I think John McCain is dead serious about 2008

[charlyvi]

and I'll tell you why. I think the movie, "Faith of Our Fathers" is an attempt to make his war hero status innoculated against any Swift Boat Veterans style attack in 2008. He know his service will be under attack since most, if not all, of the higher echelon repub presidential prospects did not serve and will need to counter McCain's war hero image in some way, and they always take the lowest, most smearing way.

McCain knows how they neutered him in South Carolina. He may be craven, but he's not stupid. Published 2-21-00:


There’s no doubt that McCain’s 19 percent victory over Bush in New Hampshire caused a panic rethink strategy in the Bush team. Their response was to drop the “compassionate conservative” that had failed Bush in New Hampshire and wage a nonstop barrage of negative attacks to kill the messenger McCain. Nothing was too low to rule out. The nadir moment occurred February 3rd when a smiling Bush stood in front of television cameras as a fringe Vietnam veteran, Thomas Burch, denounced McCain as a POW who “came home and forgot us.” Governor Bush knows Burch well. The same Thomas Burch had accused President Bush of abandoning veterans during his administration, but alas, all old wounds must have been healed in time to neutralize McCain’s war hero factor.

http://www.commondreams.org/views/022100-106.htm

This article goes on to relate all the other smears against McCain by the bushies, but the war service slander is most relevant to this post. I just wonder if he can do it--actually be the next repub candidate. Maybe he thinks he can take advantage of the repub backlash against our speedily materializing theocracy. Very interesting.

[Straight Shooter]

1. He's serious, all right. See the latest issue of The New Yorker.

They have a feature article on him. I was so mad after reading it, I almost threw the magazine at the wall. It took him a while, but now he's as greasy as george bush.

edit: anyone else being driven crazy with posting errors?

[charlyvi]

2. Like I said.

He may be craven, but not stupid.

[blm]

3. Here's another aspect of the story that the media refused to discuss.....

Joe Klein had this in his 2002 New Yorker piece on Kerry. Broadcast media wouldn't discuss it because it was too damaging to Bush and those vets and voters who admire McCain would have been more apt to support Kerry.

>>>>>>>>
The real business of the day was transacted afterward. Kerry mingled easily with the vets, who were mostly African-American; he cussed and joked and talked about places like Da Nang and Da Lat. A pink-faced overweight man approached. "I'm Jim Gunn," he said to Kerry. "Do you remember me?"

Kerry nodded warily. Gunn was the leader of the Coalition of Retired Military Veterans and had attacked Senator John McCain during the 2000 Republican Presidential primary in South Carolina. Kerry had written a letter protesting the charges that another veterans' group had made against McCain-essentially, that McCain was "anti-veteran"-and he had got the other Vietnam combat veterans in the Senate to sign it. Now Jim Gunn said to him, "I just want you to know, Senator, that you were right about McCain and I was wrong. Bush lied to my face, and I'll never support him again." Gunn proceeded to file a bill of particulars against the President on veterans' issues. Then he sighed and said, "I wish there was a machine that could really say when someone is telling the truth, but you sound sincere when you talk about our issues. I represent seventeen thousand vets in South Carolina-I'm like their union boss-and if you run for President next time we're with you."
........

Imagine if the rest of the press spent time with THAT story.

[Tim4319]

4. I hate the liberal media so much!

<A Little sarcasm!>

[blm]

5. Yep. Americans didn't know that it was Kerry who led the defense of McCain

at that time. How did McCain repay him....by saying that BOTH Kerry and Bush "served honorably" while he supported Bush.

[charlyvi]

7. But....but....but....THAT story wasn't sensational

enough! The liberal press would have to actually REPORT another side of the story. :sarcasm:

[blm]

12. Even worse. GOP operatives attacked McCain in 1996 with the rumor that

he was the "Manchurian candidate" no doubt to pre-empt a 2000 run against W.

Kerry spoke out in his defense then, too, slamming those "chickenhawks" who questioned McCain's devotion to his country.

No wonder Kerry was so hurt by McCain's betrayal of him and for McCain do it in support of the guy who engineered the smears against him in 96 and 2000, makes it doubly insulting.

[Quixote1818]

6. I don't think we have to worry about McCain

He will never get the nomination because the Religious Right hates him. Most of the Republican base hates him. In New Hampshire Independents can vote for the Republican nominee and MANY of them are very moderate people.

[charlyvi]

10. Here's the 2000 speech that pissed them off so much....

John McCain Speech on the Religious Right (excerpts)


Let me clear, evangelical leaders are changing America for the better. Chuck Colson, head of Prison Fellowship, is saving men from a lifetime behind bars by bringing them the good news of redemption. James Dobson, who does not support me, has devoted his life to rebuilding America's families. Others are leading the fight against pornography, cultural decline and for life. I stand with them.

I am a pro-life, pro-family, fiscal conservative, and advocate of a strong defense. And yet, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and a few Washington leaders of the pro-life movement call me an unacceptable presidential candidate. They distort my pro-life positions and smear the reputations of my supporters. Why? Because I don't pander to them, because I don't ascribe to their failed philosophy that money is our message. I believe in the cause of conservative reform....

... Neither party should be defined by pandering to the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance whether they be Louis Farrakhan or Al Sharpton on the left, or Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell on the right....

...We are the party of Ronald Reagan not Pat Robertson. We are the party of Theodore Roosevelt not the party of special interests. We are the party of Abraham Lincoln not Bob Jones. Join us. Join us.

http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=489542


Pretty tame stuff.....

[BillZBubb]

8. He sure didn't run around kissing Bush's ass last fall for nothing.

If he didn't have presidential ambitions, there is no way he would have lifted a finger to help Bush. Now, Bush owes him--of course counting on a Bush to repay a debt is like counting on Fredo to keep his mouth shut.

[charlyvi]

11. Bwahahaha.....

Good one. You know, I think what will hurt McCain the most is his pandering to shrub, after shrub trashed his family. It makes him look weak. At least to me.

[blm]

13. ROTF.....you nailed it.

McCain wouldn't exactly be the first person Bush ever double-crossed.

[maxsolomon]

9. the "come to daddy" (from GOP con 2004) picture will sink him

he looks like a pussy hugging *.

can someone link that?

[LynnTheDem]

14. Start collecting all the rightwing quotes; McCain = TRAITOR, McCain =

PURPLE HEART BANDAID!

All the bullshit the rightwingnuts spewed about McCain, we can spew back at them. After all, if the rightwingnuts say McCain is a TRAITOR who are we to say otherwise.

[blm]

16. I agree. I think McCain knows he screwed up by betraying Kerry last year.

He's been trying to make up to Kerry but Kerry ignores him now.

I would like to see an ad that shows their true characters. Start with Kerry's defense of McCain in 96 and 2000, then follow up with McCain's glowing account of Kerry in his 2000 book and then McCain's betrayals in 2004.

[deacon]

15. His voting record is a conservatives conservatives dream

but this is a man who wanted to send ground troops into kosovo and supports bolton.

He's two-faced and a phoney 'i'm a nice guy' when he's on tv--he took a page out of the bob dole book on this.

He is not the answer needed to bring this country out of it's insane state and deep divisons.

[BiggJawn]

17. Well, I can just see it now,,,,

"I don't like (fill in the blank), So i'm going to vote for McCain. I wish Kerry had picked him for a running mate last time, sure, he's a Repig, but he's ALMOST a Liberal Repig..."

So how does he plan to defuse the "Black Love-Child" accusations THIS time? The "Didja know John McCain went stark raving Looney Tunes in the Hanoi Hilton" rumours?

He'll be an early runner, then fade out and support who ever the BFEE puts forward.

Probably see pictures of him hugging the Cat Killer...

[Stephanie]

18. I don't think he's in good enough health

He's had some terrible problems with skin cancer.

[blm]

19. That was always my first thought, too. He may plan to be Kingmaker, though

which would put Hagel in the throne.

[Poiuyt]

20. How old will McCain be in 2008?