John McCain: A Pending American Disaster

John McCain was a brave pilot during the Vietnam war. He suffered with grace as a prisoner of war as well. But that does not necessarily a good politician make. When it comes to politics, John McCain is of the worst variety. He plays the hero card to get you to ignore the terrible votes he has cast and positions he holds on a plethora of important issues. As President, he would make the mistakes of George W. Bush look like a beautiful spring day by comparison.

I'm not impugning Senator McCain's integrity. I think he sincerely believes in the positions he has taken. In a handful of cases, I agree with him. For example, I believe he is correct in his call for the closure of US military prisons at Guantanamo Bay. I appreciate that he has changed his mind on reducing taxes. But it's important to remember that John McCain is NO conservative. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. He is a blowhard who tries to cow other people into doing what he wants. Rudi Giuliani will tell you that John McCain is a great guy, but that's just because Rudi is angling for the Vice Presidency. I wouldn't be surprised if many people are voting for McCain in the primaries because he seems to have the upper hand, and they don't want to be seen as voting for a loser.

It is critical that Rudy Giuliani doesn't get the Republican vice-presidential nod, because it is more critical that John McCain not become the next president of the United States. The only thing worse would be Hillary Clinton as president. That means it is paramount that John McCain NOT receive the Republican nomination. Otherwise, the once-in-four-years "lesser of two evils" will reach an all-time low. John McCain is the candidate least likely to beat Hillary Clinton, because he is almost her twin ideological brother.

John McCain has done a grave disservice to his country in the following areas:

• Immigration
• The Iraq War
• Global Warming
• Energy Independence
  

Immigration

After his legislation was soundly defeated last year, Senator McCain stated that he has gotten the message, that Americans demand that our borders be secured. Interestingly, however, he has appointed as his campaign director for Hispanic Outreach, Mr. Juan Hernandez, whose statements about amnesty and "Mexico first" are more than troubling.

In an appearance on ABC's Nightline in 2001, Hernandez said, referring to Mexican immigrants in the U.S., "I want the third generation, the seventh generation, I want them all to think 'Mexico first.'"

Hernandez told the Associated Press the same year, "I never knew the border as a limitation. I'd be delighted if all of us could come and go between these two marvelous countries."

Maybe I should question McCain's integrity when he now claims to be in favor of border security.

The Iraq War

Many people are on both sides of the issue of whether we should have attacked Iraq. I happen to think we shouldn't have. I'll forgo my questions of how McCain could have seriously studied the issues and come to the conclusion to attack, because Hillary Clinton came to the same conclusion. What I can't overlook, however, are McCain's apparent imperial ambitions in thinking that it might likely be appropriate to occupy Iraq for one hundred years.

During a town hall meeting in Derry, New Hampshire last night, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) told a crowd of roughly two hundred people that it “would be fine with” him if the U.S. military stayed in Iraq for “a hundred years”:

Q: President Bush has talked about our staying in Iraq for 50 years — (cut off by McCain)

McCAIN: Make it a hundred.

Q: Is that … (cut off)

McCAIN: We’ve been in South Korea … we’ve been in Japan for 60 years. We’ve been in South Korea 50 years or so. That would be fine with me.

Augustus Caesar would have been proud. That however,

John McCain is the candidate least likely to beat Hillary Clinton, because he is almost her ideological twin brother.

is not the genius of America, despite 60 or so years of inept foreign policy that attempts to indicate otherwise.

Global Warming

From JohnMcCain.com, we read the following:

John McCain has a proud record of common sense stewardship. Along with his commitment to clean air and water, and to conserving open space, he has been a leader on the issue of global warming with the courage to call the nation to action on an issue we can no longer afford to ignore.

Yes, we can ignore it, although it is getting much more difficult to do so with such bombastic statements by the Senator and the media. In actuality, we must 'ignore' "the issue of global warming" because its occurrence is a natural phenomenon. People like John McCain crave the power that would accrue to himself and his elite friends were the government to become the arbiter of global warming policy.

Energy Independence

Perhaps in keeping with his determination to keep the United States military in Iraq forever, Senator McCain does not want the US to become energy independent. That, you see, would give the United States less reason to be the colossus of empire. His opinion that man is the major cause of global warming obfuscates the clarity of the issue as well. The first step to energy independence must be greater domestic production of the as-yet most efficient source of energy-oil. McCain is less than clear when it comes to his opinion on energy independence.

Mr. McCain says he´s for energy independence. Yet he was staunchly against drilling for oil in Anwar, Alaska. The location of the acreage where the drilling would have occurred is small (2000 acres) in comparison to its surroundings (317 million acres) and the region is so remote and cold that impact to the environment and wildlife is minimal.

. . .

Open borders immigration, man-made global warming, and energy dependence are tools of the establishment to keep themselves in the ascendancy of wealth and power, and to keep the rest of America from being the example to the world that we could otherwise be. Establishmentarians also support staying in Iraq for as long as we've stayed in Germany, Korea, and Japan.

This is NOT the America that I'm familiar with. America is a beacon of hope, NOT a gigantic jackboot stomping on the face of the rest of the world forever.

John McCain enjoys wielding the jackboot of American empire. It's time to put a stop to American establishment politics. It is time to become a friend to the world instead of their would-be master. If you intend to vote for a Republican candidate, please make it anyone except for John McCain. If McCain goes up against Obama in the Presidential election, Obama is much more palatable to me, especially because of his stance on the Iraq war. If he faces Clinton in the final, that makes my choice easy--I'll vote for a third-party candidate.

You thought eight years of George W. Bush was bad? If McCain makes it into the White House, we are headed for a monumental American disaster. As if 20 years of Establishment rule aren't enough destruction already.