Topic: Ron Paul
John McCain Mocks Ron Paul Supporters Read what John McCain said about Ron Paul supporters. Also included in this article are some of my personal experiences working against John McCain's decade long quest for unlimited power.by Jake Morphonios
(libertarian)
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
I met John McCain back in the 2000 Presidential campaign cycle. I was working for Steve Forbes at the time as a regional campaign manager in North Carolina. As part of my duties during the Republican Presidential Debate down in South Carolina I served as Mr. Forbes' driver and escort. It was great to be a part of the behind-the-scenes action, starting with Mr. Forbes getting his stage make-up put on for the debate, to driving our van at break-neck speed to get to the debate on time with Mr. Forbes and a handful of reporters shouting directions from the back seat, to our surprise post-debate visit to an international AMWAY sales convention. But one moment left an indelible impression on my mind; it was when I met John McCain.
After seeing Mr. Forbes into the VIP section to prepare for the debate, I returned to the secure area behind the center where I had parked. I met Senator Strom Thurmond coming out from the Republican Banquet at which he had just been honored. Two men guided him by either arm. I spoke briefly to him and he smiled and drooled in response. As I turned around I noticed that McCain's "Straight Talk Express" bus had pulled in. McCain was sitting with a reporter on the bus conducting an interview. I could see him mouthing his signature phrase, "my friends", over and over again. I had met all the other candidates already, save George W. Bush - whose hand I had refused to shake, (his likely seizure of the Republican nomination was the reason I was supporting Steve Forbes, after all) - so I waited outside the bus to meet McCain as he exited.
The man is short, maybe 5'7". His arms aren't normal length, due to his torture in Vietnam, so I've been told. He has virtually no upper lip. And, of course, the guy oozes cockiness. He was congenial enough, I suppose, but I could tell he was the consummate politician. McCain was, and is, willing to say anything to grab power. To one crowd he champions himself as a progressive maverick willing to stand against the right-wing of the party, but at other times claims that he is the incarnation of Barry Goldwater and the true heir to the Reagan legacy. I didn't pretend that I was pleased to meet him and he didn't pretend to want to please me. I think it was my fluorescent orange FORBES FOR PRESIDENT campaign shirt that gave me away. As he walked on in to the convention center I had a distinct, gut feeling about John McCain. This guy was crooked.
After Steve Forbes dropped out of the race in 2000, McCain continued his fight for the Presidency against Bush and the blubbering showboat, Alan Keyes. With the Presidential election all but sewn up for King George W, I took a job as campaign manager for NC Representative Bill Hiatt. I vowed to campaign against McCain should he ever run for President again. In 2004 I joined an effort to try to persuade Congressman Ron Paul to run for President once more, but he eventually declined. Instead, I helped out on the Badnarik (Libertarian Party) and Peroutka (Constitution Party) campaigns.
Imagine my dismay that eight years from my first encounter with McCain the Republican Party still hasn't learned its lesson. Bush Jr. was bad, but McCain is worse. This time, though, I am glad to not simply be protesting someone's candidacy but proudly supporting a candidate that I truly believe in.
It gives me great pleasure to know that I am part of a political movement that is bothersome to John McCain. In this week's issue of the New Yorker, Ryan Lizza reports an exchange that McCain had with reporters regarding Ron Paul and his supporters:
"We had a debate in Iowa. I mean, it was, like, last summer, one of the first debates we had. It was raining, and I'm standing there in the afternoon, it was a couple of hours before the debate, and I happen to look out the window. Here's a group of fifty people in the rain, shouting Ron Paul! Ron Paul!' " At this point McCain begins to pound his fists on the table and chant in mockery of the Ron Paul Revolutionaries outside.
"I thought, Holy s**t, what's going on here? I mean, go to one of these debates. Drive up. Whose signs do you see? I'm very grateful, they've been very polite. I recognize them and say thanks for being here. They haven't disrupted the events. But he has tapped a vein. And it's a combination of isolationism, the old part of our party, and the conspiracy. You know? We have made an important discovery: the headquarters for the organization that's going to merge three countries into one - Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. - is in Kansas City!' "
Such bodacious babble from McCain might irk some Paulites, but not me. We have gotten under his skin. He has been compelled to accept that a very vocal and angry segment of the nation is fed up with the government's usurpation of our constitutional rights. It reminds me of what Gandhi said, "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." Well, McCain is laughing now, but soon he will be fighting for precious delegates against us at the Republican National Convention. I hope to be there to see McCain sweat. Between now and then, I'm going to work to rally supporters and give our enemies hell.
Federal entitlement programs are decimating the lives of children and trampling on the rights of fathers. Here is what every man in America should know.
There is a very simple trick, used all too frequently in family courts, that will almost always ensure the immediate elimination of a man's constitutional rights. Read more to find out if it can happen to you.
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Unfortunately, Steve Forbes supported Giuliani. As soon as Giuliani dropped out, Steve Forbes switched to the McCain camp. So much for your former boss.
I left THOSE facts out of my article on purpose, thank-you VERY much. Just kidding. I wasn't surprised by Forbes' support of Guiliani, but I was very disappointed to see him give support to McCain when Guiliani dropped out.
To his credit, it was Steve Forbes himself who came to Ron Paul's rescue in 1996 when Speaker Newt Gingrich and Governor GW Bush ran a neo-con against Paul in the Republican Primary. Forbes was running for President at the time and threw major support to Paul, to the dismay of Bush Jr. and Gingrich.
In my view, the best way to beat McCain is to be sure that every supporter of Dr. Paul's votes for Dr. Paul by writing him in during the general election. If we can't get the right man elected we may as well have a democrat to blame for the upcoming depression.
You know, I had the exact same feeling when I met John Edwards. It was part of a high-school level leadership conference thing, and we were each of us scheduled to meet representatives and senators from our states. Edwards had this sort of a smoothness to him that I just didn't trust. I mean, there's smooth, and then there's laminated. That was Edwards. He never missed a beat when asked a question, always giving a perfect answer. At the same time, he never tried to relate to the people asking him those questions - the people he said he was for. It was like talking to a machine.
I imagine that's similar to your visit with McCain.
I mean, I met people who were genuinely there to serve people, and you could tell. I paid a visit to Sen. Jessie Helm's office when he was still in. His famed photographs - the ones he had up everywhere to give people an impression of him - were of: cartoons, critical cartoons directed against him, and pictures of him with rock stars. Seriously, he was photographed with Bono. That Bono. C'mon, the guy was that honest about who he was. Even if that's a cultivated image, at least it was easier to relate to.
Posted By: Parental Rights
Date: 2008-02-19 12:27:55
Sorry McCain it is no longer a 'conspiracy' when UNESCO is fullly entrenched in our schools and are very open about it being for the purpose of 'preparing the students for world government'.
Just check out www.ibo.org and www.edwatch.org and you will see -- it is no longer a conspiracy.
If RP does not get the R nomination, we must draft him to run 3rd Party or Independent. There is simply too much at stake to allow anyone else to win. We can use a write-in as a protest vote, but we will not win that way, and win we must. The future of humanity is at stake.
Support the group that is exposing the real John McCain. They call him "McSongbird" BTW.
His arms aren't short because of torture. How would that be possible? His arms don't extend all the way because he broke them ejecting out of his plane.
Jake: thank you for a good article. It is so interesting how things change: While Steve Forbes and Bush sr/jr support McCain now, Next Ginrich did not endorse McCain and looking for a conservative. I do think he - like others in the GOP leadership - would support Paul, but not openly at this time. Once they would see there is a chance at the RNC of McCain not getting the nomination (brokered convention or not the required votes), they may openly support Paul. It is possible. On youtube after one of the debates last year Ginrich mentioned Paul won the debate. Newt is going distance to Bush jr.he knows how unpopular he is.
Posted By: Jahfre Fire Eater
Date: 2008-02-19 15:00:02
Maybe we'll see you there Jake. The Mrs. and I will be there, hopfully as delegates, but at least as grass roots conservative activists. We have devoted ourselves to keeping the Ron Paul momentum going in the GOP and finding ways to keep other newly awakened conservatives active on a regular basis in shaping the party and its candidates.
A silly question:Suppose Hukster drops out of the race in a month or so. Only Paul and McCain remain in the race with McCain having an overwhelming advantage in terms of delegates. Now suppose given his age/health something was to render McCain physically unable to run, would that make Ron Paul the automatic nominee?
with 44% reporting ~ more people voted for the loser of the wisconsin primary on the democratic side than have voted for all 3 of the republican candidates in the same primary ~ and although WI is a blue state this is a pattern that has played out during the entire primary season ~ any republican candidate loses in a landslide of epic proportions in november ~ any "republican" candidate
stupid Repubs. You finally had a candidate that would have made me, a life-long Dem, vote for your party. The blackout and belittling of Ron Paul will make me hate the Repubs and the main stream media until the day I die. Sleep well O ye of no coinscience.
I will see you all at the march in DC, I will vote for Ron Paul when they let me.. The election officials "lost" my regiatration information in az here so I had to vote on a provisional ballot which wasnt counted... blah I will most importantly prepare to survive martial law and rebuild america.
Posted By: Elizabeth Christian
Date: 2008-02-20 06:26:39
Hi. I loved the article. I actually am a Huckabee supporter but agree with you on McCain. I urge you to write in Ron Paul in the general election as I have urged my contacts to write in Mike Huckabee in the general election. I have said for a while that I don't trust McCain. I actually have come up with 3 non-negotiable requirements for a politician to get my vote - I wrote about it on my blog if you would like to check it out: http://mikehuckabee-has-my-vote.blogspot.com/
I would way rather see Mike Huckabee or Ron Paul as our nominee than John McCain - the dude can't even get off the stage without help - he does not have the energy or passion to fight Obama (at this point it looks like Hillary is out unless something changes - McCain might have a chance against Hillary but NOT Obama). We need a passionate, energetic, intellegent candidate to go up against Obama if the GOP wants a chance in November - I would be happy with Huckabee or Paul - I just pray we can get it to a brokered convention - I pray McCain does not get 1191 delegates - then it's game time : )
Posted By: Walt Thiessen
Date: 2008-02-20 07:17:07
Actually, if the 10% or so of the population who lean libertarian change their Republican voting habits and refuse to back McCain in 2008, he will lose big to the Democratic nominee. They don't even have to vote for the Democrat. A third party vote or a refusal to vote at all will be just as effective. The social conservatives and neo-cons have depended on libertarian support to win their elections. Without it, the old coalition Reagan first put together collapses, and McCain and the Republicans are taught a much-needed lesson.
Think back some years to an earlier presidential election, and you may remember that McCain The Candidate was invented and promoted by the mainstream news media. It was an attempt to divide republicans. And if McCain had become the nominee, the MSM would have promptly turned against him. He was being used by political operatives posing as journalists, which pretty much describes the MSM.
McCain didn't seem to realize he was being used then, and he doesn't seem to realize it now.
I am working on the campaign with Dr. Keyes-- what makes you say he is a blabbering showoff? I talk to him in private and he is as cool as any person you will ever meet-- now in front of the audience that is a different story--- also he tore MCCAIN up to piece in 2000 especially in regards to abortion
Senator John McCain has consistently demonstrated a record of public service counter to the philosophy and principles of conservatism and the Republican Party as evidenced by the following facts:
1. He has a consistent pattern of shocking verbal abuse, including screaming profanities, against Senate Republican colleagues who oppose his bills in any way; and
2. He has exercised scandalously poor judgment by intervening with the federal regulators on behalf of Charles H. Keating, Jr. in the Savings and Loan Crisis of the 1980s; and
3. He has worked against the principles of the Republican Party, promoting greatly expanding federal regulatory authority in order to combat global warming in ways that would greatly burden the American economy, contrary to free market forces; and
4. He has fought the Republican Party to create the Patient’s Bill of Rights, which allowed the government to impose a set of burdensome mandates on insurance coverage; and
5. He has undermined the principles of a free market economy by voting for an amendment that would authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services to implement price controls on prescription drugs under Medicare; and
6. He has worked against the Republican Party to make a mockery of the rule of law, promoting amnesty for 20 million illegal immigrants; and
7. He has voted to subvert American Sovereignty by granting consulting rights to Mexico concerning the erection of a southern border fence; and
8. He has undermined the Constitution and opposed the Constitutional duties of the Vice President to break a tie on judicial nominations; and
9. He has worked against Conservative principles, undermining the First Amendment by abridging the free speech of citizens partaking in the political process; and
10. He has consistently led efforts undermining Second Amendment rights by promoting bills which regulate all sales at gun shows; regulations which force gun-owners to purchase trigger locks, making their firearms useless for self-defense; regulations which restrict the legitimate transfer of firearms over the internet; and regulations which extend the restrictions of the Brady bill to pawn shops and gun repair shops; and
11. He has voted to use taxpayer funds to harvest stem cells from human embryos; and
12. He has refused to take immediate and direct action to protect the life of the unborn; he opposes the repeal of Roe v. Wade; and he opposes a constitutional amendment to protect all human life; and
13. He sponsored and voted for a 282% tax increase on cigarettes that would have unconstitutionally violated the First Amendment and increased the size of the federal bureaucracy exponentially by giving the FDA unrestricted control over nicotine; and
14. He supports raising Social Security taxes; and
15. He has broken with the Republican Party in strongly opposing President Bush’s tax cuts in 2001 and 2003. He also joined leading liberal senators in offering and voting for amendments designed to undermine the tax cuts.
Interesting how Steve Forbes has now endorsed John McCain, but you, having previously having backed Steve Forbes, have seen the light and are backing Ron Paul. I wonder what happened to Steve Forbes, to put him so far off righteousness? Standard high-level Elite / CFR corruption, I suppose.
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suppose, but I could tell he was the consummate politician. McCain was, and is, willing to say anything to grab power. To one crowd he champions himself as a progressive maverick willing to stand against the right-wing of the party, but at other times claims that he is the incarnation of Barry Goldwater and the true heir to the Reagan legacy. I didn't pretend that I was pleased to meet him and he didn't pretend to want to please me. I think it was my fluorescent orange FORBES FOR PRESIDENT campaign shirt that gave me away. As he walked on in to the convention center I had a distinct, gut feeling about John McCain. This guy was crooked.