McCain’s speech last night was inspirational and much more than I expected, but not more inspirational than his life. The exact same could be said of his wife, Cindy.
Although it is traditional for the Vice Presidential Nominee to be the attack dog and the Presidential Nominee to be the broker of peace, McCain’s address of bipartisanship for the betterment of our country were not just words, but rather a testament of his record. He has time and time again taken punishment from his own party for stepping across the aisle and working with those who most detest. The same cannot be said about his opponents.
Obama continues to tell the American people that he is bipartisan and will unite our government to work together. First of all, Obama has not been around long enough to have a substantial record of any kind, but the limited record he does have shows a strict liberal voting record. He has voted along party lines 96% or more in 2005, 2006, and 2007. Numerous sources have documented that he rarely takes a position that is politically unsafe. He is among the group that has steadily bashed the Bush Administration without offering any alternatives of their own. And this seems to be the continued strategy of his campaign.
At the Democratic National Convention they continually tried to link McCain to Bush. Over and over they reiterated that electing McCain would be just a third term for the Bush administration. But is it true. Let’s look at some of the facts. Liberals hate facts.
In 2005, John McCain voted against Bush’s energy policy because he did not agree with the subsidies being given to the oil companies. Right or wrong…he voted against it. Obama, on the other hand, voted for this legislation. His campaign said that he voted for it because it included significant funding for alternative energy. If this is the case, then why has Obama been trashing Bush on his failed energy policies? I heard another blogger say that it was because Obama has a great record on always voting for anything that helps alternative energy. Really. Then why has he not pushed Pelosi and the rest of the Democratic leadership to at least put the Republican’s ‘all encompassing’ energy plan to a vote? This plan includes more resources for alternative energy than any plan seen before. It would prove his bipartisan nature that will unite this country. But he will not because bipartisan to him means that you should agree with me because I am right.
Then we have climate change. In 2003, McCain broke from the party ranks and worked with then Democrat Joe Lieberman in writing a bill to address climate change. Bush was against this legislation due to concerns on how it would affect our economy. Right or wrong, McCain once again showed that he had a mind of his own and would cross party lines to do what he thought was right for our country.
And then there is the ever popular troop surge. You might think that this point goes against my argument, but you forget that McCain was pushing for increased troop levels back in 2004. He went to the Bush administration and lobbied for this strategy, which was rejected by Donald Rumsfeld. As much as I like Bush and support his administrations reasons for going into Iraq, I did not like Rumsfeld and felt he was incompetent in that he would not listen to other more qualified experts on military strategy. If he would have listened to McCain and others, we might just have stopped the insurgency before it ever really took hold.
These are just a few examples of why McCain’s speech last night was not just rhetoric. He does not just criticize others for their ideas, but actually will do anything to make our government work for the people and better our country.
Barack Obama said a couple of days ago that the Republicans are avoiding the issues that are affecting Americans. I would have to throw that statement right back at them. Democrats have done no better at addressing the issues that affect our great country. Just last week Obama and Biden both stressed that they would try to prosecute people in the Bush Administration to include Bush himself once they took office.
That is really looking at American’s problems. That is really looking to the future. Where is moveon.org when you need them?
The Democrats have criticized this administration on energy policy. The Republicans come up with a new energy plan and what do they do? Once again they criticize. In the two years since they have controlled Congress they have not introduced an energy plan of their own. The Democrats have criticized this administrations deficit spending, yet they send a larger budget to the President than what he asked for. None of this is bipartisan. None of this is productive. John McCain and Sarah Palin both have a record of shaking things up, and I believe if we can get them elected we will indeed see true change in Washington.
