All you need to know about John McCain

John McCain’s third beauty queen (that we know of)

Pam Cash-Roper, retired nurse without health insurance

Barney Smith, Indiana Republican

Preview of Republican convention

Here’s a partial list of the Republicans who have sent their regrets to John McCain — they can’t make it to the convention that will nominate him.

• Sen. Pat Roberts -KS
• Ted Stevens – AK
• Elizabeth Dole – NC
• Gordon Smith – OR
• Susan Collins – ME
• Larry Craig – ID
• Chuck Hagel – NE
• Wayne Allard -CO

All of these are up for re-election this year. Just a coincidence, I’m sure.

President George W. Bush has promised to be there, though, much to John McCain’s dismay.

Watch out behind you!

It’s one of those uppity, scary column-y thingies!

Man, I’ve seen a lot of ridiculous attacks, but this really is a universe of stupid. Pathetic, Republicans. Really, we’re embarrassed for you.

McCain’s experience: Being WRONG — a lot

Republicans say John McCain has experience. We say John McCain has the experience of being wrong.

• On the failed Bush policies that have weakened our economy and taken us from the Clinton surplus to reckless Bush deficits and on raising the minimum wage for millions of American workers, Barack Obama is right and John McCain is wrong.
• On health care for 10 million American children and on protecting Medicare–a bill so crucial that Senator Ted Kennedy left his own medical treatment to cast the decisive vote–Barack Obama is right and John McCain is wrong.
• On a future of American energy independence, investment in renewable clean energy, and millions of good-paying green jobs here at home, Barack Obama is right and John McCain is wrong.
• And on the most important foreign policy decision of our time, the war in Iraq–a catastrophic mistake that has cost thousands of lives of our men and women in uniform and trillions of dollars, as well as has weakened our standing in the world and our capability to protect the American people, Barack Obama is right and John McCain is wrong. Very, very wrong.

America needs a president who knows that health care is a right, not a privilege, and that quality education is the key to our future. America needs a president who knows our democracy depends on a strong middle class and who will create millions of good-paying jobs right here at home. America needs a president who will once and for all end our dangerous dependence on foreign oil and invest in renewable, clean energy.

From Pelosi’s DNC speech.

Republican Jim Leach at DNC: Country Before Party

This speech as given was a little dry, but contained some really important points:

In troubled times, it was understood that country comes before party, that in perilous moments mutual concern for the national interest must be the only factor in political judgments. This does not mean that debate within and between the political parties should not be vibrant. Yet what frustrates so many citizens is the lack of bipartisanship in Washington and the way today’s Republican Party has broken with its conservative heritage.

The party that once emphasized individual rights has gravitated in recent years toward regulating values. The party of military responsibility has taken us to war with a country that did not attack us. The party that formerly led the world in arms control has moved to undercut treaties crucial to the defense of the earth. The party that prides itself on conservation has abdicated its responsibilities in the face of global warming. And the party historically anchored in fiscal restraint has nearly doubled the national debt, squandering our precious resources in an undisciplined and unprecedented effort to finance a war with tax cuts.

America has seldom faced more critical choices: whether we should maintain an occupational force for decades in a country and region that resents western intervention or elect a leader who, in a carefully structured way, will bring our troops home from Iraq as the heroes they are. Whether it is wise to continue to project power largely alone with flickering support around the world or elect a leader who will follow the model of General Eisenhower and this president’s father and lead in concert with allies.

Whether it is prudent to borrow from future generations to pay for today’s reckless fiscal policies or elect a leader who will shore up our budgets and return to a strong dollar. Whether it is preferable to continue the policies that have weakened our position in the world, deepened our debt and widened social divisions or elect a leader who will emulate John F. Kennedy and relight a lamp of fairness at home and reassert an energizing mix of realism and idealism abroad.

[emphasis added]

Study shows media easier on McCain

Um, about that well known liberal media bias?

A media analysis group, well-respected by conservatives, has found solid evidence that the conventional wisdom is wrong and that the “mainstream media” — the major broadcast networks –are being more critical of Obama than McCain.

The Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University, where researchers have tracked network news content for two decades, found that ABC, NBC and CBS were tougher on Obama than on Republican John McCain during the first six weeks of the general-election campaign.

The networks may be trying to compensate due to the criticism they receive from conservatives. But bias is bias, whichever way it goes. They need to be fair to everyone, search for the truth, and report it as fairly and accurately as possible.

Vets: McCain ad ‘dishonest and shameful’

We previously noted that McCain’s latest attack ad — which criticizes Senator Barack Obama for not making a campaign event of a visit to wounded troops — is being questioned by media analysts. But now veterans themselves are making their displeasure known — and one vet in particular carries a great deal of weight on the issue. It comes from the former chief of medical operations for United States Air Force in Europe (USAFE) Headquarters at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany.

In a press release from VoteVets.org, a statement from Dr. Katherine Schierman was quoted:

“John McCain’s new ad is dishonest and shameful, and I say that as the former Chief of Medical Operations. Senators Hagel and Reed confirmed to Bob Schieffer yesterday that Senator Obama visited the Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad as a part of their CODEL, with no media present.
“In Germany, Senator Obama made the right decision to respect wounded troops, and the doctors and nurses doing crucial and time-sensitive work, by not making a visit that was characterized as a campaign event by the Pentagon. Senator Obama should be thanked for putting our military above politics. And, I would hope that John McCain would think in those same terms, the next time he is put in a similar situation.

“Senator Obama has voted for the troops when John McCain has not, most recently on the new GI Bill. I am happy that Senator Obama puts the welfare of our troops above politics.”

The release explains:

Dr. Katherine Scheirman, MD, MHA, CPE, FACPE, is a Senior Advisor to VoteVets.org, and has twenty years experience in the Department of Defense medical system. She retired from the Air Force in 2006 with the rank of Colonel. During her time in the military, she was assigned to a number of duties where she saw ‘first hand’ the shortcomings of the DOD medical system and its effect on troops. Most recently, she was at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany, which saw the majority of those injured during the war in Iraq.

During that assignment as Chief of Medical Operations, she directed four branches responsible for medical operational and legal policy guidance for 10 USAFE medical facilities and an Air Force squadron at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center and provided oversight and mentoring for 11 Chiefs of Medical Staff and over 700 medical personnel throughout Europe. She was responsible for all quality of care, patient safety, behavioral health, JCAHO compliance, community health programs and business plan execution there, among her decades of other assignments at home and abroad.