John McCain coming to Wilkes-Barre (Scranton, Republic: buy, college, cabinet)

[W-B proud]

Is anyone gonna go see John McCain when he comes to Wilkes-Barre in July? Does anyone even like John McCain?

[FightinPhils]

I like his french fries.

[Chefkey]

The Silence is deafening... I have recently laughed when he laughed? My, that laugh gives him the most undesirable opinion. I just see feeble sorry, and then think four years?

[thecoalman]

We are heading into a major energy crisis and considering McCain has put forth the only sound, realistic energy policy he's got my vote. You could argue all you want about economics but our economic woes are driven by the energy situation.

[SteelCityRising]

Believe it or not even though the guy is a conservative on civil rights, and I'm an outspoken liberal college student, I'm still leaning towards voting for Sen. McCain, as are many of my relatives. I think Sen. Obama is more in touch with me on social issues, but I worry about his experience when it comes to national security. Granted most presidents themselves aren't the sole decision-makers; they often consult feverishly with well-educated and well-seasoned advisers before making major decisions, but I still worry that we know so little about Sen. Obama's stance on foreign policy, let alone who his Cabinet appointments might be.

I also think it's unfair to proclaim that Sen. McCain will be "another four years of Bush." You'd have to be an idiot to think Sen. McCain would wish to align himself with the most unpopular president in U.S. history. He's a maverick, pure and simple, hence why so many Ann Coulter-worshipping right-wing nut jobs in this area threw their support behind Sen. Clinton instead of Sen. McCain; they wanted to protest and punish the Republican party for nominating someone who doesn't share their conservative ideals.

I firmly believe that Sen. Obama needs to have Sen. Clinton on his ticket as vice-president in order to defeat Sen. McCain. I hate to be blunt, but Saturday Night Live said it best with a skit several weeks ago in which a Hillary impersonator commented that her voters were racist and wouldn't vote for an African-American. It's very true. I've overheard customers at work in casual conversation saying they won't vote for a "Muslim terrorist." It's a shame that such fallacies are accepted like Gospel around here, but we are a region of "Sheeple" politically, are we not?

(P.S. coartist88, you may deem it necessary and appropriate to move this thread into the Politics/Off-Topic sticky thread if replies to my reply spark debate).

[FightinPhils]

Originally Posted by thecoalman

We are heading into a major energy crisis and considering McCain has put forth the only sound, realistic energy policy he's got my vote. You could argue all you want about economics but our economic woes are driven by the energy situation.

I just can't see a continuation of the Bush/Cheney presidency. Bush is hands down the worst president in my lifetime, and probably the worst in this nation's history. McCain is too much of a warmonger for me, and anything short of ending this debacle in Iraq will not cut it for me. I'm not exactly thrilled with Barack Obama either, but I can't vote for another version of Bush. And McCain may make this war even worse by invading Iran....my views in foreign policy would line up more with Ron Paul or Pat Buchanan, I think we should be isolationists....we're over there fighting wars for oil, and the sheep and lemmings of this country actually believe that we are fighting a "war on terror" and that this sham of a war is actually protecting us. If we're so worried about liberating those oppressed Iraqis, why aren't we also fighting to free other oppressed people throughout the world? Why? Because those countries don't have oil. Welcome to the United States of Exxon.

[FightinPhils]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

hence why so many Ann Coulter-worshipping right-wing nut jobs in this area threw their support behind Sen. Clinton instead of Sen. McCain; they wanted to protest and punish the Republican party for nominating someone who doesn't share their conservative ideals.

No right wing-republicans have been supporting Hillary.....they hate Hillary. How could a republican have supported Hillary, when she only ran in the democratic primary? Hillary does have the support of conservative and moderate DEMOCRATS, but not neocon republicans that march to the tune of Hannity and Limbaugh.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by FightinPhils

I just can't see a continuation of the Bush/Cheney presidency. Bush is hands down the worst president in my lifetime, and probably the worst in this nation's history. McCain is too much of a warmonger for me, and anything short of ending this debacle in Iraq will not cut it for me. I'm not exactly thrilled with Barack Obama either, but I can't vote for another version of Bush. And McCain may make this war even worse by invading Iran....my views in foreign policy would line up more with Ron Paul or Pat Buchanan, I think we should be isolationists....we're over there fighting wars for oil, and the sheep and lemmings of this country actually believe that we are fighting a "war on terror" and that this sham of a war is actually protecting us. If we're so worried about liberating those oppressed Iraqis, why aren't we also fighting to free other oppressed people throughout the world? Why? Because those countries don't have oil. Welcome to the United States of Exxon.

I disagree that four years of Sen. McCain will be four more years of President Bush. Sen. McCain's new commercial even touts that he "sounded the alarm on global warming" long before President Bush made it a priority. Now, what conservative Republican do you know that actually thinks global warming is real, let alone proposed to address it? This just shows that Sen. McCain has a more liberal side to him as well that he is permitting to shine through in order to bring in more votes from moderates and swing-voters. Unfortunately in doing so he has alienated many of the far-right. However, they are becoming a smaller and smaller minority in this nation with each passing day (thank God).

I'm still quite honestly undecided. I used to be all gung-ho for Sen. Obama, but my father, who is an ardent supporter of Sen. McCain, has been convincing me otherwise.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by FightinPhils

No right wing-republicans have been supporting Hillary.....they hate Hillary. How could a republican have supported Hillary, when she only ran in the democratic primary? Hillary does have the support of conservative and moderate DEMOCRATS, but not neocon republicans that march to the tune of Hannity and Limbaugh.

Actually Ann Coulter, the REAL "Queen of Mean," said several months ago that in light of Sen. McCain being the presumptive nominee of the Republican party that she would be voting for Sen. Clinton in order to punish the party. I don't know if she was being facetious or not, but many who read her column are sheep that probably DID vote for Sen. Clinton anyways. LOL! Also, I know of many, many local McCain supporters that switched parties temporarily and voted for Sen. Clinton in the PA primary merely because they thought she would be an easier opponent against McCain in November. When you come to think of it, most locals who supported Sen. Clinton weren't very intelligent---probably half of them that I conversed with ONLY voted for her because she was "a woman like me", "from Scranton and will remember her hometown", or my favorite "her husband was a good president; therefore she will be too." When you asked those people about her stances on issues, they froze like deer in headlights.

[MermanMike]

There is an interesting google interview with Arianna Huffington where she talks about John McCain's "Great Fall." She makes an interesting argument that the John McCain who is running for president today is not the "maverick" people know from 5 years ago. In a short time, he has managed to move further and further right (we can all presume why) and vote in a way that is not only in contrast to his historical record, but in contrast to his professed values. Google for the interview if you are interested in the facts about how his focus has shifted radically in the last couple of years.

In terms of national security--there are hundreds of thousands of people in this world who are already victims of the terrorism of Bush and Cheney. And McCain himself has been outspoken about NOT planning to end that terrorism, and also being open to spreading it to Iran.

As far as the energy crisis goes, no one in government is going to fix that problem for us, democrat or republican. This is a corporatocracy, and the corporations are making the calls about renewable energy. Oil companies are more powerful than the government, sadly, and they will get their way no matter what. When people can no longer afford to get to work or buy rice at the grocery store, then emerging renewable energy markets will help solve the problem. And of course it won't be comfortable for most people, or even affordable at first, but I don't see the government solving that one.