My words on McCain

[jsamuel]

Post from July 26th 2005: Is "Moderate" a bad word?

This thread is not for bashing one side or another, but rather to look at how the media will label candidates as "moderate" or not.

John McCain has been seen as a "moderate" while many of us here have seen him fall in line with Bush on everything except for torture. This is a powerful word that would cause any uninformed member of the public to say...

Hmmm... either the "moderate" or the "extreamist".

Most people who are uninformed would choose the moderate. This can be a problem when being "moderate" has a nothing to do with record and everything to do with a label.

In other words, calling one candidate a "moderate" is as effective as smearing the other one.





Email sent out a week or two ago:


McCain defends bombing raid: "Sorry, but it's a war on terror."

I understand a lot of people respect McCain. I respect him as well, however, as far as politics go, he is just like Bush. The only difference between him and Bush is that McCain has some ethics and is fully against torture. But when it comes to policy and presidential powers, he has the same views as Bush. If you are looking for a moderate republican, I suggest you look more for Sen. Arlen Specter. He is very republican, but he has great ethics and understands the importance of the constitution and the balance of powers. He is the head of the judicial committee and also wants to investigate the abuse of law by Bush over the wiretapping without warrants.



jsamuel




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SENIOR US senator John McCain has lamented the loss of innocent life during a US bombing raid in Pakistan, but said such casualties were unavoidable as Washington robustly pursued its "war on terror".

"It's terrible when innocent people are killed, he said. " We regret that. But we have to do what we think is necessary to take out Al-Qaeda, particularly the top operatives."

"We regret it. We understand the anger that people feel, but the United States' priorities are to get rid of al-Qaeda, and this was an effort to do so," the Republican lawmaker said.

"We apologize, but I can't tell you that we wouldn't do the same thing again."

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17835401-1702,00.html?from=rss

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Politics is rarely simple

I admire John McCain for many things, but not for his politics.

At least, he arrived at his militarism from personal experience and his own analysis, not the casual political expediency of George Bush or the fanatical ravings of his Straussian advisors. John McCain can be reasoned with, and he could probably have been talked out of most of the excesses that George Bush indulged. McCain's acquiescence to the Republican Party Line is deplorable, and I think he'll come to regret it. But he's not a slime pit creature like most of the Team Bush zombies.

It may be praising with faint damnations, but it fits pretty well. Not all Republicans are hellspawn, even though I may not agree with them. But most of them are on that bandwagon.

Like so many of our fellow Democrats, the Republicans are counting on us, as well, to sound the alarm.

--p!

[Disturbed]

2. John McCain, Hypocrite

John McCain, Hypocrite
by Doug Ireland

John McCain, the media's darling, has found a clever way around his own campaign finance reform law to take big corporate bucks in furtherance of his political ambitions while carrying water for the corporate mammoth providing the dough. But the national press is ignoring the story.


The Associated Press first ran the story of John McCain's odorous but lucrative Senatorial service to the communications giant Cablevision on the afternoon of March 7. But, while some local papers in McCain's home state (like the East Valley Tribune) have run the story, nothing has as yet made it into the print editions of the New York Times, the L.A. Times, the Washington Post, or any of the half-dozen other big city dailies I checked (although, if one searches the hundreds of AP stories available on the Post's website on its Politics page by clicking on "Latest Wire Reports," one can find it there--but how many readers would bother to do that?) One notable exception: the Kansas City Star.


Here's what the AP's investigation found:


McCain repeatedly intervened on behalf of a policy Cablevision favored -- one which "congressional and private studies conclude could make cable more expensive" -- while his chief political adviser, Rick Davis (who's masterminding McCain's probable '08 presidential rerun) solicited $200,000 in contributions from Cablevision to an institute that promotes McCain and pays Davis a $110,000 annual salary.


The Reform Institute was set up to promote McCain and his issues--especially campaign finance reform, embodied in the famous McCain-Feingold law. This Institute is "a tax-exempt group that touts McCain's views and has showcased him at events since his unsuccessful 2000 presidential campaign," and it "often uses the senator's name in press releases and fund-raising letters and includes him at press conferences," the AP says. And, of course, it provides a cushy sinecure with no heavy lifting for McCain's main man, Davis, as he prepares the pontificating Senator's next presidential run. Cablevision's contributions account for a whopping 15% of the Institute's budget.


http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0309-35.htm


** I am going to post this for a few months everytime I see McCain's name on DU.

[Dogmudgeon]

3. You don't need to convince me

If I gave a different impression, the negligence was mine.

McCain's saving grace is that he's not a fanatic, psychopath, or lunatic. Hypocrite, tool, and catchfart -- well, that's a whole different level of bad. It's a lot less bad than the Inner Circle of Team Bush, but it's sure not his good side.

Like I said, the Republicans are going to have to listen to someone with enough stones to tell them the truth, and it's going to have to be us.

--p!