McCain takes off his gloves and FIGHTS BACK!!!!

http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/10/mccain_takes_off_gloves_slaps.html

McCain Takes Off Gloves, Slaps Obama with Them
Posted by Ana Marie Cox | Comments (25) | Permalink | Trackbacks (0) |
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McCain's at an Albequerque event happening as I type; his prepared
remarks have him taking his most direct jabs at Obama yet:

This is the agenda I have set before my fellow citizens. And the same
standards of clarity and candor must now be applied to my opponent.
Even at this late hour in the campaign, there are essential things we
don't know about Senator Obama or the record that he brings to this
campaign.
We have all heard what he has said, but it is less clear what he has
done or what he will do. What Senator Obama says today and what he has
done in the past are often two different things. He has often changed
his positions in this campaign, and the best way to determine where he
would really take this country is to examine where he has tried to
take it in the past.

My opponent has invited serious questioning by announcing a few weeks
ago that he would quote -- "take off the gloves." Since then, whenever
I have questioned his policies or his record, he has called me a
liar.


Rather than answer his critics, Senator Obama will try to distract you
from noticing that he never answers the serious and legitimate
questions he has been asked. But let me reply in the plainest terms I
know. I don't need lessons about telling the truth to American people.
And were I ever to need any improvement in that regard, I probably
wouldn't seek advice from a Chicago politician.

My opponent's touchiness every time he is questioned about his record
should make us only more concerned. For a guy who's already authored
two memoirs, he's not exactly an open book. It's as if somehow the
usual rules don't apply, and where other candidates have to explain
themselves and their records, Senator Obama seems to think he is above
all that. Whatever the question, whatever the issue, there's always a
back story with Senator Obama. All people want to know is: What has
this man ever actually accomplished in government? What does he plan
for America? In short: Who is the real Barack Obama? But ask such
questions and all you get in response is another barrage of angry
insults.
Whole thing is after the jump. The speech's main thrust? "Even at this
late hour in the campaign, there are essential things we don't know
about Senator Obama."

Audience reacting wildly to every (negative) mention of the Illinois
senator.

In less than a month, the American people will make a choice on where
they want this country to go, and who they trust to lead us in a time
of war and economic crisis. The time for debating and electioneering
is drawing to a close. Soon it will be the time for choosing.

Today we have seen a reminder of the importance of that choice. The
action Congress took last week to address our financial crisis was a
tourniquet, but not a permanent solution. Today we are seeing the
stock market fall, and the credit crisis spread to other parts of the
world. Our economy is still hurting -- working families are worried
about the price of groceries, the price of gas, keeping their jobs and
paying their mortgage -- further action is needed. We need to restore
confidence in our economy and in our government.

Washington is still on the wrong track and we still need change. The
status quo is not on the ballot. We are going to see change in
Washington. The question is: in what direction will we go? Will our
country be a better place under the leadership of the next president
-- a more secure, prosperous, and just society? Will you be better
off, in the jobs you hold now and in the opportunities you hope for?
Will your sons and daughters grow up in the kind of country you wish
for them, rising in the world and finding in their own lives the best
of America? And which candidate's experience -- in government and in
life -- makes him a more reliable leader for our country and commander
in chief for our troops? Who is ready to lead? In a time of trouble
and danger for our country, who will put our country first?

I set out on my own campaign for president many months ago. I promised
at the beginning to be straight with the American people, knowing that
even those who don't agree with me on everything would expect at least
that much. I didn't just show up out of nowhere [This line just got a
HUGE response from the audience. -- amc ]] after all -- America knows
me. You know my strengths and my faults. You know my story and my
convictions. And though familiarity in politics can be both helpful to
a candidate, or not so helpful, it does at least fill out the picture
and answer the essential questions. You need to know who you're
putting in the White House -- where the candidate came from and what
he or she believes. And you need to know now, before it is time to
choose.

In 21 months, during hundreds of speeches, town halls and debates, I
have kept my promise to level with you about my plans to reform
Washington and get this country moving again. As a senator, I've seen
the corrupt ways of Washington in wasteful spending and other abuses
of power, and as president I'm going to end them -- whatever it takes.
I will propose and sign into law reforms to bring tax relief to the
middle class and help to businesses so they can create jobs. I will
get the rising cost of food and gas under control. I will help
families keep their home, and help students struggling to pay for
college. I will make health care more accessible and affordable. I
will impose a spending freeze on all but the most vital functions of
government. I will review every agency of the federal government,
improve those that need to be improved and eliminate those that aren't
working for the American people. I will confront th e ten trillion-
dollar debt that the federal government has run up, and balance the
federal budget by the end of my term in office.

This is the agenda I have set before my fellow citizens. And the same
standards of clarity and candor must now be applied to my opponent.
Even at this late hour in the campaign, there are essential things we
don't know about Senator Obama or the record that he brings to this
campaign.

We have all heard what he has said, but it is less clear what he has
done or what he will do. What Senator Obama says today and what he has
done in the past are often two different things. He has often changed
his positions in this campaign, and the best way to determine where he
would really take this country is to examine where he has tried to
take it in the past.

My opponent has invited serious questioning by announcing a few weeks
ago that he would quote -- "take off the gloves." Since then, whenever
I have questioned his policies or his record, he has called me a
liar.

Rather than answer his critics, Senator Obama will try to distract you
from noticing that he never answers the serious and legitimate
questions he has been asked. But let me reply in the plainest terms I
know. I don't need lessons about telling the truth to American people.
And were I ever to need any improvement in that regard, I probably
wouldn't seek advice from a Chicago politician.

My opponent's touchiness every time he is questioned about his record
should make us only more concerned. For a guy who's already authored
two memoirs, he's not exactly an open book. It's as if somehow the
usual rules don't apply, and where other candidates have to explain
themselves and their records, Senator Obama seems to think he is above
all that. Whatever the question, whatever the issue, there's always a
back story with Senator Obama. All people want to know is: What has
this man ever actually accomplished in government? What does he plan
for America? In short: Who is the real Barack Obama? But ask such
questions and all you get in response is another barrage of angry
insults.

Our current economic crisis is a good case in point. What was his
actual record in the years before the great economic crisis of our
lifetimes?

This crisis started in our housing market in the form of subprime
loans that were pushed on people who could not afford them. Bad
mortgages were being backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and it was
only a matter of time before a contagion of unsustainable debt began
to spread. This corruption was encouraged by Democrats in Congress,
and abetted by Senator Obama.

Senator Obama has accused me of opposing regulation to avert this
crisis. I guess he believes if a lie is big enough and repeated often
enough it will be believed. But the truth is I was the one who called
at the time for tighter restrictions on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
that could have helped prevent this crisis from happening in the first
place.

Senator Obama was silent on the regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac, and his Democratic allies in Congress opposed every effort to
rein them in. As recently as September of last year he said that
subprime loans had been, quote, "a good idea." Well, Senator Obama,
that "good idea" has now plunged this country into the worst financial
crisis since the Great Depression.

To hear him talk now, you'd think he'd always opposed the dangerous
practices at these institutions. But there is absolutely nothing in
his record to suggest he did. He was surely familiar with the people
who were creating this problem. The executives of Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac have advised him, and he has taken their money for his
campaign.

He has received more money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac than any
other senator in history, with the exception of the chairman of the
committee overseeing them. Did he ever talk to the executives at
Fannie and Freddie about these reckless loans? Did he ever discuss
with them the stronger oversight I proposed? If Senator Obama is such
a champion of financial regulation, why didn't he support these
regulations that could have prevented this crisis in the first place?
He won't tell you, but you deserve an answer.

Even after he refused to lift a finger to prevent this crisis, when
the crisis hit, he was missing in action. He didn't start making calls
to round up votes until after the rescue bill failed in the House and
the markets crashed. We continue to see the price of delay today as
the markets continue to fall. Today the DOW has fallen below 10,000.
And yet, members of his own party said they felt no pressure to vote
for the bill. Why didn't Senator Obama work to pass this bill from the
start? Why did he let it fail and drag out this crisis for a full week
before doing a thing to help pass it?

Again on taxes, we see a difference between what Senator Obama says
today, what he said yesterday and what he has actually done. Over the
course of this campaign, he has had many different plans to raise your
taxes. During the Democratic primary, he promised to double taxes on
every American with a dividend or an investment. He promised to raise
payroll taxes. He promised higher taxes on electricity. Now, Senator
Obama claims he will give 95 percent of Americans tax relief. He
actually promised the same thing when he was running for Senate in
Illinois, but once elected he never introduced legislation to do so.
Instead, he voted for the Democratic budget resolution that promised
to raise taxes on people making just 42,000 dollars a year. At the
time, he even said his vote was intended to get "our nation's
priorities back on track." If he's such a defender of the middle
class, why did he vote to raise their taxes? Whatever ha ppened to the
tax relief he promised them when he was a candidate for the Senate?
And why should middle class Americans trust him to keep promises he
has already broken?

Senator Obama and I both have differences with how President Bush has
handled the economy. But he thinks taxes are too low, and I think
spending is too high. The government's out of control spending has
resulted in a weaker dollar, raising the cost of groceries and
gasoline, and killing jobs.

I will veto pork barrel legislation and cut wasteful government
spending. Senator Obama has a different plan. According to third party
estimates, he will increase government spending by over 860 billion
dollars. He has denied it, but he has refused to tell you how much he
does plan to spend. What is the total of his increased spending?
Americans deserve to know just how much more of their money Senator
Obama intends to spend, and how much more debt he plans to burden them
with.

Senator Obama has also criticized earmark spending, those wasteful
pork barrel projects stuck in spending bills behind closed doors. And
yet, despite his talk on the campaign trail, his actual record is full
of requests for earmark projects. In his three short years in the
Senate, he has requested nearly a billion dollars in pork projects for
his state -- a million dollars for every day he's been in office. Far
from fighting earmarks in Congress, Senator Obama has been an eager
participant in this corrupt system. In one instance, he sought more
than 3 million dollars for a new projector at a planetarium in his
hometown. Coincidentally, the chairman of that planetarium pledged to
raise more than $200,000 for Senator Obama's campaign. We don't know
if they ever discussed the money for the planetarium, and no one has
asked Senator Obama. But even the appearance of this kind of insider-
dealing disgusts Americans. I'm going to put a stop to that, my
friends, if I'm President.

I have made every single donor to my campaign publicly available,
while Senator Obama has taken in over 200 million dollars from
undisclosed sources. We have already seen the potential for fraud
because of his refusal to disclose his donors. His campaign had to
return $33,000 in illegal foreign funds from Palestinian donors, and
this weekend, we found out about another $28,000 in illegal donations.
Why has Senator Obama refused to disclose the people who are funding
his campaign? Again, the American people deserve answers.

On health care, Senator Obama has been misleading you about my plan to
give you more money for health care, and he has been equally
misleading about his own plans. He has said his goal is a single payer
system where government is in charge of health care and bureaucrats
stand between you and your doctor. Under the plan he has proposed, he
will fine families that don't have the kind of health insurance that
Senator Obama tells them to purchase. He will fine employers who do
not offer the health insurance that he thinks they should offer.

What he doesn't say, and what nobody has asked, is how big his fines
will be. What he doesn't want you to know is that with a small fine,
his plan will encourage companies to just pay the fine, drop existing
health care coverage for their employees and leave them with only one
real option: government run health care.

Who is the real Senator Obama? Is he the candidate who promises to cut
middle class taxes, or the politician who voted to raise middle class
taxes? Is he the candidate who talks about regulation or the
politician who took money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and turned a
blind eye as they ran our economy into a ditch?

Is he the candidate who promises change, or is he the politician who
has bought into everything that is wrong with Washington? We can't
change the system with someone who's never fought the system.

Washington is on the wrong track and I'm going to set it right. The
American people know my record. They know I am going to change
Washington, because I've done it before. They know I'm going to reform
our broken institutions in Washington and on Wall Street because I've
done it before. They know I'm going to deliver relief to the middle
class, because that's what I've done.

You don't have to hope that things will change when you vote for me.
You know things will change, because I have been fighting for change
in Washington my whole career. I've been fighting for you my whole
life. That's what I'm going to do as President of the United States.
Fight for you and put the government back on the side of the people.

Thank you.
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Antworten

Poster (07.10.2008 02:21)
Poster (07.10.2008 02:56)
aHouse of Pancakes (07.10.2008 03:04)