my .02

[novapsyche]

I am sad that Hillary Clinton won New Hampshire. Because all it does is reinforce the media's predilection of harping on only two candidates in the Democratic field: Obama and Clinton. All last night as I listened to the returns, I kept saying, "There are more than two people running for the nomination." The media (which is still controlled by the right) wants no one to hear anything but those two words: "Clinton." "Obama."

I'm looking forward to voting in my state's primary (fucked up as it is) and seeing what shakes out on February 5th.

Comments

[johanna-hypatia.livejournal.com]

Remember that was how the Chimp got started-- in 2000, they ignored everybody but him, like everything had been arranged in advance and the primaries were a mere formality. They set up McCain just to have someone to knock down. It takes away from democracy, that's for sure.

[pstscrpt.livejournal.com]

I'll be voting for McCain. It would be nice to be able to vote in the Democratic primary, but even if I could, I might still go for the Republican so that I can vote against Romney and Guliani.

voting for McCain?

[davidfcooper.livejournal.com]

FORMER MAVERICK MCCAIN’S EMBRACE OF EXTREMISM


“ ... the Christian right has a major role to play in the Republican Party.”
- John McCain [New York Times, 4/3/06]

DESPITE HIS CLAIMS TO BE INDEPENDENT, MCCAIN TAKES EXTREME POSITIONS ON SOCIAL ISSUES; HE SAYS AMERICA IS A “CHRISTIAN NATION”

McCain stated that a candidate’s Christian faith is "an important characteristic" for a president, that he would prefer a Christian president and that the "Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation." Furthermore, despite criticism, a statement from his official campaign spokeswoman defended the comments and said again, "America is a Christian nation, and it is hardly a controversial claim." [The New York Sun, October 1, 2007].

McCain has voted two-thirds of the time against bills supported by Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. [Project Vote Smart]

McCain took back his 2000 comments calling the late Jerry Falwell an "agent of intolerance;" telling Tim Russert that Falwell is NOT an agent of intolerance. He delivered the commencement address at Falwell’s Liberty University in May 2006. [ThinkProgress, 4/2/06]

Senator McCain supports repealing Roe v. Wade and has achieved a 0% voting record by the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL). His campaign has bashed opponent Mitt Romney for being insufficiently committed to the anti-choice cause. [http://www.prochoiceamerica.org/elections/statements/mccain.html]

McCain is on record saying that religion should be taught as science in our public schools in the model of "intelligent design." The Arizona Daily Star reported that McCain "sided with the president" on "teaching intelligent design in schools;" McCain "told the Star that, like Bush, he believes 'all points of view' should be available to students studying the origins of mankind." [Arizona Daily Star, 8/24/05]

McCain endorsed an Arizona ballot initiative that banned both gay marriage and civil unions by writing discrimination into the Arizona constitution. [Arizona Republic 1/8/06]

MCCAIN IS NO MODERATE

McCain has a far right voting record. According to Project Vote Smart < http://www.vote-smart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=S0061103t,> McCain:

*
* Has only voted 15% of the time with the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights; Has only voted 33% of the time with the American Civil Liberties Union;
* Has only voted 33% of the time with the pro-gay rights Human Rights Campaign;
* Has only voted 7% of the time (only 7%!) with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

In 2006, McCain endorsed far right wing candidate Rep. Randy Graf for election to Congress and extremist Len Munsil for Governor of Arizona. Graf proudly touted his affiliations with the Minuteman Project, an anti-immigration group that watches the Mexican border with the intent of enforcing immigration laws on a vigilante basis. Len Munsil is one of the most prominent religious right leaders in Arizona. Arizona Daily Star, 10/8/06, Mohave Daily News 9/13/06.

In 2006, McCain also endorsed extreme conservative Kenneth Blackwell in the primary in his race for Governor of Ohio – Blackwell faced moderate Republicans in the primary. [http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2005/10/mccain_endorses.html]

McCain hired Terry Nelson for his campaign; Nelson was accused of producing race-bating ads against Democratic nominee Harold Ford in the 2006 Ohio Senate race. [NJDC Blog, 12/7/06]

Re: voting for McCain? (continued)

[davidfcooper.livejournal.com]

WHO WOULD MCCAIN APPOINT AS PRESIDENT?

McCain named lobbyist (and former Rep.) Tom Loeffler as his campaign’s general co-chairman – Loeffler lobbies for the Saudi government. Loeffler received nearly a million dollars per year from the Saudis, his job within the McCain campaign has been described as such: "Loeffler will play a similar role to that of Don Evans during then Texas Governor George W. Bush's 2000 campaign, managing McCain's interests across a variety of intersecting universes -- donors lobbyists Capitol Hill and the executive branch." [Washington Post, 4/3/07; Washington Post, 3/7/07]

McCain named Fred Malek as a finance co-chair; Malek was dispatched by Richard Nixon to count the number of Jews employed in the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nixon claimed that a cabal of Jews working at the Bureau were skewing economic figures to harm his administration. Malek was deputy director of CREEP, the Committee to Re-Elect the President. It should be noted that Malek later expressed regret for his actions. [The Nation, 4/3/07]

McCain suggested that he may name James Baker as Middle East envoy, were he elected to the White House. [FrontPage Magazine, 5/12/06]

STRAIGHT TALK? OR QUESTIONABLE JUDGEMENT?

On his campaign bus in March of 2000 Sen. John McCain told reporters, "I hated the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live." [Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 3/2/00]

At Murrells Inlet VFW Hall in South Carolina, McCain was asked when he thought the US Military might "send an air mail message to Tehran." "McCain began his answer by changing the words to a popular Beach Boys song," the Georgetown Times reported . "'Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran,' he sang to the tune of Barbara Ann." [Boston Globe, - Dec 23, 2007]

In November, 2007 a John McCain supporter in South Carolina asked him "How do we beat the bitch" in reference to Senator Hillary Clinton. Senator McCain response was to laugh and respond "That's an excellent question." [New York Times 11/14/07]

In an April 16, 2007 letter to Servicemember’s Legal Defense Network (SLDN), McCain stated that the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy instituted in 1993, "unambiguously maintains that open homosexuality within the military services presents an intolerable risk to morale, cohesion and discipline." [http://www.sldn.org/templates/press/record.html?record=3877§ion=2]

Re: voting for McCain?

[pstscrpt.livejournal.com]

All that's kinda a given for a Republican, isn't it?

Re: voting for McCain?

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

You make it sound like all Republicans are cut from the same cloth.

There's been a huge shift in ideology since the time of, say, Goldwater.

Re: voting for McCain?

[pstscrpt.livejournal.com]

On judicial nominations, they all follow the "activist judges" party line and can be expected to nominate only members of The Federalist Society, at least for the supreme court. As long as that's the case, I will never consider voting for a Republican in the general election -- no policy issue is as important as the Republican push to remove the judicial branch as an equal to the other two. That's the basic foundation of the country, back to 1803.

Apart from Ron Paul, who's interesting but has his own flaws and is never going to win, anyway, the differences generally seem to be personal and how authoritarian they say they're going to be. Romney's trying to capture the machismo vote with more torture, doubling Guantonemo (sp?), etc., and Guliani demonstrated the kind of dictator he wants to be back in New York.

And I'm much closer in opinion to McCain on immigration than the others, even if he's been browbeaten out of it lately.

Re: voting for McCain?

[davidfcooper.livejournal.com]

If so, why vote in their primary? What makes McCain less potentially harmful than his fellow Republican contenders? At least Ron Paul is against the war in Iraq and constitutional abuses in the so called war on terror.

Re: voting for McCain?

[pstscrpt.livejournal.com]

Already answered here:
http://novapsyche.livejournal.com/1907687.html?thread=4539623

Re: voting for McCain?

[pstscrpt.livejournal.com]

Also, I live in Michigan. We don't get to vote in the Democratic primary (it doesn't get counted, anyway), or I would be voting for Obama.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

You can still vote on the Democratic side. Just vote "uncommitted", so that the delegates (which will be petitioned to be restored by the candidates at the national convention) will not automatically go to Clinton (as she is the only "top" name on the ballot).

[pstscrpt.livejournal.com]

I'd rather have Clinton than Edwards, though.

[guppiecat]

While I understand what you are saying, I disagree.

I would LOVE it if the Democratic issue could be resolved with a minimum of fuss and bother. Once of the reasons that the Republicans do so well is that they have a lot more money to spend. If the Democrats could just pick a candidate and run them, and use all that money to fight against the Republicans rather than amongst themselves, I think they might have a better chance to win.

I think that either Obama or Clinton would be excellent choices, and I don't much care which one of them wins out. I worry that as they fight amongst one another, they are expending their resources and worse, they are making each other look bad. That just helps the other side.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

The nature of politics (since LBJ) has been to pick at your opponent. Who is one's opponent? In the primary season, well . . . .

I personally like having choices and having lots of voices being heard via the vote.

Money is not going to be a issue this year. Too many left-leaners are angry and are up to kicking in $15-50 here or there when they can. This may sound like beans, but when you have hundreds of thousands willing to do this, I don't think it'll be a problem.