
April 4th / 6th, 2008
"John McCain is Not Our ‘Friend’"
What’s wrong with John McCain? Let me count the ways.
First, let’s dispense with a politically incorrect matter that no one in the
media is willing to tackle: McCain is not now, nor was he ever an “American
Hero”.
The man had the misfortune of having been captured by communists, and
subsequently spent several years in a P.O.W. camp. I am truly sorry that he was
incarcerated, but being captured does not, per se, constitute being a hero.
In fact, just the opposite is true. Men like Sgt. York in World War I,
and former Governor Doug Wilder in Korea were heroes because they distinguished
themselves by single-handedly capturing enemy forces. But John McCain is no
more a hero than guys like me who faced the Viet Nam draft rather than
dodging it. Had I been shipped out, I too might have been captured. But being
captured requires no particular skill. So please, let’s once and for all stop
referring to John McCain as “an American Hero”. He is not.
Second, being a P.O.W. doesn’t make John McCain a foreign policy expert. It
only makes him a foreign prison expert. Yes, I’m sure that he endured
indignities and discomfort which I wouldn’t wish upon anyone. But that doesn’t
mean he knows more about foreign relations than Obama or Clinton.
Third, and similarly, his being a Washington insider for decades also doesn’
t make him a foreign policy expert, nor does it make him any more qualified
than the other two candidates who have served less time in the Senate than
McCain. McCain has proven time and again that he is willing to throw diplomacy
and U.S. troops under the bus in order to advance his own political agenda.
That kind of reckless, egotistical disregard for human life doesn’t make him
a foreign policy genius, it makes him a war mongering idiot.
Fourth, speaking of disregard for human life, John McCain is second only to
Bush/Cheney in that category. McCain is unconcerned by the 4,000 U.S. troops
who have died for nothing, and he is unfeeling about the over 600,000
innocent Iraqi men, women, and children who have lost their lives as a result of an
illegal and unethical invasion which he still defends to this day. McCain
brags about the Surge because fewer U.S. soldiers are being killed now than
prior to the Surge. But a reduction in casualties isn’t due to McCain’s
strategy. It is because the U.S. government is now paying bribes to over 70,000
sectarian crazies so they won’t shoot at us for awhile. Thus, the McCain Surge
is nothing more than a deceptive, sick joke designed to get him elected.
Fifth, McCain is a hypocrite. He is willing to maintain a trading
relationship with Communist China, but won’t open relations with Cuba. China is
responsible for more human rights violations than Cuba. China has exported deadly
products and raw materials to America. And, China has helped to destroy our
middle class by working with greedy American CEO’s to move jobs out of the
United States.
In John McCain’s world, China is good, and Cuba is bad. Go figure.
Finally, McCain is an arrogant, corrupt politician who cares nothing about
ordinary citizens, whom he refers to as, “My friends”. Last week, big John
told a group of Hispanic business leaders in Santa Ana that he wouldn’t
support coming to the rescue of sub prime mortgage victims. McCain noted that most
homeowners are “doing what’s necessary…working a second job, skipping a
vacation, managing their budgets.” He went on to say that if we commit
taxpayer dollars to assistance, “…it should be accompanied by reform…and central to
that reform should be accountability.”
This comes from a man who once accepted money from Charles Keating, then CEO
of Lincoln Savings & Loan. Keating invested his depositors money in risky
real estate deals which caused Lincoln to go bankrupt in 1989. The S&L bail
out cost taxpayers over $3 billion dollars. McCain then tried to persuade
regulators to ease up on his buddy Keating. So much for reform and
accountability.
McCain is a man who, like Elliot Spitzer, sets himself above the law, and
above ethics, while pretending to be a hard-nosed, holier-than-thou, moral
compass for the rest of us. While we struggle, he just sits back and defends
the status quo.
- He will sit back and let us bail out his corrupt friends.
- He will sit back and let us bail out Bear Stearns.
- He will sit back and let us lose our homes.
- He will sit back and watch us go without health insurance.
- He will sit back and tell us the Surge is working without regard to the lost
lives and revenues.
In fact, the only thing John McCain will stand up for is John McCain, and
that makes him one of the most self-centered, egomaniacal, intolerant
politicians to ever grace the American political stage. Even worse, it makes him
dangerous.
In many regards, Clinton and Obama aren’t much better than McCain but at
least they are willing to consider executive action that could improve the human
condition.
If John McCain is elected President, this country will continue to suffer as
it has under George Bush. And though I once referred to George W as the
worst President in history, I think McCain would be an even greater disgrace to
that high office. That’s because Bush may be the village idiot, but he never
claimed to be a duplicitous American hero.
In his stump speeches John McCain always refers to us as “My Friends”, but
with friends like McCain, who needs enemies?
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