Is McCain as bad as Bush?

[Jim]

I am talking about intelligence. While listening to him, he just doesn't strike me as the sharpest knife in the drawer. And he recently bragged about how his teachers never really thought he would make anything of his life. If nothing else matters in this election, I think we need to have a President with above average intellengence...not another moron.

[Ramster]

The LAST thing you guys (well all of us) need is another STUPID President. If Bush wasn't Bush's son he would have made nothing of his life. The guy is a moron and likely rarely thinks for himself and probably did not think for himself in 7+ years in office. Scary!

[RedCherry]

I like McCain, he makes me laugh. I've seen him on the Daily show, and he seems like a really down to earth person. But, I would NOT want him as president. I think he is too wishy washy. He will come out with a strong statement, someone will take offense, then he is on TV apologizing about it. I think he would be a pushover as a president for any strong person that took offense at anything he said, and that is SO not what we need.

[LD]

During a campaign appearance in South Carolina McCain was asked about his position on dealing with Iran. McCain began to sing, to the tune of the Beach Boys song Barbara Ann "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran."

[ArtWilliams]

I think the President sets out the general tone and vision for the Government but it is really his Cabinet and advisors who do the heavy lifting. Bush has surrounded himself with a bunch of paranoid neo-cons and for that he is at fault. I don't know who McCain has on his team but a look at his people will tell you what is in store for the U.S. (and the rest of us). Regan wasn't "the sharpest tool in the shed" but he had good people around him.

[SirMoby]

McCain is a great at playing the media. After being bashed as the Anti Christ in 2000 he needs to play up to the Neoconservatives. It's one thing to look at how that actors act while on stage. it's another to see what they done in the past.

No, I don't think McCain is a brilliant man but I think he's above average and certainly smarter then Dubya.

The good point about McCain is that he will deviate from the party line. Doing what's best for a political party is almost always doing what's worse for the country. McCain tends to at least try to do what's best for the country on occasion.

You can't say that Bush has ever done anything that was good for the country but you can say he's done many things that were good for the Republicans.

[Jim]

Don't you want a president that is brilliant? I don't understand why we have to stand for mediocre in this country. Bill Clinton is and was called a lot of things but I don't think he was ever called stupid.

I want the 90s back, god damn it.

[LD]

Originally Posted by Jim

Don't you want a president that is brilliant? I don't understand why we have to stand for mediocre in this country. Bill Clinton is and was called a lot of things but I don't think he was ever called stupid.

I want the 90s back, god damn it.

I can think of a few brilliant people that I would not want as president, but I do think intelligence, the ability to make an effective speech and at least project an aura of leadership should be part of the minimum requirements. Competence is nice, too.

[SirMoby]

Originally Posted by Jim

Don't you want a president that is brilliant? I don't understand why we have to stand for mediocre in this country. Bill Clinton is and was called a lot of things but I don't think he was ever called stupid.

I want the 90s back, god damn it.

I would love a brilliant President but most brilliant people are smart enough to not want to clean up after Bush. You're inheriting the biggest cluster fuck that any President has passed on to another.

Brilliant people should be smart enough to do something else.

[Jim]

There should be a standard intelligence test for would be presidents.

If not brilliant, at least not a c student. And one that if an old teacher is asked is said to have been a good student. I don't think that is asking for too much

[Toni KatVixen]

According to Time Magazine, in the Feb 4th issue, his IQ is 133. I don't believe he will be any where as bad as Bush.....I don't want another Republican president, but out of all of them I can tolerate McCain.

Just in case he becomes president, I've been reading up on some of his personal history :

http://www.newsweek.com/id/107581/page/1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain

This one has a bunch a little articles on him :

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/refere...inline=nyt-per

My biggest issue with him is I'm ProChoice and he has consistently voted ProLife, so I worry on whether the gag-rule will be lifted. Especially after some of the readings that I read in Ms on how it effects women world wide.

http://www.msmagazine.com/winter2008/index.asp

[docholly]

he's a ringer. Reps. know there is no way another Rep is going to be elected NOR do they want one because, as |Jim said, they have to clean up the Bush Clusterfuck. So they will let the Dems fall on the sword, take the blame, since most of the population has such short term memory anyway..and in 2012 will run a viable candidate who will promise to "clean up" what the dems didn't..and how much better our life was under "Bush Jr.".... they don't want a repeat of the catastrophe that happened with Daddy Bush following Regan which is how Clinton was elected for 8 years.

no fundamental christian in their right mind would vote for Romeny..they can't get past that 3 levels of heaven thing...but if he waits until 2012, they will galvanize behind him just to get out the evil female/minority president ... give 4 years get 8.

[matyko]

Check this out:

http://eenvandaag.nl/index.php?modul...c=view&cid=465

[VoteMatch determines your political preference through statements from the largest democratic and republican candidates taking part in the preliminary US presidency elections.]

[Torn Rose]

Originally Posted by Jim

And he recently bragged about how his teachers never really thought he would make anything of his life.

Jim, if I am not mistaken, the teachers he was referring to were all in the Naval Academy and compared his life to his father and grandfather who were both Admirals and legends in the US Navy, so they was comparing him to what they thought he should be since he was a not exactly his father’s son.

I would not be pleased if he won the presidency, but I think he is smarter and more willing to listen to advice from people who are not “yes men” then Bush has ever been, and while I think it would be bad, it would be 100 times better then the last 8 years.

Obama/Edwards in ’08!

[Jim]

That may be it Torn. And I agree that no matter who is president, it will be better than Bush. I was happy to see Rudy 9-11 Giuliani go down. He may have been worse.

[Torn Rose]

Yeah I agree, Rudy scared me more than anyone, I just read this on Bill Maher’s "Dickheads of the year" in regards to Rudy.

"The year before he was elected mayor, the NYPD made 720 arrests for marijuana misdemeanors. In the year 2000 under Rudy, that figure was 59,945. That's an increase of . . . a lot, dude. Why am I confident that he'll be on the list again next year? "

Maher also pointed out a few weeks ago that Rudy is the one guy who had everyone like Maher (Who spoke out against officials) that would actually come after them as he has so many in NY while he was mayor who said shit about him or disagreed with him, so just imagine what he would do with porn.

[SirMoby]

Even after Romney spent $35 Million of his own money McCain spanks him hard. It ain't over but it looks like McCain will be the republican choice.

[RageCash-Ben]

Mccain is bush 2.0 - he is not as bad just a newer version, imo anyways.

[DaddyHalbucks]

Romney is alot more polished, but I guess that is a moot point right now.

[Simon]

While it may be true that, in most cases, once the USA puts troops into a country it tends to leave (at least some of) them there, I don't like the way McCain was so cavalier about saying that we'll have troops in Iraq for 100 years. And I'm sure that having those words coming out of a (potential) POTUS did us no good at all among our Muslim brethren.

Some anti-McCain videos here:
http://lessjobsmorewars.com/

Here's an interesting quote about wars that I ran across. These are the words of Eugene Debs, a presidential candidate in 1918 who was stripped of his citizenship for saying it and sent to jail for 10 years:

"They have always taught and trained you to believe it to be your patriotic duty to go to war and to have yourselves slaughtered at their command. But in all the history of the world you, the people, have never had a voice in declaring war, and strange as it certainly appears, no war by any nation in any age has ever been declared by the people."



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Btw ... in this context I'll mention that I am not now and never have been a member of the Communist Party.


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[Torn Rose]

Originally Posted by Simon

Btw ... in this context I'll mention that I am not now and never have been a member of the Communist Party.


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Look on the bright side, Gitmo isnt that far from you and you are already use to the weather.

[Motorhead]

Originally Posted by Simon

While it may be true that, in most cases, once the USA puts troops into a country it tends to leave (at least some of) them there, I don't like the way McCain was so cavalier about saying that we'll have troops in Iraq for 100 years. And I'm sure that having those words coming out of a (potential) POTUS did us no good at all among our Muslim brethren.

Some anti-McCain videos here:
http://lessjobsmorewars.com/

Here's an interesting quote about wars that I ran across. These are the words of Eugene Debs, a presidential candidate in 1918 who was stripped of his citizenship for saying it and sent to jail for 10 years:

"They have always taught and trained you to believe it to be your patriotic duty to go to war and to have yourselves slaughtered at their command. But in all the history of the world you, the people, have never had a voice in declaring war, and strange as it certainly appears, no war by any nation in any age has ever been declared by the people."



--
Btw ... in this context I'll mention that I am not now and never have been a member of the Communist Party.


.

You do not have to worry, Simon, although many would not understand the distinction between the Socialist Party that Debs was basically the leader of and the Communist Party. I have another Debs quote-

"To Hell with war, to hell with all who crave it. When masters rule the world no more, we'll need no wars to save it."

My grandmother was a "Wobbly"(member of IWW-International Workers of the World) and an anarchist. She met Debs when she was a teenager, when Debs was working with others in the promotion of the IWW. My grandmother had a very easy and useful philosophy. Do not trust anybody in government, period!!

[tickler]

Originally Posted by matyko

Check this out:

http://eenvandaag.nl/index.php?modul...c=view&cid=465

[VoteMatch determines your political preference through statements from the largest democratic and republican candidates taking part in the preliminary US presidency elections.]

How about Genetics vs. Politics!!!

"Genetics are not determinant in [people's politics]," Hibbing said. "That word is too strong. But they are definitely involved in shaping these beliefs. I'm not arguing nature over nurture - I'm arguing for a nice balance of environmental factors with genetic factors.
http://media.www.californiaaggie.com...-3193916.shtml