decided to hype this guy up as of late. This is not a shot at you Opus. I'm just wondering why all the renewed interest? |
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| MisterOpus1 |
| quote: | Originally posted by stevieboy32808
Oh goodness, again with the McCain guy. He's all over the place. I wonder why so many people are entertaining this guy's run for presidency. It feels like people just got bored one day and decided to hype this guy up as of late. This is not a shot at you Opus. I'm just wondering why all the renewed interest? |
Well to be honest, I'm not so sure it's necessarily renewed, per se. McCain has done a pretty good job of keeping himself in the news in some way or fashion. I guess my personal problem with him is that I was once sold the bill that he was a "moderate", and in a number of ways he really came across as one which was why I liked and respected the guy (even though there were disagreements I had with him with other issues). I really can't tell if this is political posturing or if he's actually catering more to the religious right because of his own beliefs becoming more in line with theirs. Either way I disagree with it and want to point these things out. |
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