Posted on 09/07/2008 3:03:16 PM PDT by upchuck
Barack Obama isn't John McCain's only opponent. Sometimes McCain sounds like he's running almost as hard against President Bush and the Republican Party as he is against Obama, his Democratic rival for the White House.
The GOP is guilty of indulging in a spending spree of taxpayers' money, McCain laments. They haven't solved huge problems such as the looming insolvency of Social Security and Medicare, passing on huge IOUs and perplexing issues to future generations instead of fixing them as they had promised. He doesn't name Bush but the implication is clear: It happened on his watch and he signed bills that made the deficit soar.
"We began to value power over principle," McCain said in Colorado Springs, Colo. Some lawmakers turned corrupt and wound up in jail, he told a rally in Albuquerque, N.M.
"Change is coming, change is coming," McCain promised, projecting an image of independence and political populism.
One of his challenges is to separate himself from the unpopular incumbent in the White House and fight against Obama's charge that a McCain presidency would amount to a third term for Bush.
[snip]
"As bad as things are and as bad as gridlock is, I am an optimist," McCain told the AARP. "I think we have hit rock bottom."
(Excerpt) Read more at ap.google.com ...
Sorry Sen. McCain, I gotta disagree. "Rock bottom" is where we'll be w/ nObama as POTUS.
Wasn’t the last 26 years on McCain’s watch? Why didn’t he introduce Social Security legislation? In part I agree with McCain, but geez John, you were there in Washington a lot longer than George.
McCain told the AARP. “I think we have hit rock bottom.”
As it relates to Conservatism, I couldn’t agree more John.
OK, so "WE" said very clearly we do not want the 'comprehensive immigration reform' you and Ted Kennedy championed last year.
We shall soon see who you believe you work for.
“I think we have hit rock bottom.”
Yeah, and just what we need is a RHINO to fix it.
So... all those books in the bible about how the Hebrews fell away from their faith and got what they deserved are anti-Semetic?
If we as a person, or as a party, were not self-critical, and did not strive to be better than we are... well, we’d be Democrats.
McCain is right about the Republican Congress and President Bush for not using the veto pen. They spent like drunken sailors.
This article is next phase of the news media attack on McCain. They are trying to target the base now.
yeah it was Bush who came up with the whole idea of compassionate conservatism that led to all this mess. He wasn’t just soft on spending, he believed in it.
The next wave of articles will imply that McCain really wanted Lieberman.
“And McCain was in Washington the whole time. “
You certainly can’t blame John McCain for George W. Bush’s mistakes
Agree with you 100%! Anyone that can defend Pres Bush not using the veto pen on runaway spending is not a fiscal conservative. Bush has been all about big programs that need more bags of money like NLCB. The Republican Congress under Hastert and Lott/Frist didn’t think anything of spending big dollars on programs that went nowhere.
You are so right they spent like drunken sailors. If Pres Bush would have used his clout on energy instead of programs like NCLB maybe we would have had an energy policy.
I think President Bush has been an excellent President. He kept America safe and had our guys killing islamonuts all across the globe despite the whaling and whining from the left and the lack of support from the right in Congress when the going got tough with McCain being the exception to that rule. I won’t be bashing him here. I just think he made a mistake in “bringing a new tone” to DC. You can’t bring a new tone when Congress is breaking the bank and the left including the MSM are shrieking at the top of their lungs that Bush and Republicans are evil warmongers trading young Ameican lives for oil. After a while the sheep believe it.
And what about wanting every illegal immigrant he can get his hands on that are draining our economy and other things.
Sorry, McCain deserved that.
George W Bush has a 29% approval rating. Agree with the polls or not, the voters are pissed off at him. And if we run a GWB-like candidate, we will get blown out by Obama and his goons.
Best option at this point is to put up with 4 years of McCain. If he’s successful, he’ll restore trust in the GOP, clean house, and get some new leaders to get the party moving in the right direction again. Then in 2012, we can run a more conservative candidate.
A conservative president would not get any conservative legislation through the congress anyway in this cycle since the Dems have such a big majority. We need to work at getting Congress back in 2010 and 2012.
Here in SE PA the democrats are running adds showing Bush McCain together and a clip of McCain saying I voted with President Bush 90%of the time better than most of the GOP
I agree. McCain is the half loaf this election. We need to get back the House and Senate during the next two election cycles (or, at least, close the gap). Hopefully, McCain will have a reasonably successful one term and then he leaves.
The Republicans should run a similar ad showing that BHO voted with Harry Reid 92% of the time.
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