John McCain
Senator John McCain (R-AZ) is a former Navy lobbyist[1] and was the Republican party's candidate for the Presidency of the USA in 2008.[2] He did very well, coming in a close second to Barack Obama. McCain's running mate was Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin[3]. She also came in second.
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[edit] "Mission Accomplished"
“”Neil Cavuto: ... Senator -- after a conflict means after the conflict, and many argue the conflict isn't over.
Senator McCain: Well, then why was there a banner that said 'mission accomplished' on the aircraft carrier? ... the conflict -- the major conflict is over, the regime change has been accomplished...
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| —June 11, 2003, on Fox News's Your World With Neil Cavuto.[4] |
“”This is a mission accomplished.
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| —December 14, on ABC's This Week, referring to the capture of Saddam Hussein. |
“”I don't know if you could ever say, quote 'mission accomplished,' as much as you could say 'Americans are out of harm's way.' And that's the key to America's concern — casualties.
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| —May 1, 2008, at a town hall meeting in Des Moines, Iowa.[5] |
[edit] The good
John McCain (b. 1936 in the Panama Canal Zone) is the senior senator from Arizona, and a strong force in the Republican party.[6] Over the years, he has been vital in crafting bipartisan support for generally supported initiatives, including the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act (BCFRA)[7] Until 2008, he was a strong opponent of torture, having suffered a similar fate, in the internment which has earned him the title of "war hero."[8] McCain also once stood up against the American religious right, referring to them as agents of intolerance.[9] These sensible, moderate policies have made him persona non grata among the religious right, earning hate and scorn from Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity.[10][11]
[edit] The bad
He has modified many of his positions rightward since becoming a presidential candidate. While he's no George W. Bush, Americans probably don't don't want four more years of Bush policies, from tax cuts for the wealthy, to continuing the war in Iraq, and privatizing Social Security.
He wants the U.S. military to police the entire Middle East to make it safe for Saudi Arabia, the other authoritarian Arab monarchies and Israel. He wants to bomb Iran.[12][13] However first he wants to bomb Syria.[14]
He supports Don't Ask, Don't Tell.[15]
His unofficial economic advisor is Phil Gramm, chief architect of the Enron collapse and sub-prime mortgage crisis.
He chose Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate,[16] who would have become president in the likely event that McCain died of old age while in office.
[edit] The ugly
Justice Stevens has retired. Justice Souter wanted out (and got it). A couple other Justices are looking a little tired. All of this means that, since 2009 (when Obama was sworn in), the Supreme Court was being set to empty, losing a couple of the liberal staples of the Rehnquist court, and possibly more. In all of this, the question is - who would President McCain have nominated to the Supreme Court?
It's not a good picture. For all of his maverick political style, and independence on some issues, McCain - like any Republican - would have been beholden to the religious right for reelection, and for political clout. This means that his recent caves to the religious right are the beginning, rather than the end, and they are not outliers. A President McCain would have nominated Justices who would be all too eager to torpedo the right to choose and other important precedents.[17] This raises the most important point of all: while a maverick, McCain is still a Republican, and still a pawn of special interest groups like the religious right.
Also, McCain has aligned himself with some of the true nutjobs of the religious right, including John Hagee, who blamed the gays for Hurricane Katrina[18], and Rod Parsley, who believes the United States was founded in part to destroy Islam.
Recently, he attacked President Obama for wanting to end Don't Ask Don't Tell by insisting that he believes in honoring all of the US troops, and that because of that the US needs to keep DADT in place.
[edit] The really odd
John McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone, which is now part of the Republic of Panama and was once a U.S. colony protectorate but never really part of the U.S. At best its status was similar to that of the Swan Islands (now part of Honduras), or Palau (now an independent nation). Article II Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution says, "No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States."[19] However, the Supereme Court decided that nobody cared, and said that it didn't matter, because his parents were off playing Navy in Panama during the whole thing.
As a Panamanian-American, it is questionable whether McCain is eligible to assume office if he was elected. This question came up previously with regard to Barry Goldwater (born in the Arizona Territory before it was admitted as a state), and George Romney (born in Mexico to U.S. Mormon expat parents), but since both were failed candidacies the courts have never had the opportunity to decide whether a natural born citizen is limited to those born within any of the states.[20][21] Many are generally of the opinion, however, that if someone was born a citizen, that would qualify for the "natural-born" requirement, whether it was within the US or not.
As a Vietnam veteran and POW, one would think John McCain would do everything possible to make life better for veterans, right? Yes, one would think that, but events have come to show that he seems to do little if anything at all to "support our troops", the most recent being his opposition to a Senate-passed legislation to increase college financial aid given to veterans.[22] Wave that flag, Johnny.
Senator McCain has no idea how many houses he and the Beer Baroness his wife own.[23]
His campaign had been circling the drain for some time, and to remedy this he has recently called on the services of Joe the Plumber to unclog his stopped-up toilet.
[edit] The flip flops
This guy switches his standing on so many issues, he makes Mitt Romney look like the Rock of Gibraltar. Such as:
- McCain criticized TV preacher Jerry Falwell (infamous for saying Americans “deserved” the 9/11 attacks[24]) as “an agent of intolerance” in 2002, but has since decided to cozy up to the man, agreeing to be the graduation speaker at Falwell's Liberty University on May 13, 2006.[25][26]
- McCain opposed Bush’s tax cuts for the very wealthy, but reversed course in February 2006.[27]
- In 2000, McCain accused Texas businessmen Sam and Charles Wyly of being corrupt, spending “dirty money” to help finance Bush’s presidential campaign. McCain not only filed a complaint against the Wylys for allegedly violating campaign finance law, he also lashed out at them publicly. In April, McCain reached out to the Wylys for support.[28]
- McCain took a firm line in opposition to torture, and then caved to White House demands.[29] Strange, seeing how he was a POW for five years in Vietnam.
- McCain was against presidential candidates campaigning at Bob Jones University before he was for it.[30]
- McCain was anti-ethanol. Now he’s pro-ethanol.[31]
- McCain was both for and against state promotion of the Confederate flag.[32]
- Now, he’s both for and against overturning Roe v. Wade.[33]
- Perhaps explaining the source of his flip flops, during the Dawn of Humanity McCain reached across the aisle and co-sponsored a liberal bill, along with Eve and a reptile, permitting consumption from the Tree of Knowledge; he afterward opposed it following immense pressure from the religious Right.[34] It's more likely though that these flipflops were done because he decided he was going to run for President in 2008 and needed a more hard-line Republican image.
[edit] Plumber’s friend
During the 2008 campaign season, John McCain’s aides picked up on a conversation between a certain Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, aka Joe the Plumber, and Barack Obama. Distorting the conversation wildly out of context and quote mining for details, Joe the Plumber became a symbol for ordinary Americans, with John McCain making an inordinate number of references to ‘Joe the Plumber’ during the debates, despite the fact that Joe had an tax lien on his house and didn't have a plumber's license (and therefore couldn’t run a plumbing business), and would in fact be eligible for Obama’s tax cut. Before the election season was over, references had been made to: Joe the Hunter, Wendy the Waiter, Tito the Builder (a Mexican immigrant, and the Mexican equivalent of Joe the Plumber, despite the fact that he may have employed illegal immigrants <gasp>), Stitches the Tailor, Patches the Beggar, Carrot the Vegetable Stand Owner, C-4 the Munitions Manufacturer, Idaho the Potato Farmer, Andy the Idiot, Jose the Stereotype, and Billy the Goat.
[edit] Things younger than John McCain
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
- Mildred Loving
- Jack Nicholson
- The Zip® code
- Duct tape
- The 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous
- The first TV commercial
- Kraft Macaroni and Cheese
- Penicillin
- The minimum wage
- The Lincoln Tunnel
- War of the Worlds on radio
- 49 of the 50 Governors of states in the union
[edit] Quotes
“”In the 21st century, nations don't invade other nations.
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| —John McCain, on the Russo-Georgian crisis.[35] |
“”You know, the French remind me a little bit of an aging actress of the 1940s who is still trying to dine out on her looks but doesn't have the face for it.
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| —John McCain, on foreign relations.[36] |
“”I want the families to make the decisions between themselves and their doctors; not the federal government
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| —John McCain, on why he opposes universal healthcare.[37] |
[edit] See also
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-mccainnavy15apr15,1,7402488.story
- ↑ The New York Times/The Caucus: The McCain Math February 6, 2008
- ↑ BBC: McCain picks female running mate August 29, 2008
- ↑ YouTube
- ↑ MSNBC: McCain says no ‘mission accomplished’ in Iraq
- ↑ thechicagolifestyle.com
- ↑ Later ruled unconstitutional in a particularly egregious example of Chief Justice Roberts' bloviating. See Wisconsin Right to Life v. FEC S. Ct. 2007.
- ↑ AOL News
- ↑ The New York Times: Republican Says Bush Panders To the 'Agents of Intolerance' : McCain Takes Aim At Religious Right Leap Year Day, 2000
- ↑ Youtube
- ↑ For all of his protestations of intellectual honesty and sticking with conservative values, Hannity has long since taken the pragmatic approach and jumped behind (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) McCain wholeheartedly.
- ↑ Yes, he went there. (Around the 1:15 mark)
- ↑ YouTube
- ↑ Crazy Talk - If We Say No This Times
- ↑ On The Issues
- ↑ Although some theorize that she was forced on him by the fundamentalist base in his party.
- ↑ The Wall Street Journal/Law Blog: President John McCain and the Supreme Court February 4, 2008
- ↑ MediaMatters: Will MSNBC devote as much coverage to McCain's embrace of Hagee's support as it did to Obama's rejection of Farrakhan? February 28, 2008
- ↑ US Constitution Online: Article 2 Section 1
- ↑ Hmm...what about somebody born in Washington, D.C.?
- ↑ Google #1 on submitting McCain nationality
- ↑ Yahoo! News
- ↑ Yahoo News story
- ↑ The Carpetbagger Report: McCain’s transition is complete March 28, 2006
- ↑ ABC News: McCain Woos the Right, Makes Peace With Falwell March 28, 2006
- ↑ Falwell has since died.
- ↑ The Carpetbagger Report: McCain, 2.0 February 28, 2006
- ↑ ABC News: Gearing Up for '08? McCain Befriends Old Enemies April 23, 2006
- ↑ Washington Monthly March 23, 2006
- ↑ The Carpetbagger Report: The Old McCain condemned Bob Jones; the New McCain… August 28, 2006
- ↑ MSNBC: Meet the Press Transcript for November 12, 2006
- ↑ MediaMatters: Despite McCain's many hedges, Borger asserted that "[no one would accuse McCain of equivocating on anything"] October 30, 2006
- ↑ Think Progress: McCain Flip-Flops, Supports Immediate Reversal of Roe v. Wade November 19, 2006
- ↑ Gen 2:4-3:26. You'd cave too if God or Rush Limbaugh came down from the clouds to strongly reprimand you.
- ↑ YouTube video of Mccain's quote
- ↑ About.com: McCainisms
- ↑ CNN: Transcript of first presidential debate October 14, 2008
| United States 2008 Presidential election articles on RationalWiki | ||
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| Topics: 2008 U.S. Presidential Election - Democratic Party - Debate:Religious beliefs and public office - Republican Party - Same-sex marriage - United States Electoral College Candidates: Hillary Rodham Clinton - Rudolph Giuliani - Mike Huckabee - John McCain - Alan Keyes - Dennis Kucinich - Ron Paul - Mitt Romney Running mates: Joe Biden - Sarah Palin Winner: Barack Obama |
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