6 posts tagged “mccain”
McCain - obviously too little and too late - tries to rein in his supporters..
When a man told him he was “scared” of an Obama presidency, Mr. McCain replied, “I want to be president of the United States and obviously I do not want Senator Obama to be, but I have to tell you — I have to tell you — he is a decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as president of the United States.” The crowd booed loudly at Mr. McCain’s response.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/11/us/politics/11campaign.html
Frank Rich in today's NYT:
The main reason McCain knuckled under to the religious right by picking
Palin is that he actually believes there’s a large army of embittered
Hillary loyalists who will vote for a hard-line conservative simply
because she’s a woman. That’s what happens when you listen to the TV
news echo chamber. Not only is the whole premise ludicrous, but it is
every bit as sexist as the crude joke McCain notoriously told about Janet Reno, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton.
.
Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese: “Today, presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Senator John McCain announced he has chosen first term Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his choice to be his Vice Presidential running mate. Although only holding an executive, state-wide office for less than two years, Gov. Palin has already shown that she is a fierce opponent of equality.
“America may not know much about Sarah Palin, but based on what our
community has seen of her, we know enough,” said Human Rights Campaign
President Joe Solmonese. “Sarah Palin not only supported the 1998
Alaska constitutional amendment banning marriage equality but, in her
less than two years as Governor, even expressed the extreme position of
supporting stripping away domestic partner benefits for state workers.
When you can’t even support giving our community the rights to health
insurance and pension benefits, it’s a frightening window into where
she stands on equality.”
Thanks Fox News!!
SteveP's prediction: I think this is going to prove disastrous for McCain. The only effective argument he's had against Obama is his lack of experience. As Obama spokesman Bill Burton says: “Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency."
ADDENDUM:
The Washington Post: The McCain campaign had make little secret of the fact that they wanted to pick a woman as the Arizona senator's running mate, believing that the rift caused by the protracted primary between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton gave them an opportunity to pick up scads of disgruntled women.
But, as Sensible Shoes points out: I was a Hillary supporter until the 11th hour. Well, I'm still a
Hillary supporter. But I'm not a stupid puma. If McCain thinks I will
vote for a conservative, anti-choice, anti-gay, pro-drilling candidate
just because of her ovaries, he is wrong. And hopefully he's wrong
about all the other 11th-hour Hillary supporters.
ADDENDUM 2:
Paul Begala: Is McCain Out Of His Mind?
ADDENDUM 3:
New York Times: The selection of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska proved quintessentially McCain — daring, hazardous and defiantly off-message. He demonstrated that he would not get boxed in by convention as he sought to put a woman next in line to the presidency for the first time. Yet in making such an unabashed bid for supporters of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, he risked undercutting his central case against Senator Barack Obama.
“Here’s what I’m worried about,” said Ed Rogers, a Republican lobbyist and former aide to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush. “McCain had to protect his reputation as an opponent of status quo Washington. He had to pick someone with the shortest Washington résumé. He did that. He picked someone the right wing is going to be happy about. But it’s a gamble.”
“The question is,” Mr. Rogers continued, “what does it do to the argument that Obama’s not ready?”
The question is particularly acute for Mr. McCain, who turned 72 on Friday and would be the oldest person to assume the presidency if he won in November. His campaign now needs to convince the public that it can imagine in the Oval Office a candidate who has spent just two years as governor of a state with a quarter of the population of Brooklyn.
OK... I am totally disgusted. Who appointed this guy to vet the Presidential candidates. And you know that whatever happens here will be a major influence on the campaign. At this point, I'm not going to vote for either of these guys! Maybe it's because I just finished The Age Of American Unreason, but I'm tired of this pandering to the delusional.......
ADDENDUM: "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States" - U.S. Constitution, Article VI.
ADDENDUM 2: An excellent summary of The Age Of American Unreason.
Sam Stein can't find anyone - ANYONE - who says the Clinton/McCain gas tax hiatus isn't a stupid idea.
See also, Friedman's Dumb As We Wanna Be.
