Leahy saying McCain gets a free pass,compares him to "Reagan in the last few years he was president"

Pirate Smile

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Wed Aug-27-08 09:43 AM
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Leahy saying McCain gets a free pass,compares him to "Reagan in the last few years he was president"

Edited on Wed Aug-27-08 10:37 AM by Pirate Smile

McCain's slips, and Reagan's

With Democrats on the precipice of raising the age issue against John McCain, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont seemed to cross the line completely, then immediately backtrack, my colleague Ken Vogel reports.

Leahy told Vogel yesterday the media has given McCain a free pass on flubs including mixing up Middle East geography, Shiite and Sunni Muslims, and referring to Russia's relationship Czechoslovakia - a country that hasn't existed for 15 years.

"It was the same way with Ronald Reagan in the last few years he was president," Leahy said, referring to the belief that Reagan experienced early signs of Alzheimer's disease late in his presidency.

The press "let Ronald Regan get away with" slips, Leahy said, though he denied he was suggesting that McCain was experiencing mental decline.

"No, I'm just saying he gets a free ride," Leahy said.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0808/McCains_slips_and_Reagans.html?showall

His competence and temperament do need to become issues.

edit to add - I posted this in another thread but this comment from Leahy is what made me think of it so I decided to add it here too.

We need to be pushing the following two comparable, easy to understand issues regarding McCain which everyone can get. We get too complicated and down in the weeds re issues sometimes - tax policy or energy policy, etc. Of course those are important but we need other ways to undermine McCain as an acceptable alternative for President. MCCAIN IS NOT THE SAFE ALTERNATIVE TO OBAMA - which is how this election currently seems to be playing out. It is why a certain percentage of disgruntled Hillary voters think it will be ok if they don't support Obama.

Two BIG problems with McCain as President:

McCain's Competency issues

Short and to the point so everyone gets it - when asked "why not McCain?" The answer needs to become that "he is losing it", too many "senor moments" - he doesn't even know how many houses he owns, what kind of car, the names of countries, where they are, etc. COMPETENCE is a big question mark. It isn't age per se because people can be sharp at McCain's age but he isn't. He is "losing it". People should be scared to have him as President instead of viewing him as a "safe" alternative to Obama.

McCain doesn't have the Temperament to be President.

We have all the quotes from fellow Republican Senators saying how afraid they would be to have McCain as President. It also goes to his WAR, WAR, WAR answer to all questions. His explosive temper, etc.

Article on McCain's temperament problem.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

I think these need to be the basic issues a lot of the campaign is fought on because we know people make decisions based on more then simply policy. Right now some people think McCain is a safe alternative if people have questions about Obama. He isn't a safe alternative and the reason why is his temperament and questions regarding his mental competence.