John McCain and George W. Bush: Not a Dime's Worth of Difference
In any other democracy in the world the Republican Party would be toast, its prime minister tossed out, its years of governance repudiated. But not in our exceptional American form of democracy. A Republican stalwart who played a key role in implementing the agenda of George W. Bush over these long miserable eight years now attempts to recast himself as an "outsider" eager to return to Washington and clean up the mess he helped create.
John McCain can run from Republican Washington but he can't hide.
The policy prescriptions in John McCain's acceptance speech tonight were nothing but retreads of the failed policies of the Bush-Cheney years:
He promised tax cuts for the rich and the corporations.
He promised "free trade" deals that hemorrhage American jobs.
He promised vouchers for people to pull their kids out of public schools.
He trashed the teachers' unions.
He promised more deregulation of big business.
He promised more privatization of government services.
He promised judges who will curtail consumer protection, worker safety, and women's reproductive rights.
He promised to continue the saber rattling and threats against Iran, Russia and any other country that defies U.S. hegemony.
He promised more militarization of our foreign policy.
He called for peace through war.
And once again we had to endure a corny homily where we re-fight the Vietnam War, an unjust and savage abuse of American power, which has now become a quadrennial tradition in American politics.
There was nothing in McCain's speech tonight that differed in any significant way from the disastrous Republican policies of the last eight years.
He's got Karl Rove's surrogates running his campaign.
He's pandered hardcore to the religious Right with the Sarah Palin gambit. It's gay marriage all over again.
There is not a dime's worth of difference between John McCain and George W. Bush.
Four More Years!
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
Corporate bosses rule the roost. They control BOTH parties. So, regardless of who ends up being elected they win and the middle class losses (again.) Real debate has been off the table since Ross Perot who, in obtaining 19% of the vote, scared the beejesus out of the Republican and Democrat establishments which promptly replaced the League of Women Voters with the Federal Election Commission ensuring that no third party candidate would ever again have an opportunity to express a dissenting opinion.
The Duopoly thrives, and we are informed by the mainstream media that we should not throw our vote away on third parties, as if this were a horse race where the payoff is only available to the voter who votes for the winner. Its very transparent.
McCain agreed with Bush 90 percent of the times in the past eight years, yet he didn’t mention the president by name during the Republican Convention. Why? Is it because McCain simply knows that the country for eight years has been going in the wrong direction 90 percent of the times?
See Joseph A. Palermo's Profile
I was hoping there would be at least one substantive policy disagreement between McCain and Bush, but he gave us none. I think the real proof is when the Abu Ghraib torture scandal broke and McCain helped the Republican Senate only hold ONE hearing, about 6 hours, and then wrapped it up -- only ONE hearing on the subject of photographs showing that Americans were torturing Iraqis! From a guy who talks about being tortured -- McCain was a team player, they didn't want to sully the Bush regime going into 2004 -- he showed that he is not a man of character or integrity but a vile politician who will do anything to further the Charles Dickens vision of the GOP.
There was one significant difference.
George W. Bush has frequently used the rhetorical device of citing a heartwarming story and then telling how his policies would help them. "Bill and Sue Middleamerica, whose [heartwarming trial] will be solved by [complete Republican domination].
McCain had a section of his speech where he talked about the trials and tribulations of people (I'm waiting for the press to track them down and give us the real story). McCain told the stories, but not what he would do for them.
"I fight for Bill and Sue Nebe from Farmington Hills, Michigan, who lost their real estate investments in the bad housing market. Bill got a temporary job after he was out of work for seven months. Sue works three jobs to help pay the bills."
"Okay, Senator," I said to the tv, "what are you going to do for them?" Does McCain have a solution for these people, or just sympathy? For that matter, to what degree were Republican policies responsible for the problem Bill and Sue Nebe face?
The same is true for the heartwarming story of the the Wimmers. What are you going to do, Senator?
Finally, for Matthew Stanley, he has a solution. He wears a bracelet to remember this man who died serving our country in Iraq.
Senator, that's going to be a lot of bling. You sure your arms are strong enough for that many bracelets?
I agree that no other democracy would tolerate republicans this year. The question is why is it different here? Is it something inherent in our structure of democracy or is it just plain electoral ignorance? I guess it could be both! :-)
Did George Bush not come into office promising to be the Uniter and not the divider.
Promising to reach across the aisle to Democrats, that lasted about a week and has since been the most divided Government I can recall.
John McBush offers no difference, no change and still no respect for women, with his jokes about women, 1998 he quipped," why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly, because Janet Reno is her Father" so much for candidates family's are off limits,so much for gender respect, calling Hillary a Lesbian, then there was the woman being raped by the Ape joke, calling his wife the C... word in public and offering her for nude picture to a bunch of bikers a month or so ago.
Now that's not a man that brings change rather a man who needs change.
Hey, how many times did he say "my friends"? I couldn't watch..
These guys have made a great big mess of things and now we're supposed to rely on them to clean it up???!!! I don't think so. They'd just outsource it.
ALL I HEARD WAS POW POW POW POW POW I AM TRIED OF HEARING THAT
So true. He is trying to pass himself off as the garbage collector when he helped cover the neighborhood with trash, or like a pyromanaic hobbling in with a water pistol to put out the fire.
This old man should move on and take his beauty queens with him. Today's theme song is not "Yesterday
And the difference between Sarah Palin and Dick Cheney is lipstick.
So far, the polls show McC slipping and the odds of an Obama landslide are now 21%! Chances of a win are 71.8%!
So, McC's "I am not Bush", even though his policies are, isn't very convincing.
They are both pupppets. As long as the puppet masters are not changed, the policies will not change either.
Even the GOPers are calling him John Bush now ;-)
Perhaps the only difference between the two is that the McCain family has not profited financially from the deaths of the troops in Iraq like the Bush family has.
Other than that, same old republican bull.
You make some good points, but in domestic policy it is more likely that Obama, not McCain would be more like the Bush administration. Until there is honest government, not bought and paid for by lobbyists and other special interests, any new legislative initiatives will remain as corrupt as those who pass them. Assuming Obama has a Democrat Congress, he will be at the mercy of his own Congressional party leaders who will continue to load bills up with pork, just like the Republican Congress under Bush. Until Congressional corruption is confronted, divided government will work best. Under divided government it is harder for our elected officials to steal from us.
Jon Stewart said it best talking to Mike Huckabee last night: "Do you feel like your party is the only one that can fix the damage your party's done?"
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
