McCain connections coming back to haunt him

[robertpaulsen]

Source: The Raw Story

Shared stage with abortion doc shooter sympathizer

John McCain, who along with his running mate has been attacking Obama over decade-old associations with unseemly figures, is not without his own nefarious associations.

One association, which seems to have gone unreported until now, involves a delegate who represented McCain at this year's Republican convention and previously expressed sympathy for an activist accused of shooting a doctor who performed abortions.

Applying the same logic as Sarah Palin, one could argue that the members of the GOP ticket are "palling around" with abortion clinic attack sympathizers, supporters of right-wing militants, perpetrators of political espionage and revolutionaries seeking to secede from the United States.

More attention is falling on the Arizona senator's own past since his attacks on Obama and former radical Bill Ayers. The Obama campaign's disquisition on Charles Keating just scratches the surface of what's out there, as reporters and liberal activists dig into McCain's web of connections.


Read more: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/McCain_connections_coming_back_to_haunt_1007.html

[Andy823]

1. What I can't figure out is

Why his people are pushing the "attack mode" on Obama when if they had an ounce of brains they would "know" that McCain's past will come out, and all those questionable associations he had will only make him look worse than he already does as far as his hypocrisy goes.

I really think that they are trying to sink him! I think the republicans know how bad things are going to be after Bush leaves office, and they want to pin it all on the democrats. They needed a fall guy and McCain was it. They didn't want to waste any real talent this year, so McCain got the nomination. They gave him Palin to make "sure" he would lose, at least thats the only reason I can see for putting her in there. Sure the rallies the right wing wackos, but those with any kind of brains at all are against her. She has no business in national politics.

I just think his camp is "killing" him!

[BrklynLiberal]

2. I hope they figuratively "kill" him before someone inspired by their rhetoric

literally kills someone else....

[Robb]

4. Because our side checks facts, theirs doesn't. nt

[central scrutinizer]

9. "The media are his base"

We couldn't trust the MSM to look under McW's teflon shield - the mythology was too ingrained and pervasive. This is why many have pushed Obama to be more aggressive. After watching Kerry get scuttled by the Swift Boat attacks, many came to the conclusion that sticking to the high road meant that you lost with dignity, but you certainly lost. If you are explaining, you are losing.

[cui bono]

10. I've always entertained the thought that "they" picked McCain because they knew he would lose.

That the powers that be on that side wanted Dems to inherit the mess so they could swoop back in in 2012 to "save" the country.

I don't understand how else a campaign that was in the position that McCain's was in ended up winning the Rep. primary unless there was some behind the scenes manipulation going on. And if Rove is running this campaign he's lost his touch.

Also, if they counted on Clinton winning and getting into the presidency they knew that they could fire up their base at any time with the built in hatred of all things Clinton by the wingnuts, and some indies as well. So they could disrupt her presidency as much as possible, they hoped to have left this economic mess in the Dems lap but it fell apart too early, then they get elected in 2012.

[Kind of Blue]

12. I just think it's as simple as Gramps thinking the Bush smears

against him worked so well in 2000 and worked against Gore and Kerry. How could it possibly not work against a black guy of all people? I don't blame him for this because, I'm black and sorry to say that many of us had no idea that Obama could ever get this far but went bonkers with pure joy after Iowa. I'm sure he felt the same about Clinton; Bill to use against her. I think that's why McCain was trying to be a gentleman after the primaries because he thought it would be no problem and had absolutely no Plan B.

[BlueKansan]

3. The Guilt by Association Game

I hate it. It doesn't mean anything unless the candidate is directly associating NOW with people who have influence over him -- like Rick Davis or Phil Gramm. I couldn't care less about some guy who was a delegate and expressed sympathy for an abortion doctor. The connection barely qualifies as tenuous, and it doesn't mean McCain is all for murdering pro-choice doctors.

Be fair. Don't stoop to the same crap we criticize the Republicans for. There are plenty of things to skewer the McCain-Palin ticket for without dredging up these non-issues. Frankly, I think "applying the same logic as Sarah Palin" is way beneath us Democrats, because "Sarah Palin logic" is not logic at all.

[xen]

5. Hit em back

They started it,we need to hit em back hard.Kerry lost because he was being too civil,and let them smear and destroy him without any retaliation.If they come at you,you hit them harder,Don't go down like pigs to a slaughter,we must go down swinging.
If we don't hit em and we still go down,then we have no one to blame but ourselves.
We don't want to repeat the same way Kerry went down in flames.

[Seldona]

7. Be fair?

Are you serious? You want us to bring a sponge to a gunfight? Yea, that's worked out so well in the past.

This bs WORKS. It is why McCAIN made the decision to go negative. A game he will lose bigtime I might add.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

8. Oh yeah by all means, let's keep bringing water guns to real gun fights. nt

[cui bono]

11. It's not the same crap because the ones against McCain are true.

Where as the Repubs are fabricating associations that don't exist.

[Porschenut1066]

6. For the past 30 years we have acted like gentlemen and the

Republicans have acted like a prison yard gang. We were following all of the gentlemanly rules while they were sticking the knife in.
We need to push back, and I am afraid fight fire with fire.
The Neocons changed the game and for too long we did not realize it.

[robertpaulsen]

13. Woman's rights advocate: McCain sides with 'sympathizers and enablers of domestic terrorism'

Woman's rights advocate: McCain sides with 'sympathizers and enablers of domestic terrorism'

After John McCain's campaign began smearing Barack Obama over his previous associations with a former 60s radical, a spokeswoman for the Republican candidate issued a bold declaration: If McCain had consorted with abortion clinic bombers, it would be a legitimate story.

The Arizona Senator may not have directly consorted with any clinic bombers, but his legislative record was certainly favorable to them, and critics are hammering his association with sympathizers of domestic
terrorists who target abortion providers.

People For the American Way encouraged McCain to "look in the mirror" after a RAW STORY report revealed McCain's connection with Marylin Shannon, a Republican official in Oregon who was a McCain delegate at this year's GOP convention. The two appeared together at a 1993 fundraiser for an ultra-conservative organization where Shannon praised a woman who was later convicted of attempted murder in the shooting of an abortion clinic doctor.

“When anti-choice extremists were terrorizing American women and their doctors, John McCain had multiple opportunities to make what should have been an easy choice,” PFAW president Kathryn Kolbert said Tuesday. “But he chose political expediency over law and order.

"He didn’t say a word when Marylin Shannon sympathized with an attempted killer. He voted against the clinic access bill even as everyday Americans were being assaulted and besieged by domestic terrorists," continued Kolbert, a longtime women’s rights advocate who successfully argued a crucial abortion rights case before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1992. "As someone who faced repeated threats for work on behalf of reproductive rights, I am deeply disturbed by John McCain’s willingness to stand with and side with sympathizers and enablers of domestic terrorism.”

more...

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Womans_rights_advocate_McCain_sides_with_1008.html