First and foremost, McCain strikes me as not having been endowed with much intelligence. Ovewrall, I think his temperment is a huge problem as well. I don't think you need to be grabbing the representatives of another country by the collar and choking them. I know that he was nicknamed "McNasty" when he was in high school. Plus, there have been many incidents of tantrums and foul language on the senate floor.

I don't think that he sees the world as it is, only the way it used to be. He believed that the war in Vietnam war could have been won. More bombs and blood would have won the war. He doesn't seem to have a good grip on what's happening in Iraq. I don't think that sitting the Sunnis and Shia down together and telling them to get along is much of a plan. The "Anbar Awakening" which was initiated by Iraqis in 2006 was the result of the "surge." While the "surge" has certainly resulted in fewer deaths (both civilian and military), I do not know that it will be permanent. Neighborhoods have been ethnically cleansed and barrier walls built between these neighborhoods. In spite of the fact that the Iraqi government embraces a time line for withdrawal similar to Obama's, McCain believes that we should stay for 100 years. He cites examples as Germany and South Korea, but these are not good examples.
He says we're winning the war, but I believe that the war has been over for years. The occupation of Iraq hasn't ever gone well. McCain says he would send 2 brigades to Afghanistan without reducing troops in Iraq. Our commanders have stated that they do not have the troops to send to Afghanistan without taking them from Iraq. On top of all that, he seems to be in favor of initiating a nuclear strike against Iran on the basis of nothing more than suspicions. To me, he looks like a bigger neocon than Cheney.

McCain's economic plans closely mirror Bush's. He wants to make Bush's tax cuts permanent and cut corporate taxes another 10%. Don't forget, his economic advisor called us a nation of whiners.

McCain's proposal for a "League of Democracies" is just plain odd. He wants to kick Russia out of the G-8 for reasons known only to himself. All of a sudden, he wants to drill in Anbar and off the coasts while saying it would have only a psychological effect and wouldn't lower the price of gas.

He looks terribly frail.

Anything else?

Not enough? My opinion of McCain is based on my observations of him. Yours of Obama are based on your "gut."

Let me go watch Fox for awhile so I can get my talking points for the day and I'll be back with more than 'gut.'

My opinion of Obama is that he is very arrognant sounding. That he thinks too highly of himself.
Obama might have book sense..but not much common sense.
That he likes to talk "at" people not "to" them.

My gut instinct is that Obama is taking people for a ride on promises and fairy tales that he can never give.

YES, that is it...arrogance. Thank you.

You know, if the economy and war weren't going the way they are, would people really like Obama as much??? I think he just happened to "show up" at the right place at the right time. And, the way he speaks.....accenting the last word of the sentence.....OMG. He handed Saturday night live a "skit on a plate"

OP, thankfully most people don't live up to their high school nick names.....

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

Since when is intelligence a bad quality for a president to have? There are nothing but common sense solutions in Obama's policy proposals. I would very much like to see examples of what is considered Obama's lack of common sense.

I think that gut feeling is nothing more than the fact that he's a black.

Also, I think that McCain has fully lived up to his high school nickname. I hate to point this out, but this thread is supposed to be about McCain, not Obama.

Oh my gosh.

What a terrible thing to say.

I am not supportive of him because of his policies. I am supportive of Condi (a possible VP pick) because of hers. Both have the same skin color. Apparently I notice race a lot less than you because it didn't even occur to me that it should be a factor in the candidate I support. If McCain were black and Obama were white, I'd still support McCain!

Perhaps we need a new mantra: It's the politics, stupid.

I haven't SEEN solutions from him, only platitudes. He speaks in generalities that excite people because he talks about the whole "wonderful world' concept. But he doesn't talk about the hard stuff.

It's easy for me to say, "I believe if every child in American got a decent education and training, if every child were ready and able to enter the job market, if every school in America loved and valued those children and alongside their parents nurtured them into adulthood, that the America we all want can become a reality!"

Queue applause.

Rally people around the outcome that EVERYONE would obviously like to see on both ends and you come off sounding like the candidate EVERYBODY should support.

The problem is, people disagree on what it will take to achieve that. And if he is going to take us on a journey, we need to know if we think that road trip will TRULY lead to the destination he promises.

Personally, I have yet to see a map from this guy.

Absolutely untrue. I guess we can say the same for you.....your feelings about McCain are nothing more than the fact that he's white Can we for ONCE leave the race card out of something???

Pardon me, but YOU were the first one to bring Obama into this thread:

First here, in your initial post: "In spite of the fact that the Iraqi government embraces a time line for withdrawal similar to Obama's, McCain believes that we should stay for 100 years."

And then here, in your next post:

" Not enough? My opinion of McCain is based on my observations of him. Yours of Obama are based on your "gut." " After Wowitsdark stated "that's all??"

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

Oh.
My.
Gawd!
Color has absolutely NOTHING to do with my gut reaction! I'd feel the same way if he were white, brown, or pink w/ purple polka dots!

After having watched Obama speak---he is arrogant, and the emotions that he's conveying in his speech does not reach to his eyes. I find his charisma to be on the surface only. I find him arrogant. I don't think he has the experience to be an effective world leader, thus, he would need(in order to be an effective world leader) to choose extremely well for his cabinet posts--and given his arrogance, I don't know if he'd follow the advice of more seasoned and knowledgable people.

And....I won't even discuss his wife; Suffice it to say, I don't like her.

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

Marilyn, this is rare for me, but I completely agree with you here.

I know this may seem like I'm beating a dead horse that everyone thought was down and out weeks ago, but I still think about the church they attended for the past 20 years. That place is very, very, very obviously a racially divisive place. Race is a huge issue there. Whether justified or not, that minister carried a monstrously huge chip on his shoulder against white people and was very vocal about it.... and the Obama family made the choice to go back there week after week, year after year.

I don't agree with everything I hear from our pulpit, but you'll never, ever, ever hear anything as racially charged as you heard from Mr. Wright (can't bring myself to call him "Reverand"!) I'd walk in a heartbeat if our pulpit became a place to express political and racial convictions.

The fact that the O's DIDN'T walk tells me something about them. He ONLY walked once his membership became a noose. So either he ditches his long-time relationships to get what he wants, or he sleeps through church and didn't know what that place was all about. NEITHER of those scenarios speaks well of him.

He chose to sit in a pew and silently listen to a man rail against America for years. Now he goes abroad and insinuates negativity about America to foreign nations in a "We are the World" speech, as though he wants to be their leader and wants Americans to become more like them. He complains that we don't speak the languages of Europe when the reality is, in Europe, there ARE English-speaking nations, the countries are small and share borders and people travel from one to the other with relative frequency, so it makes sense that in Europe, people NEED to know each other's languages to get by.

What percentage of Americans can AFFORD to travel to and from Europe with frequency? Or at all? Perhaps the Obamas can, but most Americans can't.

He has these pie in the sky warm and fuzzy speeches about the *World*, but doesn't seem all that interested in the lives of *Americans*. It seems shallow to me because it's easy to say all the right things about world peace and harmony and get the masses to think you're sweetness and light.... but that's ALL I see in him. I don't see the courage to stand by his convictions. He cut and run from his church and his minister, for crying out loud, and if you can't make and keep religious ties - or if you can maintain them for 20 years and then suddenly act like you didn't really *know* the guy and cut ties from him - something is amiss below the surface.

Crazy way to start a Friday morning isn't it??? LOL

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

Once again, Marilyn, I agree with you. (APPLAUSE!) You said it perfectly, girl!

Obama is still half white, too, right????

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

Hmmm... that's a good question!

Surely so, but I guess one never knows!

I'm out of town, and just reading, but I just had to say.....

I agree with Marilyn too!!!! lol

Interesting threads, wish I had more time!!!


Melissa

Sadly, I can't give you more rep.

I get the feeling that every thread from now on about McCain will have to turn to Obama. There are no McSame talking points, not much to say about him other than "oh there he is, in front of the cheese aisle."

Plus, I think it's great that the republicans can't seem to be excited about their own candidate and are (obviously) so fascinated w/ ours that they turn everything back to a discussion of him. It's fun to watch.

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"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? " ~Epicurus

What I do find impressive about McCain
"26 years in Congress, 22 years of military service including 1,966 days in captivity as a POW"

compared to Obama's
"8 years state senator in Illinois, and a little over 3 years in the U.S. Senate representing Illinois"

I do not really like McCain..but I would consider experience as a big plus.

Everyone is high on the essence of BO now that he's taken his Excellent Adventure and proclaimed he's running for King of the World. His three Press Secretaries from the major networks haven't given us much JM info and so there just isn't much to say about him this week.

But don't you worry - I'm confident that this news dry spell won't last long. Eventually the fair and balanced network will have time to tell us what he's up to.

Yes, even Fox has only provided Obama-driven news all week long.

Well, as jaded said, as soon as his staff can get JM out of the cheese aisle at Piggly Wiggly maybe we will have something to discuss besides Senator Obama and his most excellent adventure. BTW, someone really should tell JM yellow is NOT a good background color for him -- I'm thinking he would have looked much better in front of the hotdog display.

Maybe the Geritol aisle next time.

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"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? " ~Epicurus