USpolitical.com

Politicians & Veterans - Two Very Different Things

This story at Townhall.com reignited my feelings about injecting military service into political discussions.

In a letter released by McCain’s campaign Monday, Dole wrote Limbaugh: “I know that you have serious reservations about Senator McCain.”

…

Asked about Dole’s letter on the FOX News’ “FOX & Friends” Tuesday, Romney, who has tried to portray himself as a genuine conservative alternative to McCain, responded: “It’s probably the last person I would have wanted write a letter for me. I think there’s a lot of folks who tend to think that maybe John McCain’s race is bit like Bob Dole’s race. That it’s the guy who’s next in line, the inevitable choice.”

McCain lost no time in jumping on Romney’s critique of Dole.

“I think he should apologize,” McCain told reporters aboard his campaign plane. “This is no way to end his campaign, by attacking a genuine American war hero.” Dole was wounded in Europe during World War II and lost most of the use of one arm.

This is so reminiscent of Huckabee clamoring for Romney’s removal of “negative” advertising that addresses McCain’s political positions, not his character or integrity. Romney is addressing the political positions and actions of John McCain, the politician.

Sunday, on NBCs “Meet the Press”, Huckabee criticized the tone of the Romney campaign as desperate.

“Mitt Romney is running a very desperate and, frankly, a dishonest campaign. He’s attacked me, and, and yesterday–or Friday, I guess it was, he launched then just a broadside attack against Senator McCain,” Huckabee said. “Now, Senator McCain and I are rivals for the presidency, but I’ve said on many occasions, I’ll say it again here today, Senator McCain is an honorable man, and I believe he’s an honest man. I believe he’s a man of conviction. And I felt like that, when Mitt Romney went after the integrity of John McCain, he stepped across a line. John McCain’s a hero in this country. He’s a hero to me.“

John McCain’s supporters have long advocated a policy of highlighting his heroic POW status. That is exactly what I would do were I supporting a candidate who served honorably in our military, particularly as a POW. However, when discussing a candidate’s political positions, the discussion of war heroics ends there.

For McCain to call for an apology for Romney’s politically oriented comment is frankly, dishonorable. When someone has placed oneself into the political arena, there is no special treatment. Period.

Let me spell it out.
Romney the politician is criticizing McCain the politician because Dole the politician injected himself into the political sphere on behalf of McCain. Now McCain the politician is claiming that Romney the politician attacked Dole the veteran.

It would be a flawed argument indeed if individuals with military service who then inject themselves into public political discourse were somehow “special.” But of course, no one is claiming that, McCain is simply twisting the story to suit his purposes. Shame on McCain again.

I don’t know what to think. Hugh Hewitt keeps on looking ahead to future contests.

Now at the middle of the contest John McCain is poised as the front runner for the republican nomination. However, McCain is so far removed from what a republican should hold near and dear, it is bizarre that he would ever get nominated. However, he is obviously tremendously popular among voters. The only comfort I can take is that I heard that many exit polls indicated that he won among people that care about a candidates’ character and Romney won among people that care about issues. I wonder if they poll people on their intelligence as well…. ( I should add that Huckabee is no doubt splitting the conservative vote…thus denying Romney a chance to overtake McCain)

If McCain were elected president, I hope the people that voted based on character enjoy McCain’s “character” as he imposes liberal ideals diametrically opposed to the republican party.

Heaven help the republican party that might nominate a pro-illegal immigration, pro-government, pro-tax, pro-global warming, flip-flop name calling hypocrite that has been endorsed by most major liberal newspapers. (We’ll not mention the unpredictable temper in detail in this post.) It is really silly. I wouldn’t go as far as Ann Coulter, but it is humorous to think that McCain & Clinton wouldn’t have much to debate other than Iraq, and then, Clinton would just be lying through her teeth.

Check out the latest California polls trending in Romney’s favor.

Romney is up by 8 in the most recent Reuters/CSpan/Zogby poll.

The democratic debate was being rerun on CNN and I watched for a bit and realized that both Hillary Clinton and John McCain cannot control their faces at debates.  This is in all seriousness.  They both smirk and smile while opponents make points or rebut claims.  It is as if they are childishly relishing the chance to spring their next sound bite at the moderator & audience.  Now I say they cannot control them.  I may be wrong and they instead are trying to follow Al Gore’s first try at a national debate with George Bush back in 2000 when he was so obnoxious his deliberate gasps and breathing were audible over George Bush’s responses.

Obama & Romney on the other hand seem to have a dignified air about them that lends them a much more distinguished and presidential look.

Judge for yourself.  I took some screen grabs from the last debate for each party and these images really capture the behavior of each candidate.  I find it humorous how similar McCain & Clinton are in terms of smiling & smirking when their opponent discusses the issues they disagree on.  These aren’t random grabs.  If you watched the debates you know how true this is.  The extended smirks and smiles are indicative of the personalities that McCain & Clinton embody.  It turns me (and hopefully others) off.

Here is Hillary:

And then McCain: 

And to contrast…

Here is Obama:

And here is Romney:

I’m enthused by some news in the form of several polls.  I read a couple of blog posts almost simultaneously, both sharing new data showing shifts towards Romney.

Hugh Hewitt & all-encompassingly

The “Anybody But McCain” treaty appears to be taking shape.  Lets hope this continues into Tuesday.

No, it is about a republican. Gasp.

Hat tip: all-encompassingly

After watching some of the highlights from the California debate I have to say that McCain’s unwavering attacks on Romney’s position regarding timetables is unacceptable.  He smirks and smiles as he asserts his point with one phrase taken out of an interview that clearly shows Romney has plenty of ammo to support his position against timetables of withdrawal.

His utter inability to explain why he brought this up days before the Florida primary just goes to show how hypocritical he is on matters of honestly communicating with the electorate.  Besides that, he couldn’t stop interrupting Romney or Anderson Cooper during most of the exchange.

Shame on McCain.  I cannot believe this man has positioned himself as the GOP frontrunner.  I sincerely hope that republicans coalesce around Romney to prevent a McCain nomination.

The MSM will do their best to establish McCain as an indisputable front runner.  I think Romney’s hope lies with an “ABM” treaty (Anybody But McCain) getting established and Romney getting tremendous support to counter McCain.

I would attribute much of McCain’s higher poll numbers around the country to the star treatment in the media, and so I think it is funny that now that he is in the position Romney was a few days ago (leading in the vote and delegate count), we’ll see that as reason for even more star treatment and assertion of front runner status…”no need to give Romney that treatment, McCain is our man! He is up 30 delegates now!”

He has been the media’s darling since before New Hampshire.  New Hampshire’s victory bought him a month of goodwill.

Romney’s victories…maybe 24 hours? 

From this article.

Washington is fundamentally broken, and we’re not going to change Washington by sending the same people back, just to sit in different chairs. I think it’s time for the politicians to leave Washington and for the citizens to take over.

I don’t think anything addresses the issue more fundamentally.  People are tired of what Washington is doing or has done, yet we continue to vote the same people into power.  When will we really change that?

I don’t know if it was old people or what put McCain over the top down in the sunshine state, but this is ludicrous.  I can handle Romney losing, I would simply have prefered that he lose to a republican.