McCain more of the same

By Scott Hilsendeger,
Published Saturday, September 13, 2008

The Republicans are tired of hearing Democrats say that John McCain is a third Bush term. Because they know it’s true, too. Republicans are always afraid of the truth. McCain has voted along with Bush’s atrocious policies 90 percent of the time. And Bush is as extreme to the right as one can get. McCain is no more of an independent “maverick” than I am a registered Republican. Even though McCain votes almost lock step with Bush, it’s still not enough for the fanatical Bush-does-no-wrong Republican base because McCain is not extreme enough for them. I love it. But McCain is still way too extreme for our country and for any Democrat or independent.
I applaud any candidate who puts a woman on the ticket. I was a huge Hillary Clinton supporter who could have easily led the ticket. But McCain tabbing little known Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin screams of desperation on his part – a gimmick to try to steal the massive Hillary vote. Don’t any independent or Hillary supporter fall for it. It might be a fun addition for the GOP ticket right now. But fun alone isn’t going to fix all that the Republicans have destroyed. Palin is as wrong on policy as McCain and Bush-Cheney are.

McCain is not a Democrat or an independent. So for any independent-leaning voters out there, McCain is most definitely not the man to vote for. McCain is an extreme right-winger, too. Just with a phony, play both sides of the aisle, “maverick” in sheep’s clothing. Just like Joe Lieberman is a Republican posing as an independent, and then calls himself a Democrat at the Republican convention.

I could explode every time I hear about a Democrat or an Independent-leaning Hillary supporter saying that they will vote for McCain because Hillary is out. And that McCain is a moderate “maverick” close to the ideals that Hillary stood for. What? They aren’t even from the same political parties. And that’s just the beginning of the massive differences between Hillary, now Obama-Biden and McCain-Palin.

The American Conservative Union is the nation’s oldest conservative lobbying organization. They give McCain a lifetime American Conservative Union rating of 83 percent. That hardly spells maverick. They give Hillary Clinton a 9 and Barack Obama an 8.

I make no apologies to any Democrats or independents. But you are moronic, idiotic fools to vote for McCain-Palin if you were going to vote for Clinton. You are uninformed and should not vote. It’s that simple. An uninformed voter is doing the country no service at all. That is how we ended up with the worst eight years in American history with Bush-Cheney. Easily the worst president-vice president pairing ever.

On that note, Democrats have been screaming enough for almost eight years. And Obama reiterated that in his great convention speech. Vote for Obama-Biden and let the healing begin. This country can’t take anymore of the same. McCain-Palin is just a lot more of the same horrible past eight years. Enough.

Hilsendeger lives in Fargo.