JOHN McCAIN REALLY, REALLY WANTS TO BE PRESIDENT

FLAT TIRE ON THE STRAIGHT TALK EXPRESS
Maverick or Conformist?

IT’S GOOD to have a truly honest discourse about those in our country who have positions of importance, or positions of authority, or positions of power.

To be perfectly reasonable, this isn’t the most important discussion we could be having in our world, but it’s close. In this governance thing that we’ve been trying to perfect for a couple hundred years now, it has surfaced that too many of our authority figures, once ensconced in office, need to be regulated from time to time. We elect them. Then they vote FOR their CONSTITUENTS, they will tell you. Yeah, right. It’s really remarkable how many times these people we elect vote against those who elected them, and vote for any business entity or special interest group that has the dollars to get their attention.

That activity has another name, as detailed at length in my posts on The Power of the Euphemism. The euphemism that legislators throw around with such impunity is “…Campaign Finance.” That translates as taking money from people.

Which brings us to John McCain. McCain really wants to be President. He really does.

Let’s examine Mr. McCain a bit. Hard-drinking playboy as a youth, athlete, friendly guy, son of an Admiral, grandson of an Admiral. So it was decided he would attend Annapolis.

There he continued his reckless ways, and was described by classmates as the ultimate party guy. He came precipitously close to flunking out on more than one occasion, according to Annapolis records, and just as close to being kicked out on another occasion. But the dauntless Naval warrior held on, and graduated: 5th from the bottom of all in his class.

When asked about that recently, McCain said he had only one regret. He said that President Eisenhower was a guest at the graduation that year. When the ceremony was about to wind up, Ike said “…One more thing. I’d like to shake hands and congratulate the anchor man.” Anchor man is the title given to the cadet who graduates dead last - at the very bottom of the class. McCain said in response to the interviewer’s question: “…the only thing I regret was that I couldn’t have graduated last so I could shake hands with President Eisenhower.” And then he grinned.

O-kay …

John McCain – “the Straight Talking Express” he calls his campaign. John McCain, the Maverick. John McCain always speaks the truth, and represents all of us. Well, those carefully crafted campaign lies and slogans soon started taking on water, as the McCain presidential ship started sinking. Let’s see: in the year 2000, the Republican machine was working 28 hours a day at putting a Republican in the White House. The RNC settled on the Governor of Texas because of his name (son of a former President). They desperately wanted to succeed a very successful Democratic President, who left a legacy of $ 4 trillion in Surplus, and the Longest economic boom in United States history (211 years at that point) for the incoming administration to enjoy.

So the RNC literally spared no expense or work to get the job done. The first item to surface in the 2000 campaign vis-à-vis McCain and GW Bush, right after McCain had won the New Hampshire primary, was the much-mentioned smear that the Bush people put out about McCain having fathered an illegitimate non-white child. Any other normal man would have been white hot, even punched Bush in the nose. (I would have.) But McCain took it when Bush lied to his face, and said he knew nothing about it, or where it came from, and soldiered on. Really noteworthy is how seven years later McCain was so willing to let bygones be bygones and embraced Bush with all the apparent affection in the world, as shown in the photo. Is the embrace because he believes in the Bush performance index, or the Bush agenda, or vision for America? Nah – it’s because McCain wants to be President so-o-o-o bad. He really wants to be President.

Notice how alike McCain and Bush became after that obvious smear in S Carolina. Both these guys are perfectly willing to let young people die or be maimed in a made-up war. Not surprising with Bush. He is an empty suit in all respects – has no respect for anyone or anything. But it did come as a surprise with McCain, who after all, knows first hand about the collective lunacy of war.

Next item: McCain said in interview after interview how he was against Bush’s arrogant Tax Cuts for the wealthy, saying that it is unprecedented to give Tax Cuts in wartime, for one thing. Now that a few years have passed, and McCain really wants to President, he wants to make the tax cuts permanent.

McCain had one brief skirmish with the law. He and four other Senators were apparently bribed by one Charles Keating, the event being memorialized as the Keating Five Scandal of the 1980s. But he survived it, was not charged. McCain had for years been an enthusiastic recipient of special interest and lobbyist money, but he suddenly made campaign finance reform one of his most pressing concerns. This concern, if that’s what it was, eventually led to the passing of the McCain-Feingold Act in 2002. McCain even partnered in this doomed effort with a prominent Democrat, Russell Feingold.

When a questioner asked him about US troops in Iraq, and said "President Bush has talked about our staying in Iraq for 50 years." McCain responded, "Make it a hundred. We've been in Japan for 60 years, we've been in South Korea for 50 years or so. That'd be fine with me as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed. That's fine with me.”

So – here’s John McCain, folks. He is for welfare reform. (Reform is a euphemism - what he is for is welfare eradication.) He is generally regarded as a hawk on foreign policy. He is for making tax giveaways to the wealthy permanent. He speaks of Iran and the Iranian people disparagingly, no doubt wouldn’t hesitate to start his own war with Iran, like his brain-damaged predecessor did with Iraq, and call it Regime Change. (Right: he would use the same phrase, having learned from the master.)

Oviously, the best way to end this one is to say to all voters in America in November 2008: If you liked George Bush and his lunatic presidency, you’ll love John McCain.”

Faithfully, in the interest of the American people.
Bob