Don't get me wrong, I like a nice juicy hamburger just as much as the next guy, as I'm sure you do. But when it is placed next to a succulent savory stake, I think I speak for most when I say that the choice is both obvious and easy. The hamburger is John McCain. He is a good guy in a lot of ways, with many good ideas, demonstrating persistence as an obvious trait (he has ran for the republican nomination multiple times). However, just because he tastes good (mmm...processed cheese), doesn't mean there isn't something else more enticing on the table. Enter Mitt Romney. Yes Mitt is the irresistible stake mentioned above which dwarfs the hamburger in taste and appearance, just as he dwarfs John McCain in leadership, talent and ambition. John McCain is a good guy, but he's not the leader that America needs. Unfortunately, due to his latest endorsements, he is rising in the polls, especially in New Hampshire where Mitt Romney once enjoyed a double digit lead. But voters should be careful. Even though John McCain has a lot of good things going for him (like four well done beef patties mingled with cheese - see picture above), he doesn't have the same ability to unite the conservative coalition as does Mitt, and more importantly won't do as much good for America if elected president. On that note, here are a list of things you may want to consider if you are thinking of voting McCain (taken from the Encyclopedia Mittanica): - McCain is old, he would be 76 at the end of his 1st year in office.
- McCain graduated 894th out of a class of 899.
- McCain does not have the diplomacy skills necessary to be a president.
- Mitt Romney is a Govenor, and John McCain is a Senator. It is harder for a Senator to become President than a Govenor.
- McCain has an anger problem.
- McCain has made a lot of enemies.
- McCain is mean.
- McCain has problems with self control.
- He sought to author the end of political free speech with his unconstitutional campaign finance reform efforts. His most signature work in the U.S. Senate sought to undue guaranteed protections for free speech – particularly in an election cycle where free speech is of most importance.
- In his own efforts to leverage power in Senate proceedings he purposefully disrupted the will of his own majority party and further slowed down the needed debate on judges. In helping to orchestrate the gang of 14, he stymied clear consensus candidates to the courts as appointed by the President.
- McCain, though a champion on fighting the effective fight on Islamic fascists who seek to kill us, has seemed unplugged, uninterested, and yes hostile to voices who are calling for secure borders. He stood by as President Bush locked out John Kyl – his fellow senator from Arizona, and a true champion against illegal immigration – from proceedings that were designed to brainstorm solutions to the border dilemma.
- He seems clueless when it comes to one of the issues that his base voters care about – the protection of marriage.
- McCain flip-flops.
- McCain will have a problem getting female voters, especially against Hillary.
- John McCain thinks we spend too much money on politics. He is not very good at Math, or Economics. America spend more money on Gum than we do on the whole political election cycle, including every political commersial and yard sign.
- Given his carefully cultivated reputation as a moderate willing to work closely with Democrats on campaign finance reform, a patient's bill of rights, global warming, immigration, and spending restraint, you'd think McCain would simply own voters looking to back "the party of performance." Yet it is increasingly clear that he has chosen the wrong issues on which to embrace a more moderate, results-oriented view, both in light of Republican biases and the likely general election landscape.
- Campaign finance reform was never a burning issue for voters. Rather, it was an issue of totemic significance, particularly for journalists and a narrow slice of the upper-middle-class, that pitted McCain against much of the Republican base. Achieving a victory on this front certainly generated "good vibes," for a time, but it's left little in the way of lasting voter loyalty. Moreover, McCain's efforts set very high standards for ethical behavior that can and in fact have been used against him. Every time McCain raises funds for, say, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, he will be accused--fairly or unfairly--of rank hypocrisy. Worse yet, it is hard to argue that the McCain-Feingold legislation has been a success. McCain's conservative opponents feel vindicated--the legislation solved nothing, and may have made matters worse. His allies are dissatisfied. To say the very least, this doesn't bode well.
- Following his release after 5-1/2 years as a Viet Nam POW, John McCain divorced his wife, who had raised their children alone during his confinement. The second (and current) Mrs. John McCain was embroiled in a huge controversy over an addiction to drugs illicitly obtained from her own non-profit medical relief organization.
- Since 2000, a roller-coaster of controversial positions within his own party have unfortunately left this maverick Senator with the label “Republican in Name Only.”
- Similarly, the patient's bill of rights appears--again, fairly or unfairly--to have solved nothing. It has not made insurance coverage more widespread, it has not reduced the number of medical bankruptcies, and it doesn't seem to have improved the quality of medical care for very many, if any, voters.
- Global warming is a worthy cause, and yet the winners from any forward movement on the issue are a large, diffuse, mostly indifferent group. The losers are a small, focused, and intensely engaged group. That's never a good thing in an election.
- Then there is immigration. Insofar as the desire for immigration reform stems from a general sense of unease about rapid demographic change, economic insecurity, and a strongly-held belief that law and order has broken down, it seems unlikely that any legislation that deemphasizes stemming the low-skill influx in favor of legalizing the existing illegal population and actually increasing the size of the low-skill influx will win McCain many friends among Republicans.
- Finally, spending restraint, one area where McCain is very much in tune with the Republican intelligentsia, is not an obvious winner against the old Clinton battle-cry of "M2E2"--Medicare, Medicaid, Education, and the Environment. Root-canal economics was unpopular in the 1980s, and it remains unpopular today, elite opinion notwithstanding.
- The Media loves John McCain. Republicans hate the media.
But, hey, if Mitt Romney dies of an accidental death (ie - freak gasoline accident) before the election, John McCain could deserve your vote!
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McCain's supporters are going hard trying to convince New Hampshire that Mitt Romney is a flip-flopper. Obviously this dead horse has not only been beaten multiple times, but has started to decompose! The funny part about it is that McCain is just as much, if not more of a flip-flopper as Romney. The man wants to be president so bad that he just jumps on whatever bandwagon is going by, only to hop onto a bigger one a mile down the road that is going the other way. His views have changed so much that at one point the democrats encouraged him to run for them. Granted, Mitt has changed his opinion on some issues, but his ACTIONS, not WORDS, have demonstrated the sincerity of his change. In any case, whether you believe Mitt is sincere or not, McCain's record of flip-flopping puts neither him nor his supporters in any position to criticize Romney.
