John McCain’s speech to the VWF convention and Barack Obama’s response
encapsulate the differences between the two parties. The Republicans go
for the jugular and the Democrats are only too happy to unbutton their
shirt collar. This has been a feature of American presidential politics
going back to the 1970s and will probably continue into the future until
the Democratic Party finally goes the way of the Whigs into the
scrapheap of American electoral politics.
The most quoted section of McCain’s speech has raised all sorts of
alarms in the liberal establishment:
"With less than three months to go before the election, a lot of people
are still trying to square Senator Obama’s varying positions on the
surge in Iraq. First, he opposed the surge and confidently predicted
that it would fail. Then he tried to prevent funding for the troops who
carried out the surge. Not content to merely predict failure in Iraq, my
opponent tried to legislate failure. This was back when supporting
America’s efforts in Iraq entailed serious political risk. It was a
clarifying moment. It was a moment when political self-interest and the
national interest parted ways. For my part, with so much in the balance,
it was an easy call. As I said at the time, I would rather lose an
election than lose a war.
"Thanks to the courage and sacrifice of our soldiers, sailors, airmen,
and Marines and to brave Iraqi fighters the surge has succeeded. And yet
Senator Obama still cannot quite bring himself to admit his own failure
in judgment. Nor has he been willing to heed the guidance of General
Petraeus, or to listen to our troops on the ground when they say — as
they have said to me on my trips to Iraq: “Let us win, just let us win.”
Instead, Senator Obama commits the greater error of insisting that even
in hindsight, he would oppose the surge. Even in retrospect, he would
choose the path of retreat and failure for America over the path of
success and victory. In short, both candidates in this election pledge
to end this war and bring our troops home. The great difference is that
I intend to win it first."
You’ll note that McCain gives no quarter. He says that Obama “tried to
prevent funding”-in other words he wanted to send men and women into
battle with nothing but butter knives and peashooters. This kind of
traitor seeks to “legislate failure” and “lose a war”. He would “choose
the path of retreat and failure for America.” If you want a precedent
for this kind of inflammatory rhetoric, see the following:
"The reason why we find ourselves in a position of impotency is not
because our only powerful potential enemy has sent men to invade our
shores . . . but rather because of the traitorous actions of those who
have been treated so well by this Nation. It has not been the less
fortunate, or members of minority groups who have been traitorous to
this Nation, but rather those who have had all the benefits that the
wealthiest Nation on earth has had to offer . . . the finest homes, the
finest college education and the finest jobs in government we can give."
– Speech of Joseph McCarthy, Wheeling, West Virginia, February 9, 1950
full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2008/08/19/obama-mccain-and-the-vfw/
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