Posted on 05/10/2008 8:23:34 AM PDT by FocusNexus
Two Hollywood actors who dined with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in early 2001 at actress Candice Bergen's home confirmed reports that he told the assembled group he did not vote for George W. Bush in the 2000 election, but McCain denied the claim at a news conference.
In separate phone interviews, Bradley Whitford and Richard Schiff -- both of whom starred in television's "The West Wing" -- said late Thursday night that the senator made the remarks after he spoke at length about his reservations about Bush becoming president. Liberal blogger Arianna Huffington first wrote about the incident Monday, asserting that neither McCain nor his wife Cindy backed Bush in his first presidential bid, and the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday that an unidentified woman who was also at the dinner confirmed Huffington's account.
McCain's aides denied the allegations Tuesday, and yesterday McCain did so himself.
"I voted, campaigned for, worked as hard as I could for President Bush's election in 2000 and 2004," he told reporters in New Jersey. "It's nonsense."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
And anyway, so what? I didn’t vote for GWB in 2000 either.
Care to offer a list of facts presented by the Swiftboat Vets that, after "taking a detailed looking at" were proven false?
Let me help you then. McCain voted to confirm Alito and Roberts. Obama voted against both. Hope that helps.
No. I don't know of any. My point wasn't that the charges were false. My point was that the average schmoe had no ability to know whether the Kerry camp or the Swift Boat vets were telling the truth on most of the details... but it hurt Kerry because the story was believable because it fit with everything else we knew about Kerry.
Here, who the hell knows if the Huffington story is true? But, it fits with everything else we know about McCain, so it has power.
He was in that campaign a crucial countervailing force to John Kerry's bogus claim to be a distinguished Vietnam combat veteran.
McCain did not directly call Kerry a liar - it would have gotten McCain down into what would have been termed mudslinging - but he took the high road, and manifestly let it be known that as a Vietnam veteran, POW, (and genuine hero) he strongly supported Bush.
In that race, McCain's strong support for Bush, and indeed the GOP, may conceivably have made the electoral difference between Bush and Kerry. It was quite significant.
It is complained that he did not support the Swifties - but he in fact augmented the Swifties through maintaining his independence at that time and being a positive "Vietnam" factor for Bush rather than getting into a adjunct controversy and becoming a negative factor. The Swifties did fine by themselves.
Are these lines out of a play or film about an aslyum for the insane?
Arianna Huffington once swore she was a conservative and insisted her former husband wasn’t gay...so who are you gonna believe?
BULL. You directly implied that the assertions didn't stand the light of day test.
"....the average schmoe had no ability to know"..."the story was believable because it fit with everything else we knew about Kerry"....
Sorry, you're thinking of the wrong website. This is not a gossip column, this is Free Republic, where you get tossed out on your butt for spreading rumors.
This site is all about digging through the crap and offering a venue where every possible source of vetting information is available. NO other site has the resources we do, no other site has the calibre of knowledgable members.
Flippantly offering a rumor as fact based on nothing more than a "who the hell knows?" instantly lowers the standards that thousands of diligent members have gone to great lengths to raise over 10 years.
Loose lips sink ships.
WTF is wrong with you?
Quoting your entire post:
“McCain campaigned very strongly for Bush in 2004 and raised over three million dollars at that time for the GOP through appearances and speeches at campaign events.
He was in that campaign a crucial countervailing force to John Kerry’s bogus claim to be a distinguished Vietnam combat veteran.
McCain did not directly call Kerry a liar - it would have gotten McCain down into what would have been termed mudslinging - but he took the high road, and manifestly let it be known that as a Vietnam veteran, POW, (and genuine hero) he strongly supported Bush.
In that race, McCain’s strong support for Bush, and indeed the GOP, may conceivably have made the electoral difference between Bush and Kerry. It was quite significant.
It is complained that he did not support the Swifties - but he in fact augmented the Swifties through maintaining his independence at that time and being a positive “Vietnam” factor for Bush rather than getting into a adjunct controversy and becoming a negative factor. The Swifties did fine by themselves.”
Your post is great, with excellent observations that people should consider.
I would like to quote Crimson Elephant’s excellent post on another thread for people to read and seriously consider. Take a deep breath and read these excellent points:
“The thing is, McCain compared to the far far left Obama isn’t even a lesser of two evils. For all the irritation of McCain, he is still pro life, pro guns, pro military and generally pro economic growth. I know he has wandered around, but Obama with a huge advantage in congress? That is scary. People throw the socialism word around lightly, but this is the real deal, and everyone seems asleep at the switch.
Those that say McCain is no better than Obama have their heads somewhere other than where they need to be.
Even if McCain is just a stop gap until 2012, it likely prevents a wildly liberal addition or two to the Supremes, and won’t cause a disaster in the Iraq and tax policies.
It may not be inspiring, but the fear of Obama’s leftist policies is enough to motivate me.
Hopefully McCain has an inspired choice for VP. Most of the time the VP is irrelevant, but this time he may be handpicking the de facto front runner for 2012 on the GOP side.
7 posted on Saturday, May 10, 2008 8:20:21 AM by Crimson Elephant “
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2014061/posts?page=7#7
B. The economy will probably be fine in 2009. The job market might be tight for awhile, but it will be a growth period. This recession is mighty shallow as it is. I also think that capturing Bin Laden, winning the WOT, and making the tax cuts permanent will all help the economy. I'm confident that McCain will do these things and that the Messiah won't.
C. McCain will only serve one term, and I agree with you that the Rs will lose in 2012. But I also think that they'll lose even if the Messiah wins this one... See Point A.
D. Reagan died in 2004, and it's time that the Rs realized this. The GOP cannot define their agenda like it's 1980. We won that battle already. In fact, the only new part of the conservative agenda in the past few years is xenophobia toward immigrants.
It was a closed primary, only Rs could vote.
Many of them switched their registration before the primary.
So how many flames have you gotten?? I partially agree with you. I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with people voting based on their religious convictions. Lots of American reform/ political movements on both the left and the right had religious undertones. I however do think that the Evangelicals need to realize politics, unlike religion, is all about flexibility and compromise.
Thompson was an awful candidate; Huckabee, despite his limited appeal, was an excellent candidate. This is why Huckabee did better than Thompson.
The only mischief on the D. site was in MI where the KosKids voted for Romney.
Whom do you find more credible — some Hollywood actors and Arianna Huffington or McCain.
I'm thinking...
In the real world, McCain notoriously called the first Swift Vet TV ad "dishonest and dishonorable." This despite the fact that he had absolutely no knowledge of whether his fellow veterans' charges against Kerry were true or not. The leftists seized gleefully on this line and have been quoting to denigrate the Swifties ever since. To claim that McCain "augmented" the Swift Vets in any way, shape or form is a flat-out distortion of history.
Excellent post. McShame will lose.
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