John McCain
Posted at 12:28pm on Jul. 11, 2008 What Does John McCain Believe About Barack Obama?
The Burning Question
By Dan McLaughlin
Here's the thing I keep coming back to about this election and what it will take to win it. It's a point that Hillary Clinton grasped, albeit too late to save her. And it's an open question about our own nominee and how he will approach the next 116 days.
Most people who would consider voting Republican in this (or any) election either like McCain, grudgingly respect him, or are hard-core Republicans/conservatives who ought to be persuadable for any Republican, even McCain. But none of those groups is going to be fired up with positive enthusiasm for the guy or his platform. On the conservative side, he's got folks who need regular reminding why they should vote for a guy who has butted heads with them so many times; on the moderate side, he's got people who are OK with him but are feeling like maybe the new guy from the other party deserves a shot. McCain has the experience and the biography, he is good on some issues (your mileage may vary as to which ones), and has some good ideas (ditto), but very few people are super-enthused about the things he is promising to bring to the Oval Office. Reassured, perhaps, but not enthused.
At the same time, McCain's opponent is not Generic D but rather a left-wing extremist with no experience, horrible, tried-and-proven-failure ideas and terrible judgment in friends, supporters and staff. That ought to frighten moderates and conservatives alike when they contemplate giving him the car keys. McCain's path to victory, then, is in collecting the people who like him, the people who respect him, and the people who can force themselves to tolerate him, and persuading them that an Obama presidency would be a disaster for the nation.
But McCain can only do that consistently and effectively if he, himself, believes that Obama would be a disaster for the nation.
Does he?
Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | John McCain — Comments (31)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 8:01am on Jul. 11, 2008 MI Morning Update: McCain Talks Jobs in MI - Another Obama Flip-Flop - McCotter Sticking it to the left
By saul anuzis
116 Days until Election Day
July 11, 2008
MORNING UPDATE:
McCAIN TALKS JOBS IN MICHIGAN...in a Town Hall meeting in Belleville. Do you remember how Obama said he would meet John McCain anytime, anywhere at these Town Hall meetings...you know, earlier, when he was seeking the nomination. Now he refuses to engage in these discussions. Hypocrisy and/or flip flop...again.
Posted in Barack Obama | John McCain | Michigan Republican Party | Republicans | Saul Anuzis | Thad McCotter — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 7:42am on Jul. 10, 2008 MI Morning Update: McCain in MI Today - Obama Offering More Granholm Policies - NASCAR Fans for McCain -
By saul anuzis
117 Days until Election Day
July 10, 2008
MORNING UPDATE:
McCAIN IN MICHIGAN TODAY...as he rolls out his plans and vision for America and specifically talks about how he wants to fix our economy.
Posted in Barack Obama | John McCain | Michigan Republican Party | NASCAR | Republicans | Saul Anuzis — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 9:34pm on Jul. 9, 2008 "McCain hits Obama on Abortion"
By Feddie
More of this, please:
"Sen Obama voted against, as a member of the Illinois state legislature, a ban on partial-birth abortion," McCain noted, calling the procedure "one of the most odious things I’ve ever heard of."
Posted at 8:05am on Jul. 9, 2008 MI Morning Update: Why John McCain? - Drill and Save!
By saul anuzis
118 Days until Election Day
July 9, 2008
MORNING UPDATE:
WHY McCAIN...because the country's at war, the economy is struggling, oil prices are surging... AND OBAMA...is just an opportunistic and self-obsessed politician who will do and say anything to get elected.
Posted in Barack Obama | Domestic Drilling | John McCain | Michigan Republican Party | Republicans | Saul Anuzis — Comments (2) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 12:35pm on Jul. 8, 2008 McCain on Obama on Iraq: "I hope that he will reach a position."
Close Combat
By Dan McLaughlin
John McCain on Obama's recent wobbling on Iraq and Obama's concession that he would go to Iraq after McCain called him out on not visiting or meeting with our commander there:
Well, I think you know that I opposed the failed strategy of the Bush administration. I argued for the strategy that is succeeding. I have been to Iraq 8 times. I know the situation on the ground. I predicted we would succeed and we are succeeding. And, we are winning. That victory is fragile, it can be reversed. Sen. Obama opposed the surge. He said it would fail. He still is saying that it would fail. Now, last Thursday or Friday, it seemed for a while there he was agreeing with the surge, then maybe he's not. So, I'm glad he's going to Iraq for the second time. He hasn’t been there in 900 days. I'm glad, for the first time, he’s going to sit down with General Petraeus -- for the first time, a sit-down briefing, if you can believe that. And, I hope that he will reach a position. I don't know what position, because he's been all over the map, calling for immediate withdrawals, back in the primaries to now saying you know -- so it's hard to know. I hope that he'll go over there and get the kind of information he needs that he hasn't requested in the past...But, have no doubt what my position was when I called for additional troops, it was a very unpopular thing to do and many people said my campaign was dead and I said I'd rather lose a campaign then lose a war. He said it would fail, it has succeeded. [The] American people should take notice of that. So, I'll see what he has to say when he gets back from his visit to Iraq. And, I'm sure he'll be impressed with a sit down with one of the greatest generals that America has ever produced, General David Petraeus.
Of course, Obama has now apparently decided that the perception that he's a flip-flopper with no principles is an even more devastating demonstration of weakness than the perception that he would sell out our allies and abandon the mission in Iraq to pander to the anti-war left - really, it's just a choice of who he surrenders to first - so his surrogates are now claiming that it's a lie that Obama ever wavered in his commitment to abandon Iraq. Oceania was never, we repeat never, at war in Iraq! But in political campaigns, as in war, the enemy gets a say in your game plan, and McCain is unlikely to let Obama simultaneously escape responsibility for being wrong about the surge and for belatedly trying to escape the consequences of being wrong.
Read On...
Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | John McCain — Comments (10)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 8:06am on Jul. 8, 2008 MI Morning Update: Stealth Petition Files Signatures - Why McCain is America's Best Choice - Nuclear Weapons in Iraq
By saul anuzis
119 Days until Election Day
July 8, 2008
MORNING UPDATE:
STEALTH PETITIONERS FILE SIGNATURES...but it's still a secret as to who funded it, who wrote it, and what special interests are behind it. The rumor on the street is that Mark Brewer helped put this secret constitutional re-write together with the Trial Lawyers and UAW. Does Obama support this kind of special interest gamesmanship? I think at best this is a "deform" set of amendments. Beware!
Posted in Barack Obama | Iraq | John McCain | Michigan Republican Party | Republicans | Saul Anuzis | Stealth Petition — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 11:12am on Jul. 7, 2008 Economists Support McCain Economics
By California Yankee
Three hundred economists support John McCain's economic plan:
Economists' Statement on John McCain's Jobs for America Economic Plan
We enthusiastically support John McCain's economic plan. It is a comprehensive, pro-growth, reform agenda. The reform focuses on the real economic problems Americans face today and will face in the future. And it builds on the core economic principles that have made America great.
His plan would control government spending by vetoing every bill with earmarks, implementing a constitutionally valid line-item veto, pausing non-military discretionary government spending programs for one year to stop their explosive growth and place accountability on federal government agencies.
His plan would keep taxes from rising, because higher tax rates are exactly the wrong policy to restore economic growth, especially at this time.
Read on.
Posted in 2008 | Economics | John McCain — Comments (54)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 9:59pm on Jul. 6, 2008 Deeply Encouraging News From Iraq . . . And Some Of The Reaction
By Pejman Yousefzadeh
First, let's go to the "deeply encouraging news part":
American and Iraqi forces are driving Al-Qaeda in Iraq out of its last redoubt in the north of the country in the culmination of one of the most spectacular victories of the war on terror.
After being forced from its strongholds in the west and centre of Iraq in the past two years, Al-Qaeda's dwindling band of fighters has made a defiant "last stand" in the northern city of Mosul.
A huge operation to crush the 1,200 fighters who remained from a terrorist force once estimated at more than 12,000 began on May 10.
Operation Lion's Roar, in which the Iraqi army combined forces with the Americans' 3rd Armoured Cavalry Regiment, has already resulted in the death of Abu Khalaf, the Al-Qaeda leader, and the capture of more than 1,000 suspects.
The group has been reduced to hit-and-run attacks, including one that killed two off-duty policemen yesterday, and sporadic bombings aimed at killing large numbers of officials and civilians.
[. . .]
Major-General Mark Hertling, American commander in the north, said: "I think we're at the irreversible point."
Read on . . .
Posted in Barack Obama | Iraq | John McCain | The Surge | War — Comments (2)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 7:07am on Jul. 3, 2008 MI Morning Update: L Brooks Patterson new accomplishments video, Have a Happy 4th of July
By saul anuzis
124 Days until Election Day
July 3, 2008
MORNING UPDATE:
REMINDER...no commentary for the 4th of July weekend...enjoy!
HAVE A GREAT 4th OF JULY WEEKEND...as this will be the last commentary before the weekend. Take a minute to reflect on the freedoms we have...and why.
Posted in John McCain | L Brooks Patterson | Michigan Republicans | Republicans | Saul Anuzis — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 11:48pm on Jul. 2, 2008 This Is Going To Be A Close Election, Part 47,926
By Pejman Yousefzadeh
With the dust having finally settled after the prolonged Democratic presidential primary, a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll shows Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama locked in a statistical dead heat in the race for the White House.
With just over four months remaining until voters weigh in at the polls, the new survey out Tuesday indicates Obama holds a narrow 5-point advantage among registered voters nationwide over the Arizona senator, 50 percent to 45 percent. That represents little change from a similar poll one month ago, when the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee held a 46-43 percent edge over McCain.
CNN Polling Director Keating Holland notes Tuesday's survey confirms what a string of national polls released this month have shown: Obama holds a slight advantage over McCain, though not a big enough one to constitute a statistical lead.
Just a little reminder that every vote counts.
Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | John McCain — Comments (7)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 3:51pm on Jul. 2, 2008 Another Day, Another Smear
...this man is reliably reported to practice nepotism with his sister-in-law...
By streiff
There is a full-fledged assault underway on John McCain's reputation and it is more than a little uncertain that the McCain campaign has the ability to either recognize the assault or, if they do recognize it, respond to it in a timely and aggressive manner.
We're all familiar with the recent attack on John McCain's military record. We learn from Wesley Clark than all he did was ride airplanes and retired admiral egregious asshat Professor Mark Kleiman informs us that the Navy had found McCain's leadership wanting and declined to promote him to admiral, contra the statements of the Secretary of the Navy at the time.
Why the attack on McCain's years as a fighter pilot is anyone's guess. From the outside this certainly looks like a high-risk, low payoff strategy from Obama. There is another attack brewing that really matters. It is the attack on McCain's deserved reputation as a good government advocate.
Read on.
Posted in 2008 | John McCain | smears — Comments (33)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 10:15am on Jul. 2, 2008 Question and answer time: the Wes Clark thing.
Some Snide that Got Fed Ex'ed?
By Moe Lane
Q. OK, so what's going on?
A. Senator Obama has lost control over how his campaign will reference Senator McCain's military service.
Q. Lost control, or gave it up?
A. Hah! I have a cynical questioner this time. No, this was taken away from him; he didn't and doesn't want to go there.
Q. Why?
A. Because Senator Obama doesn't make a habit of urinating on electric fences.
Read on.
Posted in Anti-war liberals | Barack Obama | Elections | John McCain | Wes Clark — Comments (50)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 9:53am on Jul. 2, 2008 "McCain, Obama, and the Catholic Vote"
By Feddie
Ryan T. Anderson has an interesting piece on the battle between McCain and Obama for the "Catholic Vote" in the latest Weekly Standard.
Posted at 7:39am on Jul. 2, 2008 MI Morning Update: Congressman Walberg meeting with constituents alongside NRCC Chair Cole, McCain MI Operations Up & Running
By saul anuzis
125 Days until Election Day
July 2, 2008
MORNING UPDATE:
CONGRESSMAN WALBERG...held a series of events in his congressional district with the Chairman of the House Republican Campaign Committee, Congressman Tom Cole (OK). Walberg continues to draw national attention for his leadership and service.
Posted in John McCain | Michigan Republicans | Republicans | Saul Anuzis | Tim Walberg — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Read More »
