Vote '08

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - John McCain says he wants to change how Americans get their health insurance.
The Republican presidential candidate is proposing a shift away from job-based coverage toward an open market where consumers can choose from competing policies.
The Arizona senator is also suggesting a $5,000 tax credit to help people buy insurance policies. Everyone would get the credit, whether he or she keeps a policy through an employer or shops for a new one.
He made the proposals during a speech today at a cancer research center in Tampa, Florida.
Critics of McCain’s approach say it could leave sicker or older people without coverage. The McCain campaign says there would be a safety net to protect high-risk people.

Read John McCain’s speech on his health care policy, delivered today, here at his website.

He also has a new ad on this issue:

What do you think? Post a comment!

(above: Woodrow Wilson on the stump)

After the jump, see clips of all 3 candidates on the campaign trail recently.

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Today the North Carolina GOP begins airing the above ad that attacks Barack Obama for his association with his paster, Jeremiah Wright.

This is despite pleas from nominee to stop.

Time Magazine reports:

“..both the McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee have been trying to distance themselves from the effort.

On a landing strip near Inez, Ky., RNC Chairman Mike Duncan said he put in a call this morning to the chairwoman of the North Carolina Republican Party. “I left a voicemail encouraging her not to run the ad,” he said. Katie Wright, an RNC spokeswoman, elaborated, saying the national party first learned of the ad last night, and raised objections at a staff level. “We didn’t see it as helpful or appropriate. But they are an independent organization,” she said of the North Carolina state party.

A few minutes later, McCain weighed in himself. “We asked them not to run it. I am sending them an email as we speak asking them to take it down,” McCain said. “There is no place for that kind of campaigning.”

After that statement, the NC GOP said it would still will run the ad.

We’ve already traveled down this road before with Tennessee’s Republican party when they tried to make a point of using Obama’s middle name, Hussein, against him.

What’s going on here? Up until this year, the GOP enjoyed (& deserved) a reputation for toting the party line from top to bottom. Discipline was ingrained in the party faithful’s DNA, & it remains an elusive quality among many Democrats. The North Carolina ad & the story about the Tennessee GOP demonstrates that many party members on the local level aren’t as beholden to the interests of the national party as they once were. Is it an issue of them thinking they know their local voters better? Or is this McCain’s actual strategy — letting local parties run ads like this while publicly denouncing them? 

What’s your take? Are the issues raised in the NC GOP ad fair game? Or do you side with McCain, who says they’re “over the line?” & where does that line exist? Let us know your thoughts! Post a comment!

John McCain can’t win the general election.

No, Barack Obama can’t win the general election.

No, seriously, John McCain can’t win the general election.

That may be true, but Barack Obama can’t win the general election. 

What do you think? 

As you can see, four - or in this case eight - years in the White House takes its toll on a President’s facial features (this applies to all presidents, not just the current one.)

The folks at PopPhoto.com provided some helpful insight into how four years of the presidency would change the appearance of each of the three major candidates.

& no, it’s not pretty.

Click “read the rest of this entry” to peer into the future — if you dare!!!!!!!

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John McCain has benefited from being out of the spotlight for the past few weeks.

First, whoever his potential opponent will be has been damaged by a bitter primary fight, especially in the past two weeks.

But the “time off” has also helped McCain shore up support among conservatives who were skeptical about him being the party standard-bearer.

David Paul Kuhn explains this in an article at the Politico:

In the latest CBS News/New York Times poll, 18 percent of conservatives said they have an unfavorable view of McCain. The same percentage expressed an unfavorable view of Bush in CBS News polls conducted in March and April of 2000; higher percentages of conservatives held unfavorable views of Bob Dole and George H.W. Bush at similar points in 1996 and 1988, respectively.

…
A candidate best known for his national security credentials, McCain is now touting his antiabortion views and making pledges not to raise taxes. His outreach to the right has been steady and ongoing, involving assurances and policy statements made both publicly and privately.

In January, at the height of the Republican primary, former Republican Sen. Phil Gramm, an adviser to McCain, met privately with more than two dozen House conservatives. As one participant in the meeting recalls, Gramm told the conservatives, “The thing about John McCain is independents love him, Democrats like him, and conservative Republicans don’t particularly like or love him, but they respect him. And respect lasts longer than love.”

What do you think? Is all forgiven among conservatives as they get ready for the general election showdown? Or does McCain still have more to prove before he’ll get their vote? Weigh in with a comment right now!

A long piece from the Washington Post’s Michael Leahy attempts to answer that question.

We’d love it if you read it & came back here to weigh in with your two cents!