On the stump: Cindy McCain speaks to reporters in Birmingham, Mich. Her arm was sprained when an enthusiastic supporter vigorously shook her hand. (Mary Altaffer/AP)
Watchdogs make it harder for politicians to stretch the truth
Cindy McCain's past is the latest to be questioned after errors were found.
By Alexandra Marks | August 20, 2008 edition
Reporter Alexandra Marks talks about political candidates and the need to clarify the family history.
Reporter Alexandra Marks
Gilding the lily is nothing new to politics. From the 1840s when William Henry Harrison claimed to have been born in a log cabin (it was actually a Virginia plantation) to Ronald Reagan’s reminiscing about flying over Germany in World War II (he did, but only in a movie), politicians have taken perfectly good stories and embellished them.
This campaign is no exception. During the primaries, Hillary Rodham Clinton had to back away from claims she “ducked sniper fire” in Bosnia in 1996. Mitt Romney found himself having to explain how he “saw my father march with Martin Luther King,” when it turned out his father never marched with the Rev. Mr. King.
The latest embellishments come from the McCain camp. Cindy McCain has repeatedly referred to herself as an “only child.” This week came news that she actually has two half sisters, although apparently she had very little contact with them.
The McCain campaign had also put out the story that Mother Teresa “convinced” Cindy to bring home two orphans from Bangladesh in 1991.
Mrs. McCain, it turns out, never met Mother Teresa on that trip. (Once contacted by the Monitor, the campaign revised the story on its website.)
Such exaggerations may simply be the product of a faulty memory or a desire to be “better” than one is in a political culture that requires larger-than-life idols. But with the advent of the fact-checking obsessed blogosphere – and a media racing to keep up – such self-aggrandizement doesn’t last as long as it once did.
“It’s all about myth-making,” says Darrell West, the director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “Politicians love to turn their stories into great epics, and sometimes they have to embellish to smooth out the story line.”
“But now there are too many professional and amateur fact-checkers,” he says. “And there are hundreds if not thousands of bloggers who have detailed knowledge on specialized information, so you really can’t get away with stretching the truth anymore.”
The story about Mother Teresa “convincing” Mrs. McCain to bring home two children from an orphanage in Bangladesh has been retold many times. Initially, the “About Cindy McCain” page on the McCain campaign website read: “Mother Teresa convinced Cindy to take two babies in need of medical attention to the United States. One of those babies is now their adopted daughter, 16-year-old Bridget McCain.”
The media picked up the theme. A story earlier this year on ABC’s “Good Morning America” stated, “With Mother Teresa’s encouragement she brought her fourth child, Bridget, home.” An April 2008 Wall Street Journal profile states that Mother Teresa “implored” Cindy to bring the girls to the United States. Other articles say Cindy did it “at the behest” of Mother Teresa.
But a source who was with McCain on that 1991 trip, and who asked that his name not be used because of prior legal dealings with the McCain family, says that Mother Teresa was not at the orphanage when Cindy decided to bring the two girls home.
A 1991 article in the Arizona Star at the time of the adoption only mentions that the children were from an orphanage that was started by Mother Teresa. It does not mention a meeting with Mother Teresa or her asking McCain to bring the girls to the US.
According to biographies of Mother Teresa, in 1991 she was in Mexico where she developed medical problems. From there, she went to a hospital in La Jolla, Calif.
A McCain source acknowledged that Cindy McCain did not meet Mother Teresa during the 1991 trip to Bangladesh but said McCain did meet her later on, although the source could not say when or where. The campaign has since reworded the reference to the adoption on its website.
In another instance, McCain told the Chicago Tribune earlier this year that on one of her medical missions to Vietnam she was in “the very hospital – and in the very room – where her husband was brought after being shot down and then beaten by a mob during the war.”
A 1992 Washington Times story recounts a different version: “Mrs. McCain asked to see the operating room and her husband’s cell, but was turned down. She took the rejection philosophically. ‘It’s 27 years later. Let’s go on,’ Mrs. McCain said.”
The McCain campaign again declined to comment on the discrepancy.
On background, a source close to Mrs. McCain confirmed that she was denied entry. But, the source added: “At some point thereafter, she toured the hospital and did coincidentally end up in the senator’s room.”
“Everybody tells white lies, but in the political world it’s a little different because it raises the question that if people lie about little things, are they also going to lie about big stuff that really matters?” says Mr. West.
Misremembering and stretching the truth is without doubt a bipartisan phenomenon. Twenty years ago, Sen. Joe Biden (D) of Delaware’s presidential campaign faltered when it was learned that he had lifted passages from a speech by then-British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock and that he’d also said he’d done better in law school than he actually had.
Earlier this year, Barack Obama’s campaign admitted that he overstated his father’s connection to the Kennedy family.
In speeches, Obama had said the Kennedy family provided funding for the 1959 airlift that brought his father from Kenya to the United States for an education. But according to research done by The Washington Post, the Kennedy clan didn’t contribute to the airlift efforts until 1960, a year after his father was already studying in Hawaii. When The Washington Post brought the discrepancy to the attention of the Obama campaign it readily acknowledged there was a mistake.
“You always have to look for a pattern,” says political analyst Larry Sabato, at the University of Virginia. “If it happens once, you can say it’s a memory problem, but if there’s a pattern there, there’s a problem.”
[Editor’s note: the original version did not specify when Mrs. McCain had not met Mother Teresa]
Comments
2. Ray Andrews | 08.20.08
With all due respect to a true American hero, it appears to me that the bulk of the much vaunted experience of which McCain is so proud has been in losing:
1. Graduated fifth from the bottom in his Naval Academy class;
2. Got himself shot down and captured in the war;
3. Served a full career in the Navy but never matched either his grandfather or father who both achieved the rank of admiral;
4. survived a failed marriage cause by his own cheating;
5. According to his official congressional listing has had only one private sector job, that of “beer distributor;
6. Lost to George Bush in the Republican primaries during which, when asked why he wanted to be president, could only respond, “It’s always been my ambition.”
My guess is that this list could easily be extend to a much longer one. But already, I think it is longer than his list of achievements.
In 26 years,one can have two kinds of experiences. One is 26 years of learning and achieving. The other is one year, repeated 26 times. It seems to me, Mr. McCain has had the latter career path and that it has been one of achieving failure.
3. Jacob | 08.20.08
It’s too bad the media doesn’t give the same scrutiny to a story about McCain. If this was about Michelle Obama it would be played in constant rotation on all channels. So much for a fair and balanced playing field.
4. mojo3 | 08.20.08
It is this type of information which should be introduced and brought to the VOTERS’ attention. MSM, should be on top of this in a heartbeat!!!!
5. seema agarwala | 08.20.08
Why would M. Teresa, who lived and ran an orphanage in Calcutta send Cindy off to Bangladesh to adopt children? The bigger issue here is not that Cindy lied about this, but that these she/the McCain campaign are this clueless.
6. Bethechange | 08.20.08
The McCains are congenital liars. They can’t keep track of all the lies they’ve told over the years. Cindy and her addition to drugs. Cindy lying about being an only child. Cindy lying about her “family recipe.” Cindy lying about Mother Teresa convincing her to adopt.
John lying about his vet voting record. John lying in when he was in Pittsburgh saying it was the Pittsburgh Steelers defensive lineup he named as his squadron mates when he was being interrogated in Vietnam. Everybody knows in his book he wrote it was the Green Bay Packers. He lied about the cross in the sand story being his when in reality he plagiarized it from Solzhenitsyn.
What’s wrong with these people? This is who we want in the White House? People who inherently lie and embellish to suit their needs?
7. Carole | 08.20.08
Ray Andrews I could not agree more!
It is a shame we don’t hear more of this reported in the “liberal” press.
10. Veneita | 08.20.08
Don’t forget the “family recipes” from Rachel Ray’s kitchen and was the other Hershey’s or Betty Crocker?
11. Russell Samuelson | 08.20.08
The way the news media is covering this election and not mentioning Mc Cains lies and record of underachievement reminds me of the 2000 election when they fell all over Bush and panned everthing Gore said. It seems to me the corporate owned media has chosen their man and it is McCain. No matter what enraging comment he makes the only place you find it is on the internet but nothing on the main medai types
12. Sarah, Kansas City, MO | 08.20.08
How about Cindy’s stealing narcotics from her own charity? There is another washed over story. I suppose when you meet your present husband while still married to your first one things may be hard to live with. Apparently, the two of them were both still married to their prevous spouses while they were ‘dating’ for several months before finally filing for their respective divorces.
There has been plenty of linen washing when it comes to the McCain’s. Can you imagine if McCain were the democrats choice, instead of the republicans, how the media as well as the republicans would be all over it.
13. wcf | 08.20.08
I’m amazed that nobody has drawn much attention to the fact that Mrs. McCain’s vast fortune comes from the sale of beer. Alcohol is a poison that has destroyed, and is continuing to destroy, the lives of literally millions of Americans. The McCains have profited enormously from the misery of others. Why is this not a campaign issue?
14. jim schmidt | 08.20.08
How could this article discuss political fabrications and neglect to mention the Hillary Clinton Bosnian sniper fire fiasco?
Anyway, sure McCain and Obama both embellish their resumes. McCain’s cross in the dirt POW story might be totally made up, and what is a “community organizer” anyway? The real issue is: which candidate will better serve the interests of the people, and which one will work for the corporations and the rest of the ruling elite? Answer that one, and that’s who you should vote for. Everything else is window dressing.
15. DiegoUK | 08.20.08
John McCain has told a bigger lie, which has not been brought into the light of the Lord: that he is saved. When was he saved? Where did it happen? Who presided? What epiphany did he take into himself?
Pandering God? I do believe so.
While John McCain will reach the judgment of our Lord in the hereafter, WE are required to give him our judgment in November.
16. Joan | 08.20.08
The true character of the McCains needs to be brought out in the open. When the old man follows bin Laden to the gates of hell, his trophy wife will be there waiting for him.
17. Kate | 08.20.08
Yes, the candidates are flawed, as are their wives. We try to weed out the least-flawed candidates through our primaries, and here we are with only these two men. Does a perfect candidate (and wife) exist? Of course not. We drag them down through the gutter in this horribly long election process. Cindy McCain brought home a little girl and raised her. What generosity! Thanks, Cindy. And thank you to Bridget’s mother in Bangladesh for choosing life.
18. Jeremy | 08.20.08
McCain’s entire campaign is built around a myth. Cindy’s fibs are small potatoes by comparison to the way the myth of the maverick has been peddled. The fact is that he’s %100 neocon in his foreign policy outlook, not at all a maverick. Furthermore, his economic policies were written by lobbyists, starting with Phil Gramm who is a paid agent of a foreign bank with subprime holdings. The truth is that McCain is connected with the two great financial meltdowns of the last 50 years. Through Gramm he’s connected to the subprime crisis and through Keating he’s connected to the S&L crisis. Not at all mavericky.
19. Carolyn Phillips | 08.20.08
At last, someone other than me gets it! I know there are no “perfect”
people, that’s a given; but these McCains absolutely take the cake! Cindy
McCain was/is?? addicted to drugs, not only did she lie/plagiarize something
as simple as a recipe, she knew full well that John McCain was a married man
when she began an affair with him! That doesn’t make HER an adultress but it
does make her a big-time word that starts with W and ends with E!! If the laws of the Old Testament were followed, they’d be running for their lives,
trying to dodge some mighty big stones! And, her “war-hero” husband is not
only “immoral” but he is one heartless human being! If his wife (Carol) had
been in good health, and he wanted out of the marriage for another woman, that would have been bad…but to leave this woman, who had been severely
injured in an auto-accident AND his children was as low as you can get. Neither one of them deserve the trust and admiration of the American people!
20. Maddie | 08.20.08
Jim Schmidt,
go back and READ the article, Bosnian sniper fire fiasco is mentioned in the second paragraph, second sentence.
21. Adam R | 08.20.08
With McCain’s temper, wouldn’t be surprised if he flips out on Cindi…. hope he doesn’t get violent. McCain is a womanizer and wife beater….. possibly a sleeper communist. Yes, McCain may be a communist from years of brainwashing in Vietnam…plus he’s to futher mucking old. Hillary Clinton supporters who support him are the new Ralph Naders….
23. MizLiz | 08.20.08
I can’t help but notice that the only McCain girls being trotted out for public viewing are the cute blonde ones. What did they do with Bridget? Lock her up in the attic for the duration?
24. duane alford | 08.20.08
just as the previous comments have pointed out the list of lies are overwellming. the disgrace is in the coverage from the media that is controlled by the neoconservatives.real & fair journalism is a thing of the pass
25. ES | 08.20.08
One of the greatest diseases that our country is facing is a vast population of people (baby boomers?) who feel that they are “entitled” to a certain lifestyle, a certain position in life.
Obama worked his way up the ladder….didn’t acknowledge his ethnicity on his application to Harvard because he wanted to be accepted on his merits, wrote his own books (Salter wrote McCain’s books), etc. There’s a long list of Obama achievements.
McCain has been claiming his entitlement from day one. He’s always wanted to be the President, and in his mind, he’s entitled to it.
He’s supported by people who worry that they’ll lose their entitlements under Obama. “What if he starts taxing what I inherited?” “What if he makes me volunteer for something?” “What if our kids have to work hard to get into the colleges they’re entitled to attend?”
What happened to conscience? True love of country (and our fellow citizens)?
26. andrea doria | 08.20.08
Dear Kate: You ‘thank’ Bridget McCain’s biological Bangladeshi mother for ‘choosing life’. I doubt that Bridget McCain’s mother in Bangladesh had many options. Yes it is admirable to extend a helping hand, yet the McCain’s certainly have the resources to take on the enormous financial burden of an additional child. Not only do they have her beer fortune, Senator McCain has the best health insurance available in this country, makes a hefty salary as a senator, and of course since he is disabled and is unable to work, he gets a sizeable annual benefit from the VA–all of which are paid for by the tax paying public–primarily the middle class.
Many people with fewer resources have a much harder time adopting a child yet do so willingly. Many people can’t because they don’t have the resources. So in a way, I kind of expect the wealthy to pick up the slack here since that is the model McCain’s party is promoting — a weak government ruled by the wealthy elite.
27. SWMissouri | 08.20.08
I say it’s time to go nuclear on the Repubs. I just read an article where McCain’s folks are now calling Obama a Terrorist. Wow…that’s not attacking his patriotism at all.
So it’s time to take the gloves off like we have never done and tear McCain down so that a dog turd wouldn’t vote for him. For starters how about a commercial with McCain and Larry Craig. Maybe we can get some actors in stalls tapping their feet. And how about McCain’s disservice while in the Navy? Release McCain’s Military records. Let’s see how those play out. I want to know when and how John McCain became a devout Christian…and why we was pandering to Planned Parenthood in the past if he has a 26 year history of being right to life. The Keating Scandal were millions of American’s lost life saving…McCain didn’t lose anything but he was ass deep in it. Cindy McCain’s drug abuse, where’s the coverage on that. Ralph Redd, another devout Christian, and Jack Abramoff…and McCain…that needs to be on TV every hour on the hour. Every vote McCain has given against Veterans rights, against working families. Last but not least how about the fact that he’s a dottering old coot that can barely remember to zip his fly in the morning. Does he have Alzheimer’s…how about a blood test to check…let’s see his medical records for more than a few minutes telling us what a remarkable behind he has. I’m sure we could have gotten that information from Senator Craig. Now there’s some investigative reporting for ya.
28. Arthur King | 08.20.08
There was a very good comment made earlier. Mother Teresa did her work in India. Bangladesh is (ahem) in another country and used to be called East Pakistan, if I am not mistaken. I can promise you Mother Teresa never had ANYTHING to do with orphanages in Bangladesh. I should have caught that earlier, but so should the McCain campaign. Heck, they’re the ones who made it up. Are they that clueless and fuzzy on geography?
And if that story was manufactured, what other ones are?
29. James Files | 08.20.08
What I cannot believe is how John McCain has been given a complete pass on having caused the deaths of 130 some sailors. The following is one of the kindest version of the incident. “http://www.usvetdsp.com/jan08/mccain_military_record.htm”
Others claim that he wet started his jet and caused the “accident”. No one denies that he was the first person, not wounded, that was evacuated from the ship because his shipmates wanted blood.
30. Kellianne | 08.20.08
Why doesn’t the public deserve to know that John McCain called his wife the most vile word in the English language, c**t, in from of 3 Arizona reporters? If Barack Obama had said it about anyone, we’d being hearing about it nonstop.
I don’t understand why the media feels the need to protect John McCain instead of serving the public’s need for information about their candidate. I can think of nothing more important than a man using this word to his wife. That speaks volumes about his character.
31. Bette | 08.20.08
It is really a shame that people take just about everything out of context when it comes to what another person says. Cindy McCain has never said she was an only child. She has always said “I was raised as an only child”. I know people who have know Cindy for years and she has acknowledged her half siblings, but has had little connection with them. THis happens in countless families of divorce and re-marriage and with the children. I hear a lot of unnecessary sour graping in the above comments. ALL humans are flawed; all our memories are also flawed. To coin a phrase– “let he who is without sin, cast the first stone”.
32. Tony Gillotte | 08.20.08
The American form of democracy has been a complete sham during this election cycle. Despite all the media attention, there are so many versions of lies being peddled by McCain and his wife, Cindy, that the mind boggles as to why the mainstream media hasnt picked up on any one of a dozen of these stories. The simple fact is that the media are corporately owned and dont want the real blowback that investigations into McCain and Cindy improprieties would bring. In other words, they are afraid the public will not take them seriously if they bring up these feet of clay stories. The other reason is that the media works on bringing what they like to consider new or fresh news stories. And, if you go after a longer investigative piece, you have to spend more money for a story that the consumer may have heard or read in another media form. Then there is the problem of the mainstream media prefering easier to tell stories like the gas price hike. And online sites are still suspected of being rumor led. And newspapers have cut back their staffs and may not have as many people as they need to pull off a Woodward and Bernstein scoop. And this is the situation in the land of the free and home of the brave. Where we threaten Russia by circling them with missles, expand Nato, ignore the ballistic missle treaties and then expect them to roll over and accept all this without any reaction.
What the hell kind of foreign policy is Bush trying to foist on other countries? Where the hell is the state department’s cooler and wiser heads? Bush should be impeached for endangering the world, destroying our efforts to bring in Russian from the cold war and for all the crimes and misdemeanors he and his cohorts have committed during the Iraq War.
Its really that simple, except that he has caused so much fear among the population, especially the evangelicals and right wing republican nuts, that everyone is afraid to do the right thing.
Tony Gillotte
33. Calouste | 08.20.08
McCain also forgot to tell another important detail in his “cross in the dirt” story: he moved camps between the first half of the story and the second half.
According to his 1973 report in US News and World Report (available online), he was relieved from torture by a guard in or around May 1969.
In his book “Faith of my Fathers”, he says he was moved to a different camp before Christmas 1969.
So the guard moved camps as well?
Not to metion that McCain has never mentioned the year in which the Christmas story took place.
34. Deanna | 08.20.08
John McCain cheated in his question and answer at Saddleback. A moral man? Would not have listened to get a leg up on the questions prior but his ambition is so great that he will sell what integrity he has left to gain the Presidency. After that? Who knows what he will do with our sons and daughters and the war he intends to maintain for 100 years. Goodness know Blackwater, Halliburton and other companies he panders to still need to make more money. They have only raked in 131 Billion since this started 6 years ago.
People truly do not understand that this election, like no other, will set the path that we either change or continue down. We must see to it that Senator Obama wins in November…and I’m a Republican!
35. Astrid | 08.20.08
Shame on her, but also shame on the MSM, because we will not be able to read about this anywhere else. Good thing this was not Michele Obama, she would be in the news for days to come.
I do not like John McCain, simply because from what I learned, he seems to be an opportunist, and that is frightening. For people to tell these little lies seems to be sort of opportunist, they do not think that we will find out or realize the lie. A insult to our intelligence. Well, some of us are born before No Child Left Behind became law, but this is proof again that we must stand up this time and let our voice to be heard. Obama is resisting the pressure of his own advisors to be more aggressive and attack McCain, in my opinion he the true Christian here, and is trying very hard to run a decent campaign. I am glad for that, hopefully people will not mistake him for weak.
36. Debanne | 08.20.08
I am not surprised by the double standard stuff when it is about McCain.
McCain could walk around butt naked and everyone would just look around and say,”Oh, that’s John McCain being John, it’s okay”.
CSM and all the other media ignore most of McCain’s indiscretions.
No offense, but John McCain is way beyond flawed. Politics bring out the worse and eventually the truth.
37. Goerge of the Jungle | 08.20.08
Please continue to highlight the fact that they brought two orphans home from poverty, adopting one, and giving both a much better life…irregardless of Mother Theresa’s involvement. This reflects sooooo bad on them. Idiots.
38. Tillie | 08.20.08
OMG…I cannot believe how biased the media is..what has this country become? Fortunately there wasn’t any bias during the Clinton years! More important for us though is knowing the “chosen one” has not any flaws or blemishes in its campaign needing to be white washed!
39. James Moylan | 08.20.08
McCain cheated on his wife and then divorced her because he reconsidered his vows. Apparently he is of the ilk who believe that “to have and to hold, for ever and ever,” means “to have and to hold, until circumstances change.”
I made a vow to my wife. Much the same vow as McCain made. However I listened to what was being agreed to when I made my sacred pact and I intend to live up to my word.
The least I expect from my elected representative is to be able to believe their word and the first place I look when tryin to figger out any guys bona fides is their personal life. I’m sorry. Can’t vote for a man who would divorce a lady for no other reason than it being expedient.
End of story.
41. Diana T | 08.20.08
I think it is terrible that the media is not giving the same scutiny to the McCains as it is the Obamas. The media is shirking its duty to bring us all the aspects of a story; in this case, they go on and on creating doubt about Obama and ignoring McCain and his piccadillos, his violent temper, and his dubious adulterous relationship with his present wife whilst his first wife was very badly hurt and in hospital.
I have given up trying to prepare for this election by depending exclusively on the network/television media; I am doing deep research into McCains shocking and appalling voting record and what position papers of his I can find.
This is simply the last person I would ever want to see in the Oval Office and being the one that makes the decision about pushing the red button.
42. Casey | 08.20.08
Let’s shed the same light on John “I know how to win wars” McCain, shall we? Because, if he wins…he’s said he wouldn’t disagree with needing a draft.
The constant lies in his ads (when he knows they’ve factchecked as lies by officially unbiased sources); the plagiarism from wikipedia and Solzhenitsyn, even Clinton’s 3am ad; the lobbyists that control his campaign; the lies about money from lobbyists; the adultery - even to applying for a marriage license before getting a divorce from first wife Carol - McCain’s years of adultery;
It’s just too much and he’s saying it was “30 years ago” like it doesn’t matter… but it should matter about his experience (40 years ago?)
John McCain is a moral and ethical wasteland.
Is this someone we want to lead our country? Not me. I want my grandchildren to have a decent role model in that office. We could certainly use one after the last 8 years of lies and deceit, don’t you think?
43. Jim Healer | 08.20.08
Republicans, Independents, Undecided: Are you sure you want a president who has being itching to get even with Russia and Iran and start WW3? Do you want military draft,an even worse economic conditions ? Be part of the solution and say no with your vote!
44. A. T. Palestini | 08.20.08
Maybe Cindy can accurately retell the story of how she stole drugs from her agency and how a doctor she pressured to give her drugs got his license suspended while she barely got a slap on the wrist. Oh yeh, the same wrist that hurts so much now. Ironically, that incident happened several days after I had sent emails to several friends that contained pics from a Huffington Post article about her deteriorating dress and style that looked to me like she was back using the narcs. Wonder what they gave her at the ER, the place most drug addicts go to get more Oxy, Vico and Percs.
45. Lucy | 08.20.08
I heard that Rick Warren of Saddleback repeat on Larry King the Mother Theresa story. Everyone misremembers some things, but this is just an out an out lie. One would remember advice from such a revered figure as Mother Theresa.
Legal documents also show that Cindy and John lied repeatedly about when they started a relationship - it was not after he had separated from wife #1 - and when he applied for marriage license with Cindy - he was still married.
Cindy’s father left her older sister by his first wife only $10,000 with Cindy receiving the millions. Her father too left his first wife the same way McCain did. The family values party. Such hypocrites. Michelle Obama comes from a hard working respectable family, yet somehow some people buy that she is an elitist along with her husband. But not the McCains with their millions and their 9 houses.
46. Kwaayesnama | 08.20.08
I would ask John McCain what has he ever accomplished for his home state in his 26 years in Washington. This Arizona Republican is not supporting John McCain because of his lack of support for our state in DC. McCain’s call to fame is that he is the only representative in Washington never to request any earmarks for his home state. What does that prove? To me it shows that in McCain’s mind Arizona is so wealthy that we do not need any assistance from Washington. It seems he is happy to see all the tax dollars that we send to DC go to other states. Wake up John McCain! Arizona has Indian Reservations with unemployment over 60%. We have beautiful rural areas that would greatly benefit from an increase in tourism. McCain’s lack of concern for Arizona shows that when John and Cindy fly over our state in their private plane that they do not pay attention to the people that live outside of Scottsdale. Lets see if in November the citizens of Arizona will send him a message and not vote for him.
47. Linda M. | 08.20.08
Someone please check out the affair McCain started in Las Vegas 15 years ago on a blonde Texan’s 21st birthday. He subsequently continued the affair sending limos for her to rendezvous after political function(s) in Austin. This must be easy to check. How often was John McCain in Austin?
My sister-in-law knows her as do other acquaintances.
Let’s dig up this dirt and piss off Cindy!!!!!!!!!!
This is true, on Mother
Teresa’s honor!
48. Homework Help | 08.20.08
As soon as one politician starts lying, all politician feel the urge to lie just to stay in the competition. It takes real integrity to speak only the truth as a politician.
49. franticbear | 08.20.08
What great posts - I just started a list of reasons not to vote for McCain and the list actually gets longer and longer. You can categorize them into foreign policy issues, economic issues, honesty/integrity issues, and just lies… Keep the comments comming!!
Franticbear in CA
50. Sylvia | 08.20.08
I like this Ray……………………. so nice………had to do it twice.
2. Ray Andrews | 08.20.08
With all due respect to a true American hero, it appears to me that the bulk of the much vaunted experience of which McCain is so proud has been in losing:
1. Graduated fifth from the bottom in his Naval Academy class;
2. Got himself shot down and captured in the war;
3. Served a full career in the Navy but never matched either his grandfather or father who both achieved the rank of admiral;
4. survived a failed marriage cause by his own cheating;
5. According to his official congressional listing has had only one private sector job, that of “beer distributor;
6. Lost to George Bush in the Republican primaries during which, when asked why he wanted to be president, could only respond, “It’s always been my ambition.”
My guess is that this list could easily be extend to a much longer one. But already, I think it is longer than his list of achievements.
In 26 years,one can have two kinds of experiences. One is 26 years of learning and achieving. The other is one year, repeated 26 times. It seems to me, Mr. McCain has had the latter career path and that it has been one of achieving failure.
51. Moxieme, Kansas City | 08.20.08
Unfortunately, the honchos at the networks and newspapers will do everything in their power to ensure McCain is elected. Their blatant disrespect of Obama cannot be reconciled if he becomes POTUS. McCain can forget his little maverick delusion. If he is elected he will become a little puppet. He doesn’t have the common sense to realize he is being used. Talk about a Manchurian candidate. Perhaps the New Yorker will produce a cover of Cindy and John at the altar with and Nancy Reagan and Carol McCain in her wheelchair as their amicable witnesses and a Rick Warren performing the ceremony with a portrait of Mother Teresa hanging on the wall and see if they see the humor and satire in that!!! The hypocrites!!
52. ahsansaid | 08.20.08
Who the hell cares if he met Mother Teresa or not. The point is she adopted a child who would otherwise have had no future. What she did was noble, and on the other hand you are a low life for making this young girl a political issue.
BTW I am a Obama Democrat. You are an idiot.
53. Steve Myers | 08.20.08
Why does McCain want to be president? No reason other than ambition. He told us in his book:
Worth The Fighting For, p. 373, published September 2002:
“I didn’t decide to run for president to start a national crusade for the political reforms I believed in or to run a campaign as if it were some grand act of patriotism. In truth, I wanted to be president because it had become my ambition to be president.”
McCain is like Bush in more ways than policies. They have similar psychology. Both have relied on family connections, both were party boys, neither one was a good student, both were failures as adults (check McCain’s record before his capture), both had strong, extremely successful fathers who it would be hard to live up to.
Evan Thomas did yet another article about McCain’s POW experience. But I learned something new from McCain’s psych report:
“Always, the fear of disgracing his forebears hung over him. “He has been preoccupied with escaping the shadow of his father and establishing his own image and identity in the eyes of others,” reads a psychiatric evaluation in McCain’s medical files. “He feels his experiences and performance as a POW have finally permitted this to happen.” Released after the 1973 Peace Accords, McCain returned to the United States a hero. “Felt fulfillment when his Dad was introduced at a dinner as ‘Commander McCain’s father.’ He had arrived,” noted the psychiatric report in 1974.”
Sounds like daddy issues to me. He needs to prove he can achieve more than his father, the Admiral.
54. Gabe | 08.20.08
McCain was in solitary confinement in Hanoi for 3 years!
Just imagine the file the Russians have on him. Can anyone assure us that he did not flip? How can we take the risk of electing a turncoat as our commander and chief??!!!
Surely McCain word unsubstantiated is not enough.
One of the points that is often mentioned as PROOF (sic) that McCain was loyal is his refusal for early release! I say HIS refusal, what did he have to say in that , He was a prisoner of the Vietnamese- they and only they decided to release him or keep him- in fact keeping him longer as a cover makes alot of sense.
This man should never even get a security clearance let alone run our country.
55. Urojen | 08.20.08
The medis here is poorly informed that none questioned how Mother Teresa who had her ashram in Calcutta which is a part of India asked Cindy McCain to adopt the children from Bangladesh which is another country!McCain was supposed have teared up when mentioning the meeting with Mother Teresa.This goes to show:1.McCain is a compulsive liar 2.He cares hoots about countries like Bangladesh that he thinks is part of India(expert in foreign policy!)3.He is so sure about getting a free pass from the MSM.4.As long as it helps him he does not care whose name he invokes,whether it is Mother Teresa or Martin Luther King or Congressman Lewis.
McCain felt like a Georgian during the Georgia Russia conflict.Has he ever felt like calling himself a Sudanese even at the height of the genocidr in Darfur or identifying with the people of Congo when millions lost their lives.Oh yeah they do not deserve McCain’s solidarity becos they have nothing for US to ally with them!Nor even oil pipes!McCain is the man! He is all about improving the economy by promoting the countries where our corporations can mint money so that the real Americans (the CEOs)can prosper.Vote for McCain the saviour of Corporate America!
56. Rebecca | 08.21.08
My goodness, people! How big are the boulders in your eyes? It would be nice if none of the political components in this election year ever fabricated anything. But, alas! ALL have at some point. And, guess what? I’d venture to say, so has every one of us at some time or another. And to some of you who must not ever drink a drop of alcohol, do you not ever overeat? Have you not ever smoked? Or done drugs? Do you not have one vice that affects yourself or others? I don’t know. It seems to me a lot of stones are being tossed around, and who are any of us to toss them? Just discern the best candidate and vote for him. That is a priviledge none of us should abandon. But for goodness sake, stop the belly aching! You sound like a bunch of babies!
57. jac | 08.21.08
McCain says he’s a christian, so far nothing he’s said or done shows that side to me. He either tells flat out lies or half truths. The way he goes on about starting wars makes he think he has no regard for life. He’s pro-life on the unborn but where’s the same consideration for the innocent Iqaq children. Do their lives not matter to McCain as long as America can take the oil from their country.
58. jac | 08.21.08
McCain says he’s a christian, so far nothing he’s said or done shows that side to me. He either tells flat out lies or half truths. The way he goes on about starting wars makes me think he has no regard for life. He’s pro-life on the unborn but where’s the same consideration for the innocent Iqaq children. Do their lives not matter to McCain as long as America can take the oil from their country.
60. kravitz | 08.21.08
what about her father’s mafia connections. all the half sisters starting to come out suggest there were women involved with the hensley brothers related to the arizona mafia that got arizona republic reporter don bolles killed. yes, cindy mccain has a connection to a journalist’s murder. in case you hadn’t heard.
62. redeemer777 | 08.21.08
This election is a referendum on the media. Its like they are saying, “we choose the president and you can’t do $h!t about it”
63. KQuark | 08.21.08
I don’t understand it how come just because McCain is a Republican he is treated with kid gloves by people of faith. McCain does not have a religious bone in his body. Nobody who is a strong Christian would see the world through the eyes of war first and diplomacy second. Even his cross in the sand story was stolen from his favorite author that wrote that story referring to a prisoner in a Soviet Gulag. John and Cindy McCain are unadulterated liars and frauds. McCain could not even admit he cheated on his first wife with Cindy.
64. Raúl | 08.21.08
Let’s stop using terms like “stretching the truth”. It is, in plain english, lying.
65. C. Casperson | 08.21.08
Regarding this article “watchdogs make it harder…” which is basically attacking Cindy McCain by straining out gnats and swallowing camels. She has been always acted in kindness and generosity to help world problems beyond what most people know. Most of the comments written here are cruel and insinuate an exagerated sense of evil as can be seen from the coarse comments that erupted from this article. How many of these commenters have adopted needy children from a developing country or served the many charitable causes Cindy McCain has actively served. She is a very good woman and does not deserve this kind of treatment from a newspaper who is supposed to “injure no man and bless all mankind”.
66. James Wilson | 08.21.08
I wornder how much getting advanced Questions Pastor Rick ask cost Cindy Mc Cain???? 5 million ????? more????????
67. mike l | 08.21.08
mccain is the biggest phony I’ve seen run in a long time. Maverick? Crap, he will do and say whatever he feels will get himself elected. I have no more respect for him. He has no foreign policy experience, no military experience that would make him a good tactician or leader. He questions Obama’s patriotism continually and lies that he doesn’t, yet embellishes his own POW captivity, about his “honor” for refusing to get out early when his fellow POWs would have beat the crap out of him if he had chosen to leave. Every dime he’s ever earned, not counting cindy’s millions, has been from our tax dollars. Tried to look good using Dem leaders in a commercial saying how good he is, but all those Dems immediately came out and slammed him as a man they no longer know. Kerry said it best: the 2000 jhn mccain would not vote for the 2008 version. And neither should any one else.
68. Aylah95 | 08.21.08
I’ve been wondering? Why is it in 2004 we were supposed to disregard a Vietnam Veteran married to an heiress as an elitest simply ‘using’ their service as an excuse but in 2008 you can’t even call McCain on the ‘cone of silence’ lie without him coming out with ‘how dare someone call into question a POW?’ If I recall correctly some of McCain’s very council (Bush’s non-serving war cowards who said in 2000 McCain could be mentally gone from his time as a POW) smeared Kerry for fighting for his country and coming home to fight in Congress for the men still there.
Things change quickly, or is it that Karl Rove is so manipulative he can convince people who can’t even afford to feed their families and gas up their vehicles in the same week to vote for whoever he says. First he promotes a draft-dodger with no experience over an honorable man and now it is a “war hero” (married to an heiress) over “an elitest with no experience.” As I recall, the only experience Bush had was bankrupting three companies because in his mind he deserved to lead them so someone got him the position. Well, he was made leader of the free world and has all but bankrupted the world economy (Oil countries excluded). We really should listen to McCain and his adviser Karl Rove then. Their wise views tell us the black guy with the foreign name will lead us all to hell in a handbag. And Rove must know since setting up that trip is his specialty.
69. Corey Mondello | 08.21.08
Lets see….which is the BEST lie?
Being shot at
Flying a plane
Being born in a cabin
Having no half-siblings
Saw dad walk with MLK
or
Spoke personally with Mother Teresa who in turn, convinced you to adopt two orphans
I say;
Meeting Mother Teresa has got to be by far the best lie I have EVER heard in my life.
Funny thing is, her cohorts she asked NOT to publish her writting after she died, did the complete opposite and revealed her lack of blind faith.
Lets all pitch in an give Cindy McSane an Oscar !!!
Corey Mondello
Boston, Massachusetts
http://www.CoreyMondello.com
8-20-08
71. Carol | 08.21.08
Rebecca, I think people are just sick of hearing lies and being led into war without provocation, not to mention the billions being siphoned off the economy and lining the pockets of elitist criminals, that they WANT THE TRUTH. I for one am terrified at the thought of John McCain in the White House. Look at the body language. He’s posturing and LYING! She’s lying, too. Where IS the Bangladeshi child? Can she speak English? What is her life like? I’ve seen no mention of it anywhere.
Even those who voted for Bush are now understanding the depth of his deception, and we who did not knew all along that he was using religion to capture a segment of the voters. We cannot and will not tolerate 4 more years of the military/industrial complex running our country. It’s time for CHANGE! Obama ‘08!
72. David S. | 08.21.08
The example set by Mother Teresa’s life work has influenced thousands of people who NEVER met her in person. This isn’t about why Cindy McCain did some kindness fo needy children, it’s about viscious, vindictive newsmedia reporting that will say or infer anything to further their own private agenda.
73. Sabreen | 08.21.08
Cindy has been given a free pass by the media as has her husband. Imagine if the Obamas relationship had started with adultery? What if Michelle had told the lies? The media would have brought this to light during the primaries and Obama would not be the Democratic Party’s candidate. The media has pretty much given the McCains a free ride. When interviewed and McCain lies there are never follow up questions. He has voted ‘no’ (or been absent)11 times when bills have been presented to help our veterans. Yet he speaks in front of veterans as if he is their friend. Since the media never calls him out on his voting record I suspect many veterans may be unaware of his horrible record. I won’t even go into the list of characters he has working on his campaign. McCain will say whatever he wants depending on the audience because he knows the media has a hands off approach when it comes to him. Disgusting! We need to bring back the “Fairness Doctrine” that Reagan helped to get rid of. Maybe then the media will be the media I remember of 40 years ago.
74. jerry rubin | 08.21.08
You also reported that Ms. McCain has a half sister which she does not recognize. Especially if the Right finds out that her father was married to two women at the same time.
75. Josh Green | 08.21.08
I am deeply disturbed by this ‘Mother Teresa convinced Cindi to adopt’ story. The adoption story in itself is great. It does not need to be enhanced or made to sound better. I applaud the McCains for adopting a girl from Bangladesh. I cannot do that. Not many people (even with the means) can do that. But the fact that they added Mother Teresa to the story tells a lot about them. It seems to me that John McCain is trying too hard to sell himself to people of faith. I am a religious person but I don’t like being manipulated on the basis of faith.
I also was bothered by John McCain’s inability to be completely honest at Rick Warren’s Faith Based Forum. Warren’s first question was “How was the cone of silence for you?” John McCain’s answer was “I was trying to listen through the walls”. Why didn’t he say that he was late and that he spent 25 minutes in the car and the last 35 minutes in the cone of silence. He led everyone to believe that he was in the cone of silence all the time during Obama’s interview. Why he could not be upfront about it? It would not have hurt him one bit. In fact most people would respect him even more for telling the complete truth. He was in a church, for Christ’s sake!
I want to take John McCain at his words. But incidents like these are making my doubts bigger. People can easily spot someone who is faking to be religious or faking to care about religion.
76. Jack L | 08.21.08
Unfortunately, you’re talking about our Next President. The writing is on the wall. This country is still not ready to elect the best-person for the job. Be it skin color, age, or whatever, I am sad to say, John McShame will be the next president of the US. God Help Us.
77. Sims | 08.21.08
Who are the real McCains, the lies just keep mounting. I think this man is very dangerous for our country. When the Republicans don’t trust him, I think that speaks volumes. He and his wife continue to lie about their past. Are their more lies out their? I am sure there are. This man is no hero he is a lier that has built his political career on his Heritage and the Vietnam war. He was always given a pass by his superiors in the military because of his father and grandfather and now he is being given a pass by the media and some voters. Thanks for the article, maybe now the truth will start to come out. McCain like Edwards cheated on his sick wife, that alone would be enough to keep me from voting for the fraud.
78. Ron Scheurer | 08.21.08
The older you get the more likely you are to remember things that never happened. It simply seems that people age very quickly from age 10 these days.
79. Dan Riehl | 08.21.08
Strange that you left out the bigest on going lie of them all - Obama’s claim that an un-repentant terrorist is just a guy who happened to live down the lane. It’s increasingly well-known that they worked hand in hand for years. How about some truth telling there CSM?
80. Hannah B | 08.21.08
So many great responses! Yes corporate media ownership is all for McCain.
That said….
McCain morphed from war hero to scum leader. Or has he?
I am a Navy brat/veteran. At Saddleback, Sen. McCain said he was offered early release from the Viet Nam prison camp “because my father was an admiral.” He said releases were normally based on prisoners’ capture dates. He said he gave up his right to be released early to help the prisoner who was then due to be released.
But is this entirely true?
If Sen McCain chose to accept this early release, what would have been the result — for him?
Would he have returned a “hero”? Would his acceptance of an early out because father and grandfather were military elitists dishonored his family? Caused him to be shunned by other NA grads as is the custom? When did he first consider a political career? Running for president?
McCain is now known to be a liar, a plagiarist, an adulterer, a woman abuser, and a dirty rabidly ambitious politician.
Was his 40 year old story about his choice of early release also not squeaky clean?
And by the way, ****has anyone said how Cindy recently broke her arm?***
81. BlogRat | 08.21.08
Bridget McCain, what does she look like? I’ve never seen her. Will she be attending the Convention? Will John appear on stage with his “entire” family when accepting the nomination? She’s about 16 years old, surely there’s nothing more important in her life than sharing this once in a lifetime experience with her dad as he’s officially nominated for President of the United States by his party.
John and Cindy McCain get points for adopting Bridget, but if they display their shame of her on a national stage, then my opinion of these two drops to absolute zero.
82. daniel flanagan | 08.21.08
Sure the MSM treats McCain like its spoiled son, but let’s see it for what it is. Ideologies aside, the networks stand to make a ton more advert money in the Fall election season if the race is close, and right now they’re drooling over each candidate’s $100,000,000+ war chest. They’ll keep McCain within 10 points if they have to drag him through to the GE.
“Murdoch would moon the Queen of England if he thought he could make a buck.”
–Hightower
83. J.Jay | 08.21.08
ha ha ha, Amazing to see all these comments and curiosity as well as an article about it. It is amazing because “POLITICIANS LIE, WHEN THEIR LIPS STARTING TO MAKE MOVEMENT YOU CAN TAKE IT FOR GRANTED THAT THEY ARE LYING”
84. DownriverDem | 08.21.08
The main stream media run by repub corporate board rooms will not do anything that will hurt the McCain campaign.
Can you say “the fix is in” and we the people are really going to lose this time with Bush’s third term.
85. Eugenius Josephus | 08.21.08
If the American Republic were an epic novel in the process of being written we would be living its dénouement (sorry for the French). Neither of the political parties serve the interests of the citizenry at-large either individually or collectively. Think about what percentage of citizens eligible to register to vote who are actually registered. Then look at the percentage of those who ARE registered who actually fulfill their civic duty.
Citizens who would most likely affect societal change are systematically removed from the political process and are replaced with those who are easily manipulated by the true power brokers. These brokers fund both sides of the political process. My opinion is that it has been this way at least since the end of WWII and maybe so since our beginning.
The change required is dramatic. Unfortunately, most of us are unwilling to accept even small responsibilities required to facilitate change. Even most of the poorest of us in this country are having our most basic needs met and as bad off as some believe their situation to be they aren’t going to do anything to ‘upset the apple cart’.
86. Nostradamus | 08.21.08
McCain crashed 5 US Navy planes while a pilot. According to and Navy flight logs, he flew over enemy territory for a total of 20 hours before getting shot down and was awarded 28 metals! More than 1 per hour.
When will that get discussed in the media?
87. Greygolla | 08.21.08
If the McCain program were a reality show, it would probably be cancelled by the sponsors on account of lacking reality.
88. JC | 08.21.08
Embellishments???
Are you functionally retarded?
Cindy McCain knows damn well she never met Mother Theresa. It’s not somthing you forget. SHE LIED!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cindy McCain did not forget she had a half sister all those times she said she was an only child. SHE LIED!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Did you forget “Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor” over hear at CSM.
When you call it embellishments you are bearing false witness. They are lies plain and simple.
89. John Fanning | 08.21.08
Re. “Watchdogs make it harder for politicians to stretch the truth.”
Item 1: So tell me, when exactly did Cindy McCain become a politician? I mean what are we to expect next, an expose on their kids potty training? How about the family pet? I bet we can find an indiscretion or two there that might have been left on a neighbors lawn.
Item 2: I suppose that next we should expose all those mothers who might have told their adopted child that God told them to bring them home.
I would bet that every adoptive parent embellishes the story of how they came to find and love and take home their child. I mean, just how insensitive can this writer be?
Item 3: If you are the only child raised in a home, you are an only child. Having half siblings is like having cousins. You may know they’re around, but that doesn’t mean they’re in your life.
Item 4: So first we refute that Cindy McCain ever visited the cell or hospital where her husband had been held and treated and then we substantiate that she did visit the cell and hospital. So what is the point of this? Should we all come to expect that the wives and children of public figures will be subjected to unsubstantiated rumors and innuendo.
In the interest of full disclosure, I am a Barack Obama supporter. I sincerely believe that Mr. Obama would hold in equal disdain, this type of trash circulating around anything other than garbage containers. This isn’t journalism, it is garbage. The Christian Science Monitor should be ashamed.
90. Niels | 08.21.08
There is one more story that has changed over the years and that is John McCain’s knowledge of the arrival of Bridget and Leela (the girl who was adopted by McCain aide Wes Gullet and his wife).
In most current accounts John McCain claims he had no prior knowledge of their arrival, as he did in dadmag.com in April 2006.
He was asked: You knew about your wife’s decision before hand?
McCain: (laughs) No. She arrived and said “Say hello to your new little daughter.”
While an article in the Arizona Star from December 25, 1991 says: The senator didn’t learn he was about to become a father again until his wife called from Bangkok, Thailand.
While the first story is already absurd and against common and ethical adoption practice, the fact the story has shifted over time, makes me question if this story is invented to cover up John McCain’s use of political influence to get Bridget to the US, circumventing proper procedures.
I wrote a longer account about this case on my own website: http://poundpuplegacy.org/node/20784
91. sue | 08.21.08
Hey Bette,
The man wrote an autobiography. For Gods sake, you think he would at least use it as a reference to make up for that so called poor memory. Come on, lets get real. He tells these lies knowingly and hopes nobody else remembers what he wrote. Either that or he is already so senile that he has no business running for Pres.
92. franklin | 08.21.08
I admire Cindy McCain for adopting a child who needed her. The possibility of telling a lie for political gain about the circumstances is disgusting.
93. Judy | 08.21.08
Are you tired of the favored treatment given by the mass media to John and Cindy McCain? If so, I would suggest your compiling a list of the networks’ biggest sponsors and writing to them, telling them you will boycott their products until the news coverage becomes more even-handed. How many of the contributors here have commented on the glossing-over or ignoring of McCain’s lies and dishonorable acts! I thought I was alone is thinking how terribly biased the media is toward Republicans. My advice to all you young things out there: “Whatever the Repubs complain about, the exact OPPOSITE is the truth.” There is no “liberal media.” Just a shameless Republican bias and suppression of the truth.
94. Nancy Meyer | 08.21.08
My problems with Mr. McCain are very simple: first, he was tortured - and yet he supports the use of torture. Second, he has a temper so vile he called his wife that word IN FRONT OF THE PRESS - which indicates to me a lack of judgment. Third, his negative and nasty ads about his opponent are simply unacceptable. I simply do not trust the man. But I do not care if he lies about meeting Mother Teresa, or if his wife has a drug problem (which means she has a disease and deserves our sympathy) - and I do not care who he sleeps with, or what he does in bed - but the biggest danger to marriage is the acceptance of adultery, NOT the possibility that two people who love each other and want to join their lives together might be the same gender.
95. GMacV | 08.21.08
To AdamR @21 - I’m sure he flips out at her plenty. Don’t forget there’s the infamous time he called his wife a c**t (in front of reporters and aides). I have to say that word is the one that I find to be the single most offensive term a man can use for a woman.
98. Levi Cro | 08.21.08
maybe she was joking about mother teresa? one thing for sure.. the McCains must be joking about being president and first lady… Id say miss buffalo chip may be the highest she should aspire to….. and Johnny.. he is a bit too high already… retirement might be good for him…
99. Bob5540 | 08.21.08
Folks, please remember that McCain was a POW. He should be forgiven everything he might have done before he was a POW. He shoiuld also get a pass on anything he’s done since (or yet to come), because after all, he was, you know, a POW. Seven or ten houses? C’mon folks. For 5 1/2 years he had only one house and he didn’t even own it! POW!
John McCain is a true American Hero.
POW! POW! POW! POW! POW! POW! POW!
PS, John is too modest to talk about this POW thing, so I will on his behalf.
101. McLieberman | 08.21.08
Everyone please understand…
The media is not on the side of the people… they’re on the side of Money and Power. You paid them plenty, you get good coverage often. Don’t pay and you’re sure to lose. There’s always the exception to the rule with FOX NEWS. The FAUX, Highly Biased, Highly Propaganda News, absolutely connected to the NEOCON/ZIONIST parties of the country. Then there’s NBC, Ultra Liberal, over zealous one way reporting. Ever notice why ALL the 3rd party candidates are practically never covered? THey don’t have the Money, Wealth, or Power to control a media mogul… which leads me to the other half, SCUMBAGS like Rupert Murdoch that own majors portions of the airwaves and print, he controls the directions of his media mogul.
This country is so screwed and WATCHDOGS are the last hope, well there are some politicians, but they’re quickly eradicated by the “PARTY” or “CORPORATIONS”.
Challenge and question everything from the media and this 2 Party dictatorship government.
Or you can go either way with CNN = Cash News Network… paid them well, you get results.
102. Janet in Arizona | 08.21.08
Everything about Grampy McCain is sickening. start with his pandering, high-pitched, whiny voice. Does that sneering tone get to everyone or just me? He just sounds like he’s demented.. And then to top that off, he smiles a big yellow-teeth smile and I imagine major bad breath. Yuck. Only stupid Repugnants and big oil could support this fool. This is Part 2 of Through the Looking Glass…he’s our worst nightmare.
103. Jeff Petrella | 08.22.08
You are all a bunch of Whiney 1/2 informed brats. Thear are too many half truths and Bold faced Lies in your comments to properly correct!
~Obama gets the most possitive coverage of any candidate ever!
~Since when do we look down on someone for bringing a 3rd world orphan into a life of decadence as “shame on Cindy McCain, That’s the least she could do”. Where is Hillary Clinton’s adopted kid, or Ted Kennedy’s, or Rick Warren’s, or Jesse Jackson’s?!? The list could go on!
~And re read the article. Mother Teresa FOUNDED the orphanage in Bangaladesh. Cindy still never met the woman, but it would not have been unbelieveable.
~Since when do you need a documented epiphany to be “Saved”? It is my understanding that you need only accept the Lord, and do the best you can to be a better person.
~McCain could not become an Admiral because the physical limitations of being beaten within inches of death several times for 5 1/2 years, would not fit with the Navy’s standards.
~McCain has never once called Obama a Terrorist, or questioned his Patriotism! ~~Radical McCain supporters have, Not McCain!
~Cindy’s addiction was 12 Years ago, and it has already gotten much more press than it should. Prescription pain killers are a horrible burden and a necessary evil (Ask Rush Limbaugh)
~I APPLAUD whatchdog groups for bringing the candidates back down to human levels, but dragging them through the mud with outrageous lies is dispicable.
~I am NOT a McCain supporter, simply a supporter of the Truth. I would defend Obama just the same, however his name doesn’t seem to need protection among this breed of wolves!
104. John McClain | 08.22.08
My mom only had one child. Me. So, yeah, I’m an only child. The fact that my dad had other children with other wives is a separate issue entirely, I never knew them, and they’re not sisters, they’re half sisters. I always speak of myself as an only child, because it’s true. I don’t think there’s any problem with Cindy McCain doing the same.
105. miaminative | 08.23.08
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/01/AR2008080103032.html
Read the above article.
Salter states he wrote much of the book, and McCain approved of the text. Gee, ghost writers rock, no?
Here is a direct McCain quote though. Amazing. This from a man making speeches that accuse OBAMA of not running for President out of any patriotic desires, but out of AMBITION only. Hmmmm. Very strange ACCUSATION from someone that wrote THE FOLLOWING!
McCain in ‘Worth the Fighting For’
“I didn’t decide to run for president to start a national crusade for the political reforms I believed in or to run a campaign as if it were some grand act of patriotism. In truth, I wanted to be president because it had become my ambition to be president. . . . In truth, I’d had the ambition for a long time.”
The book goes on:
That ambition led McCain into a moral lapse that appalled him. It involved an ongoing dispute in South Carolina over the tradition of flying the Confederate battle flag atop the state capitol, in Columbia. In a television interview, McCain said the flag was “offensive,” and he appeared sympathetic to its critics. His aides were alarmed, fearing the consequences in the upcoming South Carolina primary, and they wrote a damage-control statement that McCain read repeatedly before television cameras. “I understand both sides,” McCain said. “Some view the flag as a symbol of slavery. Others view it as a symbol of heritage. Personally, I see the battle flag as a symbol of heritage.”
But that, McCain wrote a year later, was “a lie.” The flag symbolized both slavery and the South’s secession from “the country I love,” and “should be lowered forever from the staff atop South Carolina’s capitol.”
“I had promised to tell the truth no matter what,” McCain wrote in the book. “When I broke it, I had not just been dishonest, I had been a coward, and I had severed my own interests from my country’s. That was what made the lie unforgivable.”
END
This seems to indicate a very twisted personality, much like GW’s problem with being a n’er do well all his life (even getting shot down and captured was shameful in that family) that could not ever feel that he was living up to his father’s AND grandfather’s expectations. McCain gave 32 propaganda interviews to the North Viet Cong while in custody and said in his book ‘Faith of My Fathers’ that he knew he had shamed and embarrassed his military family, since other captives had not collapsed. It only took 4 days of captivity and he offered to tell anything his captives wanted to hear. AND he was not tortured, he was their ‘prize’ and he admits that in his book. AND the injuries he insinuates came from torture were from the crash of his plane. Men who feel under their Daddy’s shadow (a little Napoleon syndrome going on also) are forever trying to be bigger and badder and better, and instead of living their lives, live a life that is a lie. McCain says in his book he did NOT want to go to the Naval Academy, he wanted to go to a liberal arts college. But in a family of Admirals, he felt he had no choice but to do what his father and grandfather wanted.
This is NOT a personality that I feel safe running our country.
106. renee pearman | 08.23.08
Why do our politicians lie?? For the same reason that you stretch the facts to look good or I eliminate a couple of facts to also look good to others or even just ourselves!! It is our fallen nature and when you go higher in the ranks of a society, any society, for whatever reason, there is a perceived sense that you have more to gain and more to lose.
A person who has been raised to live their life in genuine openness, accepting scrutiny of their mistakes, ignorance, faux pas and pride without being humiliated or tar & feathered for their humanness, has been raised by very wise people. They have a wonderful opportunity to make self-corrections without blaming or discouragement. Unabashed truth-telling over small and large matters, becomes a second nature that overrides their human nature. They are a blessing to their society whatever their place in it. Most people do not have such a healthy selfimage or consciousness. We are the poorer for it and continue to feel insulted, betrayed, disappointed, outraged and selfrighteous when we find that others have lied.
It’s a Biblical thing.
107. PoliticsReason | 08.24.08
Good deeds are good deeds. But lies - documented from one’s own lips - are lies, dearies! Get a grip.
108. Tornado | 08.24.08
Ray Andrews, you’re criticism of McCain by saying “Got himself shot down and captured” is like criticizing John F. Kennedy for getting his boat shot out from under him and being stranded on a desert Isle.
Or like saying he cheated on Jacqueline,
Or then saying he failed as a President by getting himself assassinated. Your list was ridiculous.
109. nan hughes | 08.24.08
William, with all due respect. The situatin McCain handled when captured was when he was told he could go home he knew he wasn’t inline to leave and decided to stay so the next in line could go home and stayed an extra 3 years. That is handling something of great difficulty. To see it any other way is to miss the point completely.
110. nan hughes | 08.24.08
On the other hand, Jeff you are right on! The media has turned into a cult for Obama, it is disgraceful and I am sure other countries look on and think we are real wingnuts.
111. nan hughes | 08.24.08
This mess shouldnt evenbe on the net. I have never seen such a bunch of useless people in my life! Nothing to do but tear the McCain’s down! If Obama gets elected and you start paying for slavery and taxed in other ways for universal health and preschool and all these projects he wants you will wish you were kinder to the McCains. Obama has BIG plans for Whitey. Rememeber Michelle will actually be incharge and she is as mean as a pitbull! Keep this in mind as you speak your minds and try to keep McCain from winning this election. Rev. Wright may even be coming and going from Lincoln’s bedroom, and then there is Farahkan and Mother Farahkan they like Obama too.
112. Concerned Southern Lady | 08.24.08
Wow, can’t believe what a big deal is being made of this. Cindy McCain did bring back 2 girls from Mother Theresa’s orphanage that needed surgery in the US. The McCains did adopt one of the girls, which was a wonderful thing to do. This happened 17 years ago.
What has McCain done? He has served on numerous bipartism committees and has a reputation of helping push legislation through if it is something that he feels is good for the country regardless of “which side of the fence it came from”. His maverick more moderate position has upset some republicans because he doesn’t vote party line. If you ask any Democrat when not an election year if they respect him, they will tell you they do as they have in the past. McCain & Ted Kennedy even served on a committee together as recent as last year! McCain actually has plans for our country that Obama has only recently developed, many are ideas originally stated by McCain a year ago. McCain has actually voted on difficult issues leaving him to have to defend those choices. Obama voted “present” (over 100 votes) rather than yes or no for the majority of the short time he has been a new senator.
McCain has been meeting with world officials for years and understands what is going on and has an in depth knowledge. Obama does not, and has changed his stance on the war since actually going to Iraq and finally meeting with the Commander on the ground. NOW Obama says what McCain said all along … that any withdrawl would have to be with the Commander’s input and his timetable.
McCain’s 1st wife, Carol, was a model & they were married in 1965 and divorce was finalized early 1980 after several separations (6 years of that time he was a POW). He has said many times that was his biggest failure, but they just couldn’t seem to connect (and states it was his fault) after him being a POW for 6 years. He takes full responsibility for the failure of the marriage and has for years. Cut the man some slack. Bill had a string of young interns he messed around with in the White House right under Hillary’s nose, and we know about Kennedy.
McCain adopted his 1st wife’s (Carol) two children & they had 1 child together. McCain has been married 28 years to Cindy and they had 3 children together (she had 2 miscarriages early in their marriage) and adopted Bridget from Bangladesh in 1993 (she was 2 when they adopted her). They have had a very long marriage.
Now can we stick to issues rather than dwelling on picky stuff that doesn’t mean anything about either candidate?
Concerned Southern Lady
113. Concerned Southern Lady | 08.24.08
I do not agree with McCain about the flag. It is sad that Southerners no longer are allowed to even have ANY pride in their roots even though only about 5% owned slaves, and even Abraham Lincoln had slaves he freed before the Emancipation Proclamation. Regardless, I will vote who is best and most qualified to bring America out of her darkest hour. Not saying that McCain is perfect, but Obama has too much baggage and too little experience. His inability to vote on important issues concerns me when I think about who his mentors are and who he surrounds himself with … Wright and Farahkan. Obama did vote against a late term baby being born alive (after a botched abortion) not having the right to live. That is on record. I am ill every time I think of that and I am not a big pro-life person, but late term live births and no rights???
I know that there are many paid Obama bloggers on these boards, but this is rediculous. Even the media watchdog agency has pointed out the coverage of Obama is far more lenient and 3 to 4 times more coverage than McCain.
114. nan hughes | 08.24.08
I doubt there are any”chirstians” on this christian sceince monitor site. Just a bunch of jealous, miserable lonely people without a hobby.
115. Concerned Southern Lady | 08.24.08
A lot of the things that Obama is promising WOULD be great, but it is not change, it is extremely left liberal Democrat politics! America can’t afford to pay for all these wonderful programs especially since the middle class tax base has shrunk! We are in trouble. We have to think of ways to save money, not spend it! I do like McCain’s plan of the govt giving us a tax break and lets us choose our own health plan. I spoke to a Canadian Physician that has moved to the US to practice medicine here because the national health care is so bad in Canada. He explained a lot of reasons to me, but some examples are we would have to wait months to get an appointment if it wasn’t an emergency and equipment becomes limited like there is might be one MRI per city rather than us having several within 1 hospital. You have to travel back to your assigned caretaker doctor on your plan even if very ill (he had to go get his own mother 2 hours away & drive her to her “caretaker doctor” when she was really sick & he’s a doctor!). Anyway, it keeps the insurance companies from getting an upper hand and keeps them competive if we have control over which one we go to.
116. Concerned Southern Lady | 08.24.08
And now Biden is Obama’s VP, and Biden said just months ago that he would not accept Obama as President because he is not qualified … interesting!
117. Concerned Southern Lady | 08.24.08
Cindy grew up as the only child even though she had half sisters. I can understand. In her eyes her half siblings were not raised in her life, maybe she didn’t even know they existed until she was older or there was bad blood. Who knows???? That is personal and irrevelant. From what I read, her Dad didn’t make the money in beer until after Cindy was born.
118. Disappointed | 08.24.08
This is sad, sad news. I find these lies about Mother Theresa to be absolutely sick and I will not be voting for McCain.
119. Jomamatoo | 08.25.08
What is really fascinating is at least we all find noteworthy. THIS is what the media is all ranting about. Whether or not the (the journalists are actually getting the correct facts or not is immaterial) the simple act of them throwing words around about various public characters and having the American public crucify them is remarkable.
Facts that I do know - regardless of how I will vote - I have personally met Senator McCain a number of years ago and found him to be a lovely man…no icon, no superstar, just a normal guy trying to do the right thing in the Washington arena. Tough place, with a lot of sharks in the water. I have NOT met his wife, but I do know that they have a 19 year old so who is serving in the military in Iraq, another son in the Naval Academy…so when people talk of him sending their “children into harms way” - it won’t be without considering the ramifications that it will hold for individual families on a personal level. He also has a daughter who recently graduated from Columbia University and has Bridget, the one who was adopted with a cleft palate and undergone multiple surgeries. I believe she is in high school still. He and Cindy also have another son - who works for her family Beer Distributorship.
When we look at politicians - it is difficult to find ANYONE who is worthy of our votes. Politics is an ugly profession and there are ugly people who exploit it…and I think they are called staffers and media! ;o)
We the People…should be trying to make SENSE of it, not a mockery of it. Cut out the garbage and try to make an informed decision. The best we are each going to do is vote what our hearts and heads tell us. Some have better hearts and heads than others…so be it.
At least we can treat each other with respect for having the trust, and patience to give the process a chance.
120. barb | 08.25.08
13. wcf | 08.20.08
I’m amazed that nobody has drawn much attention to the fact that Mrs. McCain’s vast fortune comes from the sale of beer. Alcohol is a poison that has destroyed, and is continuing to destroy, the lives of literally millions of Americans. The McCains have profited enormously from the misery of others. Why is this not a campaign issue?
******************
Prohibition is over.
121. Media Weasel | 08.25.08
#15 - good point. When was he saved. Bearing in mind that apparently, no longer is he an Episcopalian but a Baptist, but hasn’t been baptized.
This is what I think - I think he says he’s saved because it sounds good to Evangelicals.
122. northman | 08.25.08
Yea, ok, so Cindy was confused about meeting Mother Teresa…but did you know that her husband was a P.O.W. for five and a half years?
123. raine | 08.26.08
You guys are so funny! First you want the McCains to parade their daughter onstage and then you say if they do it would be embarassing.
It’s a game. Just play nice.
125. Elder Berry | 08.26.08
Shading or stretching the truth is something that can happen in the press because of inaccurate quotations, editorial deletions or paraphrase, etc. Lying, however, is deliberate; it is a bad habit, once begun, and a display of moral weakness.
In the lengthy interview that was done of McCain recently for TV, I watched him say that he’d lied, and then he laughed. He laughed about lying.
All candidates for national office have complicated personal and professional lives. McCain seems to have been someone whose ambition came from internalized family history, whose early military career was not at all distinguished, whose personal life has had some moral weakness about vows and promises on display, but who has at least one impressive and admirable act of courage to recommend him to us.
If I hadn’t heard and seen him laugh about lying, I might be tempted to give him the benefit of the doubt. But having heard him laugh, I find him all too reminiscent of another man who wanted to quibble over “what is is”, and a man who asks his underlings to redefine torture and who takes us to war on false pretenses.
Both of these men I refer to should have had the decency to resigned their office. McCain should never be elected to it. He lies, and laughs about it.
126. nan hughes | 08.26.08
Barb, Beer? You must be from one of those religiions that condemns liquor of any kind, huh? Well, Jesus turned water to wine so it’s fine with me and millions of other people. Let them drink beer, who cares? It’s not like protitution or something, or abortions, or child pornograph! It’s beer. Get a grip!
127. vin | 08.27.08
Has anyone ever played the game “rumors” when a child? By the end of the game, none of the rumors even came close to their beginning. Same with real life. The problem is even when the truth comes out, most people still believe the distortion.
128. sandra p | 08.27.08
It is not productive to count lies on either side of the political “aisle” as by the time a politian reaches the level of presidential candidate, there has been plenty of time for putting all experiences in the “best light”. Too much time is spent personally smearing individuals. I believe the ideal way is to check how candidates voted on bills, party platforms, and donations made to campaigns.
129. Donna | 08.28.08
I find it very strange that so many people are ranting over the alleged immorality of the McCains because of reports about lying, infidelity, blind ambition, etc. It’s true that all of these things are sins; however, I don’t hear the same people ranting about the far, far greater sin of Obama: his rabid support for the killing of innocent unborn babies! While all people of conscience should want to create a better world for all people, we can disagree on how this can best be accomplished; but if we deny a person’s God-given right to be born and to live, no other rights will ever matter to that person. For this reason, the “prolife issue” trumps all others for a person with a well-formed conscience. Obama would be well-advised to consider how much the population of African Americans has declined because of abortions. Frankly, John McCain would not have been my first choice for president for a number of reasons; but I feel I can trust him to make more moral decisions (in spite of his many alleged flaws) than I can trust a man who tries to portray himself as being the champion of the people-except for the most helpless and innocent among us who cannot speak for themselves! Talk about hypocrisy!! Yes, it’s high time we elected an African American to the presidency-but not this one!! I pray for the day when one of the major political parties in our country (I really don’t care which one)will choose someone like Michael Steele or Alan Keyes as its nominee. I’m sick of having to choose between the lesser of two evils.
130. nan hughes DAR | 08.28.08
With Nominee Barak Hussein Obama you dont need to “make up lies or rumors” he has so many horrific truths about him you would have to be a “wooden indian” to not know them by heart!!
131. Cynthia | 08.28.08
How can anyone be surprised about wanting to embellish a story when the majority of Americans vote for what they heard, not what they read. Most Americans want the dog-and-pony show so they can vote for the best performance. A sad commentary but true.
And the media loves mistakes. They someone think that gives them creditability when they find them.
As Bill Clinton said, when Americans think, Democrats win.
132. rich in fairfax | 08.28.08
Who cares about Cindy McCain? Other than choose her parents well, she does not appear to have any redeeming characteristics. She is a republican, what would you expect her to know about the truth?
133. Joe | 08.28.08
I wonder how many comments get deleted on this site?
Oh no he said something I do not want you to hear.
You are not getting free speech on this site.
This site is a farce.
134. ady | 08.29.08
I think everything is a lie. The political ‘transparency’ they’re showing to us is far that transparency it have to be.
135. theo | 08.29.08
Another lying politician’s spouse. So what else is new? From her drug addiction to disowning her half sister and nephew to those lies mentioned in the story, added to John’s not knowing how many houses he has and his bigger tax cuts for the rich these people are out of touch, elitist and have nothing but contempt for the common working man. The ONLY way they can ‘achieve’ is to lie through their teeth. Unfortunately this is the way of American politics where fantasy supercedes reality. The American people deserve much better from BOTH political parties.
136. gort flibergelp | 08.29.08
now is the time for all good men to come to the front and bring your pitch forks for it will only be down hill from here on out.
137. Darrell Williams | 08.30.08
The so-called ‘liberal press’ is only called ‘liberal’ when they tell the truth. The truth is that the majority of news media in the U.S. is owned and controlled by wealthy Republicans who determine which news stories are published and which opinions articles are presented. This is the kind of business monopoly which totally destroys democracy. As long as John and Cindy McCain continue to support big business and continue GWB’s tax breaks for the wealthy (like themselves), all of the news media will be biased toward the Republican candidates. It was a tragic irony that one of the most historical events in American history, the nomination (Aug 25-27) of an African-American to be president of the U.S., was not even covered by most of the national broadcast TV stations. Only PBS covered the entire Democratic Convention in Denver. America can do better than this.
138. Daniel I. Radakovich | 08.30.08
I would like to add some calm to this discussion. First the original claim of Mrs. McCain was that she had been “convinced” by Mother Teresa to adopt some kids. She patently visited the orphanage, which was established by the Albanian saint, of that there is no doubt. People can become convinced by many methods one of which is direct contact, [personal/speech/touch, mail/phone] and another of which is by example[things written, seen, history heard/read, scripture/philosophy read, etc.].
It is the media which took the information and “ran” with it to the inordinate degree complained about, and some simple charity shoud be exercised for them too. In an excess of concern over issues such as plagiarism often writers[pr folks, columnists and reporters] will try to use their own words to express something and such errors in perception can arrive that way. The writers are prey to a myriad of possible ways to affect or influence reporting, only one of which is possibly deceptive culpability, and most of which are simply glitches due to their sources. It is interesting that according to Novak, if he used the same criteria for me that he did for the Plume revalation, I would have been publicized as having a life-partner due to an editorial typo in a credible reference work [which was using a wiki sourcing with someone at the reference work confusing a business partner with-oh well :)]. But you get my drift I hope.
Also Senator Biden’s earlier run for the presidency did not falter over his “lifting” of some words from then Labour Party leader Kinnock. If something is important who gives a hang who said it first…and yes sometimes some things do occur to the same people even if not aware of each other. [ And given the recent aspect of speechwriters becoming involved before presentation this gets even more likely.] Nor did it falter over his claiming he had done better in law school than he had actually done. As I recall [having been a former supporter of his candidacy at the time] his main problem was that he abandoned his pro-life base to run as a switched pro-choicer, which appalled both sides in that arguement, with a secondary concern over his judgement over publishing under his aegis a law school review article without proper attributions…which was a twofold “gotcha”, both in having printed that while ostensibly knowing better as a member of the law review supposedly and from poor judgement in not having come clean about it earlier. His service since in the Senate has shown him a man of much probity and conventional wisdom, though during the Balkans affairs last decade I found his staff somewhat blinkered in some areas of foreign and military policy.
Regarding Mrs. McCain in this instance however, and speaking as a (fairly partisan) Democrat, I am far more concerned that she and her husband adopted someone and that it seems to have worked out well, rather than the specifics of the adoption’s origination. And I suspect, as a Catholic, that Saint Teresa of Calcutta feels the same way too. Caritas is a good thing, however inspired.
139. Kay S. | 08.30.08
When will I be able to read comments regarding Gov. Palin - McCain’s personally selected VP running mate?
140. ruastatist2 | 08.31.08
It’s all irrelavant. Politicians lie? Oh dear! The name of the game is to convince enough people that you’re like them but even more so, so they say what everyone wants to hear.
Besides, the difference between repub and dem is not philosophical, it’s procedural. Palin has the curves and smile though, and might actually be conservative. She’ll win it for McCain.
141. Lexie | 09.04.08
C’mon, y’all–more than half of marriages fail. It’s not divided along party lines or religious affiliation. It’s just a fact. If Carol McCain is going to vote for John McCain because she thinks he’s the better candidate, why won’t you consider him on his merits? If Carol McCain doesn’t hold a grudge against him for the divorce, why are you insisting that a grudge be held–even if you must hold it yourselves?
This just seems silly to me.
It boils down to this: do you want socialist principles to govern the USA, or do you want capitalist principles to define her? Socialism is a FAILED system. Capitalism, with all its bugs, still draws hopeful masses to the shores of America with the promise of prosperity and hope.
Vote for the John McCain and Sarah Palin–those who represent real hope.
142. Phil419 | 09.06.08
What a bunch of hypocrites, ‘Let he who is without sin cast the first stone’.
Cindy McCain has led a generous, selfless life any Christian should admire. I only wish some of her contributions and admirations could be said of me You people need to do some logging - in your owm eyes!
143. John | 09.07.08
I watched the RNC and saw on the screen behind the speakers a picture of Cindy McCain and Mother Teresa togther. Was this picture fabricated or did they really meet each other? If they did not than this is a much bigger story than just her telling a “little white Lie”!
John
144. Donna | 09.08.08
Hello to all,
I am fairly new at checking out websites, or whatever you wish to call something like this. But after reading about half of the posts, I am truly disgusted with we Americans. Such vile, ugly, nasty, mean things that have been said about all of the people involved in running on both sides.
145. Donna | 09.08.08
I really don’t think your site is very fair. I wrote 6 paragraphs and you only printed the first paragraph. Now I understand why you did that…you are partial and do not want to hear other opinions, only ones favoring Obama. That’s OK. I still believe everyone has the right to choose who they want to vote, but no need to be vile, ugly, nasty and mean about people you do not like that are running. You by only taking my first paragraph showed how partial you are…
Sorry about that, I truly was hoping for a site that would be equally fair to both parties.
As I said before, very sad that people that disagree with each other can become so vile and mean. I hope you do not represent the majority in this wonderful country.
Bye for now and hoping you will vote..that we all have ONE VOTE.
DJ
146. Larry Edison | 09.12.08
When a Politicians lies to me. I
1.) Realize it as a threat to democracy and hold them accountable
2.) Do something else
When my Surgeon lies to me. I
1.) Realize it as a threat to my health and hold them accountable
2.) Do something else
When I forget that in a democracy I am a leader. I
1.) get lead
2.) Become a partisan and pretend I’m leading
147. Melissa Robins | 09.21.08
Whatever “honor” that John McCain had is gone, evaporated by his lies. His campaign is nothing but slime machine, he has no new ideas. I have lost all my respect for him. I just found out that he was one of the 5 corrupt senators in the “Keating 5″ scandal that happened during the last big wall st. crisis in 1987. Why does John McCain stoop so low?
148. bryony | 09.21.08
“13. wcf | 08.20.08
I’m amazed that nobody has drawn much attention to the fact that Mrs. McCain’s vast fortune comes from the sale of beer. Alcohol is a poison that has destroyed, and is continuing to destroy, the lives of literally millions of Americans. The McCains have profited enormously from the misery of others. Why is this not a campaign issue?”
Because “heartland” Americans love their beer, and so does nearly everyone else. Now if she were a tobacco heiress, she’d be vilified from San Francisco to NYC.
149. bryony | 09.21.08
“13. wcf | 08.20.08
I’m amazed that nobody has drawn much attention to the fact that Mrs. McCain’s vast fortune comes from the sale of beer. Alcohol is a poison that has destroyed, and is continuing to destroy, the lives of literally millions of Americans. The McCains have profited enormously from the misery of others. Why is this not a campaign issue?”
Because “heartland” Americans love their beer, and so does nearly everyone else. Now if she were a tobacco heiress, she’d be vilified from San Francisco to NYC.
150. Monty Fox | 09.21.08
Posting 113 makes me curious. Abraham Lincoln had slaves? I didn’t know he even had a plantation.
151. John | 09.23.08
> Cindy McCain has led a generous, selfless life any Christian should admire.
Tammy Faye Bakker, especially.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
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1. William E. Robinson | 08.20.08
If we are going to be fair in this 2008 POLITICAL race . . . then the “MEDIA” should ask probing questions of the McCains such as the ones they do when it comes to Senator Obama! I will start it off! What crisis role has McCain handle, or completed? Being captured in the war, with all do respect, is heroic, but he did not handle a situation.