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This addict of politics is beginning to feel sorry for Arizona Senator
John McCain, presumptive nominee of America's Republican Party. How can
one not sympathize with a man who keeps getting the raw edge of
circumstances and fate tag-teamed against him? The man has been through
so much, from his five years of torture at the hands of his Vietnamese
captors, to being crudely booted by the campaign of George W. Bush in
the Republican 2000 primary season. Let's highlight McCain's catalog of
woe.
Because of President Bush's abysmal popularity rating (I still think
Mr. Bush is the same good man I voted for), coupled with a pained
economy, the senator is forced to run against the current standard
bearer of his own party. One would think George Bush were some kind of
left-wing tax-and-spend liberal from the extreme wing of the Democratic
Party. How can John McCain be trying so hard to win the hearts and
minds of the ultra-conservative base of the Republican Party, those who
believe exactly like George Bush, while distancing himself from
President Bush, one of the most conservative leaders the party and
country have ever seen? The biggest problem with this anti-Bush
campaign is that Senator McCain has a voting record that shows most of
the time he has voted with the President on the major issues. It's hard
to duck that voting record, and the Democrats are making it harder for
Mr. McCain with their "Bush-McCain" tag and "John McCain has voted 90
percent of the time with George Bush".
John McCain has positioned himself to run as a Washington outsider.
He's now making the case that he will be an agent of change. And with
his recent pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his veep, Senator McCain
has argued that like, Gov. Palin, he is the maverick who can change
Washington just like the Governor has done in Alaska. This is a very
awkward position for the senator, since Mr. McCain has been in Congress
for 26 years, and he has little record to show for taking the lead to
bring the major change he now wants to champion. Why wait until your
72nd birthday before you wake up to your destiny as the change agent
America has been waiting for all these years, the change agent who can
end our dependence on foreign petro, transition us to alternative
energy, fix Social Security, healthcare, and immigration? Again,
Senator McCain has a difficult case to make as Mr. Maverick Change
Agent.
To make matters worse, Candidate McCain has made experience a
centerpiece of his campaign against Barack Obama, whom, we must admit,
has very little public service experience, compared to Mr. McCain.
However, for McCain, the problem with this "ready to lead from day one"
argument is that it emphasizes Washington experience, the very thing
that Mr. McCain now sounds like he hates and wants very much to change.
If Washington is the problem you want to solve, how can you in the same
campaign brag about your experience in Washington as a primary reason
for your qualification to be president? Are we missing something here?
Unfortunately, the senator was forced into another "rock and a hard
place" situation when it came to choosing a running mate. He wanted to
make sure he won over those female voters from the other side, those
Hillary Clinton women who are angry with Obama for slighting their
beloved feminist fighter with her 18 million cracks in the glass
ceiling of a male-dominated society. The thing is that the vast
majority of those Hillary girls are stauchly pro-choice, wanting Roe v.
Wade to remain the law of the land. At the same time that McCain badly
wanted those pro-choice Clintonites to win, he had to also please the
one-issue pro-life members of his party. He sought to solve this
dilemma by selecting Gov. Palin, a woman, yes, but who is as
conservative as you get in American politics. Well, the senator did
deliver the red meat the right wingers craved, but he might have sent
those Hillary pro-choicers scattering to the winds. The guy just
doesn't seem to get any easy choices.
As if that were not enough problem for Mr. McCain to sort through, here
comes Gustav, that massive storm, which has already killed 80 people in
Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica, according to an AFP report. News
report of the storm has all but taken McCain and his historic VP pick
off the television screen, off the front page. To add fuel to fire,
McCain, who is already running against George Bush, against Washington,
and against Obama, must now contest Mother Nature also? How unlucky can
you get! If John McCain pulls off a win against the media coverage of
Gustav, rather than the Republican Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota,
he may yet add another medal to his war hero image.
But at this point, in the McCain vs. Gustav match up, it seems Mother
Nature has the upper hand, though we don't want to count the good ole
soldier out just yet. Plans for the first day of the Republican
Convention have been scraped to just absolutely necessary business
agenda, stuff you could do in a committee meeting, the really boring
stuff that deserves no news coverage. President Bush and Vice President
Cheeney have cancelled plans to attend the GOP show. Now that may be a
God-send, since it provides the perfect caveat for McCain to avoid the
Bush fever of unpopularity by association. Mr. Bush's presence would
have strengthened the Democrat's "Bush-McCain" attack, especially had
President Bush spoken at the GOP Convention. For once, Senator McCain
can breathe a sigh of relief there. Even an unlucky man deserves a
break every now and then.
On this Gustav crashing of John McCain's party in St. Paul, if we were
in an African village we would quickly see it as witchcraft for sure, a
curse, an omen, a spell from hell. But of course, in these civilized
parts of the globe, we are not that superstitious, so we settle for
calling Gustav storming down the opening day of the Republican
Convention a mere coincidence, pure chance, or perhaps an "Act of God",
but just that and nothing more.
It never ceases to amaze me just how unfair life can be, despite our
modern tolerance for positive thinking, "the law of attraction", and
motivational tips like that. Life remains flat out unfair at times, and
in Senator McCain's case, that has been exactly the case, with few
exceptional breaks notwithstanding. Someone tell us, Why must John
McCain have to get the blunt of the blade for what seems like most of
the time? Vietnam tortured him for five years. He returned from his POW
experience only to be shunned by a nation ungrateful for his immense
sacrifice. In 2000, the George Bush campaign sabotaged Senator McCain's
chances for the White House. Lately, Obama and the Democrats had their
big political show in Denver without distraction, coming out of there
better than expected. And now when it's McCain's time to shine on a
stage all to himself, here comes Mr. Gustav, or is it Mrs. Gustav? It's
just not fair, and this political junkie feels mighty sorry for this
brave American. I may vote John McCain after all, though I have not
appreciated some of his so-called maverick treatment of conservatives.
Call it a sympathy vote, but the man deserves a break, and voting
McCain would be much better than sitting this election out anyway.
Yeah, make America's unluckiest man President McCain, so he can get
double for his trouble.
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