The following, except for the emphasis I added via italics and bold, is a direct quote from the paid political ad the senator placed in Human Events.
I have had the honor to share my five decades of service to America with many great men and women. Most inspiring of all was Ronald Reagan. Today, I am as sure as I was when I first entered public life as a foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution that the principles of the Republican Party are always in the best interests of the American people (I didn’t highlight this, Senator McCain did.) - and I've fought relentlessly in Washington for conservative change to cut taxes and put an end to wasteful spending.
I intend to win the war in Iraq and bring our troops home with honor in that victory.
When I'm your President, I will promote market-based solutions and consumer choice in order to provide families with affordable and quality health care.
Therefore, I come to you offering leadership, experience, judgment - and real solutions based on my commitment to the conservative agenda.
Thank you,
John McCain
(My editorial remark: Honest! McCain actually added the last sentence!)
PS - I am running for President of the United States because I believe in the greatness of this nation as a beacon of goodwill throughout the world. Please consider making a generous contribution to my presidential campaign of $50, $100, $500, $1,000, or $2,300 today.
Now for a word from your sponsor: Me. About that inspiring Ronald Reagan thing — while governor of CA, fought against creation of Martin Luther King, Jr holiday, kicked off pres campaign in Nashtoba County/Philadelphia, Mississippi (Mississippi Burning!), the 2 worst recessions since the Great Depression, the 2 greatest stock market crashes since ’29, the S&L crisis, tripling of the national debt, supported overthrow of democratically elected Chilean president Salvador Allende, supported apartheid in South Africa, named Nelson Mandela as a terrorist, more members of his administration investigated, indicted, tried (or pleading to a lesser charge or pleading nolo contendre), convicted and sentenced than in any other before or since.
Concerning the “cutting taxes” part, what McCain has promised to do is to cut the federal estate tax (By the way, his wife Cindy is heir to the $250 million+ Hensley Anheuser-Busch distributorship fortune!), a tax that benefits only the top 2/10th of 1% of American households! Add to that, Republican David Walker, ex-head of the GAO, devoted the past six years running around Washington and anywhere else he could locate folks who’d listen to him, that the present budget deficit is overwhelmingly due to a tax revenue shortage, and that no amount of discretionary spending cuts would put a dent in the problem: a $9.5 TRILLION national debt, a debt that was at $4 trillion — and headed to ZERO — before the GOP tax cuts, cuts that way, way over the top overwhelmingly benefited those at the very top!
McCain intends to do what general after general after general has testified to under oath cannot be done in Iraq, regardless how long it takes. As Senator Evan Bayh sarcastically remarked to both General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker, in response to their testimony concerning Iraq earlier this week: “In other words, we’ll know it [victory] when we see it and we just don’t know when we’ll see it.”
As to “market based solutions,” from Tyco, to Arthur Anderson to Atlantic Crossing to Enron to the coal mine collapses to the tainted toys and food to the subprime mortgage mess to the present airline industry fiasco . . . Each and all are a direct product of Reagan’s, now McCain’s, stated deregulate EVERYTHING/ there is no place for government oversight of anything philosophy. Right this moment, per the latest U-M consumer survey, folks are more pessimistic about the economy than at any time in the past 45 YEARS! Across America there are now guided bus tours of neighborhoods filled with foreclosed homes, last month 80,000 jobs were lost, more than 45 million Americans have no health care and many are dieing as a consequence, 4 airline companies went OOB/BK (out of business/bankrupt) in the last 2 WEEKS, and the prices of fuel and food have soared! And at long last, Alan Greenspan, a few days ago pronounced “The US is now in a recession;” a 100% GOP concocted recession I would add.
John McCain is not crazy, he is stark raving (no exaggeration) clinically insane!
— Ed Tubbs
