Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] [POLITICS] 10 things to know about McCain (fwd)

[Stephen Montgomery-Smith <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

Mike Miller wrote:
> The ten items below are followed by a list of more than ten sources.  I 
> used to think McCain was worth about $2 million, but it turns out that 
> his wife is probably worth more than $100 million.  It was after 
> marrying into her family that McCain started in politics.  --Mike
>
>
> 10 things you should know about John McCain (but probably don't):
>
> 1. John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor of 
> Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has "evolved," yet 
> he's continued to oppose key civil rights laws.1

Here I disagree with him.

> 2. According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on 
> Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain 
> "will make Cheney look like Gandhi."2

Good for McCain.

> 3. His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain 
> voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President 
> Bush for vetoing that ban.3

For me this is a difficult issue, but on balance I think I come down on 
McCain's side.

> 4. McCain opposes a woman's right to choose. He said, "I do not support 
> Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned."4

Yes, yes, yes!

> 5. The Children's Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in 
> Congress for children. He voted against the children's health care bill 
> last year, then defended Bush's veto of the bill.5

Presumably for other reasons, though, than hating the little children.

> 6. He's one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires. 
> The Associated Press reports he and his wife own at least eight homes! 
> Yet McCain says the solution to the housing crisis is for people facing 
> foreclosure to get a "second job" and skip their vacations.6 

Well, I guess this is why I would have preferred Huckabee.  Oh well.

> 7. Many of 
> McCain's fellow Republican senators say he's too reckless to be 
> commander in chief. One Republican senator said: "The thought of his 
> being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He's erratic. He's 
> hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."7

I have heard this too.  But these remarks might be left overs from smear 
campaigns against him when he was running against Bush 8 years ago.

> 8. McCain talks a lot about taking on special interests, but his 
> campaign manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The government 
> watchdog group Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money 
> for his campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates.8

I have a feeling that this evidence against him is circumstantial or 
contrived.

> 9. McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right in 
> recent years. The pastor McCain calls his "spiritual guide," Rod 
> Parsley, believes America's founding mission is to destroy Islam, which 
> he calls a "false religion." McCain sought the political support of 
> right-wing preacher John Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God's 
> punishment for gay rights and called the Catholic Church "the 
> Antichrist" and a "false cult."9

I'm glad that McCain acknowledges the religious right.

As for some of what is said here, you need to take the plank out of 
Obama's eye first.  Heh, heh.

> 10. He positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a 0--yes, 
> zero--from the League of Conservation Voters last year.10

This is an issue I am ambivalent about.  I would describe myself as an 
environmental hypocrite - willing to talk the talk, but still driving an 
SUV.

Stephen

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