John McCain has seemed a good soldier for President Bush and the GOP since he lost the nomination to Bush in 2000. But evidence is mounting that McCain neither voted for Bush that year nor thought he was qualified to be president. “He was going on and on about how horribly unqualified and untested Bush was, how the campaign had attacked his family,†former “West Wing†actor Bradley Whitford told the Washington Post, recalling a 2001 dinner with McCain.
Whitford added that when someone asked whether McCain had voted for Bush, “He put his finger up to his lips, shook his head and mouthed, ‘No way.’â€
McCain denied the stories this week. Given Bush’s poll numbers, though, such news might benefit McCain.
44 Comments
It is amazing that McCain has transformed himself from being a critic of The Idiot into being The Idiot’s biggest fan. It is obvious that McCain is lsing his mind and his bearings too.
What a magnificent dilemna!
Maybe Joe Lieberman can hang about at his elbow to remind him which story is the truth?
Will it depend on who he is speaking to?
Conspiracy Theory from a warped mind:
At some point after the Republican Party (or members of) smeared McCain during his run for President in 2000, he was taken aside and told that if he toed the line, the Party would make sure he got the nomination in 2008.
Just how far fetched is that?
I think it’s possible he would be willing to swear that he both DIDN’T and DID vote for bush. His “convictions” seem to cover all scenarios.
Also possible he can’t remember who he voted for. He either suffers age related memory problems OR panders to the current audience. Neither choice seems a strength in a presidential candidate.
McSame….the ultimate FLIP-FLOPPER!
It is telling that he can “be” so many different things to so many different people and still never accomplish “being” a competent, capable candidate who instills trust or admiration in the populace.
Oh boy. This is going to be fun! Anyone want to bet on the date of Grandpa McCain’s first public display of apoplexy?
Yeah seriously the flip flopper. How come the republicons aren’t flapping about that?
Rhonda seems to want to post anything that can damage the dems and help the right. So since the facts show that McSame and Bush are good ole buddies now, she’s going to try herself to distance them.
Aint gonna work lady! the truth is far too obvious.
It’s like running Abraham Simpson for president.
Mc Cain would have a reasonable personal reason not to vote for Bush in 2000. I know I had one in 2000 for voting for Bush. He was not Gore! My reasons for not voting for Bush in 2004 were beyond personal feelings. I often wondered how this all would have worked out if Mc Cain had won in 2000. I believed he was the best candidate back then and perhaps by now OBL head would have been hanging on a pike for seven years now (figuratively speaking of course).
Well, the only way McCain can win this is in an appeal to the center. Most conservatives support McCain only to the extent that he can see their own hatred for the left reflected in his eyes, in his style: they’ll vote for McCain only if he clearly and unambiguously tells them he’s NOT a Democrat.
And of course the Left is on fire after 16 years of sustained warfare waged on them by the Right (see above). To them any R candidate must by modus ponens have the full support of the movement conservatives. As in: if s/he’s a Democrat, then “they’ll” find a way to manufacture an attack on her or him. Hence they ain’t votin’ for no stinkin’ Republics this year, no way no how.
That leaves the middle, made up of both Rs and Ds, if McCain’s looking for votes. If anybody’s keeping track, that’s the same middle that, for the past 16 years, the Democrats have cultivated and that the Republics have reviled. Ridiculed, in fact. Repeatedly.
Hence this story “works” for the McCain campaign even as it sickens the movement conservatives. Look to see more just like it, too. In Karl Rove’s words, this election will test a theory popular among political scientists and practicians alike: only a Democrat can win the office of POTUS by appealing to moderates.
McSame was against Bush before he was for Bush.
Most conservatives support McCain only to the extent that he can see their own hatred for the left reflected in his eyes, in his style (above).
Should be “Most conservatives support McCain only to the extent that they can see their own hatred for the left reflected in his eyes, in his style”
I think if Libertarians nominate Bob Barr and the constitution party nominates Alan keyes Mccain will have his own probelms shoring up the far right many who all ready dont like him
I didn’t vote for Bush either. I voted for Browne and Badnarak. McCain can say that. He is the nominee. He can tell the Limbaugh/Coulter types “either you tow my line or take responsibility for electing a democrat.” Man, this guy used to have a pair. When did he get castrated?
Paine: What if Paul were Barr’s VP? Interesting? I know, it won’t happen. Just thinking.
Considering that Bush’s approval rate is now tied with Jeffry Dahmer’s, McCain needs to release that bit of pertinent information (whether or not it’s true) before that huge brush aimed at Bush tars him any more.
Typical RepubliCon spin attempt:
Some are attacking Huffington and Whitford for “breaking the unwritten rules about dinner party conversation.”
We see this tactic all the time. Cite the NY Times or CBS News and the wingnuts move away from the issue and attack the source.
Who was it who defined a “gaffe” as “a politician inadvertently telling the truth”?
McCain moved because of Rush Limbaugh. I think Rush caused “CHAOS” for McCain.
The Republican Party are exceptional at the game of politics! They’ve honed their skills for years and truly are experts at getting elected. They know who to use and how to use them.
Members of the Democratic Party can’t ignore this, can’t let down their defenses, must never take anything for granted.
I think one thing bush accomplished is to make more Americans aware of the ugliest parts of politics. We’ve seen where the lies and corruption lead us. Now that its been brought into the open, most of us can’t stomach or ignore it any longer and we’re ready for much better. I hope the usual dirty tricks won’t work as well this election cycle as they have in the past.
But don’t let down your guard!
http://www.reason.com/news/show/126320.html
McCain has his own radical friends.
“Last November, McCain went on his radio show. Liddy greeted him as “an old friend,” and McCain sounded like one. “I’m proud of you, I’m proud of your family,” he gushed. “It’s always a pleasure for me to come on your program, Gordon, and congratulations on your continued success and adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great.”
Which principles would those be? The ones that told Liddy it was fine to break in to the office of the Democratic National Committee to plant bugs and photograph documents? The ones that made him propose to kidnap antiwar activists so they couldn’t disrupt the 1972 Republican convention? The ones that inspired him to plan the murder (never carried out) of an unfriendly newspaper columnist?”
The only thing the Democrats have to do is to run the newsclip of McCain saying that if it takes 100 years of our troops in Iraq, then so be it. That pretty much will sum up McCain’s chances with the American people.
I remember being told several times in the years of total Republican control that being an Independent was a cop-out. But now these same Republicans are trying to sweet talk the Independents into voting for McCain. Now since McCain is doing everything in his power to look like a carbon copy of George W. Bush, I think McCain has shot himself in his own foot.
But only time will tell and I am still registered as an Independent.
http://www.reason.com/news/show/126320.html
McCain has his own radical friends.
The article goes on to slam Obama’s association with Bill Ayres, but there’s a bif of a difference: Ayres and Obama colloborated on innocuous issues unrelated to Ayres’ past activities, decades after the fact. And in fact, Ayres has rather distinguished himself as a innovative academic, whatever one thinks of his past activities.
G. Gordon Liddy, on the other hand, has “distinguished” himself as a blathering talk-radio nutcase, who once famously declared on his program that the best way to shoot ATF agents was to “aim for the head” (by the way, he was wrong).
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE0D81139F935A35756C0A963958260
So what “principles” are we talking about here, one wonders?
P.S. Also: from Pmom’s Reason link:
If that wasn’t enough to inflame any nut cases, he mentioned labeling targets “Bill” and “Hillary” when he practiced shooting.
Hey, them’s some principles!
McCain’s self-destruction proceeds apace. Between this and the series of reports from John Kerry and others about his overtures to becoming a Democrat, I’d say that “Free Ride” will have his hands full trying to herd the true believer Wingnuts back into the fold come November.
And, of course, by doing so he’ll simultaneously alienate himself from the Independents who actually would be happy that he’d voted against Disaster Boy Bush. McCain is truly in an impossible position, and he obviously lacks the political skills to square THAT particular circle, thanks.
And what the hell is up with Cindy McCain refusing to release her financials?!? Considering that she’s backrolling the Free Ride express, as well as the fact that McCain has been using HER private jet to cut down on expenses, seems like Flyboy and Beer Girl shouldn’t be above answering to the same standards as all the Little People.
Wheels are coming off the Free Ride Express–and we’re still six months out from Election Day. This election is shapting up to be a historic rout, and a generational transformation.
The Republican Party deserves to have the stake driven through its heart–as if it actually HAD one.
And then there’s this: the lobbyist McCain has tapped to manage this summer’s Republican convention, Doug Goodyear, worked for a while as a lobbyist for the military dictatorship in Myanmar:
“Potentially more problematic: the firm was paid $348,000 in 2002 to represent Burma’s military junta, which had been strongly condemned by the State Department for its human-rights record and remains in power today. Justice Department lobbying records show DCI pushed to “begin a dialogue of political reconciliation” with the regime. It also led a PR campaign to burnish the junta’s image, drafting releases praising Burma’s efforts to curb the drug trade and denouncing “falsehoods” by the Bush administration that the regime engaged in rape and other abuses. “It was our only foreign representation, it was for a short tenure, and it was six years ago,” Goodyear told NEWSWEEK, adding the junta’s record in the current cyclone crisis is “reprehensible.”"
http://www.newsweek.com/id/136321
John McCain: truly a perfect asshole. He and the Republican Party utterly deserve one another.
So McCain didn’t vote for Bush in 2000 - big freakin’ deal. The majority of Americans didn’t for for Bush either.
Wow! Thirty posts and not a single CON can find the strength to defend McSame.
Wait a minute. Three Dog Night is playing at the RiverFest.
That explains where all the CONs are . . .
Maybe there is no defense? The most positive comment on McCain I’ve heard from anyone who posts here is that he isn’t Hillary or Obama. When have you heard any positive comments on the Republican Party nominee. Some admiration for his military career from both sides, but nothing more. Mostly it’s negative posts about the two who are still vying for the Democratic Party nomination.
Three Dog Night? They sucked in 1969 and they haven’t done anything since.
Figures that the Cons would be flocking to see them - they like that stale, old shit.
Tee Hee!
I was glad somebody picked up on that, WSClark.
While the hipters were listening to Dylan and Hendrix, the wanna-bes had their AM dials locked to the pop stations.
3 Dog Night = Pop Schlock.
And Three Dog Night’s biggest “hit” (Joy to the World) was written by…………………..
…………….. Hoyt Axton………..
…………… why do I have this trivia stuck in my head………….
It should be a main point of his campaign, ” I didn’t vote for the Idiot, so don’t blame me!”
why do I have this trivia stuck in my head
It’s okay, Clark. Me too.
“You know I smoke a lotta grass, oh lord, I’ve popped a lotta pills. . .”
It should be a main point of his campaign, ” I didn’t vote for the Idiot, so don’t blame me!”
. . .until it’s pointed out that he endorsed and campaigned for the SOB. And a wink-and-a-nod won’t be enough for most swing voters, I would think.
I thought _Joy to the World_ was written by Hoyt’s mother. Could be wrong on that, though.
They did kind of suck.
Now, if CCR was there, a different story — I woulnd’t be here.
My God! Steven might be right! This goes way back for me, old timers!
I seem to remember something about a peanut-butter sandwich?
I thought Cons hated rock music anyways “devil music”
VET asks “When did he get castrated?”
I think the answer is right after they smeared him in South Carolina in 2000 and he subsequently sucked up to Bush, Rove, Falwell, hagee and the rest so he could become Bush’s heir in 2008.
I wonder if he got a lobotomy too? Or maybe just a ‘Limbaugtomy’?
not one con post here —- busy
circling the wagons?
not one con post here —- busy
circling the wagons?
Too busy preparing for tomorrow to honor the Mothers of the world.
They deserved to be honored.
So, trivial matters are set aside.
If that wasn’t enough to inflame any nut cases, he mentioned labeling targets “Bill” and “Hillary” when he practiced shooting.
Hey, them’s some principles!
Rage I heard him say that one, when the teachers would come back to get ready for the beginning of School. Almost everyone of them had a radio on and they pretty much all listen to 1330. The Hallways would act like a speaker and through out the building you heard Liddy. LOL One day he took a call from a 13 y.o. whom asked him how to deal with a bully whom took his lunch money. Liddy said: Well son you know what testacies are? And you know what grapes are? Well you grab the bully’s testacies and twist them like a bunch of grapes till all the juices run out! He will stop taking your money.
Suddenly from ever corner of the building came a collective, “DID YOU JUST HEAR WHAT HE SAID?”.
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