character

This goes above and beyond as far as I'm concerned.  And I was suprised that CNN was running the lead on it.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/01/mccain.ads/index.html

John McCain's campaign will stop advertising on several Web sites that have vilified Barack Obama as unpatriotic and, in one case, compared the Democratic nominee-in-waiting to Adolf Hitler. <!--startclickprintexclude--> <!-- PURGE: /2008/POLITICS/07/01/mccain.ads/art.mccain.2.afp.gi.jpg --><!-- KEEP -->

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A spokesman for McCain said Monday the campaign was not aware its ads were running on the pro-Hillary Clinton sites. He said the campaign has taken steps to block those sites from its online advertising network.

"When we find stuff like this, we take care of it," said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers.

McCain has made it known he is reaching out to former Clinton supporters, and there are nearly two hundred well-trafficked blogs and online communities run by former Clinton supporters who refuse to support Obama. But the three sites on which McCain's ads appeared are particularly hostile to the Illinois senator.

The hoopla over McCain’s military service has been spinning like an out-of-control top.

No… military service alone does NOT qualify one to be President. However, let’s place all this in context.

Since John McCain started running for president, the media has declared him their darling, including show great reverence for his military life……. until recently.

Since McCain became the GOP’s presumptive candidate, the main stream military seems to have forgotten that he served in the war in Viet Nam with distinction and honor. He survived a naval disaster that killed 134 and yet decided to do his duty and stay to fight for freedom in that unforgettable war.

Nope, that doesn’t qualify McCain to be president. However McCain’s honor goes to the point of surviving the Hanoi Hilton; honor that promulgated itself further by him voluntarily staying a POW when offered a chance to leave because of his relation to his father in the Admiralty. John McCain refused to leave as long as his fellow POWs were forced to stay. He stayed in that hell-on-earth for five and one half years. In circumstances so degrading and decimating, John McCain displayed leadership and integrity to not only his fellow POWs, but also to his captors. McCain was tortured repeatedly and placed in solitary confinement for 2 years!

What life or career experience has Barack Obama gone through that even remotely compares to that?

On Sunday, June 29, 2008, retired general Wesley Clark, an Obama supporter, downplayed McCain’s military service on a Sunday talk show. Clark even criticized McCain’s squadron command post. In 1976, after post war rehabilitation and a return to flight status, McCain became commanding officer of a training squadron stationed in Florida. He turned around an undistinguished unit and won the squadron its first Meritorious Unit Commendation. In other words, he showed executive experience by leading a group that was less than average and turned it around to one of success.

What life or career experience has Barack Obama gone through that even remotely compares to that?

In 1981, McCain turned down an Admirals star in favor of running for congress where he felt he could do more good for the nation. He moved to Arizona and became a Vice-President of Public Relations for a large beer distributorship. Gaining the trust of the residents and leaders of his newly adopted home state, he won the election soundly. In other words, he left his chosen, life-long career and all its benefits and prestige and then an executive position in favor of serving as a representative to the people of Arizona.

What life or career experience has Barack Obama gone through that even remotely compares to that?

Now, in context, if you take each of those things, would they automatically qualify John McCain to be the President of the United States? Nope. But, if you take them together, again in context, and add them to the rest of his life and experience, does that qualify him to be President? Nope again. And yet, since McCain does meet the constitutionally listed requirements, if you apply his life experiences to that, he is abundantly qualified and experienced and even desirable and president.

In the same venue that we have discussed one’s faith being a qualification, we can really discuss experience. Neither faith nor experience are requirements. However, the things that are mandatory for every voter to judge are integrity and character. And there is not way that anyone can argue with John McCain’s integrity and character.

There are so many things that I, personally dislike about John McCain’s politics. He has been too liberal in some things and too eager to compromise in others. However, when compared to Barack Obama, McCain is a much better choice. Obama has been rated the MOST liberal senator.

And even though I was not happy that McCain became the presumptive GOP nominee, I absolutely trust him over Obama in three key areas.

1. McCain has promised to nominate Supreme Court judges that will interpret the law and not legislate from the bench.

2. McCain will deal with the war on terror in a way that will keep America safer than what Obama promises.

3. Of the two candidates, McCain is the only one who would handle another surprise terrorist attack similar to 9/11. Obama has NEVER had to deal with ANY pressure or stress such as that.

Oh, how the times have changed. The main stream media used to carry McCain on a throned litter of heroism. Now, they treat McCain like the enemy he so valiantly fights against.

While this site does have a tendancy to go off the deep end with some truly fringe ideas there are in this mud some true pearls which we must examine about the man who wants to be our next President.

 

McCain, however, does not think so highly of the POW/MIA families and activists who openly challenge the U.S. government's POW/MIA policy, many of whom walked the halls of Congress during the Vietnam War years demanding America's prisoners of war, including POW McCain, not be forgotten.

McCain, as a member of the 1992 Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, took the lead in demanding a U.S. Justice Department investigation of the POW/MIA activists and their organizations. He accused the activists of fraud because in some of their fund-raising literature the activists claimed the U.S. government knowingly left U.S. POWs behind after the Vietnam War and that some remain alive today.

McCain openly attacked the activists telling the press, "The people who have done these things are not zealots in a good cause. They are the most craven, most cynical and most despicable human beings to ever run a scam." The Justice Department did investigate the POW/MIA activists and their organizations and found no reason to charge any POW/MIA activist.

 

John McCain then attacked ordinary Americans for lobbying congress on an issue they believed in. He accused them of committing criminal acts and tried to lean the force of the US government on them. Many of these same people fought for John McCain and his brothers in Hanoi when they were POWs. Did John McCain say "If there were POWS there we would join with you but there is no evidence that there are" if he did we would see a demonstration of character and class from John McCain. Here we see the same John McCain we saw when republicans opposed him on Campaign Finance Reform, Global Warming, And Amnesty for illegal immigrants.

they even paint the picture of John McCain's signature hated issue amongst Republicans (McCain-Feingold) as more crass oppertunism for John McCain

"Republican Sen. John McCain reported a net worth of at least $830,705 but possibly as much as $1.2 million or more, excluding personal residences . . . McCain listed his wife, Cindy, as the source of most of his assets. . . the bulk of McCain's assets consisted of stock in three Glendale firms - Hensley & Co., a beer distributorship headed by his father-in-law; Western Leasing Co., which leases trucks and equipment; and Eagle Enterprises, which invests in real estate and stock." The Phoenix Gazette - May 19, 1987

"So why has Sen. McCain, R-Ariz., gone to unprecedented lengths to block reform of the Senate campaign finance system? Why does he oppose letting this important matter even come to a vote? Perhaps it's because he is a prime beneficiary of the special interest funding of congressional elections. "McCain raised over $2.5 million for his 1986 election . . . more than $760,000 of his campaign funds came from political action committee (PACs) . . . especially disturbing are the contributions to McCain's campaign coffers from PACs outside of Arizona." The Phoenix Gazette - December 8, 1987

"While Sen. John McCain's wife and father-in-law were investing with Charles H. Keating, Jr. in a shopping center, McCain was helping Keating battle federal regulators who questioned his operation of Lincoln Savings and Loan . . . [photo caption] Documents show that Sen. John McCain's wife, Cindy, and father-in-law, James W. Hensley (second from right) are the largest investors in Fountain Square Shopping Center. Their partnership is managed by subsidiaries of American Continental Corp., run by Charles H. Keating, Jr. (right). But John McCain contends there was no conflict in his helping Keating battle federal regulators." The Arizona Republic - October 8, 1989

"Sen. John McCain had more than a constituent relationship with Charles H. Keating, Jr. prior to 1987 . . . the McCains - sometimes with their daughter and baby sitter - made at least nine trips at Keating's expense from August 1984 to August 1986 aboard either Keating's American Continental Corporation's jet or chartered planes and helicopters owned by Resorts International. Three of the trips were for vacations at Keating's luxurious retreat in the Bahamas." The Arizona Republic - October 8, 1989

John McCain when it was to his benefit rolled in the mud. But when he pitched in to help out a major investment partner of his family and got hit on the nose for it he then decided "If I can't play no one else can" this is another aspect of his Character that serves him poorly as a Senator and will serve us poorly if he is a President.

And when Reporters asked that legitimate question, just as when McCain was asked legitimate questions about his Immigration Amnesty Plan John McCain became a bully

"McCain, in a radio talk-show appearance last week condemned disclosures of his family's ties to Keating as "irresponsible journalism." The Arizona Republic - October 17, 1989

" . . . both in telephone conversations with reporters and on a live radio talk show, the Republican senator was far from calm. He was agitated. Angry. And the way he dealt with unpleasant questions was to bully the questioners . . . 'You're a liar,' McCain snapped Sept. 29 when an Arizona Republic reporter asked him about business ties between his wife, Cindy McCain, and Keating . . . 'That's the spouse's involvement, you idiot,' McCain sneered later in the same conversation. 'You do understand English, don't you?' ". . . Not content with just bullying reporters, McCain tried belittling them: 'It's up to you to find that out, kids.' . . . McCain wasn't talking to liars. He wasn't talking to juveniles. The senator was talking to two reporters." The Arizona Republic - October 17, 1989

 

Again 1989 John McCain, to the same John McCain who calls fellow Senators Sailor words and tells people who don't like his plans to make their own or shut up. There isn't a change in his character it is just bad character and bad leadership

Nor is there evidence of John and Cindy McCain showing compassion or a drive to help people who suffered in Vietnam

"As a 100 percent, service-connected, disabled ex-prisoner of war, I sought help from John McCain when he was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and I needed help in regard to a claim for back service-connected disability compensation. I did so because I thought that as an ex-POW himself he could relate to my problem. When I could not reach him via letters to his office, I wrote to his home address. That was a very enlightening experience . . . my letter, addressed to the congressman, was opened by his wife, Cindy. She didn't like what she read, so she wrote me a nasty letter. Apparently John McCain isn't even capable of communicating on a one-to-one basis with someone who was a POW and returned from his experience in far worse physical condition than John McCain returned from his experience . . . M. "Shane" Schoenborn." The Phoenix Gazette - November 4, 1989

We also saw back in the 2000 campaign other demonstrations of the temper and lack of character of John McCain

In fact, Major Burch's organization, the National Vietnam & Gulf War Veterans Coalition, is hardly a "fringe" outfit. Founded in 1983 as the National Vietnam Veterans Coalition expressly to force the federal government to address the Agent Orange fiasco, the Coalition took the lead in writing the legislation and garnering House and Senate co-sponsors. The Coalition was the only non-chartered veterans organization permitted to testify before the United States House of Representatives.

As Burch says, "Our Coalition was then and is now 'cutting edge.' We want results for our veterans 'now' - while they're alive. We don't want or need more phony studies and delays."

Tom Burch is a former Green Beret and a member of the Judge Advocate Corps, who served in Vietnam and received the Bronze Star in 1968. He is a past department commander of the Washington D.C. Veterans of Foreign Wars. The VFW, along with the American Legion, is considered the most "mainstream" veteran's group.

....

1) According to Burch, beginning in 1984 when the coalition sought co-sponsors for the Agent Orange bill, John McCain refused to sign on. When Burch and his men asked other members of the House to co-sponsor, these congressmen would invariably ask, "Has John McCain signed on to this bill?" When told that McCain had not it was believed, as often happens on the Hill in matters like this, that McCain was against the bill.

It was only after more than two hundred congress members expressed their support for the bill and final passage was assured that McCain finally agreed to come on board. But McCain's foot-dragging and initial reluctance made the coalition's work much more difficult and delayed the veterans' final victory.

2) In 1988 the coalition led the charge for "Judicial Review," a new system whereby veterans rejected for benefits by the Veterans Administration would have the same right to appeal as Social Security recipients have. Again, the coalition members working the halls of Congress asking for co-sponsors to the bill found McCain in opposition.

The senator from Arizona never signed on.

3) In 1991 when new evidence of living American servicemen missing in Vietnam surfaced, the coalition - in conjunction with those "mainstream" veterans organizations, the VFW and American Legion - led the charge for a Senate Select Committee to investigate whether or not any American POWs were left behind in Southeast Asia and whether some might still be alive. All these veterans groups wanted a senate panel instead of an executive branch panel because no one believed the executive branch could be trusted to investigate itself.

Senator McCain initially opposed the Senate committee. Later, when the Senate ultimately created the panel, McCain was appointed a member.

4) As a member of the Senate POW Committee, McCain "distinguished himself" by repeatedly insulting wives, mothers and children of POWs and MIAs and accusing many veterans groups fighting for the POW cause of "making a living off this issue." He made similar charges in the South Carolina primary when the National Right to Life Committee endorsed Bush: "It is a shame when they take a cause and turn it into a business."

5) Tom Burch's District of Columbia law partner is Adrian Cronauer, made famous by Robin Williams' portrayal in the movie "Good Morning Vietnam." When the presidential campaign was heating up last month, Cronauer asked for a meeting with McCain to discuss veterans' issues. The answer came back from McCain's office: "The Senator says he will not meet with you."

6) And when word leaked out that Tom Burch and the coalition were going to endorse George W. Bush, McCain campaign operative and fellow former POW, Orson Swindle, called Burch and said, "We will destroy you."

While I am quoting from one source on the Character of John McCain we only need to look at his more recent actions to know that this is the MO he has operated in, and while likely operated on in the future.

So with these prior bad acts in mind why should any republican trust that John McCain has the character to lead us?

First, some disclosures. I can't decide if I'm a paleo- neo-, libertarian, or some combination of the three. And I served in the military, including a stint in Iraq. For those reasons, I may not have the same reservations as many conservatives show in voting for McCain. But there are two things I think people of all stripes should keep in mind when considering whether to vote or stay home.

1) Character counts, and McCain is a man of character. Chalk this one up under intangibles, but I think McCain shows tremendous character. Yes, his positions have changed, as others have pointed out. But when the Senator speaks, he has an authenticity neither of the Democratic candidates can match. It's often an exasperating authenticity, but it's real nonetheless. Maybe it's too much Straight-Talk kool-aid for me, but I'll take him over the other two. 

2) If conservatives only vote for true conservatives, have conservatives ever had an occasion to vote? Again, I concede McCain does things I dislike (campaign finance, gas-tax demagoging, etc.). But don't conservatives often vote for the so-called lesser of two evils? Do we really think we're that much different from liberals in that we will rarely get an 'orthodox' candidate?  

Staying home gives a two-vote swing to Obama/Clinton. Look at the Congress he'll work with, the judges he'll appoint, the war that can't be retroactively undone, and consider what the next president will work with in the next four years. McCain is the best scenario, even if he isn't the future of conservatism.