Quote Originally Posted by daihashi
I would hope that the general public would be intelligent enough to take a look at McCain's voting record and his political history.

He is very much different from Bush and would be a god send in comparison.

McCain is not stupid and understands War, unlike George W. He understands that we cannot just simply leave Iraq after creating the huge mess Bush has.

If we leave the current situation there at hand with a still developing Iraqi government and military then you may very well end up with a similar situation that we have in Afghanistan. Similar to after the Soviet Union pulled out that is and Al Queda was able to step in and control the region.

Occupying is a smart move in my opinion. While I have never been for this war, I would sincerely hate for all of our time,money and American lives lost to be wasted and have the country of Iraq fall prey to outside forces or terrorist groups within their own country due to the extremely vulnerable nature of Iraq right now.

We have a responsibility to, at the very least, ensure the Iraqi people are safe after we stomped into their home and tore it apart.
McCain is a very different person from Bush in a lot ways. If he had prevailed in the 2000 election, we would not be in nearly as much of a nightmare as we are now. But for purposes of the election he is going to have to make his case, which I don't think he has done very well. I think if you look at his RECENT voting record, it toes the Bush line pretty closely. He needs to draw the distinction between himself and Bush more clearly or he is doomed.

I also partly agree with you on our responsibilities in Iraq. We should have never gone into Iraq in the first place, but as Colin Powell warned Bush before it even started, "You break it, you buy it." We should not leave it in chaos, and we should not allow it to become another Afghanistan. The big question is how do we do that. Is our occupation a stabilizing force or a destabilizing force? Is there any amount of money or lives we can expend that will restabilize that country? Is it our responsibility to pull it together now after five years, or the Iraqis? I don't know. One thing is for sure though --- this war has been a disaster and never should have happened, and if McCain gets linked to the blame for it without offering a vision of a way forward, he's not going to win the election. I don't think war should be subject to politics, but the fact is that people's feelings about it are so strong, and we are in an election year, so the war will likely have a bearing on how people vote, and the results will affect the conduct of the war going forward. Politics will affect this war.
dragonrider Reviewed by dragonrider on . McCain Compares Obama to Jimmy Carter McCain: Obama means 2nd Carter term June 09, 2008 From NBC's Mark Murray In an interview to air later tonight on Nightly News, McCain tells NBC's Brian Williams that while Obama might criticize him for representing a third Bush term, Obama seems to be running for a second Carter term. Part of the transcript... Williams: Is it going to be tough to run with an incumbent party for the White House, given this economic backdrop? McCain: I-- I think it's-- it's tough. But I think Rating: 5