McCain On Whether Americans Are Better Off Under Bush: 'Oh, No"

This morning on NBC's Today Show, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) attempted to distance himself from President Bush on the economy. When host Meredith Viera asked McCain whether Americans are "better off, by any means, than we were eight years ago," McCain replied, "Oh, no. No."

McCain made a similar comment on Bloomberg TV on April 18, stating, "In fact, I think Americans are not better off than they were eight years ago, when you look at what's happened to middle-income Americans."

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[fignozzle]

he has NO clue.

[Forest]

Cindy McCain at least has some lights on inside her head. More than you can say for her hubby. Vote Cindy McCain!

[Forest]

McCain is a hero turned shill. What happened between then and now?

[ropadopa]

Conservatism is dead! Cold Stone Dead! Period. And this is the election where Democrats should bury it with its life support machinery, Limbaugh, Fox News, and every single supporter of this outdated ideology. For the last thirty years they have directly or indirectly governed this country and today we are teetering on the verge of an economic and social collapse. Which leads me to why Obama is winning despite the party's failure to seize the moment. He recognizes the opportunity to return to common sense policies. Just basically doing whats right for America. McCain has no independent economic, social or military plan except what is written in the party's little red book.

[boyboy]

He is better than Obama. I will vote McCain or Nader.

[ThePhilosopher]

Are you just voting on personality? You pick one candidate who is to the right of the Democrats and one who essentially to the left of the Democrats! Do you not have any political philosophy?

[shockmagog]

Nader too? Wow, you're all over the map.

[mstoot]

Then I guess you'll soon be signing up for the military so you can go to Iraq and fight Bush/McCain's war which McCain intends to keep going for a hundred years. Mighty brave of you.

[madron]

All you people that voted for the moron we now have for president...will vote for this moron also..he should'nt even be a senator...

[SonofKong]

Sounds to me like McCain wants to have it both ways. He's been supporting Bush and Bush's policies for years and now he wants to run away from him.

- MK -

[lisakaz2]

Exactly. Viera did a disservice if she didn't ask: why if you think ppl are not better off that keeping the same econ policies will improve things for the bulk of the American public?

[urbanscorpio88]

That being said, Americans won't be better under him.

[jemiltd]

what about Pastor John Hagee, an influential minister who has endorsed McCain and his anti-Catholic comments. McCain has embraced this endorsement, yet we don't see any repeated loops on CNN, NBC, Fox News of these comments and this has been all but buried as a news item. Yet McCain has not distanced himself from this endorsement at all, he hasn't rejected it, his response on ABC This Week was "I don't agree with his comments," followed by a sarcastic "But thanks, for asking." How hypocritical of him. More than that, how hypocritical of the media for not giving this the same level of coverage as given Minster Wright. Wonder why?

[TheKnownTruth]

No, Rove told him what to say. He couldn't make two complete sentences on his own if he tried...LOL

[GeoLee]

I gyuess he has finally been clued in to the President's approval polls. :-) This must be his first look at middle income Americans in the last two decades or so.

[willfarnaby]

More wingnut BS from Mr. Bush-Hugger himself.

[atienne]

I, for one, am HORRIFIED that for whatever reason, Obama won't be elected President and we would be under the 'leadership' of this sorry sack!

I don't like putting people down for a candidate they support but how on EARTH could ANYONE support this man? I seriously believe you would have to have some serious mental problems because even CHILDREN I know think he's 'bad', 'awful' and 'sounds dumb'. These are quotes from children I know that have seen him.

If a child can see that he's unfit for anything important, what's going on in the minds of adults that actually vote for this has been??

I pray, PRAY that prejudice does NOT rule the minds of America come election day and that for ONCE people actually start to vote in their best interests and no matter WHAT you say, this man is NO ONE'S best interest!

[sparkandy]

How difficult is it for Obama supporters to understand that some people differ with him on issues rather than simply race? Voting for someone who is NOT Obama isn't a sign of prejudice. It's a sign that the voter doesn't like Obama's politics for whatever reason. This sort of reasoning taints the Obama campaign to the point that non Obamaniacs start to wonder if Obama's as uninformed as some of his supporters.

[lisakaz2]

Can you say that about HRC and gender?

[gonavy]

You don't like to put people down, but....

There is always a BUT.

Many, many, many people wonder how anyone could vote for Obama, or Clinton, for that matter. We are all coming from a different place, with different perspectives, different priorities. There is one simple truth, we all want the best for our country, we all want a better economy, we all want health care and jobs.

The children do not understand politics, they are repeating what their parents are saying.

[iBgood]

They should show this back to back with the one where he says we are better off.

Poor Gramps is flip flopping again.

[ann1]

Anyone with good sense would know why the Repubs are fighting Sen Obama so hard. This article is a great example.

[SonofKong]

Sounds to me like he wants to have it both ways. He's spent the last several years defending Bush and Bush's policies yet now he wants to distance himself.

[blackpope]

mark my words, GOP strategy...bloody obama...alienate clinton from black votes and win in november...McCain's already touring the 9th ward....they know clinton has alot of negatives and bloodying obama to win raises those negatives to a new high level.....she can't win without black votes...no democrat has won without black votes...Clinton needs it to win in november they know that.....if democrats love themselves this thing has to be settle in may...giving wounds time to heal!!!!!

[Podewumun]

WOW! A rare moment of lucidity. I'm glad it's on tape. Could come in handy later.

[Testtubebaby]

Methuselah strikes again!

[Tommygun264]

So, does Senator McSame remember talking about how much better the economy has done "overall" in the past seven years, or has he forgotten that completely, like he forgot saying he didn't know whether the 9th Ward in New Orleans should be rebuilt or torn down earlier this week, or like he forgot the way he confused Sunis and Shiites (five times and counting), or like the time he forgot getting into a shoving match on the Senate floor, or like the time he forgot calling his wife the "C" word? Or I guess he could just be lying about forgetting all that stuff.

John McSame - senile or dishonest: you decide.

[Vige]

Flip flopping crooked talking "Flip Flopper" with very short term memory loss. He denies what he said on Monday about the 9th ward. When he was called on it he said he didn't remember saying that.

John Mr. Magoo McCain.

[msemper]

Mc Same is Mess...lol

[filo]

I guess he agrees with the DNC ad then.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/25/democrats-launch-ad-targe_n_98583.html

[ImmanuelGoldstein]

Oh MY GOD!
This is the blackest of heresy! What will Huffpost trolls do now that their presumpitve presidential frontrunner is turning on their hero? I can only Imagine that Redstate and LGF are going to be whipped into a bloody froth by these comments.

Well if Bush sucks so much then why do you want to do all the same stuff? Boy this is going to be a fun election! If the Democrats can't give this befuddled relic a good sound drubbing it'll raise questions as to whether the party even deserves to exist.

[Podewumun]

A strange wailing sound rose up from yon woods tonight...

[BethStuart]

Let me see if I understand this. McCain intends to carry on Bush's policies over the next four years. Isn't that how we got worse off in the first place?