putting McCain and integrity in the same sentence just doesn't seem right ! kind of like putting fox and news or repulican and patriotic in the same sentence . they just don't go together !
On Sep 11, 4:45 am, mike532 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > McCain's Integrityhttp://www.truthout.org/article/mccains-integrity > Editor's Note: Historically a John McCain supporter, conservative > journalist and blogger Andrew Sullivan takes on the issue of John > McCain's integrity as he strives to win the presidency. - vh/TO > > For me, this surreal moment - like the entire surrealism of the > past ten days - is not really about Sarah Palin or Barack Obama or > pigs or fish or lipstick. It's about John McCain. The one thing I > always thought I knew about him is that he is a decent and honest > person. When he knows, as every sane person must, that Obama did not > in any conceivable sense mean that Sarah Palin is a pig, what did he > do? Did he come out and say so and end this charade? Or did he > acquiesce in and thereby enable the mindless Rovianism that is now the > core feature of his campaign? > > So far, he has let us all down. My guess is he will continue to do > so. And that decision, for my part, ends whatever respect I once had > for him. On core moral issues, where this man knew what the right > thing was, and had to pick between good and evil, he chose evil. When > he knew that George W. Bush's war in Iraq was a fiasco and > catastrophe, and before Donald Rumsfeld quit, McCain endorsed George > W. Bush against his fellow Vietnam vet, John Kerry in 2004. By that > decision, McCain lost any credibility that he can ever put country > first. He put party first and his own career first ahead of what he > knew was best for the country. > > And when the Senate and House voted overwhelmingly to condemn and > end the torture regime of Bush and Cheney in 2006, McCain again had a > clear choice between good and evil, and chose evil. > > He capitulated and enshrined torture as the policy of the United > States, by allowing the CIA to use techniques as bad as and worse than > the torture inflicted on him in Vietnam. He gave the war criminals in > the White House retroactive immunity against the prosecution they so > richly deserve. The enormity of this moral betrayal, this betrayal of > his country's honor, has yet to sink in. But for my part, it now makes > much more sense. He is not the man I thought he was. > > And when he had the chance to engage in a real and substantive > debate against the most talented politician of the next generation in > a fall campaign where vital issues are at stake, what did McCain do? > He began his general campaign with a series of grotesque, trivial and > absurd MTV-style attacks on Obama's virtues and implied disgusting > things about his opponent's patriotism. > > And then, because he could see he was going to lose, ten days ago, > he threw caution to the wind and with no vetting whatsoever, picked a > woman who, by her decision to endure her own eight-month pregnancy of > a Down Syndrome child in public, that he was going to reignite the > culture war as a last stand against Obama. That's all that is > happening right now: a massive bump in the enthusiasm of the > Christianist base. This is pure Rove. > > Yes, McCain made a decision that revealed many appalling things > about him. In the end, his final concern is not national security. No > one who cares about national security would pick as vice-president > someone who knows nothing about it as his replacement. No one who > cares about this country's safety would gamble the security of the > world on a total unknown because she polled well with the Christianist > base. No person who truly believed that the surge was integral to this > country's national security would pick as his veep candidate a woman > who, so far as we can tell anything, opposed it at the time. > > McCain has demonstrated in the last two months that he does not > have the character to be president of the United States. And that is > why it is more important than ever to ensure that Barack Obama is the > next president. The alternative is now unthinkable. And McCain - no > one else - has proved it. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
