I detest abortion. The military draft comes in a close second. I have never knowingly voted for any candidate that would not take action to limit abortions.
pro choice (how did that come up? ), anti draft, pro mandatory service of some kind. I honestly think he was just having a 'senior' moment and wasn't agreeing that there should be a draft. It isn't his fault he is old, but I don't believe he would attempt to institute a draft. (For the record my vote doesn't matter, I live in Oklahoma.)
Why are people giving McCain the benefit of the doubt here? McCain has stated many times in the past that he wasn’t against the draft. But if that’s the case; if McCain was just having a “senior moment,” then it’s even worse than I expected. If he can’t focus his attention for more than 30 seconds at a time and formulate an acceptable answer, he needs to be in a senior retirement community not the white house.
OK, so let's say that McCain doesn't really want to re-instate the draft and that his spinners are correct when they say she was so long-winded he just stopped listening and agreed just to appease her... That's what we want in a president? Someone who doesn't listen to what someone is saying? I can just imagine a cabinet meeting where the old man dozes off while someone comes up with their idea to attack Iran, give even more tax cuts to the insanely wealthy, or whatever, and he wakes up and gives the whole "uh, what, uh, yeah, I agree with everything you just said". Or maybe he just doesn't care about the voters. Who knows? But what happened yesterday should give voters pause. Either he wants to re-instate the draft, can't pay attention for longer than 30 seconds, or he just doesn't care what people have to say and will dismiss them. None of those options are very good.
its hilarious, people say that you can't use some criticism of obama that maybe offensive to black people, while that may or may not be true I think mccain is definitely getting passes because of his age.
Or the fact that some people equate race with age as "don't go there" topics. Race does not inhibit anybody's own ability to do anything. However, with age comes senility, frailty, and diminished capabilities in all arenas.
McCain acknowledges that our military is thinly stretched overseas. The two ways to deal with this are 1) to curb some of our overseas activities or 2) to increase the size of the military. McCain supports the latter option. But with recruitment levels being low, I don't know how he's going to accomplish that. Unless . . .
To me, this is the best encapsulation. We can argue all day about the senior-moment versus true intent of campaign stop snippets. But the basic truth, IMO, falls out as follows. A. He has talked very much like a hawk. I believe everyone can agree on that. He has no problem with "more wars." This is separate from little sound bites about Iran and 100 years in Iraq. I mean his measured stump speech statements and answers to questions ---> objectively more Hawkish than 1999 GWB. B. We have failed to keep troop levels up with volunteer armed services, bankrupting the national guard and turning to blackwater (shudder) in the process. C. Given A & B, this naturally leads to the draft becoming a top option during a McCain presidency. It's just simple logic, no matter what he says directly about the draft. Until he changes his stance on A, or offers up a real fix for B, then educated voters have to understand C.
There was too much stuff being said by that lady for me to say that it is a sign that McCain wants to instate a draft. Though I feel bad for that lady and her situation, It's a shame how misinformed she is. Talking about illegal aliens having medicaid and granting them access to the "top specialists" etc. Illegal immigrants use less than 1% of the medicaid budget and that was even after the laws were "softened."
I agree that this one dumb clip is fairly meaningless, but see my points A,B, and C above. He will have to strongly consider a draft or change his stated stances.
As soon as public service ceases to be the main concern of the citizens and they come to prefer to serve the state with their purse rather than their person, the state is already close to ruin. Are troops needed to march to war? They pay mercenaries and stay at home. Is it time to go to an assembly? They pay deputies and stay at home. Thanks to the laziness and money, they end up with soldiers to enslave the country and deputies to sell it. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The quote has already been explained several times in this thread, even by some level headed Obama voters. That's all I'm saying.
Except it's also been shown that McCain has alluded to the draft before. And even if it is meaningless, are you OK with him being dismissive of voters' concerns?