What does John McCain really believe -- cont'd
(TM note: this is a portion of an e-mail response to some retired military correspondents who were extolling the virtues of John McCain and his wife Cindy, a wealthy heiress who putatively performs a service to the country by providing jobs with her wealth.)
(snip)
I'm sorry you weren't moved by my financial tale of woe. How about if I tell you I had a scholarship and worked three jobs? See...I'm a fellow bootstrapper. Which makes me wonder why it's so virtuous to inherit money like Cindy McC. OK, she provides a few jobs. Teresa Heinz Kerry inherited even more money and funds far more jobs. I suppose that was a factor in your decision to vote for John Kerry (also a military hero) in 2004, right?
So perhaps we should start a society of wealthy heiresses who do good. We could give them a catchy name, like countess, maybe, or duchess. You know, something that sounds hereditary. To make it acceptable to conservatives, we could exclude anybody labeled a 'bitch." (That would exclude all living prominent Democrats. I can't think of any Republican "bitches," however, for some reason.)
Last I looked, the top 1% of the population controlled 42% of the private wealth in the U.S. George Bush has done his best on the reverse Robin Hood thing, but those middle and lower classes stubbornly hang on to their half of the wealth.
You apparently didn't like my reference to family values. I was referring to the likes of Larry Craig, David Vitter, Bob Bauman, Ted Haggard, Dan Crane, Dan Burton, Bill Bennett, Swaggert, Limbaugh, Bakker, O'Reilly and all the other conservatives who posture publicly on family values but have separate rules for themselves. Do any of those names and their transgressions ring a bell? I am flexible however: if you don't like sanctimonious horseshit, I can compromise on sanctimonious bullshit. It's political posturing, in other words.
You cited McCain's father as a reason to respect John McCain. My recollection is more favorable to McCain himself: I believe that he rejected favorable treatment (early release) offered by the NVN because of his old man's position...something about going home only when the rest are released. I haven't read the accounts (by Douglas Valentine and Andrew Cockburn among others) which accuse McCain of being a collaborator. McC.has acknowledged that he 'broke' under torture which must mean that he did things he wouldn't otherwise do...and some might label collaboration. Since modern torture methods can essentially break anyone, I don't hold that against him.
As to the whether being a POW qualifies him to be president, that's another matter. There were people held POW longer and tortured more, and I'm not planning to vote for any of them. But then, since none of them married into a $100 million dollar fortune to bankroll their political career, I guess that won't be a hard decision.
I probably would have voted for him in 2000, but that McCain no longer exists. If you check his record he has essentially contradicted every policy position he himself articulated.
On long-term troop presence in Iraq, McCain changed his mind four times in four years. He has been for the war in Iraq and against it, he argued to bring all the troops home in 2005, that we were creating more insurgents than we were killing, and now he wants to stay indefinitely; he praised Bush and Rumsfeld's handling of the war and then later claimed he publicly called for Rumsfeld's resignation (he never did).
On Jan 22, '03, he said: “But the point is that, one, we will win this conflict. We will win it easily,” echoing his statement on Sept. 24, 2002: “I believe that the success will be fairly easy.”
On Jan 4, '07, he claimed that he knew the Iraq war was “probably going to be long and hard and tough,” and that he was “sorry” for those who voted for the war believing it would be “some kind of an easy task.” “Maybe they didn’t know what they were voting for.”
On Feb 11, '08, McCain said "Anyone who worries about how long we're in Iraq does not understand the military and does not understand war" and that "the argument is really almost insulting to one's intelligence to say how long we're in Iraq." (Foxnews) In hindsight, McCain was always right, on every subject.
He defended the Mission Accomplished statement and then he criticized it, and then tried to rationalize it away (echoing the Bush administration).
He argued in favor of "rogue-state rollback" and then against it.
On taxes, McCain changed his mind four times in 10 years, and reversed himself on Bush's tax cuts once he became a candidate.
He has said he would privatize Social Security and than argued against it, and now is apparently for it again.
He claimed he would balance the federal budget and now says tax cuts are more important than balancing the budget. (His new tax cuts are projected to increase the federal debt by $5 trillion in 10 years.)
He repeatedly denied being offered a position as John Kerry's VP and then told the press that "everyone knew" that he had been offered the job.
He opposed torture, then supported Bush's veto of a bill that would have prohibited waterboarding.
In 1998 he favored raising the tax on cigarettes and now, after hiring a Philip Morris lobbyist, won't even commit to supporting a bill to raise the tax $.61 cents that HE CO-SPONSERED.
In 1999, he said he would not seek repeal of Roe v. Wade, but when the right-to-life supporters protested, he sent a letter to the National Right To Life Committee saying he shared their common goal of repealing Roe v. Wade. All in one year.
His flip-flop on the Confederate flag needs no elaboration.
The teaching of Intelligent Design used to be a matter for local schools, but in 2005, he decided he wanted it taught in school.
In October 2006, he came out for and against gay marriage on the same day. “I think that gay marriage should be allowed… I don’t have any problem with that” Somehow, he changed his mind.
in 2002, Jerry Falwell was an agent of intolerance. In 2006, McCain gave a commencement address at Falwell's Liberty University. McCain was opposed to campaigning at Bob Jones University, until he was for it.
In 2000 he didn’t want anything to do with Henry Kissinger, believing he “would taint the image of the ‘Straight Talk Express.’” Kissinger is now the honorary co-chair for his presidential campaign in New York.
McCain opposed a holiday in honor of MLK but has said recently (to a black audience) that he changed his opinion shortly thereafter. It was 15 years between flip-flops.
He used to be anti-ethanol, now he is for it.
Everyone knows that McCain supported campaign finance restrictions...until he abandoned that position in 2007 under pressure from the Right.
He has stated publicly on at least two occasions that he doesn't know much about economics, and then he denied publicly that he ever said any such thing.
He once called the Wyly family of Texas 'coyotes' for violating campaign finance laws and filed a complaint against them with the FEC. That was before they held a fund-raiser for him in 2006. Now they are OK.
McCain used to think that Grover Norquist was a crook and a corrupt shill for dictators. Then McCain decided to run for president and reconciled with Norquist.
He used to champion the Law of the Sea Convention and offered to testify in Congress on its behalf. Now he's opposed.
He claims to be opposed to the influence of lobbyists, but independent researchers have counted more than 60 lobbyists collecting money for him, and noted that his top three campaign officials are full-time lobbyists. Charlie Black, his campaign manager, even admits to lobbying by phone from the back of McCain's Straight-Talk Express.
He used to be moderate on immigration issues, but now he's mostly fuzzing up the matter in hopes the right will believe something else.
The guy even apparently got into a physical altercation on the floor of the Senate with Chuck Grasseley.
Only a day ago, he came out with a program of energy independence for the U.S. so we won't have to send troops into the Middle East again because of oil. Within hours, he was retracting the implication that the Iraq war was about oil. Wanna bet he changes his position on this...probably several times?
So, you wanted well-founded logic. What does McCain believe? What principles does he stand for? More importantly, no matter what he says today, what will he claim tomorrow.
Nobody knows, least of all McCain.
(snip)
I'm sorry you weren't moved by my financial tale of woe. How about if I tell you I had a scholarship and worked three jobs? See...I'm a fellow bootstrapper. Which makes me wonder why it's so virtuous to inherit money like Cindy McC. OK, she provides a few jobs. Teresa Heinz Kerry inherited even more money and funds far more jobs. I suppose that was a factor in your decision to vote for John Kerry (also a military hero) in 2004, right?
So perhaps we should start a society of wealthy heiresses who do good. We could give them a catchy name, like countess, maybe, or duchess. You know, something that sounds hereditary. To make it acceptable to conservatives, we could exclude anybody labeled a 'bitch." (That would exclude all living prominent Democrats. I can't think of any Republican "bitches," however, for some reason.)
Last I looked, the top 1% of the population controlled 42% of the private wealth in the U.S. George Bush has done his best on the reverse Robin Hood thing, but those middle and lower classes stubbornly hang on to their half of the wealth.
You apparently didn't like my reference to family values. I was referring to the likes of Larry Craig, David Vitter, Bob Bauman, Ted Haggard, Dan Crane, Dan Burton, Bill Bennett, Swaggert, Limbaugh, Bakker, O'Reilly and all the other conservatives who posture publicly on family values but have separate rules for themselves. Do any of those names and their transgressions ring a bell? I am flexible however: if you don't like sanctimonious horseshit, I can compromise on sanctimonious bullshit. It's political posturing, in other words.
You cited McCain's father as a reason to respect John McCain. My recollection is more favorable to McCain himself: I believe that he rejected favorable treatment (early release) offered by the NVN because of his old man's position...something about going home only when the rest are released. I haven't read the accounts (by Douglas Valentine and Andrew Cockburn among others) which accuse McCain of being a collaborator. McC.has acknowledged that he 'broke' under torture which must mean that he did things he wouldn't otherwise do...and some might label collaboration. Since modern torture methods can essentially break anyone, I don't hold that against him.
As to the whether being a POW qualifies him to be president, that's another matter. There were people held POW longer and tortured more, and I'm not planning to vote for any of them. But then, since none of them married into a $100 million dollar fortune to bankroll their political career, I guess that won't be a hard decision.
I probably would have voted for him in 2000, but that McCain no longer exists. If you check his record he has essentially contradicted every policy position he himself articulated.
On long-term troop presence in Iraq, McCain changed his mind four times in four years. He has been for the war in Iraq and against it, he argued to bring all the troops home in 2005, that we were creating more insurgents than we were killing, and now he wants to stay indefinitely; he praised Bush and Rumsfeld's handling of the war and then later claimed he publicly called for Rumsfeld's resignation (he never did).
On Jan 22, '03, he said: “But the point is that, one, we will win this conflict. We will win it easily,” echoing his statement on Sept. 24, 2002: “I believe that the success will be fairly easy.”
On Jan 4, '07, he claimed that he knew the Iraq war was “probably going to be long and hard and tough,” and that he was “sorry” for those who voted for the war believing it would be “some kind of an easy task.” “Maybe they didn’t know what they were voting for.”
On Feb 11, '08, McCain said "Anyone who worries about how long we're in Iraq does not understand the military and does not understand war" and that "the argument is really almost insulting to one's intelligence to say how long we're in Iraq." (Foxnews) In hindsight, McCain was always right, on every subject.
He defended the Mission Accomplished statement and then he criticized it, and then tried to rationalize it away (echoing the Bush administration).
He argued in favor of "rogue-state rollback" and then against it.
On taxes, McCain changed his mind four times in 10 years, and reversed himself on Bush's tax cuts once he became a candidate.
He has said he would privatize Social Security and than argued against it, and now is apparently for it again.
He claimed he would balance the federal budget and now says tax cuts are more important than balancing the budget. (His new tax cuts are projected to increase the federal debt by $5 trillion in 10 years.)
He repeatedly denied being offered a position as John Kerry's VP and then told the press that "everyone knew" that he had been offered the job.
He opposed torture, then supported Bush's veto of a bill that would have prohibited waterboarding.
In 1998 he favored raising the tax on cigarettes and now, after hiring a Philip Morris lobbyist, won't even commit to supporting a bill to raise the tax $.61 cents that HE CO-SPONSERED.
In 1999, he said he would not seek repeal of Roe v. Wade, but when the right-to-life supporters protested, he sent a letter to the National Right To Life Committee saying he shared their common goal of repealing Roe v. Wade. All in one year.
His flip-flop on the Confederate flag needs no elaboration.
The teaching of Intelligent Design used to be a matter for local schools, but in 2005, he decided he wanted it taught in school.
In October 2006, he came out for and against gay marriage on the same day. “I think that gay marriage should be allowed… I don’t have any problem with that” Somehow, he changed his mind.
in 2002, Jerry Falwell was an agent of intolerance. In 2006, McCain gave a commencement address at Falwell's Liberty University. McCain was opposed to campaigning at Bob Jones University, until he was for it.
In 2000 he didn’t want anything to do with Henry Kissinger, believing he “would taint the image of the ‘Straight Talk Express.’” Kissinger is now the honorary co-chair for his presidential campaign in New York.
McCain opposed a holiday in honor of MLK but has said recently (to a black audience) that he changed his opinion shortly thereafter. It was 15 years between flip-flops.
He used to be anti-ethanol, now he is for it.
Everyone knows that McCain supported campaign finance restrictions...until he abandoned that position in 2007 under pressure from the Right.
He has stated publicly on at least two occasions that he doesn't know much about economics, and then he denied publicly that he ever said any such thing.
He once called the Wyly family of Texas 'coyotes' for violating campaign finance laws and filed a complaint against them with the FEC. That was before they held a fund-raiser for him in 2006. Now they are OK.
McCain used to think that Grover Norquist was a crook and a corrupt shill for dictators. Then McCain decided to run for president and reconciled with Norquist.
He used to champion the Law of the Sea Convention and offered to testify in Congress on its behalf. Now he's opposed.
He claims to be opposed to the influence of lobbyists, but independent researchers have counted more than 60 lobbyists collecting money for him, and noted that his top three campaign officials are full-time lobbyists. Charlie Black, his campaign manager, even admits to lobbying by phone from the back of McCain's Straight-Talk Express.
He used to be moderate on immigration issues, but now he's mostly fuzzing up the matter in hopes the right will believe something else.
The guy even apparently got into a physical altercation on the floor of the Senate with Chuck Grasseley.
Only a day ago, he came out with a program of energy independence for the U.S. so we won't have to send troops into the Middle East again because of oil. Within hours, he was retracting the implication that the Iraq war was about oil. Wanna bet he changes his position on this...probably several times?
So, you wanted well-founded logic. What does McCain believe? What principles does he stand for? More importantly, no matter what he says today, what will he claim tomorrow.
Nobody knows, least of all McCain.
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