If you insist upon bringing national politics into the Redmond Reporter, would you please either find an honest voice on the conservative side or present the other side as well?
I’m referring to John Carlson’s commentary: “Barack Obama and change” in the July 9, 2008 edition.
Mr. Carlson takes a page right out of Karl Rove’s playbook: take your candidate’s greatest weaknesses and project them on your opponent.
To accuse Obama of flip-flopping on public financing is disingenuous considering McCain has flip-flopped on this four times, potentially violating federal law.
In early 2007, McCain notified the FEC that even though he was eligible for matching funds, he was “opting-out” because he thought he could raise more money privately. By the fall of 2007, due to a lack of donors, McCain requested the FEC reinstate his eligibility. After he was awarded $5.8 million in matching funds, he approached Fidelity & Trust Bank in Maryland for a series of private loans (potentially violating federal law). On February 6, after winning the New Hampshire primary, McCain wrote another letter to the FEC, this time indicating he no longer needed public financing.
Mr. Carlson criticizes Obama for saying he would attempt to filibuster a FISA bill that included immunity for telecom companies and he didn’t do so. However, Carlson conveniently failed to note that 80 members of the Senate voted for closure on the bill, rendering a filibuster impossible.
Is Mr. Carlson truly opposed to flip-flopping? Or, does he just find it distasteful when he can accuse Obama of doing it? McCain contradicts himself so frequently that one would be hard-pressed to tell you where he stands on any particular issue. His positions seem to change depending on his audience.
And, much of what McCain says are just plain lies:
He took credit for the GI bill after it passed, however he had opposed it and didn’t vote on it.
He claims he has a “perfect voting record” with Veterans’ groups. The truth is the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America gave McCain a grade of D (Obama got a B+). The Disabled Veterans of America noted McCain’s dismal 20% voting record on veteran’s issues (Obama got 80 percent). Vietnam Veterans of America notes McCain voted against them 15 of 23 times (Obama voted against them only 1 of 13 times).
He said we could win in Iraq in a very short period of time and success would be easy. Now he says he always knew the Iraq war would be “long and hard and tough.”
He said he supported all Hurricane Katrina investigations when in fact he voted twice against a commission to study the government’s response to Katrina. He also opposed emergency funding to provide relief to Katrina victims.
He claimed he voted to condemn the Iranian Guard as a terrorist organization and criticized Obama for missing the vote. Actually, they both missed the vote. In fact, McCain has missed more votes than any senator; he hasn’t voted since April 8.
Is there a reason Mr. Carlson supports Mr. McCain other than the fact he is a Republican? If so, I would challenge him to communicate those reasons in an honest manner. If he feels the need to speak out against Obama, I would also challenge him to be honest about it. Now those changes would be refreshing!
Sallee Carlson
Redmond
