McCain revs up Michigan attack on Romney

The "straight-talk" on John McCain: He's a clown

Frankly, you have to be suffering from short-term memory loss to consider his candidacy without laughing. In fact, the more you know of his record the worse it gets.

McCain Loan Could Violate Donor Privacy
http://www.politico.com:80/news/stories/0108/7837.html

McLame's Immigration Insanity
http://www.borderfirereport.net:80/letters-from-readers/mclames-immigration-insanity.html

Video: Liebs says McCain did not support amnesty for illegal aliens
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/01/05/video-liebs-says-mccain-did-not-support-amnesty-for-illegal-aliens

McCain: "We Are Not Going To Build Fences And Barriers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5G3kH1PvvU

Tom DeLay Disses McCain, Calls New Hampshire Win ‘A Blip’
http://youdecide08.foxnews.com:80/2008/01/09/tom-delay-disses-mccain-calls-new-hampshire-win-a-blip/

John McCain and Our Second Amendment
http://www.gunowners.org/pres08/mccain.htm

John McCain's Skeleton Closet
http://www.realchange.org/mccain.htm#keating

The Conservative Case Against McCain
http://thenextprez.blogspot.com/2005/12/conservative-case-against-mccain.html

A Vote For McCain Is A Vote For Amnesty, Open Borders and Never Building A Fence
http://www.rightwingnews.com/mt331/2008/01/a_vote_for_john_mccain_is_a_vo.php

#%&@# You McCain's Unstable Temper Raises More Doubt from Arizona News ( This site will not post actual title. Search Arizona News for John McCain. It's worth the effort to find it. )

Conservative Group Campaigns Against McCain: He's No Ronald Reagan
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2007/Conservative_group_campaigns_again_McCain_Hes_0301.html

Former Senator Rick Santorum sees a lot of problems with John McCain's credentials
http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/talkradio/transcripts/Transcript.aspx?ContentGuid=e96c3803-c542-4a57-98bd-68635a744540&comments=true

John McCain's Temper Preceded Vietnam
http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/8/30/123006.shtml

John McCain's Record of Economic Issues
http://www.clubforgrowth.org/2007/03/arizona_senator_john_mccains_t.php

McCain Would Vote Against The Bush Tax Cuts All Over Again
http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/blog/g/301ccb6c-32b0-4ba7-8330-68d560f67dd8

McCains Stand On Detainees May Pose Risk For 2008 Bid
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/18/AR2006091801353.html

Democrats Contributed Heavily To McCain's Effort in District 11 Election
http://www.azconservative.org/McCain_Discord.htm

The Conservative Case Against Huckabee And McCain
http://www.townhall.com/blog/g/019929f6-5799-479e-a86b-e2e2601330ab

McCain Walks Into Conservative Clothesline
http://www.baltimoregroupblog.com/2007/03/19/mccain-walks-into-conservative-clothes-line/

John McCain Is No Hero
http://www.usvetdsp.com/bengmcan.htm

U.S. Senator John McCain Is No War Hero
http://www.namvets.com/Reading/john_mccain_is_no_war_hero.htm

Flashback: The Real John McCain
http://www.townhall.com/blog/g/43aba933-6972-4a36-a25f-a2973e69e4ee

Wife of POW Navy Pilot, Who Had Husband's Remains Sent Home By North Vietnamese in 1989, Was Lied to by U.S. Officials For Years About His Whereabouts And POW Status
http://www.arcticbeacon.com/articles/31-oct-2005.html

Defending America by David Hackworth
http://www.hackworth.com/25jan00.html

IT'S TIME TO GIVE THE U.S. ARMY A GOOD SHAKE
http://www.hackworth.com/19nov01.html

Why Vietnam Vets Split on McCain
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_12_16/ai_61487324

Luck Of The Admiral's Son Not For "Grunts"
http://www.usvetdsp.com/smith_mc.htm

ARIZONA'S JOHN McCAIN: A Fraud, "Rhinestone Hero," and National Security Risk
http://www.geoffmetcalf.com/mccain.html

MSNBC questions McCain's temper; Reporter says McCain vexes Senate colleagues
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/MSNBC_Does_McCains_temper_hurt_presidential_0707.html

Romney 08!

Where's the "attack" on Romney by McCain here? Seems to me that if anyone is being "attacked" it's McCain by Romney supporters asking him if he's a liberal (which ignores an 80% conservative voting record).

Watch your verbiage swam.

Nice collection of smears, Jimbo. Any comment on how Romney raised fees in Massachusetts by half a billion dollars in just four years? That's REAL conservative and wouldn't at all break the backs of people in Michigan who've lost all those manufacturing jobs.

A vote for Romney is a vote for the democrats. Just ask fringe lefty Markos Moulitsas of dailykos.com and Newsweek who is encouraging his followers to vote in the Michigan Republican Primary for Romney.

Do you need any more proof at all that this guy is unelectable and the democrats' dream come true?

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/01/12/liberal_bloggers_forromney.html

The more you know of him the worse it gets, indeed.

Mr. McCain states that "I will match my record against anybody's." But when Mr.Romney did just that McCain squealed like a pig.

Mitt Romney SHOULD win on Tuesday. Romney was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and never had to lay his life on the line for his country. That same silver spoon SHOULD give him a victory in Michigan. If the the vote is tight, consider it a victory for McCain. It's not hard to be successful financially in life if your daddy was Governor and a Presidential candidate.

An honest vote is a McCain vote! Let's put a stop to the Romney farce!

How is McCain a liberal?

He was against the Bush tax cuts.

He is for amnesty for illegal aliens.

Those are two huge republican issues. What more do you need? I personally don't want an amnesty for illegals and that sending the message to mexico to send over a nother 50 million.

He doesn't plan on building the border fence. If you want someone who works on immigration reform with Ted Kennedy, then vote for McCain.

Mitt Romney is the only true fiscal conservative running. He plans on building the border fence and no amnesty for illegals. Romney recognizes the tremendous financial burden the illegal aliens are placing on Americans.

GO MITT!

Anti-Amnesty?...Did you miss that one McCain...or..were you....maybe forgot it in yoru notes.....no, You're for Amnesty! Oh, okay, just wanted to clear that one up....Thanks for doing business bucko!

VOTE MITT 08!!!

One thing is clear: Michigan voters need to join with those from Iowa and New Hampshire by stopping Mitt Romney. They have an opportunity to end it all for him, and the country will be better off for it. Romney is a shameless opportunist, and is completely unelectable come November. Vote for McCain, and in the process, for honesty and integrity--not to mention a real shot at the White House next year.

Until McCains shift back with the Bush ( Iraq)administration, and his efforts to get back in with the rightious right, I liked McCain. He is an honarable man. Romney doesn't do a thing for me.

The more you know of him the worse it gets, indeed.

Posted by: Jeff | January 13, 2008 6:05 PM

I'm going to vote for Romney.

McCain is so damn old that a vote for him might actually be a vote for his running-mate.

Romney 08!!!

PS to Jeff - do you work for McCain or something?
You seem to be just a little bit to over enthusiastic about Mr McGoo. You've been on here pimping for McCain all day.

Jeff,
Do you personally bottle feed old man McCain or something?

My friends, this is what I like to call: Straight Talk

McCain was a Founding Member of the Keating Five and he's a longtime Washington insider...who can't be trusted.

Back in the old days, defendants in famous trials got numbers -- the Chicago Eight, the Gang of Four, the Dave Clark Five, the Daytona 500. McCain was one of the "Keating Five," congressmen investigated on ethics charges for strenuously helping convicted racketeer Charles Keating after he gave them large campaign contributions and vacation trips.

Charles Keating was convicted of racketeering and fraud in both state and federal court after his Lincoln Savings & Loan collapsed, costing the taxpayers $3.4 billion. His convictions were overturned on technicalities; for example, the federal conviction was overturned because jurors had heard about his state conviction, and his state charges because Judge Lance Ito (yes, that judge) screwed up jury instructions. Neither court cleared him, and he faces new trials in both courts.)

Though he was not convicted of anything, McCain intervened on behalf of Charles Keating after Keating gave McCain at least $112,00 in contributions. In the mid-1980s, McCain made at least 9 trips on Keating's airplanes, and 3 of those were to Keating's luxurious retreat in the Bahamas. McCain's wife and father-in-law also were the largest investors (at $350,000) in a Keating shopping center; the Phoenix New Times called it a "sweetheart deal."

Michigan, it's time to get rid of the crooked old time Washington insiders (McCain) once and for all.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1188858/posts

Go Mitt !!!

Hey Jason,
How did the voters of N.H. and Iowa "stop" Romney. He was a close second in both states.

Seems to me that Iowa "stopped" McCain, N.H. "stopped" Huckabee and and Wyoming "stopped" them both.

The opportunist seems to be Huckabee who shamelessly plays his religion card.

As to honesty and integrity, sorry, McCain lost that when he repeatedly stated that did did not support amnesty for illegal aliens.

Romney clearly has a better touch with reality and greater possibility of bringing jobs back to Michigan. McCain is a very liberal republican and has made mistake after mistake in supporting or siding with the democrates on core republican issues...immigration, supreme court and campaign refinance. I would not want four years of his appeasement attitude. A good patriot but not a good president. If he is so much for the wall why didn't he ever built it for Arizona in the last thirty years he has had to do so for his own state?

bulldog... i have to agree with you. I was thinking the same thing. As old as McCain is, it is statistically unlikely he will live through a 4 year term.

Who wants a bitter 72 year old president? I don't.

GO MITT!

Let's cut through McCain's words and get to the truth. I am a resident of Michigan. I work in the auto industry. I am an engineer. Here is what McCain basically said. Don't worry about keeping the auto industry going. I will provide a retraining program. Well McCain I already paid for a rather expensive career that is very technically oriented. Now you want me to retrain in the service industry. Well you can take your retraining program and place it somewhere else. I would rather stick with someone who cares about the auto industry. Mitt is my man and McCain is master at "reality". Only in this case it is his reality.
Support Mitt. He understands Michigan vehicles are relevant. McCain agreed with Bush that "we don't build relevant cars". I say we do and we just have a huge health care cost that doesn't allow for the kind of research that we would like to spend the money on.
Mitt is it for me. McCain is just a pain.

I would much rather have a President that was not involved in the Keating 5 and only saved by his political connections.
Unlike most of the commentors in this blog, I live in Michigan. I work for the auto industry. I have an engineering degree.

Let me interpret McCain's comments. Vote for me. I will give you a retraining program. You can work in the service industry. I don't believe anything can be done for the auto industry. I reject this thought process.
Romney will fight for my hi tech job. He will help the auto industry get out of some of the health care issues. I will take my chances with Mitt and forget the retraining of McCain.

As John McCain's profile rises among his Republican rivals, his close and deep relationships with lobbyists are certain to haunt him despite his carefully-crafted image as an "independent" and a "maverick." In an election year charged with anger at Washington insiders, McCain is the ultimate insider, with more lobbyists working on his staff, advising him, or raising funds for his campaign than any of his rivals in either party. As detailed in the Washington Post (see below), McCain campaign manager Rick Davis is a former lobbyist who has represented major telecom interests, with which McCain's dealings as a member of the Senate Commerce Committee have drawn particular concern (These include actions by McCain in 2003-2004 favoring Cablevision Systems Corporation while soliciting $200,000 in contributions from Cablevision for his "Reform Institute."). McCain's senior adviser is Charles R. Black Jr. of BKSH & Associates, which has also represented telecom interests as well as drug companies and defense contractors, among others. As early as last March, The Hill (see below) reported that McCain's aggressive courting of K Street had won him first place in lobbyist support among prospective 2008 candidates, a distinction still held by McCain at the end of December according to the Washington Post. While most candidates deal with lobbyists to some degree, McCain outdeals them all.

Washington Post (12/31/07):
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/30/AR2007123002848.html
The Hill (3/7/07):
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/gop-hopefuls-court-k-st.-2007-03-07.html

Mike, if you want any "easy fix" I'm afraid it doesn't exist. A private equity group has bought Chrysler only to sell it. Ford and GM are little better off. The "jobs bank" days have hurt the auto industry badly.

If you expect McCain to ignore these facts you're barking up the wrong tree.

Romney, however, will promise you the moon, and no new jobs will come to Michigan, period while your taxes and fees go up, up, up just like they did in Massachusetts.

Lester, et al, do you personally do Mitt Romney's hair? I don't work for McCain. I'm just an enthusiastic supporter. I think America could use a president whose devotion to this nation is as long and storied as McCain's. Mitt was in business school on Daddy's dime when McCain was spending five years in a Hanoi prison for defending this country. By the way, I love the respect you show a decorated POW by referring to him with childish names. That's typical of Romney supporters.

More proof that Mitt Romney just doesn't get how to fix Michigan's recession and the nation's economic problems.

One would think that Mitt Romney would use his hard-won credentials in the business world to work and introduce free market solutions (a.k.a. "the only solutions that have a sand castle's chance in an earthquake of working") to Michigan's problems.

Instead, Romney says this: "What I'm critical of is the absence of a federal policy designed to strengthen the U.S. automotive sector and manufacturing general."

Great. Mitt Romney earned all those millions in the private sector. He learned all there is to learn--both in the classroom and in the real world--about the need for free markets to bring about prosperity. And his solution to Michigan's economic problems is--wait for it!--the introduction of a federal industrial policy. Statism lives.

The Economist magazine stated that "most voters want executive competence" and the Mitt Romney was "competence on steriods."

Nobody thinks that getting the economy on track is easy. It is going to take a great executive to make a real difference in the economy.

Mitt has had successful executive experience. That counts for more than 25 years in Washington.

By the way, I respect McCain for his 5 years as a POW. But that does not make him the best candidate for President.

Posted by: Jeff | January 13, 2008 10:15 PM

Face it Billy/Jeff,

No one is going to vote for John McGoo, he's nearly 100 years old and he probably wouldn't even live thru one term, also, for this angry old man to talk about "civility in the political discourse" is a complete hypocritical joke:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/01/10/senator-hothead-wont-raise-the-level-of-political-dialog/

John McCrazy also thinks it would be a swell idea to stay in Iraq for the next 100 years.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/01/04/john-mccain-lets-stay-in-iraq-for-100-years/

OBAMA 08!

Ooooh, I read "The Economist!" JTF, c'mon, do you REALLY think that a massive government handout program disguised as "federal policy to strengthen the automotive and manufacturing sector" will help Michigan? Why not a market-based solution?

McCain being a POW is a reason he should be President? Correct me if I'm wrong but good soldiers don't get captured by the enemy. John McCain's experience as a military expert SUCKS.

I didn't say he should be POTUS because he was a POW, I said McCain should be respected because he served his country honorably unlike his rivals. Even in a political campaign.

Any combat pilot knows that you can be shot down and badly wounded on any mission with even the lightest anti-aircraft fire. That has nothing to do with whether or not he was a good pilot.

I was speaking more of his 30-plus years as an authority on defense matters. Before he retired from the military McCain worked in the Pentagon as the Navy's liaison to the U.S. Senate. He has chaired the Senate's Armed Services committee and has been the ranking republican on it for 15 years.

Jeff,
I am not debating specific details of legislation, I was only talking about Mitt Romney's credentials to be President.

It is obvious that you do not have a subscription. Sounds like you, as well as McCain, ought to do a little reading about economics.

If he becomes educated about economics, your war hero could talk about something other than the 100 year Iraq war that he is proposing.

I see a couple of gopers from Michigan checked in. They both put their finger on the real problem in America, Health Care, but like typical gopers, they still don't get it. They think free market practices will cure all.
How can any American company that has to pay for its employees health care compete with a foreign company whose employees' healthcare is covered by the government? Other companies are finding this out, too. In order for America to compete and give its companies an equal footing with foreign companies, we need health care here. As long as the GOP remains blind to this reality, Michigan and the rest of the country are in big trouble.

Like it or not Jeff,
the American free market is highly regulated by Washington. McCain supported CAFE standards that, along with escalated health care costs, has hurt the auto industry.

A more free market approach would be appropriate.

If there is any candidate that has that free market approach, it is Mitt Romney, not John McCain.

And yes, that must start with an appropriate federal policy. How else do you propose to disentangle the auto industry from current suffocating federal policies?

Mitt Romney reminds me of a slimy used car salesman. You all keep talking about John McCain's age. What about his courge? Excuse me but I didn't see McCain crying on "Meet the Press". You seem to have age and integrity mixed up. Maybe you need to be reintroduced to things like,heroism , courge,and leadership. I don't want to see Mitt cry, and run off the stage when he dosn't win....on the other hand....

JTF, others, the "federal policy" in the auto industry is what caused this mess in the first place, ever since Lee Iacocca got the government to artificially bail Chrysler out!

"McCain supported CAFE standards that, along with escalated health care costs, has hurt the auto industry."

You seriously think lowering CAFE standards will help this bleeding industry recover? Who's going to buy all those gas guzzlers the Big Three try to sell when gas is $3.50 a gallon? The industry needs to become more efficent (like Toyota) not less efficient.

American fuel economy standards aren't enforced today, even, as the "average" fuel economy is used to allow Detroit to put more Suburbans, Tahoes, and Hummers on the streets while the market has shown they'd rather have Minis, and Prius' and pretty much any car that gets good fuel economy.

Why is this so difficult for executives at the big three to understand? Build better, more efficient cars and trucks and you'll outsell the foreign automakers. Make gas-guzzling crap and you'll lose. Raising CAFE won't help Michigan and, coincidentally, Mitt Romney is against universal healthcare, too.

Margret Duarte, how on earth can anyone use the name McCain and integrity in the same sentence? This is a man who had an affair with his current wife while still married and living with the woman who raised his children alone while he was a POW. He left her and married the young, pretty and rich "other woman" whose family had money to launch is political career! This is a man whose response to people who oppose him in the Senate and House is to rage at them with profanities, call them names, and send lengthy sarcastic notes of personal denigration. This is a man who has misrepresented his position on immigration until you would think he opposed his own bill! I live in Arizona. If you want to know the truth hidden behind the - so called - “straight talk” of McCain, you need to spend a little time researching.

I come from a military family that dates back to the colonial militia. There are many war heros in my family. I know about courage, heroism and leadership within the realm of military service. I also know the sacrifices of their children and spouses, but military service is not all to consider when you chose a HERO for President. There are many good Generals, Admirals and former prisoners of war who I would not choose to be President. John McCain is one of those I would not choose. As a Senator from Arizona, he is certainly not a HERO to many of us Arizona Republicans. Since sent him back to the Senate in the last election, the climate for him has changed here in Arizona!

You may not trust a man who is rich, has “nice hair”, treats people with respect and dignity without raging and swearing at them, has only one wife who he has remained faithful to, who has a brilliant mind for business, who changed his position on abortion, and who is tough on illegal immigration, who can stand shoulder to shoulder between detractors without flinching (as he did in the New Hampshire debate), but I don't think anyone could objectively call him a slime ball. I wouldn't even call McCain a slim ball, but the work "integrity" would never come to mind when talking about McCain.

Go Michigan!