Saturday, February 02, 2008

John McCain - A Closer Look

John McCain is a senator from Arizona and a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.

Abortion
Don't let those conservative wackjobs fool you, McCain is plenty anti-abortion. He believes Rove V Wade should be overturned and the legality of abortion should be determined by the states. He favors embryonic stem cell research.

Immigration
John McCain favors putting a barrier on the border with Mexico. He is in advocates giving undocumented workers a path to citizenship and handing out guest worker visas to Mexicans looking for work. He would punish employers who hire undocumented workers.

Foreign policy
McCain is the most hawkish remaining on the campaign trail. He has no problem with American troops staying in Iraq for 100 years as long as they are not in harms way. He claims that Americans don't have a problem with our presence in Iraq, they have a problem with American casualties. Unfortunately, McCain ignores the reality that Iraqis don't want an American presence in their country and there will be American casualties as long as there is an American presence in Iraq. He is the foremost proponent of the so-called surge and argues that it is working. Unfortunately, it hasn't succeeded to any real degree. In 2006, most Americans wanted their troops out of Iraq. In 2006 the violence spiked drastically. The surge has brought the violence back to the previous and still horrific level. In addition, these numbers on the violence in Iraq only refers to American casualties, to say nothing of Iraqi deaths.

McCain's language towards Iran and Syria is quite bellicose. There is no guarantee that he would not attack either country if elected president. McCain is far more reasonable on Pakistan, not advocating attack to go after al Qaeda.

Here are some irrelevant fun facts:
  • Won't eat Vietnamese food, says it's "too spicy" for him
  • Straight talker: Yes, you look fat in that
  • Popeye the Sailor was based on him
  • His wife is the overlooked hottie of the campaign
  • He's easy to beat in Simon Says:
  • "Simon says lift your hands over your head"

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