John McCain 2000
Watching the debates on Saturday made me slightly regret the print work I did for Mitt Romney's campaign at the beginning of last year. I just thought it would be a good chance to network, but it wasn't; furthermore his performance in the debate proved him to be both pandering and irrational—a bad, yet common, combination in politicians.
I was specifically appalled at his proposed strategy to deal with illegal immigrants: "Those people should be invited to get in line outside the country with everybody else who wants to come here. But they should not be given a special right to stay here. . . . One, it says to those 12 million people they do not have the right, as they would under the final Senate plan, to receive a Z visa which was renewable indefinitely. That meant these people could stay in the country forever." His plan to deport twelve million people is completely impractical, yet he proposes it to please his fellow irrational neoconservatives. Where does Romney plan to get the money to find and deport twelve million people? Does he plan to pay for it out of his own pocket? Essentially his plan supports the status quo—undocumented workers remain so, the silly wall just makes illegally crossing the border slightly more difficult, and nothing happens.
John McCain, on the other hand, braved the indignation of the self-righteous and acknowledged that completely sealing the Mexican border and deporting twelve million people is impractical. While acknowledging that we did not want so many illegal immigrants here in the first place, his plan accepts the fact that they are here now. His plan to document all undocumented workers is good for everyone except the people who profit from undocumented employees working for substandard wages and benefits.
Mitt Romney's squirreling answer to Fred Thompson's question about mandating health insurance (which may not be a bad idea—we already mandate car insurance) also disgusted me. Say what you believe, Romney!
Since John McCain (visibly shaking on camera) is now too old for me to accept him without a very good running mate, I propose that Republicans invent a time machine, travel back to 2000, and nominate McCain. He would beat Gore by a bigger margin—let's face it, by a margin—and he would have dealt with the past eight years far better than Bush has.
posted by Bethylene at 12:51
1 Comments:
Wow, for a minute there, I was completely in love with you...
Then you advocated on McCain's behalf.
I award you ten points for rational, logical thought regarding Mitt Romney, but must deduct eleven for insinuating that John McCain would have played a better cowboy than “Mr. Yee-Haw” himself.
We needed a cowboy for the weeks and months immediately following those dark, September days. John McCain is politically adventurous, I suppose. But I would suggest that his days in the custody of Victor Charles may have dampened his resolve to take real chances with real lives. Nothing teaches the value of Life as well as realization of one's own mortality.
The reason that I voted for Mr. Bush in 2000 is simple: Mr. McCain voted against an important Defense Authorization Bill, one with very little "pork", in 1999. As a young (19yo) E-3 living paycheck to paycheck, that made me angry. It made a lot of us angry. I will never forget how he turned his back on us (me) when he had the opportunity to do the right thing. It passed anyway, thankfully, and I got to put off learning frugality for another little while.
There is a popular joke advising that 10,000 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean is a “good start”. I am not sure about your Mother’s position, but I think she may object, vehemently. I think that the lawyers referenced in the joke were probably professional politicians. This brings me to my second joke, a parody of “those who cannot do, teach”: Those who cannot win, run…
I will advocate none of the candidates, from either side of the aisle. I think Fred might think along the same lines, except he is too much of a snob to tell us. Rudy is nuts, Ron Paul is worse. BHO was just endorsed by 2004’s French Socialist Party candidate, so there is the nail in his political coffin. He’ll be a Senator forever. Lady Hillary, our former “First Citizen” (prin ceps, the etymology of prince[ss], nice!) just has a really annoying speaking voice. Oh yeah, there is this idea I have about everyone being responsible for their own lives and well-being, and that of their family. Call me crazy (or evil, or self-righteous, or whatever)…
But you are really right on the money about Romney. So I give the one point back again. Anyway, we are square now.
Finally, your blog-o-sphere missed you. Welcome back. I will post regarding Atonement with Kiera Knightley very soon, love to see a comment from you. Cheers!
Post a Comment
<< Home