McCain, out of bogeymen, blasts Bush

Republican John McCain is down in the polls. Critics assail the tone of his campaign. All those rallies where running mate Sarah Palin said their rival Democrat Barack Obama "palled around" with domestic terrorists. All those red-meat crowds yelling "terrorist" at any mention of Obama's name.

So today McCain unveiled his new "I'm a fighter" speech, hoping to resurrect his presidential campaign with a promise to be the kind of pugilistic, populist politician who battles against Big Mean Interests for his fellow citizens.

And who was the first target of his punches? Sure he hit Obama with a few, charging that the Illinois senator plans to raise taxes and cut trade. "The last president to raise taxes and restrict trade in a bad economy as Sen. Obama proposes was Herbert Hoover," said McCain. "That didn't turn out too well."

But McCain seemed to reserve his greatest venom for the incumbent, George W. Bush, a fellow Republican who defeated the Arizona senator in 2000 and perhaps kept the 72-year-old McCain from his best shot at the White House.

At a rally in Virginia Beach, McCain said:

We cannot spend the next four years as we have spent much of the last eight: waiting for our luck to change. The hour is late; our troubles are getting worse; our enemies watch. We have to act immediately. We have to change direction now. We have to fight.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo credit: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Comments

[David Pava]

So he now disagrees with the guy whose policies he voted for approximately 95% of the time over the last 8 years. This makes as much sense as a Sarah Palin interview full of incoherent nonsense.

[Anthony Topper]

The great thing for you is the media never runs out of bogeymen.

[eric mills]

You're a little late, Senator McCain--you were a serious part of those policies for the past eight disastrous years. Didn't you vote with Dubya about 90% of the time? Time for a change, indeed.....Please step aside for the good of the country you so love.

I find it difficult to believe that ANYONE could still be undecided about the November election. Hell, I knew eight years ago how I was going to vote!

Cheers,
Eric Mills
California

[Paul Svec]

Why not "fix" instead of "fight". What and whom are we fighting McCracker?
Ourselves?

We need a leader with courage, not rage. A leader with intelligence and creativity? Someone with a depth of understanding that exceeds the superficial.
And it ain't you and your babe!

[thebob.bob]

A little late, my frend. The time to take a stand against Bush was in 2000. That was the year more than half of the American voters rejected Bush. That was the year that he and his campaign people (now your campaign people) slimed you by claiming your adopted daughter was your illegitimate bi-racial child. That is when a man of honor would have stood up, against his party and said no to Bush. Instead, my friend, you put politics and ambition before country, you wrapped your arms around him, said you fundamentally agreed with his policies and voted with him more than 90% of the time.

Sad excuse for the McCain of old.

[boony]

Another example of McCain's flip-flopping. First he promises to run a clean campaign, then runs one of the sleaziest in history. Now he's supposed to be the good guy again, standing against Bush, when, in reality, he voted with W. 90% of the time. As McCain's nasty little pit-bull said "Thanks, but no thanks".

[Ric2001]

Interersting that persons under the age of 13 are restricted from using this blog, but persons under the age of 13 are usually the ones who think fighting is the right immediate solution. Yes, McCain is now showing his true colors by saying he is going to fight. Maybe it's not his fault because he grew up in an uber-military family and knows nothing different, but it is significant for the country, and significant in a BAD way. That's the Bush doctrine too: don't talk, maybe because your're ignorant or can't articulate. Just fight. And gee, we're in trouble. What a surprise!

[Jesse Blanchard]

All John McCain knows is fighting. It takes much more than that to govern.

[dennis]

Next week McCain will be attacking the corrosive effects of carnival clowns on the economy. And 24% of the voters will be right there with him, yelling "clowns!" at his rallies, carrying clown dolls with insulting signs on their chests and posters that read "Don't CLOWN with our future!

I think my guess is as good as your guess.

[Cataplasm]

Wow, first they jump on the change bandwagon, then they are for more regulation in the financial sector now they blame Bush for everything. Can we now expect them to increase taxes on the rich, start supporting the middle class, move to get out of Iraq expeditiously and expand healthcare?

You know, even if he did all that he still wouldn't get my vote. The man is not fit to lead.

[Ric2001]

Interersting that persons under the age of 13 are restricted from using this blog, but persons under the age of 13 are usually the ones who think fighting is the right immediate solution. Yes, McCain is now showing his true colors by saying he is going to fight. Maybe it's not his fault because he grew up in an uber-military family and knows nothing different, but it is significant for the country, and significant in a BAD way. That's the Bush doctrine too: don't talk, maybe because your're ignorant or can't articulate. Just fight. And gee, we're in trouble. What a surprise!

[Tim Dunn]

McCain hoped to harness an ugly, slavering beast comprised of far-right paranoia, hatred, fear, prejudice, and ignorance, and ride it to victory, but now he is starting realize that many Americans dislike his substitution of slander for an actual discussion of the issues.

His zig-zagging on slandering Obama is just one more example of his increasingly erratic behavior and poor judgment, and yet more proof that he has completely lost his moral center--the result of selling his soul to the Karl Rove faction of the Republican party. He is retracting some of his slanders, not because he has repented of them, but because he sees that they have backfired by alienating the undecided voters that he needs if he is to have any hope of winning.

McCain's claim to be a 'maverick' are absurd-he has voted with Bush 90% of the time, has over 80 lobbyists on his staff, and has elected to veer to the far right in his campaign, to the point of taking advice from Karl Rove. A better description would indeed be erratic, as he claims Obama would raise taxes more than he would one moment, and then the next moment comes up his very own $300,000,000 pork-barrel give-away program to people who borrowed money they couldn't possibly pay back.

As for blasting Bush, it's just one more McCain zig-zag, one more attempt to win through negative campaigning, and one more instance of unprincipled hypocrisy.

If you are enjoying the meltdown of the banking system and the Dow at 9000, you'll love a McCain Presidency--McCain was right there with Bush deregulating the banks and freeing them from the constraints that previously prevented this kind of greed-driven disaster.

[Sweet Tooth]

These two make me sick. When I hear clips from their rallies with all the jeering and booing, I feel sad for my country. They have nothing to offer except messages of hate and negativity. Shame on them for labeling Obama a terrorist. If he is elected he will now have to lead a country with people who've been fed this nonsense about him. If this is how you put "Country First" I want no part of it. There are much more constructive ways to put the country first. If you want voters, do it by providing a positive message.

[RepublicanVoter]

So the McCain campaign changes tactics again. Turns out focusing the campaign on attempts to falsely link Obama to terrorists doesn't pan out well during times of financial turmoil. Now they realize that they should talk about the issues, as they should have weeks ago. However, the GOP is still failing to actually address the issues and provide solutions, except to acknowledge that these are "hard times," and we "have to fight." I am so tired of this rhetoric--and frankly, any American who believes a word coming out of McCain's mouth is a fool. He has changed course so many times that he has proved not only his inconsistency, but also his unfaltering desire to win at any costs. I do not argue that Obama has all the right answers. But I do argue that he has exercised much better judgment, candor, intelligence, calmness, and willingness to address the issues that matter to Americans than has John McCain. Literally the only things I have heard from McCain/Palin is reform, maverick, and why they think Obama would be a terrible choice....which says it all.

[Sarah]

I agree with you, Jonathan. It seems like McCain is following Obama's lead, which would lead one to believe that McCain regards Obama as a leader.

I do too! That is why I support Obama.

:)

[Avrom Roy-Faderman]

The thing about McCains latest blast against Obama is wrong. The last President to "raise taxes and restrict trade in a bad economy" was not Herbert Hoover. It was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And that actually turned out quite well in the end.

[Stephen Burgess]

Senator McCain is as usual wrong in his regards to his question "The last president to raise taxes and restrict trade in a bad economy as Sen. Obama proposes was Herbert Hoover, " Additionally he fails to point out that Hoover was a Republican and he was not the last to do so. It was President Clinton and we know how that economy benefitted the middle class specifically and the Government as a whole.
Senator McCain is obviously purposefully ignorant or outright lying (both highlighting his poor qualifications for the office he seeks) when he tries to scare people with his "facts". In fact the stock market crash of 1929 and the corresponding Depression era along with the stock market crash in 1987 and this current crash were all under Republican Presidential Administrations (Coolidge-Hoover; Regan; Bush) The enormous damage they caused was repaired by Democrats (FDR, Clinton & hopefully and not soon enough Senator Obama).
Also, GHWB (Bush 41) raised taxes and restricted trade in a poor economy and was eventually thanked by the Republican base by them causing him to loose the election. They were mad at him due to his breaking his vow to never raise taxes.
How many times must the American people be lied to about something as simple as this to research?
Why doesn't the press challenge the candidates when the make material statements of fact?

[zune]

McCain is now selling a damaged brand, but it beats Obama socialism.

[bob]

Oh come on, why isnt everyone yelling about voter fraud by ACORN and the $800k Obama gave them, oh thats right we cant because that would be racist

[Web Smith]

Obama and the Democrats have helped the poor by pushing for amnesty for illegal aliens who take their jobs along with H-1B visas for the jobs that they hoped to work their way up to. They then got them into mortgages that they can't afford and destroyed what credit they did have for years to come. Now, after voting along with McCain to give $750 billion of their money away, he has teamed up with McCain to offer tax reductions and programs that will have to be paid for with more borrowing which will lower the value of any money they might have left.

With the tax base eliminated, the government may be pressed to borrow the money.

To top it off, he wants to take the money away from those who have earned it and destroy the American Dream, which has kept them going in spite of great odds.

At some point, you've got to say, enough with the help, already.

[Ed Diephaus]

McCain's campaign shift reminds most thinking people of the Prince by Machiavelli. He now promises to "slay" the evil of campaigner McCain.

[zorg]

Headline:

McCAIN VOWS TO DEFEAT BUSH

[Thomcarl]

I'm a 68 year old disabled vet of the Nam era, according to the media I should be a McCain fan, in fact I'll vote for Obama. McCain has screwed every thing up he's ever had his hands on, I don't want the SOB to get his hands on the country I love.

[Dan McClain]

I firmly believe, contrary to much of 'conventional wisdom', that if anyone truly cares about the national security of this great country, they simply cannot vote for MCPALIN. Sarah Palin will be a 72 yr olds heart beat away from the Presidency. If that does not scare you half to death it ought to. She has 'international experience because she can see Russia. I can see the moon from my back yard so that makes me an astro physicist.
No military might can be sustained with a weak economy. I watched these words come out of MCPALIN'...er...McCain's mouth: 'The economy is not my strong suit'.
Whew....scary....

[Ule]

Here we go again..... McCain is going back to the old Bush Republican bromide ... Fear, Fear, Fear
"The hour is late; our troubles are getting worse; our enemies watch."