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twitterMcCain’s attacks on rival fall flat with vets group
Republican offers plan to let some get care outside VA
Sunday, Aug. 10, 2008 | 2 a.m.
John McCain speaks in Vegas
Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, speaks to members of the Disabled American Veterans Saturday in Las Vegas.
Clinton Stumps for Obama
Sen. Hillary Clinton hosts a "Campaign for Change" rally for presumed Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama at Green Valley High School on Friday. The rally kicks off a weekend of organizing activities throughout the state.
Members of Disabled American Veterans wait for McCain to speak. After his talk, just one of 14 vets interviewed by the Sun said he was a certain supporter of McCain, himself a vet and former war prisoner.
In Today's Sun
Sun Voter Guide
Sen. John McCain, speaking to disabled veterans Saturday in Las Vegas, attacked his Democratic opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, for his foreign policy record, while also proposing a program that would allow veterans to acquire health care at private hospitals and not just through the Veterans Affairs Department.
The veterans, at Bally’s for their national convention, gave him a tepid reception, especially considering McCain’s life story. The Arizona senator was a Navy pilot shot down over Vietnam, tortured and held as a prisoner of war for 5 1/2 years.
Just one of 14 veterans interviewed by the Sun after his speech said he is a certain McCain voter, and the nonpartisan group’s legislative director expressed concerns about McCain’s proposed “Veterans’ Care Access Card.”
But as with most presidential campaign events, the intended audience was not the veterans in the hall but television viewers. McCain used the opportunity to hammer Obama on his opposition to the 2007 surge of U.S. troops in Iraq.
McCain said Obama “can’t quite bring himself to admit his own failure in judgment. Instead, he commits the greater error of insisting that even in hindsight, he would oppose the surge. Even in retrospect, he would choose the path of retreat and failure for America over the path of success and victory.
“Behind all of these claims and positions by Senator Obama lies the ambition to be president,” McCain said. “What’s missing is the judgment to be commander in chief.”
McCain said Obama had tried to “legislate failure” in Iraq.
Obama has said that he showed good judgment by opposing the war in the first place. The Iraqi government recently endorsed Obama’s proposal to withdraw troops.
In setting forth an agenda for veterans, McCain said he would make sure Congress approves the VA health care budget on schedule. “But I will say that every increase in funding must be matched by increases in accountability, both at the VA and in Congress.”
Legislation appropriating money for veterans is often tardy, bogged down in the legislative process and loaded with extra spending on unrelated matters.
McCain said he would veto veterans legislation that contains unrelated pork barrel spending. The money saved could be used for veterans benefits, he said.
To help veterans who live far from VA hospitals or need specialized care the VA can’t provide, McCain proposed giving low-income veterans and those who incurred injury during their service a card they could use at private hospitals. The proposal is not an attempt to privatize the VA, as critics have alleged, but rather, an effort to improve care and access to it, he said.
Joe Violanti, legislative director of the Disabled American Veterans, a nonpartisan organization, said the proposal would increase costs because private hospitals are more expensive. The increased cost could lead to further rationing of care, he said.
McCain closed with stirring words: “I have had the good fortune to know personally a great many brave and selfless patriots who sacrificed and shed blood to defend America. But I have known none braver or better than those who do so today. They are our inspiration, as I suspect all of you were once theirs. And I pray to a loving God that he bless and protect them.”
John Von Schlicher, 87, of Florida, said he will support McCain. Schlicher sharply criticized the Democratic-controlled Congress for not funding VA hospitals. (Spending on veterans benefits will increase 11 percent this year.)
Other veterans, such as James Jewett and Jay Johnson of Texas, expressed misgivings about McCain using the occasion to attack his opponent so fiercely.
Duke Hendershot, a double amputee retired Marine who served in Vietnam, supported McCain’s run for president in 2000 but is undecided this year.
“John just isn’t the same as he used to be. He’s not his own man,” said Hendershot, who lives in San Antonio, Texas. “A lot of that has to do with how he’s wanted this job so bad for so long that he’s tied himself to President Bush.”
He said McCain’s embrace of Bush, whom Hendershot called a “draft-dodging coward,” is even more perplexing because of the rivalry between the two candidates during the 2000 campaign.
Hendershot also criticized McCain for taking swipes at Obama in his speech. “He should have been talking about veterans issues, not his opponent,” he said.
By contrast, he praised Obama for keeping his remarks tightly focused on veterans. The Democrat gave taped remarks via video.
Sun reporter Brian Eckhouse contributed to this story.
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Again, McCain's negative campaigning works against him.
With so many veterans reconsidering voting for one of their own, it seems McCain's lack of support among loyal Republicans is systemic.
Duke Hendershot hit the nail on the head: McCain of 2000 wouldn't recognize McCain of 2008.
Iraq and Afganistan Veterans of America has given John McCain a grade of D for his support of veterans: www.iava.org/full-ratings-list
Disabled Veterans of America gave him a 20% rating on support while giving Obama an 80% rating: www.capwiz.com/dav/scorecard.xc
Per Vietnam Veterans of America John McCain has “voted against us” in 15 key votes: www.vva.capwiz.com/election/home/
John McCain is one of the few veterans running for office that VoteVets.org. has refused to endorse: www.VoteVets.org
Another veteran group keeps track and offers links to McCain's history of votes against veteran care: www.veteransforcommonsense.org
To name just a few votes by John McCain against veterans:
McCain voted against an amendment providing $20 billion to the VA’s medical facilities. [5/4/06]
McCain voted against providing $430 million to the VA for outpatient care and treatment for veterans. [4/26/06]
McCain voted against increasing VA funding by $1.5 billion by closing corporate loopholes. [3/14/06]
McCain voted against increasing VA funding by $1.8 billion by ending abusive tax loopholes. [3/10/04]
Not only was John McCain a no show on the GI Bill vote he opposed, which the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars fully supported, he now wants to limit veteran health care to only combat related injury in order to save money. Per retired Army General Robert Gard, McCain's proposal for concentrating health care on just combat injuries would "shortchange those veterans who suffer from non-combat related conditions". McCain is apparently unconcerned about the number of veterans this would affect, including the 15% of female combat veterans who suffer from military sexual trauma.
Older veterans remember well how John McCain and John Kerry shut down all further investigation into remaining MIA/POW in order to open up trade with Vietnam. They remember full well how these families were treated and talked to by John McCain. They also remember how John McCain's father-in-law immediately opened up a beer industry in Vietnam. www.aiipowmia.com/testimony/
McCain is an angry old man who will say anything to anyone if he thinks it will help him win the office that he is so manifestly unqualified for.
I might remind you that in 2000 it was obvious, at least to me, that Bush was simply not qualified to be president. We elected him twice anyway, and look what happened. Now we are planning to elect his clone?
Eight years of an out-of-touch, dishonest Republican puppet president being controlled by a sociopathic Republican vice president should have inoculated us against electing more of the same, at least right away. But maybe not!
Mark, we did NOT "elect" Bush, at least not the first time.
The Supreme Court took care of that.
As to the second time, well, we'll never really know what happened in Ohio, will we? At least not in the so-called "liberal media".
Good summary MsSwin.
In 2004 I donated cash to McCain to help in the SC primary after the slurs that Bush/Rove put out. After his morphing into McBush, his emails are trapped by my Spam filter.
My son was over in Iraq during the first part of the war. I served as a Marine during Vietnam.
This country needs a serious wake-up call. Both parties are way out of line and deserve little support. The Dems have no spine and too much cash, the Repubs are worse.
I'm a veteran and Im applaude at McCains Lack of truth... SHAMEFUL
A McCain ad shows pictures of wind-driven turbines while the narrator says: "Renewable energy to transform our economy, create jobs and energy independence, that's John McCain." But, in fact, his energy plan doesn't specify any new federal spending for renewable energy...
It says he "voted against funding our troops." He did – exactly once. Obama cast at least 10 votes for war-funding bills before voting against one last year, after Bush vetoed a version that contained a date for withdrawal from Iraq.
It says he "never held a single hearing on Afghanistan." It was the full Senate Foreign Relations Committee, not Obama's subcommittee, that had the hearings on this global hot spot, and Obama attended one of those. Over the same time period, McCain himself attended none of the Afghanistan hearings held by the Armed Services Committee on which he serves.
"I have never asked for nor received a single earmark or pork barrel project for my state."
In 2006, McCain co-sponsored with fellow Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl a bill that asked for $10-million for an academic center at the University of Arizona
In 2003, he advocated and won authorization to buy property to create a buffer zone around Luke Air Force Base in Arizona
In 1992, he wrote a letter to the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requesting that the “EPA either reprogram $5-million out of existing funds or earmark the amount from an appropriate account” for a wastewater project in Nogales, Ariz
So we find that claim False.
Let's start out by saying that Obama's tax proposals are crafted so that tax increases hit those couples $250,000 or more a year, or $200,000 for singles. He also proposes a $1,000 tax credit on income for working families ($500 for singles).
Another statement claims that Obama "promises more taxes on small business, seniors, your life savings, your family." This is true is if you happen to be a small business, a senior or a family making more than $250,000 a year, or $200,000 for a single person. Otherwise, it's generally not the case. In fact, Obama advocates eliminating income taxes for seniors with incomes less than $50,000
The "life savings" statement, according to the McCain campaign, applies to Obama's plan to raise taxes on dividend and capital gains. We've looked at similar claims before. Increases to dividends and capital gains taxes will affect people in upper income brackets who have investments in the stock market or mutual funds. The Spanish language ad makes similar claims but pushes them one step farther by claiming Obama would raise taxes on "the sale of your home."
We've run across that claim before from anonymous e-mails. Obama does not advocate new taxes on home sales. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/...
Why MSM/Newspapers won't call him out on these out right LIES
Such a shame that John Von Schlicher isn't better informed. Many people assume that because McCain is a veteran and POW he automatically supports the troops and our veterans. And he wants you to believe that. As others here have posted, McCain's record tells another story.
Regarding presidential ambition, here's what McCain said in his book Worth The Fighting For, p. 373, published September 2002:
I didn't decide to run for president to start a national crusade for the political reforms I believed in or to run a campaign as if it were some grand act of patriotism. In truth, I wanted to be president because it had become my ambition to be president.
After the Keating 5 he thought all was lost but he used the press to rehabilitate his image and they created the myth of the straight talking maverick.
McCain is all snide and says that Obama isn't ready to be commander in chief. Both McCain and Obama were interviewed by The Jerusalem Post when they visited Israel. The JP opens the article on Obama with an comparison of their interviews with Bush and McCain to Obama.
Anyone who reads this and concludes that McCain is the one to lead the country is sealing the continued decline of America to irrelevance in the world:
On McCain - looks to Lieberman for reassurance and they use the word "flummoxed"
"In March, on his whirlwind visit to Israel, Republican presidential nominee John McCain, one of whose primary strengths is said to be his intimate grasp of foreign affairs, chose to bring along Sen. Joe Lieberman to the interview our diplomatic correspondent Herb Keinon and I conducted with him, looked to Lieberman several times for reassurance on his answers and seemed a little flummoxed by a question relating to the nuances of settlement construction."
On Obama - knew persisely what he wanted to say about the most intricate issues
. . . spoke to The Jerusalem Post with only a single aide in his King David Hotel room, and that aide's sole contribution to the conversation was to suggest that the candidate and I switch seats so that our photographer would get better lighting for his pictures.
Several of Obama's Middle East advisers - including former Clinton special envoy Dennis Ross and ex-ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer - were hovering in the vicinity. But Obama, who was making only his second visit to Israel, knew precisely what he wanted to say about the most intricate issues confronting and concerning Israel, and expressed himself clearly, even stridently on key subjects
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?a...
We don't hear about this. We get tire gauges and Britney and Paris. We are being ill served by our media.
Let's not forget that McCain is on record (video even) saying he would not support nuclear waste traveling through Arizona on it's way to Yucca Mountain.
But he's all for 40+ new nuclear plants generating a lot more waste.
The mainstream American news media is run by corporate handlers (yes, even CNN) who determine what we see and hear. Journalists need to be given their freedom back, and maybe we'd see what the Jerusalem Post said about Obama.
I am a 27 year vet and currently being treated through the Southern Nevada VA system. I will vote for Mr. McCain! Look at the other choice. Hussein Obama does not know anything about the current the VA system. I heard him try to answer a question from a spouse of a 100% disabled vet and he sounded like a idiot! He does not care about us vets. Mr. McCain will listen and help us. Obama wants to stop the concurrent va / retirement pay, he will destroy the VA system if he gets in!
Let us remember who voted against the Webb bill to expand benifits for Vets because they were too generous. McCain thought we get too much in benefits. I guess he doesn't have to live with the current bene plans.
I will not vote for the GOP because of the way things have gone in this country over the last 8 years. The GOP does not deserve my vote.
This is a must read:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/articl...
If the US press is so biased against McCain as he claims, how come this is never mentioned? Every politician in Washington DC knows about this man's behavior after he was honored as a POW. McCain is the son and grandson of Admirals and unlike his dad and grandfather, finished 894th in his class of 899.
I respect and honor McCain's service to our country, but I do not see any reason to make him president of the US. I love my grandchildren and this country too much.
I could respect John McCain as a man and a fellow Viet Nam veteran on the facts of service alone. But when I read and see in Vidio how he used this for political gain throughout his years as a politician and as qualification for The Presidency, I lose respect. Speaking of actions, McCain's record is well documented, media creation is what one needs to be aware of. Go to Obama events. Ask, see, don't be afraid, and you won't have to use his middle name to try to scare other's. It was given in respect at a time when his father was a part of his young life. That he chose Barrack is simply his perogative. Let's have this campaign get back to the issues and put the "us" back in this country. Dispense with all the fear and hatred.
He actually played basketball with the troops.
Of course, you'd have no way of knowing that if your only source of information was from Fox News or Rush Limbaugh.
Fox news or any other uninlightened source would provide the earlier post with his misinformation. But then the username says it all.
No body has done more for Disabled Veterans than John Kerry and John McCain from about 1975 to 1985, but that was nearly a quarter century ago - and, of course, we all respect their military service!
But the McCain of today is NOT the same McCain - he'll just be a Bush III!
When McCain needed the VA he was all for it - and he still gets full benefits on top of having access, now, to the best healthcare in the world as a member of Congress - but, he wouldn't show up and vote for benefits for our current vets - and McCain got educated through the very G.I. Bill he refused to support for this newest generation of vets!
How many more facts do you need to know?
BEGEEZUS! Bush and Cheney made the rounds to all the national veteran's organizations in 2000 and 2004 and lied through their teeth - TWICE!
Why in the world would anyone believe anything that comes out of a Republican's mouth after the last 8 years? In fact, let's look back over the last 40 years shall we?
Nixon lied in '68 promising to end the Vietnam war and the draft - then, after he got elected, manipulated both to get re-elected in '72!
Reagan promised us a "trickle down" economy! Did you notice it only trickled down from the billionaires to the millionaires (the top 3%)?
Need I go on...?
I'm voting for change - and voting for Obama!
More flailing, failed attacks on people instead of sound, reasoned support for McCain?
The radical right, who obviously aren't above slinging trash from the gutter, are seething mad that someone like Barack Obama could be the next President.
Their hysterical attacks, overt racism and lack of logic are on display for all to see! They post things about Clinton and Edwards on an article about McCain's failed support among disabled veterans!
Their desperation is thick and pungent. They can't attack on the issues!
LOL! If this is the best you've got, I'll predict a Reagan-level victory sweepin November for Barack Obama.
The idiot with the username GOD is so far out in right field that he/she missed his/her turn at bat. I don't think that I have seen such ridiculous comments ever on any site on the web. His/her username shows how little respect he/she has. If I was that ignorant, I surely wouldn't let the world know it.
jjs404 wrote:
"I don't think that I have seen such ridiculous comments ever on any site on the web."
Have you seen the posts from NVMakz or jfnance or ... well, there are at least two others but their handles escape me right now.
Each of these 'bots will post the same "thoughts" (for want of a better word) in varying forms over and over and over and over and over .... on the same thread!
There was a point when I had actually missed the Yahoo boards, and then I found these boards and the aforementioned posters.
It's like being home again ;)
As "evidence" and/or "sources" they will offer up (and these are actuals, not examples) Fox "news", the WSJ ***opinion page***, an anti-Obama blog, an anti-choice web site, etc.
I'm frankly surprised they haven't offered up either McCain's campaign web site or ... well, I was going to say the White House web site but I've seen that posted as "evidence" of something.
They're chew toys; and I've already grown bored with them. You will, too, after about 20 minutes of reading any of them. LOL.
The main thing that PatriciaLV does is to attack other bloggers.
Keep up the good work, PatriciaLV.
You consider yourself a "blogger"?
OMG .... that is just about the funniest thing I've heard in a while (I don't read most of your posts any longer; not worth my time).
LOLOL!
(BTW, go back to a couple of your actually lucid & logical posts. You'll notice something; I responded in kind. That's what I do.)
"shihan" I too am a disabled vet and I've got to tell you brother you've been misinformed about Obama - Obama wants full mandatory funding of the V.A. which McCain opposes - so, do some solid research before you cast your vote!
Since my retirement in 1998 I've been a veteran's advocate, activist and I write the columen "A Veteran's Voice" - I monitor veterans legislation constantly and know the facts - by far Obama favors veterans over McCain!
Feel free to vote however you wish - but, I'm hoping you'll vote based on the FACTS and not some misplaced emotional passion - McCain forgot about us nearly 25 years ago buddy!
Vote for change - vote for hope - vote for Obama!