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McCain hijacks Obama's 'change' themeMcCain has, incredibly, tried to hijack Obama's slogan - "change." This is an audacious McCain tactic that tries to separate him from President Bush, most of whose policies McCain has solidly supported for the past eight years.
At last week's Republican national convention, McCain departed from his previous practice of keeping silent about his excruciating POW experience during the Vietnam War in order to express his support for Bush's duplicitous policies in conducting the war against Iraq. At this point, McCain has flip-flopped on so many issues, one wonders if he has any steadfast principles.
I liked his impassioned statement that he hates war, but he is the militant hawk who said the Iraq war could last 100 years. And, of course, McCain has got to be kidding when he tries to portray himself as running against "Washington," whatever that means. He has spent 26 years in the nation's capital and has accrued a record that is hardly unblemished.
Now we come to McCain's stunning selection of Alaska's governor, Sarah Palin, a vastly unprepared politician, to be his running mate. Her political views are to the far right. She supports the National Rifle Association, the teaching of creationism side-by-side with evolution, rejects women's' rights to reproductive choice, and promotes abstinence above sex education in schools.
There is an official inquiry under way in Alaska looking into Palin's drive to fire a state safety commissioner after he refused to fire her former brother-in-law, a state trooper who was in a messy custody fight with her sister. She also put pressure on a librarian in Wassila - where she was mayor - to censor some books, but happily the librarian stood her ground and refused to do so.
The fact that 72-year-old McCain knew so little about Palin before selecting her for the Republican ticket calls into question his judgment. Palin would be a real amateur if she succeeded to the presidency, especially in foreign and domestic policies. McCain obviously thinks anyone can be president. So when McCain speaks of "change," it represents a giant step backwards. The Republican ticket offers no solutions to the Iraq war - the war without end. McCain, who once called Christian conservatives the "agents of intolerance," truly made a strange choice for his running mate in view of Palin's description of the unpopular war in Iraq as a "task that is from God."
The new occupant of the White House - Obama or McCain - will face problems of rising unemployment and more expensive fuel, food and health care. There is the disastrous increase in home foreclosures, a collapsing infrastructure and numerous educational challenges at all levels.
The Democrats do not have a quick and easy solution for all these national troubles, but they are framing sound policies, including higher taxes on wealthy individuals and moving toward universal health care.
American voters who choose the Republican ticket will be dooming the nation to more of the same failed Bush administration.
What's the difference between Palin and Muslim fundamentalistsJohn McCain announced that he was running for president to confront the "transcendent challenge" of the 21st century, "radical Islamic extremism," contrasting it with "stability, tolerance and democracy." But the values of his handpicked running mate, Sarah Palin, more resemble those of Muslim fundamentalists than they do those of the Founding Fathers. On censorship, the teaching of creationism in schools, reproductive rights, attributing government policy to God's will and climate change, Palin agrees with Hamas and Saudi Arabia rather than supporting tolerance and democratic precepts. What is the difference between Palin and a Muslim fundamentalist? Lipstick.
McCain pledged to work for peace based on "the transformative ideals on which we were founded." Tolerance and democracy require freedom of speech and the press, but while mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Palin inquired of the local librarian how to go about banning books that some of her constituents thought contained inappropriate language. She tried to fire the librarian for defying her. Book banning is common to fundamentalisms around the world, and the mind-set Palin displayed did not differ from that of the Hamas minister of education in the Palestinian government who banned a book of Palestinian folk tales for its sexually explicit language. In contrast, Thomas Jefferson wrote, "Our liberty cannot be guarded but by the freedom of the press, nor that be limited without danger of losing it."
Palin argued when running for governor that creationism should be taught in public schools, at taxpayers' expense, alongside real science.
Wash. Post's Weisman ignored actual criteria used in study finding McCain voted with Bush 90 percent of the timeIn an online chat, Jonathan Weisman claimed of the finding that Sen. John McCain voted in line with President Bush 90 percent of the time, "The 90 percent figure is true, but I cover Congress. The vast majority of those votes are procedural, and virtually every member of Congress votes with his or her leadership on procedural motions." In fact, Congressional Quarterly's finding that McCain had voted with Bush 90 percent of the time was based on an analysis of "votes where the editors of Congressional Quarterly determined that President Bush had taken a clear position prior to the vote." CQ did not indicate the "vast majority" of the votes were procedural.
Palin v RealityPALIN: “Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown.”
REALITY: UNDER PALIN, WASILLA GOVERNMENT SPENDING & DEBT SKYROCKETED.
Total Government Expenditures Increased 63 Percent Under Palin. In fiscal 2003—the last fiscal year Palin approved the budget—the total government expenditures of Wasilla, excluding capital outlays, were $7,046,325. In fiscal 1996—the year before Palin took control of the
budget—the expenditures were $4,317,947. The increase was 63 percent. [Wasilla Comprehensive Annual Financial Report 2003, Table 1]
Palin Supported Increasing Wasilla Sales Tax From 2 to 2.5 Percent to Build $14.7 Million Sports Center. “Wasilla residents have given the go ahead to building a new multiuse sports center in town and to raising the city sales tax to pay for it. With the final votes counted
Friday, residents voted 306 to 286 in favor of a measure to raise the city sales tax from 2 percent to 2.5 percent to pay the estimated $14.7 million cost of building the center…Mayor Sarah Palin, who supported the measure, said the tight vote will motivate city officials to keep a close eye on the budget for the center.” [Anchorage Daily News, 3/9/02]
Palin Left Behind Almost $19 Million In Long-Term Debt, Compared to None Before She Was Mayor. In fiscal 2003—the last fiscal year Palin approved the budget—the bonded long-term debt was $18,635,000. In fiscal 1996—the year before Palin took control of the budget—there was no general obligation debt. [Wasilla Comprehensive Annual Financial Report 2003, Table 10]
PALIN: “It was the spirit that brought me to the governor’s office, when I took on the old politics as usual in Juneau … when I stood up to the special interests, the lobbyists, big oil companies, and the good-ol’ boys network.”
REALITY: PALIN HAS A LT. GOVERNOR WHO IS A FORMER OIL LOBBYIST, HIRED WASILLA’S FIRST FEDERAL LOBBYIST (A FORMER STEVENS STAFFER) & HAD THE SUPPORT OF ENTRENCHED ALASKA POLITICIANS DURING HER 2006 RACE.
Indicted Sen. Ted Stevens R-AK and Sarah Palin Were Friends David Brooks wrote that Gov. Sarah Palin "made mortal enemies of the two people [Sen. John] McCain has always held up as the carriers of the pork-barrel disease: [Rep. Don] Young [R-AK] and [Sen. Ted] Stevens [R-AK]." Brooks' characterization of Palin and Stevens as "mortal enemies" is undermined by substantial evidence, including a joint Stevens-Palin press conference in July in which Stevens said he has "never known of any animosity between" them and Palin said she had "great respect" for Stevens, as well as Palin's previous service as co-director of a 527 organization bearing Stevens' name.
