John McCain
Campaign Myths Busted
Whether you're a Democrat or Republican, Socialist or of the Green Party, you are faced with the mind-boggling task of filing through the media's coverage of each candidate. With every click of the remote and turn of the page, falsehoods are being "ripped from the headlines," bearing witness to new age campaigning and swayed voting. As November looms over our heads it is about time that we cleared up a few of these well-known myths.
Endorsements this Election
So endoresments have gotten played pretty big this election. Colin Powell's endoresment of Obama last week was huge. And SNL parodied McCain's avoidence of a Bush endorsement last weekend (http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/update-thursday-bush-... ). But perhaps the biggest endorsement of the election came last week for McCain. And NO ONE talked about it. I usually am pretty up on my news, and I just found out about this today.
Whose endoresment am I talking about? Well that would be Al Qaeda's endorsement of good ol' John McCain. That is kind of huge, especially considering the suggestion by security experts that Al Qaeda might use terrorist attacks in the next week to tip the election in McCain's favor.
What I want to know is why this was hardly covered. This seems like a huge issue worthy of news coverage -- far more important than Sarah Palin's wardrobe.
Check out Nicholas Kristof's column on this endorsement: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/opinion/26kristof.html?_r=1&em&oref=sl...
One week until election day!
Negativity
Democratic Representative John Lewis from Georgia is “deeply disturbed by the negative tone of the McCain-Palin campaign”…and yet when John McCain says Barack Obama is a decent person, the Republican candidate gets boos and shouts of “traitor” among other things.
I don’t know what to make of this. At this point in the election, and at this point in our economic crisis, the candidates and the media need to be focusing on the positive. We already know everything there is to know about what’s going wrong with each campaign.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/12/mccain.lewis/index.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081011/ap_on_el_pr/mccain_angry_crowds
Birth control v. Viagra
Abortion always has been a hot issue in elections and will continue to be for a while. That's not the issue here. The issue instead is birth control coverage. John McCain has voted repeatedly that health insurance companies should not cover birth control and that no federal funding should ever be used for contraceptives. In 2003, McCain voted against an amendment that would require all health insurance companies to cover birth control (S.Amdt. 258 to S. 3). Additionally, McCain wasn't sure how to respond to questions about insurance companies covering Viagra, but not birth control (Watch it here).
This is a huge issue, both economically and socially. Birth control is expensive. Even with health insurance, it can cost over $180 a year. And without health insurance, you're looking at anywhere from $500 to more that $1200 a year. That's ridiculous. Especially for a young woman trying to make responsible decisions with her life - ie: not getting pregnant while in college. The thought of non-coverage worries me greatly, just as much as abortion views worries right-wing voters.
AbortionThe debate goes on?
John McCain claims it is time to put politics aside; time to focus on the issues and fix our economy. Barack Obama, on the other hand, is claiming that dialogue is important more now than ever.
Doesn't that make sense? Should each of the individuals that might be running our country let the voters know what they intend on doing with the economy? It seems to me that McCain is running from having a dialogue.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/25/us/politics/25mccain.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
