CAN YOU TEACH AN OLD DOG NEW TRICKS? NOT IF HE'S REFUSED TO LISTEN TO ANYONE IN 30 YEARS-- McCAIN'S PLANS FOR A THIRD BUSH TERM

McCain has kept his promises to seniors by always voting against their interests-- except when he avoids voting entirely

McCain, like Bush doesn't much care about mundane things like the economy. His solution to financial woes was to dump his poor wife-- who had just become crippled in an accident-- and marry a loose heiress half his age and loaded down with daddy's beer and booze fortune. That was the last time McCain ever had to worry about finances-- until he got caught taking bribes from banker Charles Keating and became a charter member of a very exclusive club, the Keating Five. The other 4 senators caught in that one are no longer senators. McCain's efficient and well-oiled p.r. machine so muddied the water on the Keating Five that voters either aren't aware he was involved or think he must have uncovered the scandal, rather than been the center of it.

Three years ago McCain did an interview with the very friendly Wall Street Journal and when they started asking him economic questions, he blurted out, "I'm going to be honest; I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated." That ignorance goes a long way towards explaining his grotesque voting record on all matters that effect the pocketbooks of Americans. But before I get into that, let me just say, he also admits, as he bores into his seventies, he still hasn't bothered to learn anything about economics. Campaigning in New Hampshire a few months ago he told voters there that "The issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should. I've got Greenspan's book."

If you think the Bush Regime has done a good job as the stewards of the American economy, you'll absolutely love John McCain. Like Bush, he doesn't really want to be bothered with the economy while he acts like Mr. Bully and plays brinkmanship games with the rest of the world. But he certainly wants to make the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans permanent-- he brags about it at every opportunity-- and he will continue working, as he has since his wife's fortune bought him his first election in 1982, to redistribute wealth upward, away from the middle class and into the hands of the greediest and most selfish segment of society, the super-rich.

I'd like to point out McCain's voting record on dealing with people who don't own Anheuser-Busch Beer distributorships, the people who buy the beer instead. Although he doesn't attend many Senate sessions any longer-- too busy asking wealthy people for money to finance his political career-- since 2002 he participated in 48 roll call votes directly regarding America's least wealthy. You want to guess how many times Mr. Independent/Mr. Moderate differed from the savagely right-wing extremists of the GOP? Exactly twice. The other 46 votes were down the line right-wing ideology meant to game the system in favor of the wealthy and against the rest of us.

But beyond these 48 votes, McCain has a voting record that goes back decades and it is very consistent. If you are greedy and selfish and make over a million dollars a year, McCain is probably going to help you nurture that greed and selfishness. Otherwise... his ignorance on economics, coupled with his natural predisposition to always come down against the poor and middle class might auger poorly for you. In 2005, for example, there were 2 very important votes in the Senate regarding a Bankruptcy Bill written by the credit card companies. Even if you haven't been directly hit by a bank foreclosure on your home, you've no doubt heard how the economy is tanking, at least in part, because of the policies that Bush and McCain supported-- both men steeped in ignorance that they brag about-- in regard to bankruptcies. In both cases McCain just went along with the right-wing and voted against the interests of ordinary Americans, his normal disposition on economic issues.

McCain's positions on trade are abysmal and all about supplying cheap labor at the expense of American working families for his financial backers. His record on unions and labor is one of the worst in the entire Senate and at every single opportunity he has voted in favor of out-sourcing American jobs abroad. He has been aggressive in supporting tax breaks for companies that ship U.S. jobs overseas. Just on economic issues alone, John McCain is completely unfit to be president.

Yesterday Brave New Films released a short video on what a McCain economic policy will be based on:



And it isn't just progressives who understand that McCain would be a disaster as president. One of the most conservative Republican members of the Senate, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, who has served with McCain for many years and knows him far better than any of us ever will said this less than two weeks ago:

"The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."

Cochran will wind up endorsing McCain because Cochran is a lockstep Republican but voters need to read between the lines and wonder why he said a hotheaded McCain presidency would send a cold chill down his spine.