Video McCain failed Commander-in-Chief test in 2001

AFPVeteran McCain can't bank on US military vote
AFP

Veteran McCain can't bank on US military vote
22 hours ago

CHICAGO (AFP) — War hero John McCain should have been able to count on fellow veterans to back his White House bid, but Democrats have managed to trim the Republican lead by actively courting the military vote.

With the United States engaged in two unpopular wars, the military vote is worth more than the relatively small number of ballots it represents.

Democrats are hoping the visible support of top former commanders and troops on the ground will help overcome a decades-long reputation that they are weak on defense.

Republicans continue to beat the drums of patriotism in an attempt to distract voters from the worsening economic crisis.

McCain meanwhile has built his campaign narrative around his lifelong service to his country and his ability to lead in dangerous times.

The former navy fighter pilot who spent five and a half years in a Vietnamese prison camp pauses every rally and town meeting to thank the "guys in the funny hats" for their military service.

He vows to bring troops home from Iraq "in victory and honor, not in defeat" to chase Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden "to the gates of hell" and to "fight for what's right for America."

And the Arizona senator has mounted constant attacks on the judgment and experience of Democratic rival Barack Obama, a 47-year-old first term senator who has never served in the military.

Yet McCain is expected to win the military vote by a narrower margin on November 4 than President George W. Bush did in 2004, even though Bush sat out the Vietnam war in the Texas national guard and was running against decorated Vietnam veteran John Kerry.

"The best guess is Bush won (the military vote) 60-40 and I'm guessing it will be lower than that for McCain," said Peter Feaver, a professor at Duke University who specializes in civil-military relations.

A Gallup survey in early August found 56 percent of veterans supported McCain while only 34 percent planned to vote for Obama.

At the same point in the 2004 presidential race, 55 percent of veterans backed Bush and 39 percent backed Kerry.

Since then, McCain has fallen sharply in the national polls and Obama has expanded his lead from three points to eight in Gallup's tracking of registered voters.

It is likely that McCain has also lost support among veterans, Feaver said, explaining that while members of the military tend to "skew on the Republican side," they also tend to track the sentiment of the general population.

Democrats have also "assiduously courted the military" in the years since the terrorist attacks of September 11, he added.

They sharply criticized the Bush administration for neglecting returning veterans following the scandal over conditions at the Walter Reed Medical Center and have pushed through legislation which would improve medical benefits and expand college funding for returning veterans.

"Then you have Obama, who has exceptional appeal to three groups over-represented in the military: African Americans, Latinos and young people," Feaver said in a recent interview.

Obama, who served on the senate's veterans affairs committee and has been active in expanding benefits and fighting homelessness among veterans, has also tapped into discontent among veterans frustrated with the way the Iraq war has been handled and the strain that multiple deployments has put on families.

He has called for a staged withdraw from Iraq and greater focus on the war in Afghanistan and regularly asks injured veterans to speak on his behalf at rallies and even at the Democratic National Convention.

His highly organized grassroots campaign has set up chapters of Veterans and Military Families for Obama across the country to knock on doors and make calls on his behalf.

And he recently added Colin Powell, Bush's former secretary of state and the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to his tally of endorsements by retired generals.

There are plenty of veterans who believe McCain's military service is sufficient testament to his character and ability to be commander-in-chief
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I would really love to know what people think qualifies McCain to be Commander-in-Chief when he was pushing to invade Iraq right after 9-11? I mean, aside from his disgraceful record of voting against veterans, while Obama has really supported them, Obama was against invading Iraq when McCain was pushing to do it. Seems to me on test one, McCain failed miserably.

Unearthed Video: McCain Pushed Bush Iraq War Agenda Two Months After 9/11


Recently unearthed video shows that just two months after 9/11, John McCain was not only fully aware of the Bush Administration's Iraq War Agenda, but also that he actively helped make the argument for war.

In an interview broadcast November 28, 2001 on ABC News Nightline, McCain:

* Said that the Bush Administration would build a case for military conflict with Iraq, and expressed his support for such action

* Advanced false claims made by the Bush Administration about the threat of Iraqi WMD

* Connected Iraq with 9/11 by repeating the false claim that 9/11 hijacker Muhammad Atta had met with Iraq intelligence authorities in Prague before 9/11
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/30/unearthed-video-mccain-pu_n_130680.html
Go to this link and see it with your own eyes. McCain was on Nightline on November 28th talking about the need to invade Iraq. He failed the Commander-in-Chief test and began to prove that he does not know how to "win" wars as he claims. He failed the part of the test on sending men and women into harms way without need or facts. He was pushing for this before the trumped up charges were even presented to Congress. Obama had the right judgement and listened to Generals who said that invading Iraq was wrong, believed it was wrong so much that they resigned. Then McCain did the most deplorable thing of all. He failed the veterans wounded for his fantasy of flight.