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McCain has to campaign in home state
Aug. 26th, 2008 01:06 pmMcCain is only ahead in Arizona by 6%. Obama is leading by 15% in Illinois.
http://www.americablog.com/2008/08/mccain-has-to-campaign-in-arizona.html
Why might that be? Here's a summary of a Phoenix Times article that covers McCain's AZ political career in depth.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/8/91630/57190/880/564566
http://www.americablog.com/2008/08/mccain-has-to-campaign-in-arizona.html
Why might that be? Here's a summary of a Phoenix Times article that covers McCain's AZ political career in depth.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/8/91630/57190/880/564566
McCain's "Town Hall Meetings"
Jun. 14th, 2008 12:32 pmMcCain's "Town Hall Meetings" are as on the level as his "straight talk" is straight. Here's an account of one in NJ. The writer makes it clear that most, if not all, of the questioners were plants. The audience was arranged to put any available veterans behind McCain. This was a campaign rally masquerading as a town hall meeting.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/14/0952/31661/488/535481
For those of you unfamiliar with New England town meetings, they are occasions where any town resident can ask a question of elected officials. They can be quite contentious when there's a major issue under discussion (and there's almost always someone who thinks any given issue is a major one). They are not typically stage-managed affairs designed to portray elected officials in the best possible light.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/14/0952/31661/488/535481
For those of you unfamiliar with New England town meetings, they are occasions where any town resident can ask a question of elected officials. They can be quite contentious when there's a major issue under discussion (and there's almost always someone who thinks any given issue is a major one). They are not typically stage-managed affairs designed to portray elected officials in the best possible light.
McCain isn't Bush III?
Jun. 7th, 2008 07:50 pmJohn McCain's speech from earlier this week has been summarized, quite justly, as, "Hey you kids, stop calling me George Bush".* See a summary of reviews here. Even Fox thought it was bad.
If John McCain doesn't want to be compared with GWB, he should stop following the same path and policies as GWB. Sadly for the cause of democracy in our country, he's shown no such tendency. A case in point is McCain's position on wiretapping US citizens without warrants. Six months ago McCain gave an interview to the Boston Globe in which he said,
“There are some areas where the statutes don’t apply, such as in the surveillance of overseas communications. Where they do apply, however, I think that presidents have the obligation to obey and enforce laws that are passed by Congress and signed into law by the president, no matter what the situation is.”
Six months is a long time. Here's what he thinks now, according to an adviser.
In a letter posted online by National Review this week, the adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, said Mr. McCain believed that the Constitution gave Mr. Bush the power to authorize the National Security Agency to monitor Americans’ international phone calls and e-mail without warrants, despite a 1978 federal statute that required court oversight of surveillance.
Mr. McCain believes that “neither the administration nor the telecoms need apologize for actions that most people, except for the A.C.L.U. and trial lawyers, understand were constitutional and appropriate in the wake of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001,” Mr. Holtz-Eakin wrote.
So not only has McCain flip-flopped (a behavior Republicans seem to abhor in others), Mr Independent Straight talk has changed his position to match that of the Bush (mis)administration.
He still looks a lot like GWB to me.
Here's some additional commentary on this:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/06/06/mccain/index.html
*The description of McCain as "cottage cheese on lime jello" while funny is a mere visual quibble. You can find that yourself if you want it.
If John McCain doesn't want to be compared with GWB, he should stop following the same path and policies as GWB. Sadly for the cause of democracy in our country, he's shown no such tendency. A case in point is McCain's position on wiretapping US citizens without warrants. Six months ago McCain gave an interview to the Boston Globe in which he said,
“There are some areas where the statutes don’t apply, such as in the surveillance of overseas communications. Where they do apply, however, I think that presidents have the obligation to obey and enforce laws that are passed by Congress and signed into law by the president, no matter what the situation is.”
Six months is a long time. Here's what he thinks now, according to an adviser.
In a letter posted online by National Review this week, the adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, said Mr. McCain believed that the Constitution gave Mr. Bush the power to authorize the National Security Agency to monitor Americans’ international phone calls and e-mail without warrants, despite a 1978 federal statute that required court oversight of surveillance.
Mr. McCain believes that “neither the administration nor the telecoms need apologize for actions that most people, except for the A.C.L.U. and trial lawyers, understand were constitutional and appropriate in the wake of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001,” Mr. Holtz-Eakin wrote.
So not only has McCain flip-flopped (a behavior Republicans seem to abhor in others), Mr Independent Straight talk has changed his position to match that of the Bush (mis)administration.
He still looks a lot like GWB to me.
Here's some additional commentary on this:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/06/06/mccain/index.html
*The description of McCain as "cottage cheese on lime jello" while funny is a mere visual quibble. You can find that yourself if you want it.
