I won't be voting for McCain

I will not be voting for the McCain/Palin ticket for the following reasons:

1. McCain picked Sarah Palin. The selection of a Vice Presidential partner is the only Presidential decision a candidate makes and McCain did a poor job of it. Palin has shown that she is acceptable only to the most radical of religious right conservative Republicans.

2. McCain voted with Bush 90%. This information about how often McCain voted with Bush comes from McCain himself. I saw him bragging about this 90% voting with Bush on tape. Last Sunday on Meet The Press, while attempting recently to distence himself from Bush, McCain told Tom Brokaw that he and Bush share a political point of view. I don’t approve of Bush, and I don’t approve of anyone who supports Bush 90% of the time.

3. McCain has changed his message every few days hoping to see a positive reaction in the polls. I am not mad about this, because I would likely do the same thing. But then, I am not qualified to be the President of the United States. By staggering from message to message it is an indication that he has no clear vision of where he wants to take the country. If you can’t effectively run a campaign, I can’t see how you could effectively run the country.

4. McCain says for a health care plan he will offer a $5000 assistance in getting health insurance, but the average police costs employers $12,000, and if you have pre-existing conditions and are buying (not a group plan but) an individual plan you will be rejected, or the policy will be cost prohibitive. This is, in essence a lie. He is telling us we would have health care with his Presidency, but we would not.

5. McCain will tax the portion of dollars paid by employers for providing our health care. This is not something I want, but it is not really a reason to reject McCain. Since people without employer paid insurance get no tax break, and people with employer paid insurance do get the tax break it is not exactly an equitable thing. The problem is that if McCain will cause many American’s to lose the insurance they have now. McCain’s plan will cause me to lose the better deals with larger group plans and force us to individual plans. and I already said in Number 4 that this would cause millions of Americans to be excluded from pre-existing conditions.

6. McCain voted several times to privatize social security. In effect, McCain would gamble with Social Security, and if the markets crash (as they have recently crashed) people counting on social Security to survive would, well, not survive. McCain believe in free market in all respects and even someone as respected and conservative as Allen Greenspan recently said in a Congressional Hearing that he had made a mistake and that an unregulated free market did not fix itself, and he had made a mistake. McCain would continue making the same mistake.

7. McCain is not pro-choice, and Palin is even less pro-choice than McCain. Sarah Palin would object to abortion even if the mother had been raped or the victim of incest. She would actually force a woman to go through 9 months carrying a reminder that she had been raped and brutalized.

8. McCain has several lobbyists for campaign staff, and some of these lobbyists have advocated for things that are directly linked with our current economic crisis. Again, this is alone is not enough for me to reject him, but when added to these other issues it contributes to my rejection of him as a candidate.

9. When McCain was running for President the last time, Bush hired a company to spread lies and insinuations against McCain and his family through the use of robo-calls, a sort of phone advertising done using a pre-recorded voice. McCain condemned the practice, but now, because winning means so much to him, McCain has hired the same company to spread lies and insinuations against Obama.

10. McCain lied about suspending his campaign. The facts show that while McCain did, eventually go to Washington, but his campaign ads, and his surrogates continued to campaign. McCain’s going to Washington was a stunt, and it complicated the process, it interjected Presidential politics into the economic crisis, and you just should not add complications to a crisis. If McCain’s handling of the economic crisis shows anything about his leadership abilities, then he is NOT for me.

“Last week John McCain said the fundamentals of our economy are strong. This week, he said it’s the worst crisis since World War II. So he suspended his campaign, unless you count doing interviews, airing attack ads, sending out surrogates on TV to attack Obama.” -Bill Maher

11. Claims at last debate he doesn't give a hoot for a washed up 'old' terrorist Ayers but continued to robo call about Ayers. Ayers turned himself in, charges were dropped, and he has been a respected citizen since. The lies and innuendos about Obama and Ayers is just smoke and mirrors trying to get the eyes of the people of the ineptitudes of the McCain campaign.
12. McCain and Palin have stirred up hatred and implied through surrogates that Obama and anyone who is a liberal or a Democrat is anti-American. The statements made in speeches, ads, and robo calls have inspired people to shout out that Obama should be killed. There has been precious little from McCain to try to calm his supporters and blunt the unreasoning hate he has fanned into flames. His message is directed to divide this country more which is not putting country first. It is putting McCain first.

"McCain called this 'B' girl to offer his support. Palin called her to offer some support, and Karl Rove called to say, 'You dumbass, you got the B backwards!'" --Bill Maher

13. McCain blasted Obama for doing what he himself did, and for the same reason. McCain said Obama voted against armor for the troops. This is true, but the reason was that the bill did not contain a timeline for getting troops out of Iraq. But McCain also voted against a different bill that would have provided armor for the troops, because that bill DID contain a timeline. Anyone familiar with the way bills are written knows that no bill contains only one item within it. The elected officials look at the whole bill and while there may be things in a bill you support, there may other things in that bill that are too objectionable to support. It is disingenuous for McCain to criticize Obama for doing the same thing he himself did.

14. McCain is just too old, and Sarah Palin is just not ready, nor is she smart enough to learn enough, fast enough while on the job.

“Sarah Palin, and John McCain are a good pair. She's pro-life and he's clinging to life." –Jay Leno

"Now obviously Sen. John McCain has made an enormous amount over Barack Obama's lack of experience, so it seems curious that the 72-year-old, four-to-five time face cancer guy would choose a running mate whose resume appears to be more suited for a Northern Exposure reunion show." –Jon Stewart

"The Wall Street Journal said today Democrats are sending an army of lawyers and investigators up to Alaska to look into the background of Sarah Palin. And of course, John McCain is furious. He said, 'Hey, if I didn't look into her background, there's no reason you should be looking into her background.'" --Jay Leno

14. When Palin was a mayor of a town in Alaska she required rape victims to pay for their own rape kits. Really.

15. Governor Palin found recently found guilty of ethics violations by a bipartisan legislative investigatory group. When asked about this ethics violation she said she was just glad to be exonerated. When told that she was not exonerated she used double speak and again said how happy she was that she was found innocent of all charges. Since Palin is not an idiot (I give her the benefit of the doubt) this means that she understands she was found guilty of ethics violations and is just denying the obvious. I just can’t see putting someone a heart beat away from being President who can lie like that

16. McCain failed to vote for the GI bill for our troops. I oppose the war, but I support fair treatment of our troops. Not only does this country owe it to the troops to provide them with a GI Bill and for health treatments for as long as they are needed, but a GI bill would increase the number of educated adults among our citizens, and with this education the economy of this country would be strengthened. The GI bill was the right thing to do for the troops and for the country.

17. McCain is ill-tempered man lacking the temperament needed to be President.. Of course this is an opinion, but then, this is an opinion piece. Rolling your eyes, interrupting, making snide remarks are not enough to disqualify him as President. In fact I don’t believe McCain is disqualified to be President. But given a choice, and I have been given a choice, I will not vote for a grumpy ole guy who might pop a cork in a crisis when calm cool and collected would more likely bring us to a rationale decision.

18. I hate it when McCain says “I know how to do that. . He says he knows how to create jobs, but doesn’t give us a hint of what he would do that would create jobs. He knows how to take care of the military, he says despite the fact that nonpartisan military advocacy groups give him low marks for supporting their issues. Here is a direct McCain quote:

"I'm not going to telegraph a lot of the things that I'm going to do because then it might compromise our ability to do so. But, look, I know the area, I have been there, I know wars, I know how to win wars, and I know how to improve our capabilities so that we will capture Osama bin Laden -- or put it this way, bring him to justice. We will do it, I know how to do it."

If McCain really knew, why doesn’t he share that information with someone? He says he places the country first, so it can’t be that he wouldn’t get all the credit for the solutions, could it? Surely McCain would not be blackmailing the American people saying I can solve your problems, but I will only do so if you elect me President first. Why do we have to elect him to learn his secret. Here is what I think: McCain has no idea how to get Ben Laden, or create jobs, or any of these things he claims he already Knows How To Do. But McCain thinks, if he is elected he will be able to figure out what to do. Maybe he would figure it out. But to claim he has answers he does not have is, at best, hyperbole, and at worse it is just a campaign lie.

19. I believe McCain has hinted he would likely go to war with Iran and Russia, but that he would not follow Ben Laden into the boarder mountains of Pakistan because they are a sovereign nation

20. McCain lacks the intellect of his opponent Barack Obama. McCain, flunked out of high school, graduating 6th from the bottom of his class. Maybe he was smart but incorrigible. I don’t think McCain is dumb. But the academic achievements of Obama are far more impressive than McCain’s. When Obama was called an elitist I laughed. I want an elitist in the oval office. We found out what it was like having a gnat-brained, fool in there for 8 years, so it is time we try something else: like electing smart people.

21. I have to be honest and say that I am a Democrat and I vote for the party, always. I have explored the general political point of view held by Republicans and Democrats and I support the principals, and the plank of the Democrats. I don’t expect to agree with everything within my party, just as I don’t object to everything in the Republican part. But I am a Democrat fully, totally, through and through so, at least right now, I can’t imagine me voting for McCain under any circumstances.