John McCain's Worst Enemy: John McCain

John McCain, Straight Talker



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Why Not McCain #1: The Supreme Court

Many democrats and left or moderate independents still remember the John McCain of 2000, the irascible rebellious Republican who was not frightened to say what he thought, even if it went against his own party. I liked him too. Two things:
1) He doesn't exist anymore - John McCain got close to being the presidential nominee in 2000 and made some big personal and moral compromises in order to ensure he had republican support to become the nominee in 2008 and
2) Even then, he still was VERY conservative on many core principles, and has become even moreso since. You might think you like him, but you might not be fully aware of where he stands on things, because you have the memory of that "maverick." (okay i used it, once, never again I swear!).

Many say to me "Well, McCain wouldn't be that bad, he'd be better than Bush." Firstly, I think this is setting the bar pretty damn low. But additionally, we can't afford another Republican term with NO major change in direction from the failed policies of the last 8 years.  So this will be the first in a series of posts looking at some of McCain's policies, beliefs, and history, to let you know why McCain WOULD be that bad, and why it is so important that the Democrats, and Barack Obama, win this election.

Reason #1: The Supreme Court. At least two justices could retire during the next president's term, with the possibility of tipping the balance of the court entirely to the conservative side - and McCain is for repealing Roe v. Wade. Jeffrey Toobin in the New Yorker takes a close look at the coded language in McCain's judiciary policy speech, and finds that he is using cloudy language to mask the bones he is throwing to the extreme right of his party.

The question, as always with McCain these days, is whether he means it. Might he really be a “maverick” when it comes to the Supreme Court? The answer, almost certainly, is no. The Senator has long touted his opposition to Roe, and has voted for every one of Bush’s judicial appointments; the rhetoric of his speech shows that he is getting his advice on the Court from the most extreme elements of the conservative movement...

And a reminder of what Bush's court has already wrought:

...in just three years the Roberts Court has crippled school-desegregation efforts (and hinted that affirmative action may be next); approved a federal law that bans a form of abortion; limited the reach of job-discrimination laws; and made it more difficult to challenge the mixing of church and state. It’s difficult to quarrel with Justice Stephen Breyer’s assessment of his new colleagues: “It is not often in the law that so few have so quickly changed so much.” And more change is likely to come. John Paul Stevens, the leader of the Court’s four embattled liberals, just celebrated his eighty-eighth birthday; Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seventy-five; David Souter is only sixty-eight but longs for his home in New Hampshire. For all the elisions in John McCain’s speech, one unmistakable truth emerged: that the stakes in the election, for the Supreme Court and all who live by its rulings, are very, very high.

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Reminder: It's Yes WE Can

Here's some of what "Change" really means.

The Obama campaign has mobilized a grass roots group that is also part of his core message: he's not running the typical "campaign only in the few swings states you need" strategy we're so used to from recent elections. He plans on mobilizing as many people in all 50 states, so that he has a large and involved citizenry to help him keep on the pressure as president to get the reforms he's proposing through. The NY Times discusses his 50 state strategy today here.

This clip from shows Obama talking to a small group of Indianans about his views of government transparency and how his presidency would be more open and accountable: from continued town hall meetings, to outreach from the cabinet members, to posting all government activities on the internet to make it easy to monitor and get involved in causes you deem important.



And here's a recent clip where Obama rally's his campaign staff in their office following his winning the nomination reminding them that now that they've won the nomination, they HAVE to win the election, its too important (its longer, but worth watching the whole thing - the end is the best).

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Been a While....

Hey all, been a while since I've been posting - mostly because I felt as far as the primary goes I had reached who I was going to reach and done what I could do. But I'm thinking I will probably start back up, though probably a little less frequently, with more information, clips and articles about the general election and more specifically - John McCain.

Also, I'm posting because I wanted to share Steven Colbert's hilarious summary of the Michigan Florida situation (hopefully finally resolved this weekend):


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The Radical Elitist

A great Op-Ed in today's Washington Post, "Wright and Ridiculous" points out the contradictions between all the attacks narratives being thrown against Obama (thanks to my dad and Teresa for forwarding it!):

First Obama was accused of anti-religious elitism. Then he was accused of identifying with the underclass anger of his spiritual mentor. Excuse me, but which is it? Am I supposed to believe that Obama is a supercilious elitist or a menacing ghetto radical? Is he contemptuous of religion or too close to a religious leader? Obama's critics don't bother to say. Meanwhile, real character issues go relatively unheeded.

And questions whether these issues honestly reflect a leader's character:

The real character issue, in this campaign as in others, comes down to one thing: Does a candidate have the guts to espouse positions that are not politically expedient? Here there are serious questions about Obama, who pledges to pull out of Iraq no matter what, and who promises both to increase spending and not to raise taxes on anybody making less than $200,000 to $250,000 a year, ensuring the perpetuation of crippling federal deficits. For that matter, there are serious questions about Hillary Clinton, who proposes an irresponsible gas-tax holiday, and about John McCain, who couples gas pandering with a flip-flop on the Bush tax cuts, which he once (correctly) viewed as unaffordable. But these genuine character issues have been shunted aside by the spectacle of Obama's falling-out with his preacher.

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The Square Root of Three

Math is cool. Why? Because it involves facts, not spin. Check out the NY Times's "Democratic Delegate Calculator: What the Candidates Need to Win."

And also consider this:
- There are 264 undeclared superdelegates.
- Since the Pennsylvania primary: It's Obama +21, Clinton +11.
- Since Super Tuesday, Feb. 5: It's Obama +88, Clinton +13.
- Since Junior Super Tuesday, March 4: It's Obama +45, Clinton +20.

And here's Kumar's (Obama supporter Kai Penn) "Square Root of Three."

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