It really is pathetic to see any of Senator John McCain’s speeches these days. Polonius in Shakespeare’s Hamlet famously said to his son, “This above all: to thine own self be true”. Due to political, global and economic realities, Senator McCain cannot do that. In every speech McCain has given in this campaign, he has had to run away from himself.
McCain is in favor of comprehensive immigration reform. He campaigned in the senate vigorously to give undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship. Once he started running for President, he realized that position undermines his support among his conservative base. Ever since then, he has been running away from his real position on immigration. He backed down to the far right of his party despite having serious convictions about what is right to do. McCain doesn’t have what it takes to lead even the members of his own party on a contentious issue.
McCain believes in the small government, low taxes, cutting government services policies of Reagan and both Bushes. These are the same policies that have bankrupted our government, destroyed our currency and ruined our economy. Senator McCain has tried to pretend that he is somehow different than Bush. McCain offers nothing new on the economy, but he is trying to pretend that newer bigger tax cuts will somehow have a different effect than the newer bigger tax cuts enacted by the Bush administration. McCain calls Liberal economic policies failures, but who has held the White house for 70% (28) of the last forty years? Republicans. It is Republican economic policies that have caused the fix in which we now find ourselves. McCain is pretending that he is somehow different from Bush on the economy but Senator McCain represents more of McSame. He represents a continuation of failed conservative economic policies.
McCain is in favor of the same foreign policies that George W. Bush has put into practice over the last eight years with horrible results. Our allies are embarrassed of us and reluctant to support us. Politicians and parties in many countries in Latin America, the Middle East and other regions of the world are successfully running on platforms that say they will disengage from us and do less business with the United States, if not become downright hostile to us. Senator McCain calls these policies “Peace through Strength” and will continue them. I call those policies “Isolation through Idiocy”. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that policies that create more enemies and more ill will throughout the world cannot possibly make us safer. McCain is trying to pretend that he represents something different from Bush, but his policies on the Middle East, Latin America and the rest of the world are exactly the same as those of George W. Bush.
It's always a hard thing to watch someone deny who they are and what they believe. With the amount of television coverage that McCain will get as we head to the general election campaign, this is going to be continually painful. McCain tonight gave one of the worst speeches I have ever seen. He fumbled over the teleprompter provided text, his makeup was caked on his face, at least I hope that was makeup, and he is tried to do this dance around who he is and what he represents. He has no new ideas, he has no leadership ability and he has no ability to inspire. In every way that matters, John McCain will give us more of what over the last eight years got us to where we are now. I am pretty sure that Americans do not want more of McSame.