Friday, March 7, 2008

McCain-Reflecting Truman Temperament?

McCain showed a bit of temper today and this may just be what it takes to show the undecided that he is one who will not put up with nonsense from the Congress, our enemies, nor our allies. One of the last Presidents who showed this type of temperament was perhaps Harry S. Truman, and he fared well with all those mentioned. Our enemies certainly were sure as to where he stood, as well as our allies.

As a military man, Truman showed what he was made of during WWI when he was commander of a battery of field artillery. During a sudden attack by the Germans in the Vosges Mountains, the battery started to disperse; Truman ordered them back into position using profanities that he had "learned while working on the Santa Fe railroad." Shocked by the outburst, his men reassembled and followed him to safety. This is the type of leadership most would agree that John McCain showed during his military career. His tenacity served Truman well and could also bode well for McCain.

Truman assumed office under a cloud as "the senator from Pendergast." He gave patronage decisions to Pendergast but always maintained that he voted his conscience. Truman always defended his patronage, saying that by offering a little, he saved a lot.

McCain is often seen as one who has leaned to the left and that infuriates the right, especially the religious right. It seems that, in doing so, he has managed to do as Truman said, offer a little to save a lot. That may well be another point of saving grace for him in November. The undecided, the swing voter, and the independent will understand this and realize that he could very well be the candidate to bring real change. Perhaps they will see that McCain is not one to do a great deal of talking about change but actually can walk the walk when it comes to getting it done.

As a Senator, Truman said: If we see that Germany is winning, we ought to help Russia, and if Russia is winning, we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible, although I don't want to see Hitler victorious under any circumstances. Neither of them thinks anything of their pledged word. His enemies attempted to use it against him and the press has a heyday with his off the cuff comments. McCain has said as much about some of our enemies and understands that none of them think anything of their pledged word. That is something that neither Obama or Hillary understand, especially Obama. His approach to our enemies is more Chamberlin-like than anything else, and we know the results of that type of thought.

Truman's no-holds-barred style of campaigning in the face of seemingly impossible odds became a campaign tactic that would be repeated by, and appealed to by many presidential candidates in years to come. In this against-all-odds stand, most would find McCain an almost mirror image. Now it is up to him to conduct a no-holds-barred campaign, for if he faces Hillary, it is certain she will stop at nothing. Obama will continue to try playing the “snake-oil salesman”
and con his way into office, and any attempt to engage him full throttle will be called racist, but McCain must not allow this game to be played if he is to win in November.

Just as an added note to how McCain must not allow the Obama clan to control how he runs his campaign, again today, when a Congressman from Iowa made a statement concerning how the terrorists will see an Obama victory, the Obama camp immediately seized on the statement and called on McCain to refute the statement. McCain needs to just allow the statement to stand and simply reply that in this country each individual has a right to their opinion and to express such, and if Senator Obama does not agree, then he certainly has no business being President. The Obama camp will attempt to use McCain to fight their battles; he does not have the time and should not give in to manipulation to do so.

2 comments:

SN said...

"The undecided , the swing voter and the independent will understand this and realize that he could very well be the candidate to bring real change." (emphasis added)

Ticker, What would be concrete examples of real change that you would like to see?

For example, take some of the issues listed in the poll you have on your blog: Social Security, Iraq, Immigration Reform or Healthcare. What are the type of changes that McCain could successfully achieve in these areas?

Let's assume that he will be less "left" than Clinton or Obama. However, do you realistically expect to see him bring about real change in any major area? If so, I'd like to understand with concrete examples.

The way things stand, if the election were to held today, I may not bother to vote for President. If I do bother to vote, it will be based on who I dislike less, with no expectation of real change for the good, simply less change for the bad. So, I'm actually eager to understand reason why I should vote for one of the candidates.

Ticker said...

SN, Spending for sure and so far McCain is about the only one that has not said that he was going to raise taxes. We can count on taxes being raised by Hillary or Obama. I think that their socialist programs will bankrupt this country for there is no way to pay for everything they want without much higher taxes, tax cuts, taxing corporations(and we know that corportations will not stand for that long plus pass along tax to consumer)One only needs to look at Obama's Global Poverty bill to see where he is headed. Reading more and more about this, I see it heading us to a less soverign US and more under UN influence. Same goes for the Koyoto treaty which is so flawed I can't see how anyone in their right mind could vote for that mess. Back to the Global Poverty Bill and the way Sach's has said it can be paid for. He says that each country should put in a portion of their GNP. For the US it come's to about 0.7% over and above what we already do. That is about $845 billion dollars, not exactly chump change. Barring that the next thing is a Global Tax. Actually critics say that the Global Tax is the only way it can work but at this point they are using the 0.7% number which makes it look less like a tax. From what I see, that is what it amounts too. Now a true Global Tax has already been proposed . It is called the Tobin Tax, a tax on all currency exchanges between countries. That is a George Soros back deal. Remember he is the individual who single handedly broke the Bank of England and under this currency exchange scheme could do the same thing to this country. A plan, by the way which he would relish.

I agree on the fact that we don't have a real choice but I hate the thought of Hillary or Obama, a Marxist or a socialist being elected. I have said that the Dems missed out by not running Bill Richardson and the Rep. missed it by allowing the religious right to shove out Romney. For my part those two could form a third party and win hands down. I'll keep it short for now. haha.
Congress needs to be cut back and put on a pork free diet and Hillary nor Obama did anything about it during their short tenure except spend spend. McCain did fight spending and is not a real fan of pork spending. I see him as doing more to cut that than the other two.
Immigration : that is questionable from all three of them. However McCain may have to bend to get along with the Republicans and the conservative Dems who have put up the best immigration bill . Hillary and Obama, forget it. It will be wide open as we have seen just from their voting record .