What will you like most about the McCain Presidency?

blatham wrote:

McGentrix wrote:

So it comes down to insulting McCain's mom?

wow.

Well, you can't really insult his pappy. Pappy was military. That's sacred.

Why do either of them need to be insulted? If you can not argue McCains policy, attack his mom?

woiyo wrote:

blatham wrote:

McGentrix wrote:

So it comes down to insulting McCain's mom?

wow.

Well, you can't really insult his pappy. Pappy was military. That's sacred.

Why do either of them need to be insulted? If you can not argue McCains policy, attack his mom?

It is pretty crass for McBush to use his mother in this manner.

I wonder if McCain ever called him Mom a trollop or the C word.

A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 65% of Americans would like to see U.S. troops brought home from Iraq within a year. That's the highest total recorded in the tracking poll which has been conducted regularly since August of last year. The 65% total is up six points from two weeks ago, but just a single point higher than the total from a month ago.

Twenty-six percent (26%) want the troops brought home immediately, up three points from the last survey.

Looking at the other end of the spectrum, 31% want troops to remain in Iraq until the mission is complete. That figure has ranged from 31% to 39% since tracking began.

The survey also found that 32% believe the troop "surge" has worked while 43% disagree and say it has not. Sixty-one percent (61%) of Republicans say the surge has worked. Fifty-nine percent (59%) of Democrats say it has not along with 51% of those not affiliated with either major party.

The desire to bring home the troops has risen among both men and women. Fifty-nine percent (59%) of men want the troops home within a year, up four points from two weeks ago. Among women, that total is 69%, up from 62% two weeks ago.

On the other side, 37% of men would like the troops to stay in Iraq until the mission is complete along with 26% of women.

Sixty-two percent (62%) of Republicans want to see the troops stay in Iraq until the mission is complete. Among Democrats, 86% would like to see the troops brought home within a year.

In late March, almost half (47%) of Likely Voters believe the U.S. and its allies are winning the War on Terror. Twenty percent (20%) disagree and say the terrorists are winning.

The survey was conducted in partnership with Fox Television Stations, Inc.

This telephone survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted by Rasmussen Reports in partnership with FOX Television Stations, Inc. on April 1-2, 2008. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

McCain is campaigning as the Iraq president; according to a latest poll, most Americans want troops out within a year. (Far cry from a 100 even if in those 100 years no American troops are killed.) All Obama has to do is too keep honing this point home and he has got a good chance in beating McCain even on the "leadership qualities."

Quote:

A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 65% of Americans would like to see U.S. troops brought home from Iraq within a year. That's the highest total recorded in the tracking poll which has been conducted regularly since August of last year. The 65% total is up six points from two weeks ago, but just a single point higher than the total from a month ago.

Twenty-six percent (26%) want the troops brought home immediately, up three points from the last survey.

Looking at the other end of the spectrum, 31% want troops to remain in Iraq until the mission is complete. That figure has ranged from 31% to 39% since tracking began.

The survey also found that 32% believe the troop "surge" has worked while 43% disagree and say it has not. Sixty-one percent (61%) of Republicans say the surge has worked. Fifty-nine percent (59%) of Democrats say it has not along with 51% of those not affiliated with either major party.

The desire to bring home the troops has risen among both men and women. Fifty-nine percent (59%) of men want the troops home within a year, up four points from two weeks ago. Among women, that total is 69%, up from 62% two weeks ago.

On the other side, 37% of men would like the troops to stay in Iraq until the mission is complete along with 26% of women.

Sixty-two percent (62%) of Republicans want to see the troops stay in Iraq until the mission is complete. Among Democrats, 86% would like to see the troops brought home within a year.

In late March, almost half (47%) of Likely Voters believe the U.S. and its allies are winning the War on Terror. Twenty percent (20%) disagree and say the terrorists are winning.

The survey was conducted in partnership with Fox Television Stations, Inc.

This telephone survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted by Rasmussen Reports in partnership with FOX Television Stations, Inc. on April 1-2, 2008. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

source

SEN. BIDEN: Mr. Ambassador, is Al Qaeda a greater threat to US interests in Iraq, or in the Afghan-Pakistan border region? … Which would you pick, Mr. Ambassador?

AMB. CROCKER: I would therefore pick Al Qaeda in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area.

blatham wrote:

McGentrix wrote:

So it comes down to insulting McCain's mom?

wow.

Well, you can't really insult his pappy. Pappy was military. That's sacred.

Why do either of them need to be insulted? If you can not argue McCains policy, attack his mom?

Not if Obama can not detail the impact of his decision. McCain will surely point the impact out and I wonder what Obama will come back with,

Quote-worthy: ... "Washington is a Hollywood for ugly people. Hollywood is a Washington for the simple-minded."

Quote:

Not if Obama can not detail the impact of his decision. McCain will surely point the impact out and I wonder what Obama will come back with,

Neither of them can "detail the impact" of their decisions as regards what will happen in Iraq over the next year or five years.

It's actually an easier task for Obama because their are highly certain trends like taxpayer expenditures, loss of American lives, loss of Iraqi lives, etc. That's not what you meant, but those are prime considerations for most American citizens and it's very easy for him to bring those realities into the discussion and talk about what elese those tax dollars would buy, what it means to the families who don't lose their sons/daughters, etc.

But there are no certainties on what will happen if troops stay at present levels or if they are drawn down. Certainty here is the province of the ideologue and the stupid.

Basically, you nor anyone else really has a clue as to what will happen either way.

Obama has not reasoned his position out as to the long term impact of his choice. I await his informed opinion.

blatham wrote:

Quote:

Not if Obama can not detail the impact of his decision. McCain will surely point the impact out and I wonder what Obama will come back with,

Neither of them can "detail the impact" of their decisions as regards what will happen in Iraq over the next year or five years.

It's actually an easier task for Obama because their are highly certain trends like taxpayer expenditures, loss of American lives, loss of Iraqi lives, etc. That's not what you meant, but those are prime considerations for most American citizens and it's very easy for him to bring those realities into the discussion and talk about what elese those tax dollars would buy, what it means to the families who don't lose their sons/daughters, etc.

But there are no certainties on what will happen if troops stay at present levels or if they are drawn down. Certainty here is the province of the ideologue and the stupid.

Your arrogance again is showing through.

Basically, you nor anyone else really has a clue as to what will happen either way. If we pull out, they is a good chance more Iraqis will die due to insurgant violence. If we stay, less Iraqis may die but US Soldiers will be in harms way.

Obama has not reasoned his position out as to the long term impact of his choice. I await his informed opinion.

You seem to be the only ideologue here, stupid.

With respect to Al Qaida in Iraq, it's already been noted they were not there before we went in, but they certainly were there last year and they continue to have a presence there now.

Should we be successful in Mosul, should you continue, General, with the effective operations that you've been engaged in, assuming that in that narrow military effort we are successful, do we anticipate that there ever comes a time where Al Qaida in Iraq could not reconstitute itself?

GENERAL PETRAEUS: Well, I think the question, Senator, is whether Iraqi security forces over time, with much less help, could deal with their efforts to reconstitute. I think it's...

SENATOR OBAMA: That's my point.

GENERAL PETRAEUS: I think it's a given that Al Qaida-Iraq will try to reconstitute just as any movement of that type does try to reconstitute. And the question is whether...

SENATOR OBAMA:I don't mean -- don't mean to interrupt you, but I just want to sharpen the question so that -- because I think you're getting right at my point here.

I mean, if one of our criteria for success is ensuring that Al Qaida does not have a base of operations in Iraq, I just want to harden a little bit the metrics by which we're measuring that.

At what point do we say they cannot reconstitute themselves or are we saying that they're not going to be particularly effective and the Iraqis, themselves, will be able to handle the situation?

GENERAL PETRAEUS: I think it's really the latter, Senator, that, again, if you can keep chipping away at them, chipping away at their leadership, chipping away at the resources, that comprehensive approach that I mentioned, that, over time -- and we are reaching that in some other areas already.

SENATOR OBAMA:That's not a decision you gentlemen made. I won't lay it at your feet. You are cleaning up the mess afterwards. But I think it is important as we debate this forward.

I also think that the surge has reduced violence and provided breathing room, but that breathing room has not been taken the way we would all like it to be taken. And I think what happened in Basra is an example of Shia versus Shia jockeying for power that underscores how complicated the political situation is there and how we still have to continue to work vigorously to resolve it.

I believe that we are more likely to resolve it, in your own words, Ambassador, if we are applying increased pressure in a measured way. I think that increased pressure in a measured way, in my mind -- and this is where we disagree -- includes a timetable for withdrawal.

Nobody's asking for a precipitous withdrawal, but I do think that it has to be a measured but increased pressure; and a diplomatic surge that includes Iran. Because if Maliki can tolerate as normal neighbor-to-neighbor relations in Iran, then we should be talking to them as well. I do not believe we're going to be able to stabilize the position without them.

Just last point I will make. Our resources are finite. And this has been made -- this is a point that just was made by Senator Voinovich, it's been made by Senator Biden, Senator Lugar, Senator Hagel. There's a bipartisan consensus that we have finite resources. Our military is overstretched, and the Pentagon has acknowledged it.

The amount of money that we are spending is hemorrhaging our budget, and Al Qaida in Afghanistan I think is feeling a lot more secure as long as we're focused in Iraq and not on Afghanistan.

When you have finite resources, you've got to define your goals tightly and modestly.

SENATOR OBAMA: And so my final -- and I'll even pose this as a question and I won't -- you don't necessarily have to answer it -- maybe it's a rhetorical question -- if we were able to have the status quo in Iraq right now without U.S. troops, would that be a sufficient definition of success?

It's obviously not perfect. There's still violence, there's still some traces of Al Qaida, Iran has influence more than we would like. But if we had the current status quo, and yet our troops had been drawn down to 30,000, would we consider that a success? Would that meet our criteria, or would that not be good enough and we'd have to devote even more resources to it?

AMBASSADOR CROCKER: Senator, I can't imagine the current status quo being sustainable with that kind of precipitous drawdown.

SENATOR BIDEN: That wasn't the question.

SENATOR OBAMA: No, no, that wasn't the question. I'm not suggesting that we yank all our troops out all the way. I'm trying to get to an endpoint. That's what all of us have been trying to get to.

And, see, the problem I have is if the definition of success is so high, no traces of Al Qaida and no possibility of reconstitution, a highly-effective Iraqi government, a Democratic multiethnic, multi- sectarian functioning democracy, no Iranian influence, at least not of the kind that we don't like, then that portends the possibility of us staying for 20 or 30 years.

If, on the other hand, our criteria is a messy, sloppy status quo but there's not, you know, huge outbreaks of violence, there's still corruption, but the country is struggling along, but it's not a threat to its neighbors and it's not an Al Qaida base, that seems to me an achievable goal within a measurable timeframe, and that, I think, is what everybody here on this committee has been trying to drive at, and we haven't been able to get as clear of an answer as we would like.

McCain Reverses Himself on Mortgage Position

By MICHAEL COOPER
Published: April 11, 2008
Senator John McCain, who drew criticism last month after he warned against broad government intervention to solve the deepening mortgage crisis, pivoted Thursday and called for the federal government to aid some homeowners in danger of losing their homes, by helping them to refinance and get federally guaranteed 30-year mortgages.

"There is nothing more important than keeping alive the American dream to own your home, and priority No. 1 is to keep well-meaning, deserving homeowners who are facing foreclosure in their homes," Mr. McCain said in a speech on economic themes that he gave at a window company in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn.

A Republican National Committee spokesperson insisted that age is not a concern because voters associate McCain with "judgment, character, vision and leadership."

The dreaded septuagenarian issue

"A significant number of Americans believe we should come home with honor, not with disgrace and genocide," he told reporters on his campaign bus recently.

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 65% of Americans would like to see U.S. troops brought home from Iraq within a year. That's the highest total recorded in the tracking poll which has been conducted regularly since August of last year. The 65% total is up six points from two weeks ago, but just a single point higher than the total from a month ago.

Monday, April 14, 2008

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows John McCain leading Barack Obama, 49% to 42%. The presumptive Republican nominee also leads Hillary Clinton 47% to 43%. Daily tracking results are updated daily at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time (see recent general election results).

There is no disconnect on part of intelligent voters.

They can clearly see that Obama has no experience nor credibility in areas that are important to this country and Mrs. Bill Clinton is a liar an a fraud.

McCain, regardless of your agreement with his positions or not, is a honest man and a viable candidate and the best choice of the 3 for Commander in Chief.

woiyo wrote:

There is no disconnect on part of intelligent voters.

They can clearly see that Obama has no experience nor credibility in areas that are important to this country and Mrs. Bill Clinton is a liar an a fraud.

McCain, regardless of your agreement with his positions or not, is a honest man and a viable candidate and the best choice of the 3 for Commander in Chief.

Hopefully things will turn around before the general election comes around. I think (my own particular opinion) when or if Obama and McCain debate side by side; Obama will come off the better hands down.

But there is a disconnect between voters voting for McCain while at the same time wanting troops home.