John S. McCain, Too Risky a Choice

Friends, Readers, or any casual observer who happens to stumble upon my blog:

I write this today to say that, after the past few weeks, if you have any inclination of voting for John S. McCain for president, you are stupid. That, I assure you will be the meanest thing that I will say directly to you through the entirety of this post. Now see, that didn't hurt much. Please bear with me now as I explain why.

Eight years ago, I would not have said that (however, at that time, I didn't know that he had cheated on his disabled wife, trading her in for a new beauty queen because she wasn't pretty enough anymore—but I digress). The John McCain from that time was a decent candidate. He did offer "straight talk" and may very well have been the "maverick" that he claims to be now. However, times have changed. With his desire to become president, he has given in to the same smear tactics and lies that were played against him in 2000, and costing him the nomination. We have seen and heard the constant barrage of negative ads, shrill stump speeches and disingenuous sound bites—this after a vow to have an elevated campaign that would not venture onto the low road. I guess this just shows that when the going gets tough, John McCain is willing to throw all integrity out the window in the hopes of a win.  I think that's my biggest issue with him. I do, however, think that his policy stances are mostly worthless as well.

John McCain, in selling his soul to win the Republican base has voted to support George W. Bush's policies more than 90% of the time. And, in keeping in line with Bush, he has pretty much decided to embrace Dubya's failed policies for the future. Tax cuts he once argued against, he now wants to make permanent (never mind that we're fighting two wars that have cost nearly one trillion dollars). In the past eight years, our country has racked up one third of its national debt—keep in mind that we have been around for 232 years—financed by countries who don't have our best interests in mind.  On the war, John McCain is opposed to any withdrawal from Iraq, when even George W. Bush is supporting a timetable for it. He claims that victory is near, but I would ask him to explain exactly what a victory would entail. In fact I would ask anyone who supports this un-ending war in Iraq to define what a victory there means. Most experts are in accordance that a victory won't come militarily, so I ask Senator McCain, why are we still there?

John McCain is a conservative who has utmost faith in the markets and has called for deregulation over and over. Looking at the financial mess we are now in, it is clear that regulations are needed. He claims that the market is the solution for healthcare issues, when experts show that his plans would (after giving tax dollars to insurance companies) cause an additional 20 million Americans to be un-insured. And here's just some food for thought, imagine if the call for privatizing Social Security, embraced fully by the Republicans a few years back, had passed and tax dollars had been invested in Wall Street for that. Now, millions would have been lost in this vital security for our elderly and less fortunate over the past month alone.

It's a well-known fact that John McCain is a gambler. But with the dire circumstances that our country finds itself in, it's certainly too big a risk to go support a man who will willfully wager the nation's future on the ability to gain political points. I say this in the three major gambles he has taken in recent memory. Last year, at the time of the "surge" in Iraq, John McCain stood for it, when most voices were against it. Yes, that was bold at the time. The surge does seem to have paid off, for now, though contributing all recent success in Iraq to it would be foolish as well. This was a gamble that paid off for now, but it exists in the context of a war that should never have been waged;  a war that Senator McCain called for even before George W. Bush.  Second, his pick of a running mate in Sarah Palin was a risky wager that has held mixed results.  This is a woman who is clearly not qualified to lead the United States. Before being picked, she had given no thought to national or foreign policy. She is well-liked in Alaska, but I would bet that it's hard to have a big gripe against any part of government there when each citizen is paid by the government. She may have "shaken up" the Republican establishment in Alaska, but when she claims (falsely) that she can see Russia, from her home and that gives her foreign policy experience, she fails any competency test that would qualify her to be a breath away from the presidency, especially with a delicately frail candidate. Even this year, she claimed that she didn't know what the Vice President did. She hasn't given thought to the Supreme Court, to economic policy, or to American foreign policy. She has proven that all she can do is talk in circles, avoiding questions, and focus on talking points given to her by her handlers. She can read a speech well, but in this election there's one who can do that far better. The thing is, her speeches are laced with anger, disdain and mocking lines that belittle and degrade. She claims to be Christian, but her words certainly don't reflect that view. Last week she was the laughing stock of America and managed to "wow" some with her performance at the debate because she didn't run from the stage crying, but she offered nothing substantive, nothing more than memorized buzz words. She's a pretty face for a ticket without a plan. Lastly, with the economic crisis, two weeks ago John McCain "suspended" his campaign to look like he was helping resolve the problem. It turns out he was more of a hindrance than anything else. America saw this as a gimmick and it backfired. This is a man who, the day after one of the biggest financial collapses in history, claimed that "the fundamentals of the economy are strong." He proved he had clearly no idea about what is going on, and that going to Washington to "work" on this was just a ploy. This has been a risk that hasn't paid off, and I hope it seals his fate. John McCain is a risky choice, one that we, the American people can't gamble on.

Now we see that when they have nothing else, the campaign will stoop as low as they can to bring up irrelevant acquaintances that mean nothing and try to paint a candidate as evil because he knows a person who did a bad thing at one point in his life, what's the old adage, "those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones?   They are a desperate campaign and are grasping at straws.

So those are my thoughts, and that doesn't even include why Barack Obama is the superior candidate. I can do that tomorrow I guess. But for now, remember that in light of current events, if you still support John McCain, you're an idiot—my dad even said he won't vote for him, and for Darrell to not support a Republican, that means a lot.