Thursday, April 24, 2008

McCain and the First Amendment (or lack thereof)

I've been a harsh critic of Senator McCain (and for good reason mind you) as I've asserted that his military service, indeed commendable as is any other American's, was for the sole purpose of preserving Freedom and Liberty. And yet, in my harsh criticism, I have layed out specific instances where Senator McCain, despite being a wartime patriot, has time and time again undermined that very Freedom and Liberty through is public policy positions.

So comes yet another perfect example of McCain falling on the wrong side of the fence when it comes to the preservation of Freedom and Liberty in asking the North Carolina GOP not to run a television ad that brings up the controversial former pastor of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080423/ap_on_el_pr/mccain_obama_ad_4

McCain asks NC GOP not to run ad

Excerpt:

"We asked them not to run it," McCain told reporters traveling with him in Kentucky. "I'm sending them an e-mail as we speak asking them to take it down. "

"I don't know why they do it. Obviously, I don't control them, but I'm making it very clear, as I have a couple of times in the past, that there's no place for that kind of campaigning, and the American people don't want it," McCain said.


Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean piled on, saying McCain should call the party chairwoman personally.

"If John McCain means what he says, he should call the North Carolina Republican Party chairwoman and tell her not to run this ad," Dean said. "Sending an e-mail and turning a blind eye as the state party ignores him is not leadership."


Now, let me be perfectly clear on this: McCain is NOT a voice for Conservatism. I am a Conservatve and as such I find myself asking the following questions and concluding of Senator McCain (yet again).

A) if John McCain is the staunch fighter that the GOP faithful make him out to be, wouldn't he instead not be running for cover from an ad that is not a distortion but rather a factual account; and

B) And, certainly most importantly is the fact that John McCain is once again taking a position which is counter to the First Amendment on this issue (just like he did with McCain-Feingold).

If McCain wanted to take a good leadership role on this would he not challenge Howard Dean's assertion, that something ought to be done to prevent the ad from airing, on the sole basis of protecting First Amendment rights?

So again, while McCain's apologists continue their futile effort to dismiss the Senator's shortcomings by promoting him as a patriot and a war hero, their dismissing the fact that he's undermining their claims at every turn.

6 comments:

Beth said...

Actually Soapie, it looks to me like a publicity stunt. News gets out that McCain doesn't want this ad to run, to make him look like Mr. Nice Guy, all the while news reports about the content of the ad make it to the presses so the people of North Carolina find out about it anyway.

Name: Soapboxgod said...

That's probably true. Taking a tip of the hat to Mike Huckabee on this huh?

Be that as it may, I just happen to think it's pretty hysterical to have the GOP faithful tout him as this stern guy who doesn't back down from terrorists and blah blah blah blah....all the while he doesn't even have the intestinal fortitude to either keep his mouth shut on the ad running or support it head on.

It stands in complete opposition to what the faithful want to believe about their guy.

I just find it pretty funny in a dry ironic sort of way.

Beth said...

Good point, if McCain is suppose to be tough, then he has to show that in the election. But he has that whole "if we're nice to them, they'll be nice to us" mentality, like about the waterboarding. Hillary and Obama will not be nice when they come up against him, he's living in La La Land if he thinks otherwise.

Name: Soapboxgod said...

My point exactly.

La La land is right.

Lista said...

The main reason that I came back to this post is because I keep hearing about the McCain-Feingold thing and I never did take the time to research it to see what it actually is until now.

I finally did what I've been meaning to do for quite some time. I did a Google search and checked it out. It's about "silencing all broadcast advertising that contains criticism of members of Congress seeking re-election". WHAT?!! THAT'S TOTALLY NUTS!!

First of all, if there is something as serious going on as the Barack Obama's Pastor ordeal, I do want to know about it and Secondly, is he afraid that if such publicity is run in relation to him, he will also come up short?

Yes, McCain is really something, isn't he?

Lista said...

Yes, I'm still thinking about it. You know what's scary? According to what I just read, after Labor Day, the candidates will no longer be able to run critical adds of Congressmen seeking re-election in November. Please tell me that I'm reading something out dated and that this has been appealed.

The article I read, calls the McCain-Feingold act "the most effective incumbent protection act possible, short of abolishing elections themselves". How was this allowed?