Campaign tidbits

Not very presidential

In Indiana on Friday, John McCain said he doesn't expect political reforms in Cuba until after Fidel Castro dies, adding he hopes "that's not far off." "I hope he has the opportunity to meet Karl Marx very soon," McCain noted. He was referring to the Communist leader who died in 1883.

This kind of statesmanlike diplomatic behaviour is what we can expect from the Republicans' choice for president??!!

Also, John McCain has the worst voting record of all 535 members of Congress, when it comes to environmental issues. McCain missed every single key environmental vote last year, as scored by the League of Conservation Voters (LCV).

"When it came time to stand up and vote for the environment, John McCain was nowhere to be found,” said Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club. McCain skipped all 15 votes that the League of Conservation Voters considered critical for the environment, including votes where McCain's "yes" vote would have meant passage by a single-vote margin.

Dumb and dumber

On the Real Time with Bill Maher show Friday, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) claimed that Barack Obama refuses to say the pledge of allegiance to the American flag. This false claim, along with other bogus information about Obama -came from hoax emails circulating via the internet. Imagine, an elected representative spreading false information on national television! Is he so irresponsible that he believes everything he reads, without questioning or considering the source?

From the Fact Check Center at Obama's website:

"Barack Obama has been a community organizer, a civil rights attorney and taught constitutional law for a decade. In both the Illinois and U.S. Senate he tackled ethics reform and has been an aggressive advocate for veterans rights. Barack's grandfather taught him to say the Pledge of Allegiance and he regularly leads his fellow Senators as they recite it together."

Maybe if Kingston spent more time addressing Georgia residents' needs and less time repeating vicious rumours and lies, his constituents would be better served.

On the attack - again!

Hillary Clinton has again resorted to negative attacks against her opponent, apparently forgetting how these Karl Rove-style tactics failed her in South Carolina and Wisconsin. People simply don't want to listen to candidates - whose policies are more alike than they are different - criticise each other like a bunch of schoolkids. We want to hear how they plan to help solve the country's problems.

Apparently, Democratic leaders' pleas for Hillary to stop listening to her campaign strategist Mark Penn - who tends to favour scorched-earth politics - have fallen on deaf ears. It would appear that the Clinton campaign is in very bad disarray indeed. One night she is conciliatory towards Obama, discussing their separate health care plans with civility and the next day, she's visibly combative and confrontational in her speech, making angry over-the-top accusations against Obama for criticising her health care plan.

She recently told ABC's This Week that "there are a number of mechanisms" to handle her mandates, including "going after people's wages, automatic enrollment." The universal healthcare Clinton advocates is government-mandated healthcare. That means forcing people to pay for healthcare. Even Barack Obama's plan would require that parents pay for their children to be fully insured.

So it seems strange that Clinton would try to force an issue over a subject that had been thoroughly discussed in Thursday's debate. And wasn't it odd that Clinton said Obama has no "right" to attack her on health care? Since when is a candidate's position on any issue off-limits? So much for Clinton's campaign claims that after weathering decades of Republican attacks, she is the "toughest" candidate to challenge the Republicans in the general election.

Comments

[Dorian Fletcher]

I am suffering from pre-election fatigue. I would love for the arguing to cease and the issues to be discussed in depth. This is such a golden opportunity for the Democratic party...amazing - a black man and a woman running for President! Who would have thunk it? I hope things even out before too long.

[rochambeau]

Hi friend. The other night my husb and I watched the debate. Obama keeps his cool. Clinton looses her control. We noticed it.

Thinking about you.
xox
Constance