John McCain is no war hero
THE Republican Party has utter contempt for the American voters, especially women. They believe that the Americans are so dumb that they will believe anything they are told if repeated often enough through television commercials.
Last week's Republican Convention in St. Paul was an exercise in utter deception and hypocrisy. Even though McCain promised to eschew divisive politics, every speaker from McCain and Palin on down, attacked Barack Obama and the Democrats with the most, vile and vitriolic gutter language.
The hypocrisy was staggering. A New York Times reader put it most succinctly: "What a hilarious sight to watch the Republican Party in St. Paul repudiating the nearly eight-year record of the Republican Party in Washington and then asking us to trust the Republican Party to extricate the nation from the mess the Republican Party has created."
It was comical to listen to the Republican nominee John McCain tell America during his acceptance speech that "change is coming to Washington." Change is coming to Washington through John McCain? The McCain, who has been a regular fixture on the Washington scene for the last 26 years, as a Congressman and Senator? And, by the way, a Republican has been the president for the last eight years, and for twelve of the last fourteen years, Republicans have been the majority party in the House and the Senate!
For the first time in the history of national conventions, the sitting president of the party in power did not attend his party's convention. Bush addressed the convention via satellite. Dick Cheney conveniently fled the country during the convention and was seen saber rattling the Russians from Georgia.
After months belittling Obama's "inexperience," and unfitness to be the commander-in-chief, John McCain unveiled his selection for VP, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin; a total novice on the national and international scene. Palin was the mayor of a town of 6,000 people before becoming Alaska's governor 18 months ago.
McCain and his storm troopers immediately pronounced Palin more fit to be the commander-in-chief than Obama, without presenting any evidence whatsoever!
It was common knowledge that McCain's VP short list included only Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, former Gov. Mitt Romney and Senator Joe Lieberman. When Obama picked Joe Biden rather than Hillary Clinton, in a very cynical move, McCain chose the totally unknown Palin to woo Hillary Clinton's disaffected women supporters.
It is as though American women are so dumb that as long as Palin has the "same internal plumbing" as Hillary, women would flock to her, although Palin is on the wrong side of every issue Hillary's women supporters care about (Palin is against abortion, pro-gun rights, pro-drilling).
Now the Republicans are marketing Palin as the best thing since sliced bread. She is the darling, the "babe" of the Republican right; "a pit bull with lipstick;" a "game changer." But wait a minute! Palin, a staunch advocate of family values, told an embarrassed nation that her unmarried 17-year old daughter, Bristol, is pregnant! Not an issue at all, the right-wingers say, dismissing the scandal; the important thing is Bristol is going to keep her baby! Palin's infant son has down-syndrome. What a pro-lifer, the right-wingers exult!
But wait a minute! If you are truly pro-life, why check the baby's health before he is born. After all, a pro-lifer should be happy with any kind of baby from God! Could Palin possibly have been thinking abortion? Palin is also under investigation for possibly ordering the firing of an official for refusing to fire her brother-in-law from his job because he had divorced her sister.
Palin took several potshots at Obama during her acceptance speech, mocking Obama's "inexperience" and work as a community worker. Clearly, both the community workers and the poor people they assist are objects of ridicule to Palin, McCain and the Republican Party. If asked to comment what makes Palin qualified to be the VP, the McCain surrogates go ballistic. I actually heard a Republican governor promote Palin's foreign policy credentials thus: "Her state (Alaska) borders, Canada and Russia; so she has more foreign policy experience than Obama!"
But the McCain campaign will not let the press interview Palin. She will only give speeches in front of adoring fans, a la George W. Bush, but will take no questions from the press. Yet, the McCainites bristle at the suggestion that McCain campaign is shielding Palin from the press's probing questions which may expose her lack of knowledge.
Talking of knowledge, Palin attended six colleges before graduating from Idaho State. John McCain did not attend any college; his education came from the Naval Academy where he was admitted as a legacy student and where he graduated 894th out of 899 cadets. But McCain and Palin are quick to ridicule Obama's Columbia and Harvard education. In the Orwellian universe of the Republican Party, higher education is bad, less education is good.
Let us see how less education has served America. George W. Bush, the C student, was marketed in 2000 as the "guy Americans would love to have a beer with." Well, that beer has cost America trillions of dollars, two wars, tripling of gasoline prices, unprecedented house foreclosures, a tanking economy, a recession and loss of respect abroad.
McCain has voted 90% of the time with Bush, and on camera has said that he does not understand the economy, and that on important issues he has always sided with Bush. As the Obama campaign says, McCain will be Bush's third term.
Let us contrast an unintelligent president with an intelligent one. During Bill Clinton's 8-year presidency, America enjoyed unprecedented peace, prosperity and respect abroad. Since Bill Clinton is a Rhodes Scholar, there is something to be said about intelligence and success as a US President.
In his acceptance speech, John McCain recounted in great lengths his experience as a prisoner of war. That is when he became proud of his country, he said. If MCain was a Democrat, Karl Rove would be ripping apart McCain's so-called "war hero" claim as savagely as he destroyed the 2004 presidential campaign of the real war hero, John Kerry, who actually fought bravely for his country and won a chest-full of medals for bravery.
War heroes, like George Washington, fight bravely for their country and help it to win. McCain did neither. John McCain was a bad naval aviator. Two of the planes he flew crashed, and one collided with power lines. In October 1967, he was shot down over Vietnam, and spent 5 years as a prisoner of war. A POW does not fight. So what makes McCain a war hero? That he was shot down? That he was a POW?
Show me another person anywhere in the world who demands adoration for being shot down, and imprisoned as a POW! Now that McCain has made it an issue, the Democrats should cut McCain's so-called war heroism down to its puny size. Otherwise, they will lose in November.
A commentator aptly noted that John McCain is like "Mrs. Doubtfire" in the movie of that name. Mrs. Doubtfire was a man who failed miserably as a father; but after divorce, because he missed his children, he cross-dressed and became their nanny.
John McCain and the Republican Party have failed America miserably over the last eight years. They are the establishment party. So what do they do? They change their clothing. They pretend to be the insurgent party; the party of "change;" stealing Obama's mantra of the last two years. They would like America to believe that a Democrat, rather than Bush, has been the President for the last eight years!
The McCain campaign is betting that they can sell America the lie that John McCain is a "maverick," rather-than the right-wing Republican he actually is; that he is "bipartisan," when he has actually supported the extreme right agenda of Bush over 90% of the time; that he is a "moderate," when in reality McCain is a wolf in sheep's clothing.
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