It's Official: John McCain's An Asshole

[filkertom]

I never want to hear how John McCain is "a good Republican" again.

Comments

[jkb.livejournal.com]

I know. Sorry if this sounds slanderous, but I don't think McCain is playing with a full deck, and I haven't ever since I saw him on The Tonight Show back when he was running for president against W. He was pulling bazillions of weird little lucky charms out of his pockets -- rabbit's foot and four-leaf-clover and St. Christopher medal and stuff much weirder than that, and laying it all on the desk, on national television. I think he has some strange twists and turns in his thinking, and thank God nothing came of Kerry's pondering whether to try to make him a running mate.

OT pro-Kerry website promotion -- we really need to fight the GOP spin on Kerry and Iraq at the grassroots:



(http://www.kerryoniraqwar.com/)
The truth about John Kerry's consistent position on the Iraq war. John Kerry hasn't been flip-flopping. George Bush just hasn't been listening.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

McCain has long since sold his soul, I just can't figure out to whom. But he echoes whatever he was standing closest to until something new gives him a new echo.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

I don't know enough about the situation with Nader in Florida to have any idea of whether in terms of the laws he should be allowed on the ballot in this election. In principle, the lock the two-party system has on our elections is terrible both for democracy and for our welfare. In principle and in practice, anyone who works to have a third part candidate either get on or be kept off the ballot because they think that candidate will pull votes from one major party candidate and give the other one an advantage is an asshole. But nothing in the linked article gives any reason to believe that McCain wants Nader on the ballot because he thinks it will help Bush win the state. The reasons he's quoted are legitimate reasons, and you may believe they're not his real reasons, but if you want me to believe that, you need to give me some reason.

Now, if you want to call McCain an asshole for selling out and supporting Bush even though Bush is against most of what McCain has been campaigning for from the 2000 primaries up until he started actively campaigning for Bush in this election, I won't argue a bit. In 2000, I had enough respect for McCain that I would have given serious thought to voting for him if it had been McCain vs. Gore, but by actively supporting Bush now, he has destroyed any hope of ever having me vote for him as opposed to against his hypothetical opponent.

[seanmonster.livejournal.com]

In 2000, I had enough respect for McCain that I would have given serious thought to voting for him if it had been McCain vs. Gore, but by actively supporting Bush now, he has destroyed any hope of ever having me vote for him as opposed to against his hypothetical opponent.

Amen.

[alymid.livejournal.com]

This sound entirely consistent to me, it is my understanding that the Reps. and doing this in as many states as possible, hoping to split the liberal/undescided vote between Kerry and Nader like in '00 between Gore and Nader. This has happend with different Reps footing the charge in more than one state.

oh, irony...

[fractalwolf.livejournal.com]

The irony of this is that I have finally managed to convince my mother and brother not to vote for Bush, but both have doubts about voting for Kerry. So having Nader on the ballot offers them a "safe" alternative that will hopefully keep them and others like them from flipping back to their previous affiliations when struggling with their indecision at the ballot box.

Catch 22

[umbran.livejournal.com]

McCain is in a tough position. If he supports Bush, he "sells his soul". If he does anything else, he loses any support he might have had from his party, leaving him without any actual power. If he stands by many of the principles he's espoused in the past, he loses the ability to support those principles. Rock and a hard place.

What he seems to be doing here doesn't make him an asshole. At worst, it makes him manipulative. But every politician worth his salt is manipulative. Heck, we elect them specifically to be manipulative! It is their job to manipulate the system for us!

Remember this mantra - supporting the other party doesn't make you an asshole. I'm not a Republican, but I still believe that Republicans are people too.

I could even read this as McCain being smart. I'm quite sure he's familiar with Florida law. He knows if Nader would make a legal candidate or not. McCain's statement is just that - a statement. As far as I can see, it carries no weight whatsoever, and will likely have no influence on the court's decision. Meaning that McCain gets a chance to seem to support Bush, but not actually take action in favor of the man. :)

And that's beside the point that, technically, McCain is correct. If by Florida law Nader should be on the ballot, then he should be on the ballot. The fact that this would not be helpful to Kerry's campain comes in second behind the general principle. Because the whole problem with Bush is lack of the general principles, right?

Re: Catch 22

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

True enough. Thing is, (a) it appears that, indeed, Nader should not be on the ballot, and (b) he has been actively supporting Dubya, a man who ripped him a seriously unfair new one in the 2000 primaries.

McCain has spent this summer trying to be both good cop and bad cop, positioning himself for another run at the White House in 2008. For all the good he has done, he has been shameless this campaign season. I will not trust him again.

Re: Catch 22

[arensb.livejournal.com]

I'm not a Republican, but I still believe that Republicans are people too.

Big deal. So's Soylent Green.

(Sorry about that. I agree with you, but I just couldn't pass up the straight line you were feeding me.)

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

As opposed to, say, a "good Republican"?

It was obvious from his role before and the RNC that he'd been slapped down hard by the party. And unlike that asshole Zell Miller, he didn't even have the courage or integrity to tell them to fold it until it was all sharp corners, push, and twist.

What a shame.

[seanmonster.livejournal.com]

Ah, ah. Zell's a DixieDemocrat, remember...

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

That's at least partly my pont. Nominally a Democrat, he still went out and spewed the venom he had inside him, at the Democrats. Granted, he knows he has a landing place, but so too would have McCain had he stuck to his guns and opposed The Great Pretender.

[poltr1]

Don't know if McCain himself thought it was a good idea, or if he got his marching orders from the GOP hierarchy.

As for the statement...if the deadline to get on the ballot has already passed, then tough. And if Nader was on the ballot, would be be the "spoiler" again and siphon votes away from Kerry? As much as I'd like to see him siphon votes away from BushCo, it's not very likely to happen.

The GOP's agenda is simple: The hell with the American people. What's good for the Republican Party (i.e. self-preservation) is most important to us. (And why the Log Cabin Republican's haven't defected and gone to the other side is beyond me.)

Which is why I want Judge Greene to come in and break them up just like he did with AT&T 20 years ago.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

(And why the Log Cabin Republican's haven't defected and gone to the other side is beyond me.)

Actually, last week they did... kinda (http://www.logcabin.org/logcabin/press_090804.html).

[minerva-fan.livejournal.com]

I couldn't stand the bastard when I lived in Arizona, and I still can't stand the bastard. I never bought into that whole "John McCain as John Kerry's running mate" thing.....brr......He's a slimy fucktard who should be revealed as the subhuman monster (i.e., Republican) that he is.

Not that I have an opinion or anything.....

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

In all seriousness and sincerity, I thank you so very much for the first use of the word "fucktard" in this space. Now It's a real political blog. :)

[poltr1]

Waitaminnit....isn't he one of the senators that the bastion of the bizarre, the Weekly World News, claims is a space alien?

[billroper]

Clicking on your link, I see that the Florida Supreme Court has ruled that Nader should be on the ballot. Regardless of the effect on the outcome, I tend to favor having more ballot access to less ballot access. (And, yes, I know that in this case, it's a Bush-serving opinion. But it's my general opinion just the same, which I would have voiced in 1992 and 1996 if we'd been sitting here talking about Perot.)

[scruffycritter.livejournal.com]

This appears to be a link about Nader trying to get on the florida ballot.

Doesn't mention McCain.

What's McCain done?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Threw his weight in to urge the Florida Supreme Court to put Nader on the ballot. Here's the original story (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040917/ap_on_el_pr/nader_2).