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| End of Straight Talk: The New John McCain |
| Sunday, February 17, 2008 |
Well folks, it look like the straight talk express has fallen off the tracks for good. John McCain is sounding more like an idealogical pundit trapped inside a world of rhetoric as each days goes on. The man is not very inspirational to listen and seems to be serving up candy.
His greatest strength is that he is the most experienced of the remaining candidates. Unfortunately, he is the least eloquent and seems to be the one who is the most compromised. Look back at his record over the last 6 years and ask yourself, if he really represents the conservative values. In fact, ask yourself if he is really representing the values that he espoused when he was running for president.
There is a lot of rhetoric about, how the world has changed since 9/11. Has it? Or, have we been told that the world has changed so many times that we changed? There has definitely been a paradigm shift and paradigm shifts always make the the world look very different. McCain since 9/11 seems to have experienced one of those shifts himself.
Mr. Straight Talk should be at the podium explaining what "success is in Iraq" and how fighting wars of in foreign countries and policing civil wars overseas is conservative. Nation building is not a conservative policy. It is not liberal either, it is a progressive policy.
It's odd that the Conservatives are warring with the Liberal in the US, and the p[press talks about conservative and liberals, and keeps giving us 30 second snippets of this and thirty second snippets of that -- yes I would bet that more than 50 per cent of American could not correctly describe what it means to be politically conservative or liberal. The ideologies that are are at war belong to limited portions of the population, yet the polarization is the story and collaboration makes for a slow news day.
John McCain, a respected senator, has compromised himself by his work pandering to the "Republican-base". It injures his ability to run on his own merits. It may work well foe the republicans to have him run, because, even in the event that he loses a presidential campaign, he most likely will not lose in a landslide. But, I can't vote for the following:
- John McCain will keep the US army in Iraq, under the pretext that it is there to keep Al-Qaeda from attacking the US.
- John McCain thinks the supreme court needs more conservative judges.
- John McCain (along with Romney) were up in Michigan talking to workers in the Auto industry about getting Michigan back on its feet, yet neither, admitted that the auto industry has little incentive to return to Michigan in the absence of comprehensive healthcare reform, comprehension pension reform, and the weakening of the unions. It is simply to expensive and make poor business sense.
- John McCain places more emphasis on the War on Terror (to scare people into voting for him) and doesn't place enough emphasis on the War on Ignorance and Laziness. The biggest problem that this nation faces is the fact that the American kids are getting dumb and lazy. School vouchers aren't going to fix the problem. This is not to say it is McCain's fault that this is the case, but I believe his priorities are all screwed up.
One of the problems that the Republicans have is that as the "defense" (or more appropriately pre-emptive attack) party they a have tied themselves to a post that they will need to disengage themselves from. The defense industry does create a lot of great jobs and kick off a lot of cash into the economy, however, the veneer of economic well being that the Republican party had been standing behind during the housing bubble and the market run up following the start of the wars (notice plural) is starting to come off. The real, meat on the bones growth has been occurring in China, India, Singapore - the American economy has been a let's eat cupcakes economy. Yes unemployment has been low - but savings have declined and home equity has been reduced substantially. The low unemployment number is great, but the use of home equity as economic fuel and the use of low interest rates to encourage debt through spending bodes very poorly.
What happened in the las ten years that really boosted the US economy in a sustainable manner? Has the trade deficit improved? What's going to hapen when china wants to import cars into America - and the do have cars to import (just wait)? Remember Mexico, can't even make a car as cheap as China and the US already get a lot of its component s from China. What happens to Michigan then. Our auto industry needs subsidies to be competitive - or it needs to move. The only reason for many companies to be in the US is to get preferred treatment in the market place through legislated subsidies.
There is a lot of good in John McCain, however, it seems that his desire to become president led to him shape shifting. And, it obviously makes him uncomfortable. McCain has a problem. He is not a natural liar. He is not silver-tongued, in fact he is often clumsy tongued. This will become more apparent as the campaigns continue. He will be overmatched in direct debates with Obama or Clinton. His best hope was against Edwards. In fact, he should hope that he faces Clinton in the general election because at least he has a large portion of the voting public that will not vote for her under any circumstances. |
posted by Domesticated Dog @ 2:20 PM   |
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Great work.