Thread: John McCain

McCain Without Money
by Robert Novak (More by this author)

Posted: 06/08/2007
George W. Bush's 2004 campaign fund-raisers and contributors are being bombarded with appeals for money by Sen. John McCain's heavy-spending, money-short 2008 campaign.

McCain is concentrating heavily on the rich target of lawyers and lobbyists in Washington, D.C. They have been invited to multiple McCain fund-raising events held in the nation's capital, currently a $1,000-a-ticket reception June 26 at the Capitol Hill Club with a potential "event co-chair" asked to raise $50,000.

It's a shame money and fund-raising is such a large part of a campaign.

But he is way, way, short on funds.

McCain's money-raisers are hard put to reach the $10 million goal set for the second quarter of 2008 by the June 30 deadline, after collecting $12 million in the first quarter. McCain raised $2 million in April and $3 million in May, and is expected to reach $2-3 million in June -- falling short of the $10 million goal and of what his opponents have raised.

Link: McCain Without Money by Robert Novak - HUMAN EVENTS

He's too old, hold unpopular positions on the fake "surge" and immigration policy.

Stick a fork in him - he's done.

Originally Posted by raycarey

Originally Posted by Milkman

But he is way, way, short on funds.

he's also old. real old. i read somewhere that if he were to take office, he'd be three years older than reagan when he was inaugurated.

Yes, he's old, not only physically but in his mental attitudes, IMO.

He's often criticized W. Bush, but he has strongly backed the "surge."

He is not a contender.

His chance was in 2000, but in the South Carolina primary W. Bush conducted racist "push-polling," and sealed South Carolina.

I think in a way that having a "Tsunami Tuesday" is better than having Super Tuesday, and gives more of the country a primary influence.

They are all busy hating the black man.

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

John Mcain Warns Against Socialism .

He's been pretty far down on my list as possible candidates for the White House but if he does grow a set I might reconsider.

Actually, all candidates are communist moles on the Bolsheviks's payrole, McCain is deeper under cover and has been briefed to expose the others.

McCain's been laying low. Has anybody checked his pulse?

is mccain cheating on his taxes?

Sen. John McCain has long said he is in robust health and is strong enough to hike the Grand Canyon, but he also is receiving what his staff Monday termed a "disability pension" from the Navy.

When McCain released his tax return for 2007 on Friday, he separately disclosed that he received a pension of $58,358 that was not listed as income on his return.

Certain types of military and veterans pensions are either partially or completely tax-exempt, depending on the seriousness of the disability. In McCain's case, the exemption is 100%.

If McCain had to pay taxes on the full amount of the pension, it would have increased his tax bill by about $18,000 based on the percentage of his income he paid to the federal government.

Robert Schriebman, a senior Pentagon tax advisor and tax attorney who recently retired as a judge advocate for a unit of the California National Guard asked, "If McCain can hike across the Grand Canyon, then why should he be getting disability payments from the government that are tax-exempt?"

good question.

another good question raised in the article....if he qualifies for a full disability pension, how is he fit to be commander in chief?

John McCain gets tax-free disability pension - Los Angeles Times

Obviously, when the Dem's have finished with each other, we can expect the magnifying glass to be applied to the Republican contender. I am not a fan of this type of politics, but thats the way it is.

So, where do we start?

- Signed a statement denigrating his own nation as war criminals. Great choice for commander in chief.
- Descendant of two prominent Admirals, came sixth bottom of a class of around 600 at Annapolis.
- As a naval aviator, crashed and demolished five or six planes.
- Collects a gov't disability pension. Disability highly questionable, and wife filthy rich. That'll go down well in the ghettoes & underfunded Vets rehab centres.
- Cringeworthy statements on the international stage.
- Wife, alone in the Presidential race, won't release her tax filings.
- Wife stole drugs to feed her addiction. Great role model for the youth of today.
- Family values- abandon your tragically disabled wife for a trophy rich Broad over 15 years your junior. Great Republican platform that.
- Called his wife a 'cnut' in public. Well known for his outbursts and uncontrollable temper.

The game is about to change, as the focus changes. I wonder if I've missed anything.

Originally Posted by raycarey

Sen. John McCain has long said he is in robust health and is strong enough to hike the Grand Canyon, but he also is receiving what his staff Monday termed a "disability pension" from the Navy.

When McCain released his tax return for 2007 on Friday, he separately disclosed that he received a pension of $58,358 that was not listed as income on his return.

Certain types of military and veterans pensions are either partially or completely tax-exempt, depending on the seriousness of the disability. In McCain's case, the exemption is 100%.

If McCain had to pay taxes on the full amount of the pension, it would have increased his tax bill by about $18,000 based on the percentage of his income he paid to the federal government.

another good question raised in the article....if he qualifies for a full disability pension, how is he fit to be commander in chief?

You've upped the ante to full disability. You're either wrong, or caught -- you decide. POW disability pensions are 100% tax-exempt. That doesn't mean they're full disability pensions. That medical determination was made at the time of his discharge from active duty -- in the 80s -- some revelation.

You're yammering over a legitimate annual tax savings of $18K. Hardly a showstopper.

(I'd stick to his age)

Well what better than a Right Wing Blog to tell us. This one is from 2000, when McCain was running against Bush in the Primaries:-

PENELOPE WAITS

Carol McCain waited for the return of her husband from his Vietnamese captivity for five and a half long years; as McCain idolator David Grann put it in the New Republic, she was "a kind of modern-day Penelope to McCain's Odysseus." She carried her burden with nobility, and resolve, staying faithful to the man she refused to believe she had lost – even in the face of her own tragedy. It was Christmas Eve, 1969, while driving along a snowbound street, that she went crashing into a telephone pole: the impact hurled her through the windshield. She lost her left leg, ruptured her spleen, and went through a long series of agonizingly painful operations. Before the accident, she had been a statuesque beauty who worked as a model; she came out of it with four inches subtracted from her height, broken in body – but not in spirit. Her love for her war hero husband forbade her from letting him know anything of her condition: he knew nothing of the accident, and she refused to write him about it since it would only make his burden heavier.

THE RETURN OF THE INGRATE

Any man would be lucky to have such a fierce, unbending love: she stuck by him, agitating for his release, and living for the day of his return. Her devotion was repaid with rejection. He learned of her accident on the plane home, and wasted no time in getting rid of her. He was soon back to his old tricks of playing the field – "just as he had at the Naval Academy," says Grann – and soon sought a divorce. He openly acknowledges that his behavior was solely responsible for the break-up of his marriage, and seems to glory in the macho role while simultaneously professing at least some sense of remorse: "I think she has reason to be bitter," McCain told one interviewer.

AN ALBATROSS

As for Carol, she avers that "the breakup of our marriage was not caused by my accident or Vietnam or any of those things. I don't know that it might not have happened if John had never been gone. I attribute it more to John turning forty and wanting to be twenty-five again than I do to anything else." This doesn't sound like bitterness; it is more like benevolence, in that it gives her ex-husband the benefit of a doubt and seems to excuse his disloyalty as practically hormonal, or at least fated. A less charitable – and more realistic – appraisal of McCain's motives is that he might have found his physically-impaired spouse more of an albatross than an asset for a man intent on a political career.

THE OPPORTUNIST

Moreover, his choice of a new wife was not exactly inconvenient. As the Phoenix New Times put the question:
"Would United States Senator John McCain be a presidential contender if it weren't for his marriage to Cindy Hensley McCain, heiress to the Hensley liquor fortune? It's doubtful. The senator's wife and – more important – his father-in-law, James Willis Hensley, are very wealthy people."
As a career military man, from a military family, his pay peaked at around $45,000. After retiring in 1980, however, and getting rid of Carol, he swept Cindy Lou Hensley off her feet and moved to Arizona, her home state, "to plunge into the world of politics." While working for his father-in-law, he "was promoting himself as much as he was Budweiser beer. A better job description might have been 'candidate.'" This opportunist on the make was no wild man, sowing his wild oats, but rather a man with a mission, a ruthless man who knew what he wanted – and got it. The New Times put it well: "From Day 1, Hensley money has enabled McCain to be a full-time politician, free from financial concerns." From Day 1 of this campaign, John McCain has posed as a man of character: his supporters have even gone so far as to characterize him as "the Anti-Clinton." This is a lie, and not a white one either. It is the exact opposite of the truth, as his personal history – specifically the way he discarded his first wife like a used-up dish-rag – makes plain as day.

Behind the Headlines

An interesting point about this election is that we can conveniently use some Right Wing Blogs against the Republican contender.

That should make the usual suspects here wince.

^ Sounds like an evangelical blog written by a Carol family member.

Originally Posted by Jet Gorgon

^ Sounds like an evangelical blog written by a Carol family member.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hope it is.

^ I guess it's better than Bertha.

Originally Posted by Texpat

(I'd stick to his age)

A man in the prime of his life.

Have been younger Presidents far less fit than McCain.

McCain is a kindly old soul really. He's not part of the Republican dirty tricks brigade- in fact he is a victim of it. If he gets in, it will basically be by default. I doubt it, but then again I am attributing logic and rationality to the Masses- never a safe bet. He would be a far less damaging president than Bush & Co., but he will do nothing to raise the status of the US Presidency internationally.

Nothing against the bloke really, but he's just too mediocre to be a respected President.

Originally Posted by raycarey

paul got 16% of the vote in PA

Obama/Paul. Dream team?

Originally Posted by Norton

Originally Posted by raycarey

paul got 16% of the vote in PA

Obama/Paul. Dream team?

You mean like one of those 'Bong' Dreams?

Originally Posted by raycarey

why won't this 72 year old cancer patient release his medical records?

This seems to be the nature of politics today so he probably should. Had JFK released his medical records he would never have been elected. He was a very sick man.

^Damn, Norton, gotta green you so many times for this.

This is such a bullshit argument about age and health, and yet one our our best Presidents was so sick, John Kennedy.

These hypothetical partisan losers who don't understand real true grit. Well, who cares?

Like it or not, John McCain will be the next President of the United States. It is easy to figure, there is no one else running.

Originally Posted by ceburat

Like it or not, John McCain will be the next President of the United States. It is easy to figure, there is no one else running.

I really hope not. Not because McCain is too old, but merely because he is irrelevant.

At the same time, these pussy liberal assholes may think Obama is their candidate, but they're dead wrong.

Obama will prove to be a unifying multiparty force.

I'm so sorry for you legacy party people like raycary.

raycarey believes anybody over 40 shouldn't be allowed to live.

I wonder what will happen to him in about 8 years?

I hope I'm only hearing a fraction of the overall debate, but these are the two McCain policies I have heard so far-

1- We are willing to stay in iraq for 100 years.
2- Gas tax holiday.

Is anyone here aware of any other policies he has that might make a rational person vote for him?