McCain vs McCain

"I'm a foot soldier from the Reagan Revolution."
"I believe in regulation."
"I believe in de-regulation."
"I'm for the bail-out."
"I'm not for a bail-out."
"I believe in a free market."
"I want to limit CEO compensation packages."
"I believe in tax cuts."
"I'm experienced."
"I represent change."
"I own 9 houses." (No, wait. He didn't say that - he couldn't remember how many he owns!)
"I care about the Middle Class." (No, wait. He didn't say that. He said Main Street.)
"I don't believe in taxing the wealthiest at a higher rate."
"I believe in giving Americans tax credits for mortgages."
"We need to address the problems that Americans face."
"We need to freeze spending."
"We don't need the UN to tell us what to do....except in
"I can work with our partners."
"You don't tell your partners what you're going to do."
"I took on these guys, I took on those guys."
"I can work with anyone."
"I do not have a temper."

You might think that these statements were made by two separate candidates in the US Presidential election. Unfortunately, these are all quotes or paraphrases from John McCain. McCain is a populist hypocrite and a public liar.

On this morning's ABC's This Week with George Stephanopolous, he was trying to clean up after his botched Debate. What a loser. This man has contradicted himself every day of the last two weeks.

Foreign Affairs:

Palin says "If we know Osama is there we should go into Pakistan." Meanwhile, McCain tries to convince the American people that Obama wants to invade Pakistan rather than send strike forces in to take out Bin Laden. Obama has taken the George Bush position (that killed John Kerry in 2004) that America is responsible for its own security and will answer to no one. Obama means that if you see Osama Bin Laden on Satellite or have intelligence as to his whereabouts - you take him out with a covert, strategic strike - just as Palin has suggested and most Americans would agree with. Pakistan, and the governing party must understand that this is a potential consequence of their inaction - by not allowing them to respond ahead of time, to assist NATO in Torra Borra, McCain exposes his Pakistani allies to retribution from extremists in Pakistan. "You don't tell them what you're going to do." He is so totally out to lunch on this issue it's not funny. Lie to your friends, be honest with the indifferent and threaten enemies seems to be his M-O.

By McCain's reasoning - you can openly threaten states that are hostile to you but you cannot threaten to cut off foreign aid to allies when they don't help you. Is anyone buying this bullshit? That Americans do not see him as an Angry Old Man who will do or say anything for power is startling.

On Domestic Issues:
McCain supports the Bush Tax cuts and is continually trying to convince the American people that Obama would increase taxes on Americans - particularly on the middle class. How do people let this guy lie to them? Go to obama.com and you can see Barack's tax plan. It is clear that it will shift burdens from low-wage earners, single-income families and middle-class Americans on to Corporations and the rich.

John McCain says he doesn't believe in the greed of Wall Street and the excess that is rewarded. Yet he does not want to tax the rich at any higher rate. In essence, he wants a flat tax. How can people not see through this? Forget the compensation packages - like Earmarks they are a visual yet ultimately fairly inconsequential part of the problem. Allow Shareholders to limit compensation packages - they ultimately own publicly-traded companies. The Federal government has the ability to claw-back compensation packages by a much simpler measure - TAX THEM!!! Instead, McCain is playing populist - they all are with respect to the financial bailout.

Health Care:
McCain argues that nationalizing Insurance means telling people which Doctor they can visit. What an idiot. Americans: I am Canadian and can chose my own Doctor - though we do have a shortage as 'greedy' doctors go to America to earn money off the backs of your sick and fail to pay us back for our investment in their education - so, thanks for running a profit-drive health care industry. We take your guns, you take our Doctors. Back to my point. By eliminating profit-driven Insurance companies from the Health Care equation, you eliminate a 3rd party, non-medical decision maker saying no to necessary treatments. (Hello? Greed anyone?) Look at the facts. US Health Care delivery costs more and has worse outcomes than in Canada. FACT.

It's basic. Government does not profit from its activities and when it delivers a surplus - that's the peoples' surplus. AIG, a major insurance company, with major health care services and investments in health insurance is going to be bailed out by the Federal Government. AIG will at some point, deliver benefits to its shareholders though that looks like it will be the American people for the foreseeable future. So...AIG makes money from people who need health care/insurance. They and their competitors say no to services they perceive as unnecessary and pay-out only portions of coverage for services - a health care coupon as it's called.

Here's how it works in Canada. I need health care, I go to my doctor or Hospital. I get treatment. Sometimes that means medication, a portion of which is covered by our Socialized drug-purchasing policies - those programs that attract AARP buses to Toronto from Buffalo to buy cheap drugs. Sometimes my health care entails a wait. But I never, ever get a bill for it and I can feel comfortable knowing that the person serving me my food also has the same opportunity and that they're not coming to work with an infectious disease because they can't afford a doctor's visit or medication to solve their problem.

So John McCain talks big about limiting greed and corruption. Then he endorses the current Health Care approach - a license to Insurers and private Hospitals to print money. What a liar. What a hypocrite. What a jerk.

Earmarks:
Much ado about nothing? Earmarks totaled $18 Billion last year. The US spends 10 Billion everyday in Iraq. Earmarks pay for local projects such as needed road fixes that don't meet bureaucratic criteria, bridges to encourage economic development (under SAFETLU bridges are assessed only from cost-benefit/transportation perspective) and cultural projects like privately run Holocaust museums.

Spending Freeze:
I'm not sure what McCain meant by this. If he meant that when he took office, no cheques would be issued except those he excluded (Defense, Veterans Affairs, maybe one other) then he is proposing to close Washington DC until he gets educated on line-by-line spending - in a budget of over $3 trillion! He has already shown that he is a slow-learner. Does this mean that DC would be closed until sometime in 2010 when he understands finally how government works? I'm confused. How will congressmen get to Congress with all that garbage piling up on the streets of DC? Does he mean that Congressmen won't get paid? The Federal government cannot simply have a spending freeze of any substantial weight since most of what the Federal Government spends is in entitlements - programmed spending to deliver... core programs. Does he close the Federal Highway Administration? Does he close the FDA with all the food security issues the US faces? What exactly does John McCain mean by a spending freeze? It sounds great because it plays on our passions - which are emotional, not rational.

How will John McCain fix the bankrupt Highway Trust Fund? He's already stated he wants a Gas Tax holiday. And here is my conclusion:

The problems in the American Economy have been created by a detachment with reality and a lack of effort to address cracks in the system as they've developed like so many cracks in the New Orleans levies. Greed fuels the whole thing - whether that's an expectation of lower taxes or mortgages based on good wishes instead of economic solvency, unlimited credit and ego-driven anger against those who succeed under the current rules. Americans love to kick their success stories while also boasting of the American Dream. There must be some parallel to psychological conditions, like schizophrenia and/or paranoid delusion but definitely ADD.

America, if you want another high-functioning Moron as your President, one who will lie to you, lie to your neighbours, threaten your foes and take us to the brink of all-out Global war...then please, vote for John McCain. If you want this ship we call earth, to steer itself successfully through the challenges we face, then vote for bold change - vote for Obama, or please for the sake of the rest of us on Earth, just don't vote at all.



New Conspiracy Theory: Bush went after Saddam cause he went after his Daddy. Given McCain's quoting of Teddy Roosevelt's 'walk softly with a big stick' (totally misinterpreted by the way) and his propensity to not tell anyone what you are really thinking and McCain's well known anger towards those who have ever crossed him, even once, let alone torturing him for 10-years leaving his body scarred and maimed .... McCain secretly wants to send the US Military back to Vietnam to make those m-f's pay for what they did to him!

Presidential Debate - McCain Whack-a-Mole?

CNN this morning says that John McCain has now left Washington and has gone to his Campaign Headquarters in Virginia. Why? I thought he had suspended his campaign until the Financial Crisis had been solved. If he is at his campaign headquarters, presumably he will be working on, discussing and in other ways, working on his campaign. I guess, he's figured that his whole idea of suspending a Presidential Campaign is ridiculous.

The US has been focussed on the question of who the next President will be and what direction they will take the country in that it is impossible for one candidate to suspend a campaign. Regardless of his inaction, the rest of the country, his party, his supporters, independents and of course the Democrats are still campaigning and are still seeking answers and leadership. McCain loses any right to point the finger at Obama for ever voting 'present' in the Illinois legislature. At least Obama was present. McCain has done nothing but make himself irrelevant this week which certainly undoes much of the hard-work he has done.

The President, as much as we'd like the current one to do so, cannot simply disappear from the scene, nor can his return to Washington cause a solution to crumble to pieces - as McCain's recent return to Warshington has (*yes, Warshington, this is McCain we're talking about.) So Obama has largely said little of deep consequence but his presence has been calming and displays to the American public that he both hears their concerns while also realizing that the health of the Economy at large, on a macro-scale, is of crucial importance to the lives of Americans.

University of Ole Mississipi, which is hosting the debate, has spent $5 million in preparation for the debate. McCain tried to cancel this debate, a debate about foreign issues which he is supposed to have the upper-hand on. He is truly desperate. He is starting to know why VP candidates must be carefully veted - Palin clearly is bombing now that people are looking beyond the surface. Anytime she speaks now, all one can think is, my god, McCain better live if he gets elected.

"Anytime Putin raises his head in our Airspace, where do you think he's going to go first into America? Hello? Alaska and that is where we send them up to keep eyes on them..." wooohooo.... what world does Sarah Palin live in? Did they stop reporting news in Alaska sometime during the Cold War? Doesn't she know that Economics are what killed soviet communism - not tough talk.

Now I'm seeing Harry Reid and Chris Dodd hammering away at John McCain. No one on the right is doing that to McCain. His designates have gone silent - because they have no clue how to spin this. The Republicans are trying to distance themselves from their own President. McCain is stuck between Iraq and a hard place - to either support Bush's plan and further alienate house republicans and true conservatives, or to support the plan, side with Democrats, and go with the majority of experts (albeit Bush appointees) who seem to agree that major intervention is required. The times have caught up to McCain in the worst of ways.

Obama is playing this as well as anyone possibly could. He has in essence said many of the same things as McCain. However, he of course benefits because he didn't say stupid things about the Fundamentals of the economy in the last 10 days as McCain did. It's like watching a game of Presidential Whack-a-Mole. Anytime McCain raises his head, Obama, Biden and a host of surrogates are ready to whack him! It's almost unfair. Obama's lead will continue to widen.

Obama played the debate coin-flip well too. They put the foreign affairs debate ahead of the domestic affairs debate. Obama will not lose any ground on foreign affairs and will destroy McCain on domestic issues next week, particularly after this debacle and McCain's total fumbling of Economic Issues. Young people, influenced by shows like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, can only drift further away. And the excitement on the Democratic side, the unprecedented voter registration and grass-roots movement that is Obama, will ensure that there are no election day swindles this time around - no Florida's hanging chads or Ohio vote-count issues. Hopefully.

Just wait unit Obama puts forward his ideas for who would be in his Cabinet - Clinton, Clinton, Powell and William Cohen are among those I speculate will be named to prominent positions. Perhaps General Wesley Clark? Oprah? lol Then add a couple of republicans for a Lincoln-esque Cabinet, challenged by those who disagree with the President and Obama will pick up a huge number of independents. Palin for Secretary of Hockey Moms?

However, until John McCain finds his way out of Virginia, proves that he knows how to get to Ole Miss by 9:00 tonight, we have to assume he is lost.