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so did McCain just blow it? (pg. 141)
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| mezzir |
| quote: | Originally posted by Sukhoi29SU
Yes, I viewed that post as very ... frustrating.
That sort of disrespect to someone who was serving his country in a war, and spent 5* years being tortured, is astounding to me. |
Here's the thing. I respect McCain's service for this country, but the fact of the matter is that his detention in NO way makes him more qualified to be president. He keeps citing it like its some great credential, but while I wish him no disrespect, I see it as mostly irrelevant these days. Yes its important in how it shaped his view on torture, and I agree with him mostly on that, but that experience is almost completely irrelevant NOW. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the reason for Rob's hyperbole was because its just ing old at this point, everyone knows he was in a POW camp, its not news. There are a number of pressing issues right now and discussing his detention not only does not address these issues, but it takes time away from the time he could be discussing ACTUAL THINGS HE WOULD DO.
Character does count for a lot, granted, but I'm looking for substantial policies, views, and responses to questions, and I feel like the McCain/Palin camp has been acutely avoiding all three whenever possible. |
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| woscar99 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Sukhoi29SU
That's where my opinion differs from 99% of the rest of the people in this forum. I don't believe the US is "ing with the world". I believe as a world power we have a responsibility. Is Great Britain "ing with the world", too? |
You are right about the responsibility...yet, all this past administration has done is being utterly irresponsible.
How is starting a war in Iraq when all the 'world powers' are opposed to it (besides the UK and Spain, who is not really a world power but happened to have a seat at the UN Security Council at the time) not ing with the world? |
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| nchs09 |
| He just thinks he is the police of the world. Oh so mighty.. |
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| delobbo |
| quote: | Originally posted by nchs09
He just thinks he is the police of the world. Oh so mighty.. |
and, I think its possible to aid other countries without coming off like that - something I think Obama would be able to do. |
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| woscar99 |
| quote: | Originally posted by delobbo
and, I think its possible to aid other countries without coming off like that - something I think Obama would be able to do. |
Darfur would be a nice place to start. |
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| Lebezniatnikov |
| quote: | Originally posted by Sukhoi29SU
That's where my opinion differs from 99% of the rest of the people in this forum. I don't believe the US is "ing with the world". I believe as a world power we have a responsibility. Is Great Britain "ing with the world", too? |
David Cameron came out and practically endorsed Obama this week. |
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| Lebezniatnikov |
| quote: | Originally posted by Sukhoi29SU
Dude, you have a lot to learn.
Have a nice night. |
Do you believe that there was a connection between Iraq and 9/11?
hint: al qaeda first entered Iraq in 2004. |
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| Lebezniatnikov |
Best analysis I've read:
| quote: | Your VP debate wrapup in four bullet points
02 Oct 2008 10:45 pm
Quick guide:
* Ifill, moderator: Terrible. Yes, she was constrained by the agreed debate rules. But she gave not the slightest sign of chafing against them or looking for ways to follow up the many unanswered questions or self-contradictory answers. This was the big news of the evening. Katie Couric, and for that matter Jim Lehrer, have never looked so good.
* Palin: "Beat expectations." In every single answer, she was obviously trying to fit the talking points she had learned to the air time she had to fill, knowing she could do so with impunity from the moderator. But she did it with spunk and without any of the poleaxed moments she had displayed in previous questions. The worst holes in her answers - above all, about the Vice President's role, also either mishearing or ignoring the question about her "Achilles heel" - were concealed in ways they haven't been before.
* Biden: No mistakes. This is a bigger deal than it seems, since Biden could easily have seemed bullying, condescending, chauvinistic, or whatever. He didn't. And while he was woolly-sounding in the beginning, he was commanding and authoritative - from his side's perspective - on issues of foreign policy and constitutional balance. And to all appearances sincere in his choking-up near the end when talking about having a child in peril. Overall, don't see how he could have balanced all the conflicting pressures on him much better.
* The race: No fundamental change. Which is better news for Obama than McCain.
That's all for instant-analysis. On to the next debate.
Update: How was it, considered strictly as a debate? Of course Biden did a far better job -- he answered the questions rather than moving straight to talking points, he drew on a vastly broader range of factual references, he attacked his opponents in ways that were relevant to the subject under discussion. But this is not how the event was being watched or scored. |
http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com...e_review_in.php |
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| Lira |
| quote: | Originally posted by woscar99
By stopping to with the rest of the world and put a stop to the "I own this ing world and can do whatever I want" the past administration has so successfully projected. |
| quote: | Originally posted by nchs09
He will change the face of the U.S. in the eyes of most of the world. Not as in just a fresh face, but the entire foreign policy and being able to speak to world leaders instead of ignoring them because they believes are different from his own.
Foreign policy is pretty much all i care about. I wont be living here soon so i could care less about the other stuff. Obamas plan for health insurance and tax cuts for most of the country, but an increase for the people making over 250 also makes sense. I cant see McCains plan of cuting taxes for everyone working. |
| quote: | Originally posted by delobbo
thank you both. I have been saying pretty much the same thing over the past year, the world is waiting for us to get someone like Obama into office. And people argue this is for their own advantages, but let's wait and see what happens. Is America's language going to become Muslim all of a sudden? I don't think so. Other countries are just going to think of us more highly than they do now, that we (finally) were able to get Bush (and McCain) out of the White House. If the democrats had a stronger candidate in 2004 I am sure Bush would not have been re-elected. But even I myself could not stand Kerry. |
As a foreigner, I've got to agree. |
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| Lebezniatnikov |
| quote: | 100 percent, absolute truth?
By: Alexander Burns
October 2, 2008 12:39 PM EST
John McCain told the Des Moines Register this week that he always tells "100 percent absolute truth," even in campaign ads. There's one big problem with that bold statement: it's just not true.
McCain has made a number of statements — in paid ads and on the campaign trail — that simply cannot be described as 100 percent accurate. Some aren't even close.
Barack Obama is guilty, too. He falsely accused McCain of wanting to slice Social Security benefits in half and grossly exaggerated his role in writing this year's economic stimulus plan. He also promised to accept public financing — and then proceeded to opt out when it was clear he could raise more money on his own.
But only McCain made this dare: Prove it, he told the Register. The paper did not — Politico will.
With the help of the truth-squad crew over at the invaluable Politifact and factcheck.org, as well as other fact-checking websites, here is a list of some of McCain's biggest whoppers:
1. On "The View," McCain claimed Sarah Palin did not take or request earmarks as governor of Alaska. "Not as governor, she didn't," McCain said. But in her first year in office, she requested $256 million in earmarks from the federal government.
2. Shortly after announcing Sarah Palin as his running mate, the McCain campaign ran an ad claiming, "She stopped the bridge to nowhere" — perhaps the most thoroughly debunked claim about the Alaska governor, who supported the bridge project before changing her position late in the game. Asked about the bridge during her 2006 gubernatorial bid, Palin replied: "I'm not going to stand in the way of progress."
3. At the Republican National Convention, McCain claimed Obama's national health insurance plan would "force small businesses to cut jobs, reduce wages and force families into a government-run health care system where a bureaucrat stands between you and your doctor." But according to factcheck.org, Obama's plan does not place burdens on small business, and people would have the option of keeping their existing insurance plans.
4. In a campaign ad, "Dome," McCain claimed Obama's election would result in "painful income taxes, skyrocketing taxes on life savings, electricity and home heating oil," the clear implication being that Obama wants to hike these tax rates. But factcheck.org says Obama hasn't proposed a tax on electricity or home heating oil and wouldn't raise taxes on investments for individuals earning less than $200,000 a year.
It's possible Obama's election would result in these tax rates increasing. But this McCain-Palin claim is a little like the Obama camp's misleading attack on McCain's Social Security plan, tagging his opponent with the most undesirable, unintended and far from certain consequences of his policy proposals.
5. McCain has repeatedly accused Obama of supporting higher taxes on people making as little as $42,000 a year. "Two times, on March 14, 2008 and June 4, 2008, in the Democratic budget resolution, he voted to raise taxes on people making just $42,000 per year," McCain said this week. But this is a misleading claim: Obama's votes were for nonbinding resolutions, which supported allowing certain Bush administration tax cuts to expire but didn't actually have the effect of raising taxes.
6. In a July visit to Colorado, McCain told voters: "I want to look you in the eye: I will not raise your taxes nor support a tax increase. I will not do it." Last Sunday, however, McCain acknowledged to ABC's George Stephanopoulos that his health care plan could lead to some people paying taxes on employer-provided health insurance.
"It depends on what plan they have," McCain said. "But that's usually the wealthiest people."
7. McCain's campaign claimed adviser Rick Davis had taken a leave of absence from his firm, Davis Manafort, and vigorously attacked a New York Times story suggesting that Davis had profited from Davis Manafort's relationship with mortgage lender Freddie Mac. "Mr. Davis has seen no income from Davis Manafort since 2006," wrote McCain spokesman Michael Goldfarb, who called the Times story "demonstrably false."
"Mr. Davis has never — never — been a lobbyist for either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac."
But Davis Manafort was receiving $15,000 monthly payments from Freddie Mac as recently as August, and while the payments didn't go to Davis personally he still stands to gain from the success of his firm.
8. McCain has boasted of never requesting a single earmark, saying in January: "I have never asked for nor received a single earmark or pork-barrel project for my state." But he has requested federal funding for special projects back home, including $10 million for a center at the University of Arizona, $5 million for a home-state water project and spending authority to purchase land around Arizona's Luke Air Force Base.
Politifact says it's a matter of debate whether these projects constitute pork-barrel spending — but clearly McCain has searched for federal help in his own backyard.
9. In last Friday's debate, McCain accused Obama of "voting to cut off funds for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan." But Obama has consistently voted in favor of war funding bills, including an earlier version of the bill McCain was discussing. The Illinois senator voted against this particular proposal because it did not push the Bush administration toward a timetable for withdrawal. McCain's comment was technically defensible — but rather too sly to be called "absolute truth."
10. In July, McCain accused Obama of skipping his visit to a military hospital in Germany because he was told he couldn't bring reporters and video cameras. McCain ran an ad saying: "Seems the Pentagon wouldn't allow him to bring cameras." But when pressed to provide evidence that Obama had canceled the visit for this reason, McCain's campaign could not support their claim — and media reports found no evidence that Obama had ever planned to bring media with him. |
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory....8D6B21EC4B92FAA |
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| Alex |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lebezniatnikov
David Cameron came out and practically endorsed Obama this week. |
Gordon Brown as well, he's been hinting at it over and over.
Not to mention the world polls that have been conducted, the US will regain a vast amount of it's lost respect simply by electing Obama. |
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