McCain starts to feel fallout from Iraq

[cal04]

The popularity of John McCain, the decorated Vietnam veteran and strong contender for the Republican 2008 presidential nomination, is being undermined by his support for the Iraq war.

As he took his undeclared White House campaign to Baghdad, among a congressional delegation to Iraq, the Arizona senator called for the deployment of up to 35,000 more US troops and made clear that he opposed a timetable for withdrawal.

Yet even as Mr McCain, 70, was talking to US commanders and Iraqi leaders in the Green Zone, troubling poll data for his White House hopes were emerging at home. Among independent voters, his strongest backers in his previous tilt at the nomination, support has slipped 15 per cent since March.

(snip)
None can afford to be seen as soft on security or foreign affairs, yet the kind of voters who are likely to swing the result are increasingly tired of America's intervention.

Philip Sherwell in New York, Sunday Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/12/17/wirq17.xml

[dorkulon]

1. McCain's Shameless Call for Escalation in Iraq

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/45518

[jaysunb]

2. None of this will matter by Nov. 08

Vice President Mc Cain will be seen as a, moderating force, whose war & POW experience give him the appearance of a wise sage. His 2 years as VP will give him the stage for the ultimate visibility, and the corporate/neocon machine will roll on....

At least, that's the plan. :evilfrown:

[glarius]

4. In my opinion, McCain's face is a dead give-away of his lack of

principles. Notice how his eyes seem to dart in all directions when he is talking....his face always looks to me like it is fighting with itself. This to me is a sign of the conflict within him. He's always forcing himself to say what he knows is not true, simply for the sake of self promotion. This is how he has always appeared to me, anyway. I could never trust the man!

[stevenleser]

6. He'd still need to be confirmed by the Democratic senate.

And that would mean hearings where they would get to ask him all kinds of interesting and uncomfortable questions.

The last thing I would want if I was in Camp McCain right now is anything that would allow Democrats a public open season on him for a week or so. Hopefully, the Democrats in the senate would use that opportunity to bring up all of his statements on the Iraq conflict, i.e. http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_steven_l_061122_john_mccain__96_contin.htm .

[ShockediSay]

3. McCain thinks we can win militarily, as long as we can still throw bodies

onto the pile. In the Iraq Study Group hearing, McCain betrayed his Westmoreland thinking (US top General, Viet Nam, who maintained to his dying day that we could have won in Viet Nam if we only kept escalating).

"Only thing worse than a retreating Army, is a defeated Army, no matter how many of our soldiers we gotta kill to prove the point."

[Tom Joad]

5. If any Dems take up this cause, lets unite to end their political careers...

may they end up working in WalMart.

[rodeodance]

7. McCain is as bullheated as Bush