In Which We Resume the Policy of Extracting Comments From Comments In Order to Comment On Them

Frank:

He (McCain) may not be the candidate I wish he was, but no one can say that he puts politics above what he thinks is best for the country.

Actually, I can say it with a fair degree of surety. Whatever John McCain once was, he is certainly now as cravenly desperate to win as any candidate in recent memory. He has abandoned his "straight talk" in favor of a convenient lies, and has given up his press accessibility in favor of stonewalling. He chose Sarah Palin, a plainly unqualified intellectual lightweight, to be his Vice President in order to generate political excitement. He's grandstanding amid sensitive and highly technical financial negotiations about which, by his own admission, he has no expertise or insight. He has, in short, abandoned whatever claim he might have had on "Country First" in order to achieve power.

It's nice, Frank, that you believe John McCain is so pure in his motives. I look forward to your providing evidence of his standing up for something politically damaging (to himself) in order to do what's right. I'll bet you right now you have to back a few years to find anything like that.

Comments

[Steve]

Actually, you can just go back a couple of days for an example. Suspending his campaign while his opponent continues to fill the airwaves with his bile filled commercials is not politically advantageous.

[Frank]

Here are a couple of recent examples:

As Steve pointed out, he just suspended his campaign to get back to work while Obama's campaign as well as most every network is free to take shots at him on a daily basis. Not the most politically advantages stand to take.

He still backs "comprehensive immigration reform" despite it being completely against what most of the conservative base wants from him. Yet he refuses to back down from what he believes to be right.

He supported sending more troops to Iraq when most every other voice in Washington was calling for immediate surrender withdraw of troops. Again, a risky political move that was, as it turns out, the right thing to do.

Seriously, we can go on like this all day. I don't think McCain is the savior of the world, nor do I think everything he does is with pure motives; he is a politician after all. But, he does have a track record of taking politically unpopular stances to support what he thinks is best for the country.

Now, can you name even one time Obama has taken a politically challenging position on anything? Even reaching back a few years, as you claim with McCain? Because all I see in his record is political pandering to every fringe lefty group that will give him a microphone.

[Frank]

And please ignore the spelling / grammar mistakes. I was on the phone will typing that and hit post just a little too quickly.

[Wally]

Saying you are suspending your campaign while continuing to air ads, make grandstanding TV appearances and have your spokespeople repeat your talking points on every news show that will have them is not really the same thing as suspending your campaign. As for Iraq, if the people in charge want to call what we have "achieved" there, victory, I'm all for it if it let's us bring our troops home. The victory McCain and Bush are talking about, where we permanently station 20K servicemen in Iraq to be blown up in ones and twos is not my, friends, victory we can believe in.
As for politically challenging positions that Obama has taken- there was that disagreement about the Iraq war, there is the abortion rights issue and gay rights issue to name a few. While you may be correct that these are lefty issues, given how America has voted for the last decade, those are politically challenging positions. The Imaginary Friend knows, those positions have strengthened your resolve against him, not won you over. Perhaps you're just upset that a politician with a good chance of winning is pandering to someone other than you this time. This time, our candidate is mouthing all the things "we" believe in and we like it.

[heyzeus]

McCain was against "drilling his way out of the problem" before he became all "drill here, drill now, drill more." McCain was pro-choice before he became pro-life. McCain called hatemonger evangelists like Hagee threats to our country before he sought their endorsement and became best buddies.

[Squidley]

I lean more towards the Tom analysis than the Frank analysis on this one. I agree with Frank's assessment that McCain is neither a savior nor pure; then again, I agree with Tom's assessment that he is craven.

One of McCain's biggest problems is that he picks a position--often a very bad one, like amnesty for illegal aliens--and sticks to it by posturing. He personalizes the issue by putting his honor into it, making himself look as though he has integrity, when in fact he is just posturing.

Regardless, Frank is right about McCain remaining a true believer in "comprehensive immigration reform," i.e., amnesty for illegal aliens. Despite his assertions to have "gotten it" about amnesty (i.e., the base is against it), despite his reluctant agreement to "build the God-damned fence if they want it," he remains a dyed-in-the-wool, charter member of the Amnesty for Illegals club.