The Candidates: John McCain

Things I Agree With John McCain About:

• He believes welfare recipients should be required to work 40 hours per week.
• He favors housing assistance and tax breaks against homelessness.
• Voted NO on eliminating block grants for food stamps.
• Actually wants to catch Bin Laden.
• He wants Internet access, with filters, at every school & library.
• Voted NO on disallowing FCC approval of larger media conglomerates.
• Voted YES on Internet sales tax moratorium.
• Voted NO on telecomm deregulation.
• Voted YES on increasing minimum wage to $7.25.
• Voted YES on allowing workers to choose between overtime & comp-time.
• Voted YES on establishing a Guest Worker program.
• Voted YES on allowing illegal aliens to participate in Social Security.
• Voted YES on giving Guest Workers a path to citizenship.
• Voted YES on allowing more foreign workers into the US for farm work.
• Voted YES on visas for skilled workers.
• Voted YES on military pay raise of 4.8%.
• Voted YES on banning chemical weapons.
• He wants to close Guantanamo Bay prison and announce a "no torture" policy.
• Voted YES on increasing Medicaid rebate for producing generics.
• Voted YES on negotiating bulk purchases for Medicare prescription drug.
• Voted YES on allowing reimportation of Rx drugs from Canada.
• Voted YES on allowing patients to sue HMOs & collect punitive damages.
• Voted YES on increasing tobacco restrictions.
• Voted NO on Medicare means-testing.
• Voted NO on blocking medical savings accounts.
• Voted YES on establishing the Senate Office of Public Integrity.
• Voted YES on banning "soft money" contributions and restricting issue ads.
• Voted YES on banning campaign donations from unions & corporations.
• Voted YES on disallowing an oil leasing program in Alaska's ANWR.
• Voted YES on banning drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
• Voted NO on Bush Administration Energy Policy.
• Voted YES on targeting 100,000 hydrogen-powered vehicles by 2010.
• Voted YES on removing consideration of drilling ANWR from budget bill.
• Voted NO on drilling ANWR on national security grounds.
• Voted YES on requiring schools to allow voluntary prayer.
• He believes a ban on same-sex marriage is un-Republican; leave it to states.
• He wants to overturn Roe v. Wade, but keep incest & rape exceptions.
• He wants to prosecute abortion doctors but not women who get them.
• He is against public funding for abortion.

Things I Disagree With John McCain About:

• Voted NO on redeploying non-essential US troops out of Iraq in 9 months.
• Voted NO on redeploying troops out of Iraq by July 2007.
• Voted NO on investigating contract awards in Iraq & Afghanistan.
• Voted NO on allowing all necessary force in Kosovo.
• Has said he'd be OK to have a military presence in Iraq for "100 years."
• Said he criticized Rumsfeld; he did NOT do so before the invasion.
• Supports Bush's "strategy" in Iraq, including the surge.
• Is against direct talks with Iran.
• He wants to make the Bush tax cuts permanent.
• Voted NO on increasing tax deductions for college tuition.
• Voted NO on restricting employer interference in union organizing.
• Voted YES on replacing farm price supports.
• Voted YES on building a fence along the Mexican border.
• Voted NO on preserving habeas corpus for Guantanamo detainees.
• Voted NO on requiring CIA reports on detainees & interrogation method
• Voted YES on reauthorizing the PATRIOT Act.
• Voted YES on extending the PATRIOT Act's wiretap provision.
• Voted NO on restricting business with entities linked to terrorism.
• Voted NO on restoring $565M for states' and ports' first responders.
• Voted NO on adopting the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
• Voted NO on including prescription drugs under Medicare.
• Voted YES on limiting self-employment health deduction.
• Voted YES on Approving the presidential line-item veto.
• Voted NO on banning more types of Congressional gifts.
• Voted YES on allowing some lobbyist gifts to Congress.
• Voted NO on funding for National Endowment for the Arts.
• Voted NO on reducing funds for road-building in National Forests.
• Voted NO on continuing desert protection in California.
• Voted NO on reducing oil usage by 40% by 2025 (instead of 5%).
• Voted YES on defunding renewable and solar energy.
• Voted NO on shifting $11B from corporate tax loopholes to education.
• He wants stricter penalties and stricter enforcement against drugs.
• He does not believe the First Amendment protects "hate groups."
• Voted YES on Amendment to prohibit flag burning.
• Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination by sexual orientation.
• Voted YES on loosening restrictions on cell phone wiretapping.
• Voted NO on expanding hate crimes to include sexual orientation.
• He believes the Confederate flag is a "symbol of heritage."
• Voted NO on prioritizing national debt reduction below tax cuts.
• Voted YES on 1998 GOP budget.
• He is pro-death penalty.
• He wants more prisons.
• He is pro-NAFTA
• He is pro-CAFTA

Things John McCain Believes That I'm Unsure About:

• Voted YES on welfare block grants.
• Voted YES on allowing state welfare waivers.
• He wants to fully fund AmeriCorps.
• Voted YES on requiring photo ID to vote in federal elections.

What It Boils Down To For Me About John McCain is largely articulated in this video from the website "TheRealMcCain.com" which puts together a bunch of clips of McCain flip-flopping on issues and sums up his platform as, "Less Jobs, More Wars." Check it out, it's a short video but informative. Of particular interest is when he says the left needs to distance itself from Al Sharpton and the right from Jerry Falwell, followed by the clip of him hugging Falwell. And how can he back Bush after everything Karl Rove did to him?

Of course, in the 2004 election, his party turned a three-time Purple Heart war hero into a "coward" and "traitor" while turning a Yale educated aristocrat fake-cowboy draft-dodger deserter into Commander In Chief. And McCain is still a Republican?