McCain's speech

[quick]

I think McCain did ok....same as usual, he lacks the obama and Clinton words to captivate people. But the Palin VP choice was brilliant. She is smart, pretty, and has a blue collar backround, that appeals to 95% of Americans.

It's a lock with her. After the youtube debate, McCain stated that he did not even own a gun. Now Palin is a moose hunter, life long NRA member, hockey mom, and tired of the same BS.

Obama isn't getting much sleep after passing on Hilary. The heat has just been turned up........In what I believe to be one of the most important elections of the last 50 years, McCain will pull it out. People talk Obama because he's popular, but when they are alone in that booth, he's just too risky, and unclear of his intensions...

Rick

 

[Yellowfin]

Don`t you think that his(Mccains) experiences then is what helped to build the character he`s got today.

But that's just it, I don't think he has any of the same character today. Debatably any at all. At that point in time absolutely, no debate from me on that. He served and defended his country 30 years ago, but then for at least the last 10 or 12 spent selling it over to our own enemies within. What good someone does earlier does earn them the right to be praised for those deeds in and of themselves, but no license nor free pass for what bad they do later. Unless you count time served previously as a prepaid punishment for what he does nowadays which would deserve incarceration, it is of no merit to argue of present virtue.

 

[Playboypenguin]

But that's just it, I don't think he has any of the same character today. Debatably any at all. He served and defended his country 30 years ago, but then for at least the last 10 or 12 spent selling it over to our own enemies within

You might be right...you might be wrong. But one does not invalidate the other. Both aspects deserve to be presented.

 

[Shane Tuttle]

I guess I better practice what I preach and post a relevant thought....

I'd sure like to see more of a Town Hall type setting for debates. Let the candidates answer questions in a room full of undecided voters. The real kicker? Neither candidate knows ahead of time what the questions will be and are not picked and chosen by their constituents. Granted, they'll need to be filtered so actual relevant questions are asked. McCain would probably do much better than his speech from Thursday.

He still came across as a Dem in Rep clothing to me. I deeply respect his service to our country. I admittedly got a bit choked up during some of it since it hit home a bit. But, I must separate my emotions when I judge a candidate objectively. I'm not a happy camper when I view his voting record. At least his speech reflected that to a certain extent. Most politicians would just spin away from that closet skeleton.

 

[MeekAndMild]

Guys I don't think it was meant to be a motivational speech so much as a lecture which listed his potential strengths as POTUS. I think it was directed at the level headed independent voters who are looking for substantial information to use to compare and contrast him to Obama. I believe his style and form were directed toward the significant minority of American independents who tend to skip voting because they perceive politics to be the sort of fluff, or worse waste their votes on fringe parties out of frustration with the substance of the mainstream candidates. Boring? Not at all as compared to most of the military briefings I've sat in on.

 

[copenhagen]

Meek and Mild, you brought it back on topic and hit the nail on the head. His speech worked quite well for this. I have been driving around with a 'none of the above' sticker on my care. I removed it. I'm not saying McCain for sure has my vote- I may still vote third party, but his speech was most convincing, and made me even tear up a bit.

 

[Al Norris]

All off topic posts have been removed.

 

[woad_yurt]

McCain Version 2.0

Lots of folks have been talking about McCain's character. Up until a couple of years ago, I believed he had integrity. I may or may not have agreed with his views but I thought he was genuine. Then, when he needs support for his presidential ambitions, all of the stuff he said in the past, the stuff he's hammered at for a looooong time, went out the window.

He used to say that the states should decide their own abortion laws; now he says that Rowe v. Wade should be overturned.

In 2002, he said that the Iraq invasion wouldn't be "too difficult." Now, he's saying that it's going to be a very long haul indeed.

Another unaddressed issue:
Iraq: 168,753 square miles
Vietnam: 127,247 square miles
How will we be succesful in Iraq with 1/3 troops we had in Vietnam? As a military guy, how does McCain square this? Rolling over a place is one thing. Pacifying it takes 3 times the amount of troops. It's easy to knock someone down but to keep 'em down, you gotta leave someone there to do so, pretty much on every street corner.

Jan, 2005 quote on TV w/Chris Matthews regarding Iraq:
"I think one of our big problems has been the fact that many Iraqis resent American military presence," he responded. "And I don't pretend to know exactly Iraqi public opinion. But as soon as we can reduce our visibility as much as possible, the better I think it is going to be."

Now, he's for staying there.

And, whatever happened to his age-old mantra, campaign finance reform? He's been very quiet about that since he himself has been campaigning for president.

Feb, 2000 McCain:
In a speech, he called leaders of the religious right "agents of intolerance," that they used strategies of "division and slander." He called Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell "corrupting influences on religion and politics" and said parts of the religious right were divisive and even un-American.

But, recently, when he wanted a few more million voters' support, he happily trotted over to Liberty University to chum up with Falwell so he could give him a hug.

He says that he's pro-military but I think he regularly voted about 10 times against spending additional money on veterans' health care in 2005 and 2006. And, this year, when expanding the GI Bill to provide more money for discharged vets' college costs was discussed, why wasn't he the loudest supporter? He seems to like the idea of increased military spending for hardware but not much that would benefit the individual soldier. I'm a veteran and this non-support of the actual, human, individual soldier really steams me. It feels like a betrayal.

There are other contradictions and flip flops; these are just some that come to me off the top of my head. I am not saying whether or not I agree or disagree with any of the positions he's maintained, so, folks, please don't get on me for my political opinions. The point of this post is not to spout my opinions (except for the GI Bill thing; that slipped out!) but to point out some glaring contradictions between McCain's recent past views and his present ones. I just think that the pre-candidate McCain at least stood solidly for what he believed in whereas candidate McCain doesn't. I can't come up with any other reason for his startling about-face on so many things other than that he's just shilling for votes.