Kerry Questions McCain's Judgment

By talkleft

When John Kerry decided to contend that John McCain lacks the judgment to be president, he had to expect this:

If that's the case, then it's probably a good thing McCain rejected overtures from Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, to form a bipartisan ticket and run with Kerry as his candidate for vice president.

Putting aside the gratuitous smack, it's difficult to argue with Kerry's current assessment of McCain's judgment:

"John McCain ... has proven that he has been wrong about every judgment he's made about the war. Wrong about the Iraqis paying for the reconstruction, wrong about whether or not the oil would pay for it, wrong about Sunni and Shia violence through the years, wrong about the willingness of the Iraqis to stand up for themselves"

Kerry, who knows something about being accused of flip-flopping, argues that the new McCain isn't a recognizable version of the McCain he once knew: [more ...]

"John McCain has changed in profound and fundamental ways that I find personally really surprising, and frankly upsetting. It is not the John McCain as the senator who defined himself, quote, as a maverick, though questionable," Kerry said. "This is want-to-be president John McCain. The result is that John McCain has flip-flopped on more issues than I was even ever accused possibly of thinking about."

More:

"I mean, this is extraordinary what he's done: He's changed on taxes; he's now in favor of the Bush tax cut. If you like the Bush economy, if you like the Bush tax cut and what it's done to our economy, making wealthier people wealthier and the average middle class struggle harder, then John McCain is going to give you a third term of George Bush and Karl Rove.

"If you like what has happened to oil prices, John McCain is going to continue that policy. If you like what you see about health care, John McCain has no health care plan.

"I would have at least expected the John McCain that I knew back then to realize what almost every person in the Pentagon has admitted. There are very few who walk around and say, 'Going into Iraq was the right thing to do, and we should have done it, or do it again if I have the chance.' John McCain does.

"I'm challenging Senator McCain's judgment," Kerry said, "that says, 'There's no violent history between Sunni and Shia.' That's wrong. His judgment that says, 'This is going to increase the stability of the Middle East.' It hasn't, it's made it less stable. The judgment that says, quote, 'This will be the best thing for America and the world in a long time. It's the worst thing that we've done in a long time. And he's turned his [focus] away from Afghanistan and al Qaeda and made America less safe. That's dangerous for our country."

Agreed.

Comments

(32)

Kerry is right. There was a

Kerry is right. There was a time that I would have considered voting for McCain. This McCain is a faint shadow of his former self. I keep hoping I'll see the man he once was, because I really did like that McCain.
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." Dwight Eisenhower

Senator Kerry

I agree with many things you say and I honor your service to our country both in Vietnam and in front of congress when you returned. But I must tell you that I agree with Lewis Black when he spoke of your race against George W Bush in 2004. How the hell could you lose? As Black put it, losing to Bush in 2004 was like a normal person losing in the special olympics.

So I say to you that the best thing you can do for your country is to identify all your "handlers" from 2004 that advised you to be hyper-cautious and proceed to tell Obama who these people were. Then tell him to avoid them at all cost.

I don't think he did

I don't think he did lose.
There is plenty of evidence the election was stolen.

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." Dwight Eisenhower

By MichtouJuly 6, 2008 - 8:09pm

I agree. But the fact is that it should never have been close. And that is why I like Black's comparison to a normal person loosing in the special olympics.

How do we know how close it

How do we know how close it really was?

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." Dwight Eisenhower

By MichtouJuly 6, 2008 - 8:28pm

I think it was just close enough that screwing with Ohio got Bush in office. But I think Kerry failed miserably as a candidate.

Of course

Bush stole the election. Didn't you know? He's responsible for all of the injustices in the world. He is the cause of global warming, he caused the earthquake in China, the tsunami in SE Asia, Katrina, the midwest flooding, he caused Hillary to lose the dem nomination, it's his fault I didn't win the lottery and he's the one that pushed my dog in front of the car that ran him over. He spread the salmonella on the tomatoes and started the fires in California. God bless him.

thats a good start

thats a good start, But there is one , that i would like to thank him for, And thats for being the worst president ever, which is a win win for obama, Not even McCain wants him close enough , where he can throw a rock, And the gop convention , wish bush would just stay home.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/05/rohrabacher-bush-should-stay-home-du...

According to Dewbie, it wasn't stolen, it was

because Bore had a fake democrat as his running mate.

Don't Degrade Special Olympians

Some of them could run mental circles around you. And equating George Bush to them is an insult of the worst magnitude.

With Obama's race to the Right, it won't really matter who gets elected. The war in Iraq will continue, we will continue to lose control of Afghanistan, the Taliban will have a resurgence, and gas will go to $5.00 a gallon and beyond.

The only question remaining is, under whose administration will you fare better or worse? I guess the answer depends on whether or not you are in Obama's "wealthy" class, you know, those who earn more than $75,000 per year.

If you make that much, you can count on your taxes going up under an Obama administration. Can't pay your mortgage already? So what. Barack will raise your taxes anyway.

If you make more than this magic number, better consider voting for McCain or a Third Party if you can't bring yourself to pull the lever for the Repugs.

Actually I believe the magic

Actually I believe the magic number is 250,000 : http://www.nypost.com/seven/06142008/news/nationalnews/obama_tax_plan_ra...

And he also proposes tax breaks for those who need it most : http://www.barackobama.com/issues/economy/#tax-relief

-- McCain = Four more years of the same --

250k makes a lot of difference

75k is barely middle class, but at the 250 level you are getting into people that are well above that, especially as, at that point there is generally a fair amount of investment income that stays off the books or is written off.

McCainus hires Giuliani campaign manager

Seeing how good that move worked for Rudy, I can only ...uh...good luck with that.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/McCain_hires_Giulianis_campaign_manager_07...

"...DuHaime previously acted as the RNC's political director, and worked for the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign as regional political director...."

...Thats right , , associate yourself closer to the bushco label. Smooth move, mcbush!

Hey, can anyone say Yellowcake?

AP Exclusive: US removes uranium from Iraq

By BRIAN MURPHY, Associated Press Writer Sun Jul 6, 4:45 AM ET http://news.yahoo.com
The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program — a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium — reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.
ADVERTISEMENT

The removal of 550 metric tons of "yellowcake" — the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment — was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy.

Condi didn't LIE. gt6, michtou, fubush, othello, liberalass, nano man, hufflarry, dewbie, and a few other islamofacist apoligists/propagandist did, tho. You all have been found guilty of denying the truth about saddam's nuclear program.

Pssst

Condi and the rest lied about Saddam trying to acquire yellow cake uranium from Niger. Joe Wilson blew the whistle on the lie, Valerie Plame was outed as a result. Documented FACTS, all of them.

We win, you lose...as usual. You can get as SHRILL as you want, but you won't change the TRUTH. CONDI LIED.

Only 934 more Chimpministration lies to talk about. And only 198 days left to do it. Think we can pack them all in?

If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error. ~~~John Kenneth Galbraith

nano man

No they didn't. You have proof? No, of course not.

PROOF

Plame: outed.
Libby: guilty. (By the way, he's STILL guilty. And Anna Nicole's STILL dead.)
Yellow-cake uranium from Niger: never existed.
Iraq failure: still ongoing.
4,600+ troops: dead for oil profits.
You: traitor who should teabag a shotgun.

QED.

If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error. ~~~John Kenneth Galbraith

Don't get a yellow cake in your shorts over nothing.

"...the material cannot be used in its current form for a nuclear weapon or even a so-called dirty bomb..."...Its the residue left from the nuclear power plant bombed in the first Gulf fiasco. The nuke plant that Reagan and Rummy gave Iraq years ago.. old news....

Sorry, sockpuppet, but no weapons grade found. bushco still on the liars list. Nice try.

So, why have it then?

And by the way, didn't saddam deny having any of this stuff?

No, he didn't. It would be

No, he didn't. It would be silly for him to say he didn't have any while the UN is guarding his stockpile.

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." Dwight Eisenhower

By leftysrsickJuly 6, 2008 - 11:51pm

So, why have it then?
And by the way, didn't saddam deny having any of this stuff?

dumb! dumb! dumb!

1. Why have it? What do you do with the old yellow cake? Throw it in the garbage? You are a fucking fool.

2. Deny it? The US knew he had it. Bush and the UN wanted full disclosure and Saddam handed over documents. But Bush declared war anyway after having pulled the inspectors out himself and also after we know for a fact there was a shortage of translators so those documents were most certainly not gone over.

But you know we have been around this block over and over. Normally I don't bother with you hatey you dumb fucking ass because I know you aren't interested in the answers. I respond to you once in a while for the benefit of casual readers.

Get your facts straight before you gloat

Not only are you late, you got wrong. The US knew about this Uranium since before 1991.
"Accusations that Hussein had tried to purchase more yellowcake from the African nation of Niger - and an article by a former U.S. ambassador refuting the claims - led to a wide-ranging probe into Washington leaks that reached high into the Bush administration.

Tuwaitha and an adjacent research facility were well-known for decades as the centerpiece of Hussein's nuclear efforts.

Israeli warplanes bombed a reactor project at the site in 1981. Later, U.N. inspectors documented and safeguarded the yellowcake, which had been stored in aging drums and containers since before the 1991 Gulf War. There was no evidence of any yellowcake dating from after 1991, the official said."

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/world_us/20080706_Iraq_s_nuclear__yellowc...

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." Dwight Eisenhower

Maybe you are unaware, but didn't Saddam

say he didn't have the stuff?

No, he didn't say that

Keep your Talking Points straight. Saddam said he had no WMDs.

The UN inspectors KNEW he had that yellow-cake uranium, and if you read the story, you'll see that they'd inventoried and sealed it already.

You lose again, just like your precious g0p. Next time make it more difficult.

If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error. ~~~John Kenneth Galbraith

condi lies

condi lies about 2 min. and 17sec, into the video.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/CNN_looks_back_at_Bush_administration_0706...

Yeah yeah yeah. You people lied. Condi did not.

Again, I have seen the video of the hearings. Apparently you have not. You people are liars. Oh, I don't need my information filtered by Mr. Blizter or any one else, when the actual confrontation is available.

By the way, this is her written statement, originally published in the NY Times:
Why We Know Iraq is Lying" A Column by Dr. Condoleezza Rice
By Condoleezza Rice
Originally appeared in the New York Times on January 23, 2003

WASHINGTON. Eleven weeks after the United Nations Security Council unanimously passed a resolution demanding yet again that Iraq disclose and disarm all its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs, it is appropriate to ask, "Has Saddam Hussein finally decided to voluntarily disarm?" Unfortunately, the answer is a clear and resounding no.

National Security Adviser Dr. Condoleezza RiceThere is no mystery to voluntary disarmament. Countries that decide to disarm lead inspectors to weapons and production sites, answer questions before they are asked, state publicly and often the intention to disarm and urge their citizens to cooperate. The world knows from examples set by South Africa, Ukraine and Kazakhstan what it looks like when a government decides that it will cooperatively give up its weapons of mass destruction. The critical common elements of these efforts include a high-level political commitment to disarm, national initiatives to dismantle weapons programs, and full cooperation and transparency.

In 1989 South Africa made the strategic decision to dismantle its covert nuclear weapons program. It destroyed its arsenal of seven weapons and later submitted to rigorous verification by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Inspectors were given complete access to all nuclear facilities (operating and defunct) and the people who worked there. They were also presented with thousands of documents detailing, for example, the daily operation of uranium enrichment facilities as well as the construction and dismantling of specific weapons.

Ukraine and Kazakhstan demonstrated a similar pattern of cooperation when they decided to rid themselves of the nuclear weapons, intercontinental ballistic missiles and heavy bombers inherited from the Soviet Union. With significant assistance from the United States warmly accepted by both countries disarmament was orderly, open and fast. Nuclear warheads were returned to Russia. Missile silos and heavy bombers were destroyed or dismantled once in a ceremony attended by the American and Russian defense chiefs. In one instance, Kazakhstan revealed the existence of a ton of highly enriched uranium and asked the United States to remove it, lest it fall into the wrong hands.

Iraq's behavior could not offer a starker contrast. Instead of a commitment to disarm, Iraq has a high-level political commitment to maintain and conceal its weapons, led by Saddam Hussein and his son Qusay, who controls the Special Security Organization, which runs Iraq's concealment activities. Instead of implementing national initiatives to disarm, Iraq maintains institutions whose sole purpose is to thwart the work of the inspectors. And instead of full cooperation and transparency, Iraq has filed a false declaration to the United Nations that amounts to a 12,200-page lie.

For example, the declaration fails to account for or explain Iraq's efforts to get uranium from abroad, its manufacture of specific fuel for ballistic missiles it claims not to have, and the gaps previously identified by the United Nations in Iraq's accounting for more than two tons of the raw materials needed to produce thousands of gallons of anthrax and other biological weapons.

Iraq's declaration even resorted to unabashed plagiarism, with lengthy passages of United Nations reports copied word-for-word (or edited to remove any criticism of Iraq) and presented as original text. Far from informing, the declaration is intended to cloud and confuse the true picture of Iraq's arsenal. It is a reflection of the regime's well-earned reputation for dishonesty and constitutes a material breach of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441, which set up the current inspections program.

Unlike other nations that have voluntarily disarmed and in defiance of Resolution 1441 Iraq is not allowing inspectors "immediate, unimpeded, unrestricted access" to facilities and people involved in its weapons program. As a recent inspection at the home of an Iraqi nuclear scientist demonstrated, and other sources confirm, material and documents are still being moved around in farcical shell games. The regime has blocked free and unrestricted use of aerial reconnaissance.

The list of people involved with weapons of mass destruction programs, which the United Nations required Iraq to provide, ends with those who worked in 1991 even though the United Nations had previously established that the programs continued after that date. Interviews with scientists and weapons officials identified by inspectors have taken place only in the watchful presence of the regime's agents. Given the duplicitous record of the regime, its recent promises to do better can only be seen as an attempt to stall for time.

Last week's finding by inspectors of 12 chemical warheads not included in Iraq's declaration was particularly troubling. In the past, Iraq has filled this type of warhead with sarin a deadly nerve agent used by Japanese terrorists in 1995 to kill 12 Tokyo subway passengers and sicken thousands of others. Richard Butler, the former chief United Nations arms inspector, estimates that if a larger type of warhead that Iraq has made and used in the past were filled with VX (an even deadlier nerve agent) and launched at a major city, it could kill up to one million people. Iraq has also failed to provide United Nations inspectors with documentation of its claim to have destroyed its VX stockpiles.

Many questions remain about Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and arsenal and it is Iraq's obligation to provide answers. It is failing in spectacular fashion. By both its actions and its inactions, Iraq is proving not that it is a nation bent on disarmament, but that it is a nation with something to hide. Iraq is still treating inspections as a game. It should know that time is running out.

Condoleezza Rice is the National Security Adviser.

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leftysrsick

So what you are saying is that she only lies , when shes talking to the American people. that yellow cake that was sold to Canada , was tagged and recorded by the UN inspectors. But was kept a secret , in fear that the cake would be stolen and sold in the black market.So that still means that no wmds have been found,unless they were tagged and recorded. Those were the first sites that were inspected, and were verified to still have the inspectors seals, from the first gulf war. It was a whole lot easier to do it that way. You can see the mess that its going to take to clean that site.

Don't you get tired of being a chump, sicko?

You and your relationship to the neocons reminds me a a whore who keeps going back to her pimp after he beats the crap outta her, because what he says after sounds sooooo good.

zzzzzzzz

zzzzzzzz.....rummy powder.....no weapons grade.....condi lied....zzzzzz

Used goods for McCainus

Rudy's hand-me-downs heading up the "hard-up for talent" Republican campaign...

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/McCain_hires_Giulianis_campaign_manager_07...

"...DuHaime previously acted as the RNC's political director, and worked for the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign as regional political director...."

...Thats right , , associate yourself closer to the bushco label. Smooth move, mcbush!
Does that deal come with a free forehead stencil, marked--LEEOOOSER!!!

Yawn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Your comments are the reason you people can't be trusted with national security.

Translation

sock-puppets(R)sick dribbled "Dammit, pay attention to me!"

You're still a traitor. And a FNORD.

If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error. ~~~John Kenneth Galbraith

Comments

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