McCain vs. Obama Part III

McCain vs. Obama Part II

If you didn't catch the second Presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama, watch it in its entirety below.

Voters are Stupid....

At least that's what the McCain Campaign thinks. Congress just passed a $700 billion Bailout/Rescue Plan (give or take $150 billion) for Wall Street so as to slow or reverse the economic catastrophy that analysts all agree would cripple the US economy as well as economies across the globe. Today, October 6th, we say the Dow Jone take the largest 1-day plunge in our nations history of almost 800 points, and close at below 10,000 for the first time since October 2004.

What is the plan of the McCain Campaign?

A top McCain adviser signaled last week that the campaign intends to "turn the page" from economic issues.

(Opinion: They want to distract with smear rather than deliver with substance. While Obama has done a few ads that have been somewhat negative in the last few days, he has done so either premptively or in response to McCain's negative advertising so as not to fall victim to the same kind of Swift Boat attacks on past Democratic nominees like John Kerry and Michael Dukakis. It seems that McCain not only dropped out of campaigning in Michigan this past Friday, but he also dropped out of arguing the most important issue affecting American families.; the Economy.)

John McCain: Campaign First

McCain's Poor Judgment Has Cost Americans Billions $

Independents and Undecided - Lack of Administration Transparency

• John McCain’s campaign chairman Rick Davis has been a lobbyist for Freddie Mac, which collapsed early in 2008. Freddie was bailed out and Rick Davis’ company (Davis and Manafort) was receiving money ($15,000 monthly) up until August 2008 for lobbying access to John McCain.
• Report have come forth that show that the Bush Administration has had a version of an Economic Bailout/Rescue Plan for months, because the Administration knew that an economic crisis was on the horizon, however Bush did not come forth with such a plan until the markets suffered even more damage. (Opinion: Likely in order to NOT damage the John McCain Presidential Candidacy.)
• President Maliki of Iraq said that the Bush Administration encouraged him to propose a longer US occupation of Iraq for political benefits in the US. Presumably, George Bush and the Bush Administration would leave our American troops in harms-way, in order to tip the scales of the Presidential election to the Republican Party and John McCain. (Opinion: That seems to me, an incredible abuse of Executive power. I am in no way accusing John McCain of any wrongdoing, but is it so inconceivable to believe that such a plan could have been coordinated between the Bush Administration and the McCain Campaign? Remember, Bush and McCain both said that a “Withdrawal Time-Line” As Obama proposed was naïve, until Maliki asked for the same. Then finally the Bush Administration defined a “Withdrawal Time-Horizon”. Time-Line, Time-Horizon….eerily similar….)
• Bush Administration has disregarded the checks and balances that exist between Executive, Judicial and Legislative branches of the Government; by refusing all testimony of staffers called by Congress as Executive privilege, even when privilege was tangential, if not completely non-existent. (Opinion: In many ways, the Bush Administration has desecrated the US Constitution.)
• Palin and her staffers in the Alaska Governor’s office used personal email accounts often to discuss government business. Why, you ask....? Often personal emails cannot be subpoena as evidence in matters dealing with a political office one holds. This is right out the Karl Rove playbook.
• Palin hired high school friends for high ranking positions in her Administration, often even those who were wholly unqualified, in order to insulate herself with cronies.
• Palin instructed her Administration as a mayor and as a governor, to not talk to the press.
• After Palin’s nomination to Rep. Vice President, she and all her staffers refused to cooperate with the so called “Troopergate” investigation, and even refused to honor to subpoenas. This is the same investigation that she had previously stated, that she would happily and participate in.
• Little known fact that the Obama Campaign and the media DO NOT talk about, because they do not want to politicize the Iraq War, is that Military and Service men and women in active duty overseas have made campaign contributions to the Obama Campaign at a 6-to-1 margin, over the McCain Campaign.
• The McCain Campaign took lawyer Edward O’Callaghan from his duty as co-chief of the terrorism and national security unit of the U.S. attorney's office in New York, to fly to Alaska and stonewall the “Troopergate” investigation. (Opinion/Question: Is this really a good use of our tax dollars, to stonewall a independent State investigation?)
• John McCain has in the past, bragged that he voted with President Bush 90% of the time on legislation, often in opposition to his own Senate colleagues.
  
  
  
  (Opinion: Why reward John McCain with a 3rd Bush Presidential term?)
• Karl Rove, in an opinion piece, told Obama that he should back-off of trying to link McCain to Bush. (Opinion: The McCain = Bush ads must have been effective.)
• In “Troopergate”, the McCain Campaign has been trying to sell the idea that Democrats have hijacked the process and it has become partisan. The fact is that the investigation was initiated by the unanimously vote of 10 Republicans and 4 Democrats.

Veterans, Iraq War, Middle East and War on Terror

• John McCain has very simply been WRONG on many of the National Security issues for which he claims great knowledge.
• John McCain did not support the GI Bill.
• John McCain falls far short of supporting veterans on veterans issues.
• Do you want a 100 year war like John McCain suggested could happen?
• John McCain continues to claim aome level victory in Iraq, however troop levels are higher than before the surge.
• In 1972, Iraq nationalized the countries oil production. As a twist of irony, on September 16, 2008, 1972 days after President Bush declared mission accomplished in Iraq, the West brought its first oil production facility online. (Opinion/Question: Have more than 4,000 US troops died and 30,000 been injured for our national security or for black gold?)
• Bush Administration is trying to block all veterans who were victims of torture in Iraq, from suing the Iraqi government, even though Iraq has $80 billion in US banks. Where is John McCain on this issue and why hasn't he come out against the Bush Administration?

Economy

• John McCain voted against the minimum wage increase 19 times.
• Alan Greenspan, the former Fed Chairman and one of the foremost economic minds, said that upon review of John McCain’s US economic plan, that it COULD NOT WORK?
  Under Obama’s economic plan, 95% of households would receive a tax cut.
• Phil Gramm, the man blamed in part for de-regulation of Wall Street that lead to ENRON debacle and others, is likely to be Treasury Secretary in a McCain Administration. Remember…. Mr. “Americans are a bunch of whiners, suffering from a mental recession…”





• While John McCain was on Senate Commerce Committee for 7 years and voted NO on increasing of efficiency standards in cars.
• Washington Mutual, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Wachovia, AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac have all buckled or collapsed under economic pressure and more to come. Lack of oversight and regulation, of which John McCain has always been an admitted champion of de-regulation, has caused much of the problem..
• John McCain has said many times that the economy is not his area of expertise. (Opinion: We should all take him at his word.) - We miss you Tim Russert

• Carly Fiorina said neither Sarah Palin nor John McCain could run Hewlett-Packard, the company she herself was fired from only after receiving a $42 million dollar golden-parachute, and leaving 20,000 former HP employees unemployed.
• Keating 5: This isn’t the first time McCain has been at the center of a financial crisis.
• John McCains's healthcare policies may destroy employer based healthcare. John McCain’s healthcare system policy will tax healthcare benefits from your employer, and in turn, cause employers to increase the cost to average Americans. Likely this will cause many companies to eliminate company healthcare programs.

Women / Mothers

• John McCain does not support women’s privacy and reproductive rights. This is even more important in this Presidential election because the new President will likely see 3 or 4 Supreme Court seats open as Justices retire. Roe v. Wade could be seriously challenged.
• John McCain limited access to parents for children’s health insurance. (Opinion: He seems to care more about tax cuts for the rich.)
• Do you want a 100 year war like John McCain suggested could happen? Do you want this for your children? Just 1-month of the money spent in Iraq, $10 Billion, could be used to fund insurance for 10 million children.
• John McCain implied that the military draft may require reinstatement.
• John McCain and Sarah Palin, DO NOT support equal pay for equal work. (Opinion: The McCain campaign, talks about how they won’t raise taxes, but women already get taxed by John McCain policy (women only make $.77 on the dollar compared to men), and that “tax” goes to Wall Street instead of American infrastructure.)
• John McCain justified not supporting “equal pay for equal work” policy by saying women need more education and training. (Opinion: If I were a woman, I would be offended.)
  Palin, consistent with her extremely conservative views, does not support a woman’s right-to-choose in cases of rape and incest.
• Palin, as Mayor of Wasilla in Alaska, charged rape victims for rape kits used to verify assault. (Opinion: This just seems to show a systemic lack of sensitivtiy to, what are real women's issues.)

John McCain's Judgment: Maverick….or Erratic….? (Palin to Present and Beyond)

• John McCain wants to claim the change/reform platform, but has 7 of Wall Streets biggest lobbyists on his campaign staff.
• On September 15, 2008, the Monday following the beginning of our present financial crisis, John McCain (perhaps channeling Herbert Hoover) believed the “fundamentals of the economy are strong.”





• Later in the day, he attempted to spin that gaffe. He said that he meant that the American people and our ingenuity were the fundamentals he was talking about when he saind the fundamentals of the economy are strong.
  
  
  
  I don’t know about you, but I feel like he was underestimating my intelligence.
• Tuesday September 16, 2008, he was against the AIG / Wallstreet bailout.





• Wednesday September 17, 2008, he was for the AIG / Wall Street bailout.





• Wednesday September 17, 2008, he said Obama was too inexperienced to solve these problems, then almost in the same breathe he blames all the problems on Obama as if he had been in Congress for decades.
• Wednesday September 17, 2008, John McCain said that he would fire the SEC Chairman if he were President.





• Later on Wednesday September 17, 2008, John McCain learned that as President, you cannot fire the SEC Chairman.
• John McCain threatened that he would not attend the 1st Presidential Debate if a Wall Street Rescue Plan had not been agreed to. John McCain had not made a vote in the Senate since April 2008. (Opinion: Here it seemed like he was grand-standing in order to claim credit for managing the economic crisis, and perhaps gain polling points in economic matters with the voting public, where he has fallen short of Obama.)
• Craps: There was NO Deal in Congress on the Financial Crisis and John McCain still showed up for the debate, defying his own proclamation that he would not be at the debate if no deal was made. (Opinion: He lost his nerve, because the gamble was not based on principle, but political trickery.)
• Thursday September 18, 2008, John McCain suspends his Presidential Campaign to go to Washington and deal with the financial crises. Nobody mentioned this to the McCain Campaign offices around the US cause they were still running ad, surrogates were still doing interview, and campaign business continued. (Opinion: This seemed to me, like a classic case of smoke and mirrors.)
• Selection of Palin was all politics and no principle. Even Karl Rove, the conservative maestro of the Bush Administration said on Bill O’Reilly that the pick of Palin was political.
  Palin was John McCain’s first Executive Decision. (Opinion: In my view, he failed. Before the announcement of his running-mate, Sarah Palin, every publication and every McCain surrogate made it very clear that McCain wanted Joseph Liebermann or Tom Ridge. If he can’t stand-up to the Wall Street lobbyists in his campaign, how can he run this country?)
• Palin not well vetted as a Vice-Presidential nominee.
  
  
  
  John McCain took a gamble with the future of this country on a potential Vice-Presidential that he barely knew. McCain did not make his decision based on whom he thoughtfully felt could help him lead the country.
• Opinion: Given the current Financial Crisis, I can imagine that, in retrospect, he wishes he had picked Mitt Romney.
• Before Palin, McCain was running on the experience platform. Only since the pick of Palin on August 29, 2008, has the McCain Campaign pushed the Change/Reform platform. (Opinion: Political pandering in my view. The political wind was not blowing in John McCain’s favor so the campaign changed course, while the Obama Campaign has been consistent with its message of Change/Reform.)
• Chuck Hagel, a Republican Senator and long time friend of John McCain, said Palin has no Foreign Affairs experience and should just be honest about the fact.
• John McCain said that the 2 qualifications for a Vice-President are 1) to preside over Congress and 2) to be able to take over role of President should the elected President be incapable. (Opinion: Believing that Palin could run the Country at this point in her political career, is and enormous stretch.)

Seniors and Retirees

• John McCain voted with George Bush to privatize Social Security, which would have potentially risked the future of our Social Security program that each working American pays into, on Wall Street.
• If Social Security had been privatized as John McCain voted to do, along with the Bush Administration in 2004, Social Security could have potentially lost 25% of its value in our current crisis. (Opinion: Privatization of Social Security would have put seniors at great financial risk.)
• Obama's economic plan calls for all Seniors making less than $50,000 to be removed from the tax base, therefore you will pay no taxes.

Are you better off now than 8 years ago…?

Are you better off now than 8 years ago?

What George Bush will leave (2008)
Jobless Rate: 6.1%
Budget: $357 billion DEFICIT
Gas Prices: $4.00 / gallon
National Debt: $9.7 trillion (this will increase if Wall Street Rescue Plan is approved)
Average Income: $4600 (value of US dollar has decreased as well which further reduces American buying power)

What Bill Clinton Left (2000)
Jobless Rate: 4.2%
Budget: $281 billion SURPLUS
Gas Prices: $1.46 / gallon
National Debt: $5.7 trillion
Average Income: $4800

John McCain seems out-of-touch with the Americans.

Hillary Democrats

• Obama and Hillary agree on almost all policies. If you don’t vote for Obama-Biden, you are voting against your own self interest, and against what you in fact believe to be in the interest of the United States. That would be a rather silly thing to do.

In the great words of Winston Churchill: You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they have tried everything else.

Obama - Biden 2008