RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events McCain in 08?

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Rob Kamphausen said:
because he's the type of guy thats willing to say what he believes and stick to his convictions, even if it pisses off people he's supposed to have to agree with. he's willing to hear out both sides of the fence, better than any politician i've ever seen.

hell, he almost seems like he's not a politician, he's so good.

mcain, or mccain as i call him, would be the best president in, and for, a generation.

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Campaign Finance Reform
Laudably, McCain’s 2000 campaign focused almost exclusively on rooting the monetary evil out of politics. It was one of the reasons the Straight Talk Express was on a roll until Bush and the Republican Party machinery sabotaged him. McCain’s persistence in the Senate eventually yielded the strongest campaign-finance reform legislation in history, and even that bill, McCain-Feingold, was a compromise: If McCain had his way, American elections would be publicly funded.


Global Warming
McCain is the best Republican in the country on global warming. And that’s not just because he’s one of the few members of his party who believes that there is such a thing called science. Always willing to back up words with action, McCain has repeatedly tried to broker legislative deals on the issue. He hasn’t yet succeeded, but given a slightly different congressional makeup, McCain could conceivably force a bill to the president’s desk.


Torture
I think it’s safe to say he’s against it. Five years in the Hanoi Hilton gives a guy a certain amount of credibility on the subject, and McCain sees his fight against torture as protecting future POWs from the same treatment he got. And maintaining America’s moral authority and image. That’s why it didn’t matter to him that Bush was embroiled in scandal when McCain led a successful crusade directly against the White House on the issue of torture. McCain knew exactly what he was doing: Had the same number of senators, but not including McCain, opposed torture, Bush would not have caved. McCain was rightly celebrated, but how low has the political bar fallen when a Republican who refuses to euphemize torture has become an anomaly?

Which brings us to McCain’s dark side:


John McCain Hates Choice
You gotta work hard to get a 0 percent rating from NARAL. Meaning: On the hundreds of votes McCain makes on abortion-related issues, he never once even accidentally found himself on the pro-choice edge. That’s commitment. Worse, The New Yorker reported that McCain got Gary Bauer’s endorsement in 2000 by promising not to appoint any Supreme Court justices who didn’t support overturning Roe. Even Bush, according to Bauer, refused to take that pledge. That’s a shocker that puts things into perspective: On choice, Bush is McCain-lite.

The Shill
McCain actually called campaigning for Bush “one of the proudest moments of my life.” This after Bush and Rove ran the dirtiest campaign in modern political history against the Senator during the 2000 South Carolina primary, questioning his sanity, his war record (!), and running a whisper campaign about his adopted Bangladeshi daughter, whom they called his “black love child.” Instead of kicking Bush’s ass personally, McCain holds Bush’s hand all across the country in 2004, probably winning the election for him — even after Bush fucked up the country and opposed McCain’s legislative priorities his whole first term. The Straight Talk Express seems to be jumping its rails at the chance for party-line work that will help McCain in 2008.


Pragmatic Creationism
Yes, even sane McCain believes we should teach intelligent design alongside evolution. So that’s how we’re going to compete with China and India with faith-based science? It’s a strange inconsistency, in light of McCain’s work on global warming, but this summer McCain told the Arizona Daily Star that he endorsed teaching intelligent design in the nation’s schools because “he believes ‘all points of view’ should be available to students studying the origins of mankind.” Again McCain’s famed principles are being overcome by the whiff of politics; the only people publicly backing intelligent design when not faced with legislative decisions on the issue are Republican presidential hopefuls.


He Holds Barry Goldwater’s Seat
And is damn proud of it. Goldwater, of course, was the ultraconservative Arizona senator who ran for president, terrified the nation and lost to Lyndon Johnson in a landslide. But Goldwater’s failed bid was the fiery political phoenix from whose ashes rose the entire modern conservative political movement. If Goldwater is the progenitor of conservatism, John McCain, his immediate successor, is its faithful son. McCain despises taxes, fights minimum-wage increases and tried to impeach Clinton. Don’t believe the media who all fell in love with McCain on his bus in 2000: The dude’s a Republican.


We Don’t Want To Fight, but By Jingo, if We Do...
Which is why McCain is just as much a warmonger as Bush. Or even more so. Double Bush’s aggression, halve his political caution, and expand his target list and you’ve got something approaching McCain’s foreign-policy program. McCain was the original neoconservative adventurist, the presidential prospect of choice for the cadre of neocons most closely identified with the Iraq war. Rational people should not be lauding the guy that Bill Kristol’s The Weekly Standard endorsed for president. Even now, his big idea for Iraq is “more troops.”

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the G-Man said:I'm to his right on economics and the torture issue

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Republican Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), back in the state where a bruising primary loss crippled his 2000 White House bid, said on Monday his party had "lost our way" on spending and needed to clean up widespread influence-peddling and lobbying abuses.

The Arizona senator, a potential White House candidate again in 2008, praised President George W. Bush for his judicial nominations and for making what McCain said was steady progress in Iraq.

But he said the federal budget had spiraled out of control under Republican leadership. He called for tighter restrictions on earmarking -- the congressional practice of inserting local projects in spending bills -- and tighter controls on lobbyists in Washington.

"We have lost our way on fiscal responsibility," McCain told the dinner of Spartanburg County Republicans in South Carolina, a state that promises to play a crucial early role in the 2008 White House race. "Republicans have got to clean up our act, make these much needed reforms and get back on track."

McCain has sponsored a proposal to require more disclosure of lobbying activities and tighter control on the process in light of the widening corruption scandal centered on lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

But he said the congressional practice of quietly inserting pet spending projects into mammoth federal spending bills must be stopped before significant lobbying reforms can take place.

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the G-man said:

Eventually, if he really wants to be President, McCain has to stop saying one thing and doing another.

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Officially, he is not yet running and won't make up his mind until after the fall elections, but in an interview in his Senate office (March 2), McCain sounds as if an announcement of his candidacy is merely a formality.

He calls his 2000 campaign "the most exhilarating period of my life." He repeats the phrase for emphasis.

McCain has sometimes publicly disagreed with President Bush on certain issues, but about the president's handling of the war on terror since 9/11, McCain offers generous praise: "The war on terror is what re-elected President Bush. We were able to frame the debate in that (2004) campaign ... that President Bush was by far the most qualified guy. By the way, I believe that to this day with my heart and soul."

What may attract Republicans who believe President Bush is not a true conservative is McCain's willingness to oppose the president on more spending and bigger government, along with McCain's language on the consequences of illegal immigration. During our interview, McCain tells me: "The director of the FBI has stated 'there are more people from countries of interest coming across our border.' So there is no doubt the threat (from infiltration of radical Muslims) has increased. That's why immigration reform - of which border enforcement is a part - must be a prime issue."

McCain believes the issue of a United Arab Emirates company managing U.S. ports, while important, should not be our highest priority: "If something were to happen at a U.S. port, it isn't the port that will be the problem, but the port where (the cargo) originated, or where it passes through. I believe the war in Iraq is of transcendent importance. Same with Iranian nuclear weapons. So is continued infiltration of al-Qaida back into Afghanistan."

McCain says that while he has a good handle on foreign policy, he intends to learn more on domestic issues, including economics, tax policy and health care: "I'm going to have to be smarter on some issues than I am now."

He's confident his "25-year record on pro-life" will satisfy social conservatives. About culture: "I've done some terrible things in my life, so I try not to be a judge, but it seems to me there is a poison in our culture that we have to address. Maybe it's through the bully pulpit, but we can't pass a bunch of laws to control it all."


McCain is doing his homework and laying the groundwork for an election run. Whether he actually runs depends on shifting political winds over which he has minimal control.

Senator John McCain began his week by embracing the Rev. Jerry Falwell, the conservative religious leader he once denounced as polarizing. He ended it by joining Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the liberal Massachusetts icon, in a fight for an immigration bill opposed by many conservatives.

Mr. McCain has long sought to present himself as a singular sort of American politician — straight-talking, iconoclastic and hard to quantify. But as he began a campaign-style trip here that will take him through Florida, Ohio and Iowa, he faced an extraordinarily complex political challenge as he sought to reconcile his appeals to an unusually diverse audience and cement his early standing in the emerging Republican presidential field.

Mr. McCain's alliance with Mr. Kennedy comes as he has embarked on a campaign to repair strains with conservatives and a once-wary Bush White House. He is portraying himself as a lifelong conservative and a steadfast supporter of President Bush, once a political rival, courting his senior staff members and fund-raisers.

He has endorsed Bush tax cuts he once criticized as fiscally ruinous, and he agreed to appear at a commencement at Liberty University, headed by Mr. Falwell, whom Mr. McCain once called an agent of "intolerance."

But a strategy designed to muscle him through the 2008 Republican primaries — should he ultimately run, which aides says is likely but not definite — risks diluting the independent image that has been central to his political appeal. Already, Mr. McCain is facing stiff questions from supporters and critics about how far he will go to win support from conservative leaders who have long been wary of him.

Mr. McCain said that he had not changed any position for political reasons, and that he was more conservative than his occasional high-profile breaks with the right might lead casual observers to believe.

"I've always been a conservative," he said. "I think my voting record clearly indicates that on economic issues, national security issues, social issues — I'm pro-life — so I think I could make an argument I've had a pretty clear 20-some-year record basically being conservative."

Mr. McCain's associates said it would be nearly impossible to win the nomination without quelling concern among conservatives who, even before his immigration bill — over which he was attacked by Republicans at two town hall meetings he held during his 24 hours here — were concerned by his advocacy for campaign finance laws, a global warming treaty and gun control.

A critical part of Mr. McCain's strategy to win the nomination is to persuade conservatives to swallow concerns about those views by presenting himself as the most electable Republican because of his appeal to moderates and independents. That distinction could fade should Mr. McCain emerge with a lasting reputation as conservative or hypocritical, his advisers said.

If he has not changed his positions, as Mr. McCain repeatedly insisted in an interview, he has at the very least changed the coloring of how he has presented himself to the public.

After denouncing Mr. Bush's tax cuts when they were first proposed, he voted in favor of making them permanent. He spoke approvingly of a South Dakota law that would prohibit virtually all abortions, part of an effort by abortion opponents to prod the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, though he said it should include an exemption for rape, incest and protecting the life of the mother.

He said schools should be allowed to offer "intelligent design" courses as an alternative to evolution, a huge issue for many conservatives. And he accepted the invitation to speak at the Liberty University commencement by Mr. Falwell, saying he saw no difference between that and accepting an invitation from Bob Kerrey, the former senator from Nebraska, to speak at the New School, where Mr. Kerrey is president.

Mr. McCain's reconciliation campaign has had some success with conservative leaders. Mr. Falwell spoke warmly of Mr. McCain, saying he was as conservative on social issues as any Republican who might run for president.

"I've felt since I first knew about him that he stood on the right side of the ball on social issues," Mr. Falwell said. "I don't think he has changed his views. He is certainly pro-life. He clearly is an advocate of the husband-female family, he does not support same-sex marriage. I know of no reason I could not support him."

Marshall Wittmann, a senior fellow at the Democratic Leadership Council and a former adviser to Mr. McCain, disputed any suggestion that Mr. McCain was trying to repackage his political product.

"Neither the right nor the left understands him," Mr. Wittmann said. "He's always had unconventional alliances. It's just now the left doesn't like the alliances he's making when in the past they would have approved of them.

"If John McCain had been elected in 2000," he continued, "he would likely have been as conservative or more conservative than President Bush."

On a second front, after a famously rancorous primary battle with Mr. Bush in 2000, Mr. McCain has made a methodical effort to rebuild his standing with the Bush family. It started in 2004, when he latched himself to Mr. Bush's side, and has continued this year with his defense of an increasingly isolated Mr. Bush on the war in Iraq and the proposed Dubai ports deal.

Last week, Mr. McCain went to Texas to speak at a program sponsored by the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation, where he offered effusive praise of the president's mother and father, who were beaming at his side.

As he campaigned through New Hampshire this weekend, Mr. McCain seemed almost to enjoy the complicated road he was following: defending his immigration bills against an angry challenge from a former Republican state representative from North Hampton one moment, and saying that Mr. Bush had not been given the credit he deserved for the roaring economy the next.

"I think a lot of people don't exactly get where I'm at," he said.

A shocking new poll in the super-Democratic state of Massachusetts shows Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton could be in trouble there if she faces Republican John McCain in the 2008 presidential race.

McCain draws 44 percent to Clinton's 43 - a statistical tie - in liberal lion Ted Kennedy's home state, the Rasmussen Reports poll found. Clinton's surprisingly weak showing comes despite the fact that Massachusetts voters say they'd prefer to vote for a Democrat in 2008 by an overwhelming ratio of 53 to 22 percent.

"It's hard to think of a scarier scenario for Democrats than Massachusetts being a tossup state in 2008. Even George McGovern [who lost 49 states in 1972] carried the Bay State," said independent pollster Scott Rasmussen.

Al Gore does no better than Clinton.

"It's not clear whether these results tell us more about the weakness of Clinton and Gore or about the strength of John McCain as a potential candidate. It's probably a bit of both," Rasmussen said. He noted candidates look more partisan as elections heat up, so it's unlikely that McCain could actually win the Democratic state - but it's a big worry for Clinton that he even looks competitive.

Friedwire

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WHY JOHN McCAIN SHOULD NEVER BE PRESIDENT:

McCain, like Bush, sucks up to the Christian yahoos by voicing support for teaching intelligent design in schools. He has said that kids should be exposed to this half-assed non-science because "all points of view" should be available to students.
Down factor: America needs more science taught in schools and fewer spurious 'points of view.'

McCain was a recipient of campaign contributions/bribes from Charles H. Keating Jr's Lincoln Savings and Loan Association. He was amongst those censured for "questionable conduct" by the Department of Justice and the House Ethics Committee for obstructing investigations into its $3.4 billion collapse in 1989.
Down factor: Please... we've had enough Republican crooks already.

McCain admitted to offering "military information" in exchange for special medical treatment while in captivity also does not endear him to some ex-POWs.
Down factor: He served his country and had a rough time as a prisoner of war. But what the hell bearing would this have on his ability to be president?

McCain's five year stay in the Hanoi Hilton did not predispose him fondly to the Vietnamese people. He once said "I hate the gooks... I will hate them as long as I live."
Down factor: Would the 13.5 million Americans of Asian descent be entirely confident in a 'gook-hating' president's ability to represent them?

McCain will be 73 years old in 2008. The Gipper is often cited as the apogee of presidential senility - and he was only 69 when he got elected. This is America - not the Soviet Union. Are we angling for a gerontocracy?
Down factor: Old as dirt.

McCain once sent birthday greetings and regrets for not attending the party of Joseph "Joe Bananas" Bonano, the head of the New York Bonano crime family, after he retired to Arizona.
Down factor: We don't want a president who sucks up to the Mafia. These days, the President is the Mafia, dumbass.

McCain tactfully divorced his wife Carol after she was crippled in a car wreck to hook up with the attractive and wealthy Cindy Hensley. In addition to being able-bodied, the fact that she was the daughter of millionaire Arizona beer baron Jim Hensley didn't hurt either.
Down factor: Tacky machinations and terminal inability to keep dick in pants.

McCain graduated from the United States Naval Academy 894th out of a class of 899. Haven't we had enough special ed presidents already?
Down factor: May be dumb as rock.

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Sen. John McCain, considered the front-runner for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, intends to launch an exploratory committee next week, GOP officials said Friday.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid pre-empting a public statement from the four-term Arizona senator.

McCain, the GOP maverick who unsuccessfully sought his party's nomination in 2000, already has opened a bank account for the committee, one official said.

Aides to McCain say the senator will discuss whether to seek the presidency with his family over the Christmas holiday, and make a final decision thereafter.

Establishing an exploratory committee allows a potential candidate to raise money for a White House run and travel the country.

McCain is a former Navy pilot who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. He was elected to the Senate in 1986, and served in the House for four years before that.

If McCain were to run, he would turn 72 on Aug. 29, 2008, at the height of the campaign. Only President Reagan was older — 73 at the start of his second term. McCain's health could be another issue. The senator has had several cancerous lesions removed from his skin.

Since losing to Bush in 2000, McCain has alternately challenged and embraced the president, building an independent reputation who isn't afraid to speak his mind. At the same time, he's sought to mend fences with conservatives he alienated in his first presidential run.

After Republicans lost control of both the House and Senate on Tuesday, McCain called for a return to the conservative principles he said make up the foundations of the Republican Party.

"We came to Washington to change government and government changed us," lamented McCain. "We departed rather tragically from our conservative principles."

He urged the party to return to a time when it was known for careful stewardship of tax dollars, less government, less regulation, lower taxes, a strong defense, as well as community and family values.

"I'm confident we will do that," he said.

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Prometheus said:
We could do worse...

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the G-man said:

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Prometheus said:
We could do worse...

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I would think, being a self-professed libertarian, his pro-life views and attempts at censorship through campaign finance reform, would bug you a lot. Those are issues that normally go right to the heart of the libertarian philosophy.

And, of course, his championed environmental regulations aren't normally the stuff of libertarian dreams either.

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You do realize that every time I've claimed to be a Libertarian, I've been joking, right?

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Prometheus said:

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the G-man said:

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Prometheus said:
We could do worse...

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I would think, being a self-professed libertarian, his pro-life views and attempts at censorship through campaign finance reform, would bug you a lot. Those are issues that normally go right to the heart of the libertarian philosophy.

And, of course, his championed environmental regulations aren't normally the stuff of libertarian dreams either.

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You do realize that every time I've claimed to be a Libertarian, I've been joking, right?

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Or has he?

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Prometheus said:
You do realize that every time I've claimed to be a Libertarian, I've been joking, right?

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Prometheus said:
You do realize that every time I've claimed to be a Libertarian, I've been joking, right?

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the G-man said:
Heh. By your own standards that means you were lying about it.

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Prometheus said:
And by my standards, you're a hypocrite. Shall we begin with the insults, then?

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