All That Is Necessary

Tag: McCain

  • McCain’s Town Hall "Advantage"

    Before the debate, we heard a lot about how good McCain is in a town hall format. There wasn’t much evidence of that last night. Time’s Swampland does a good job of explaining why: In the classic McCain town hall, differences of opinion are expressed, and McCain works to build a conversation, so that everyone […]

  • Playing Politics by Suspending Campaign? Of Course.

    Is McCain’s call to suspend the campaign over the financial crisis an example of leadership? Is it a political ploy? Yes. Neo-neocon (I like her blog, but I LOVE her blog’s name) sums it up pretty well: Just because there is some political posturing does not mean there’s not also some sincerity. Each candidate is […]

  • Gay Republicans Make Their Peace With Palin

    This article is a response to gay friends who have taken issue, quite civilly, with my support of John McCain for President. (Disclaimer: there is a comment on the article from someone named “Kirk,” who is not me.) While John McCain’s “selection of the Alaska governor has energized the GOP’s socially conservative wing,” it has […]

  • His & Her Candidates

    My lovely wife, the self-taught Web Goddess, supports Obama (as does almost everybody we know in our blue-town/blue-state of Maplewood, New Jersey). I support McCain, primarily on the basis of the Iraq war issue. As I’ve discussed before, this makes for some careful-but-substantive conversations as the election drama unfolds. Tempting though it may be sometimes […]

  • McCain: Nine-and-a-Half Extraordinary Minutes

    I had an event to attend in New York City last night, so I didn’t watch McCain’s speech. On the brief drive home from the train, I heard snippets of it live on the radio, and I wasn’t impressed. It was the section in the first half that started, “I fight for Bill and Sue […]

  • So THAT’S Why He Picked Her – What a Speaker!

    I take back everything I said or hinted or even thought about Sarah Palin being a drag on the ticket. She did several things she had to do in her speech tonight: She established that her record of actual office-holding achievement compares very favorably with Obama’s. (Obama’s achievement of winning his party’s nomination for president […]

  • McCain Strategist Describes the Vetting of Palin

    I’m skeptical of the partisan contention that McCain did little or no vetting of Palin in advance of the announcement. Here’s an extended response from the McCain camp — according to an unidentified senior McCain strategist, the vetting “included her filling out a 70-question questionnaire that was highly intrusive and personal. She was then interviewed […]

  • Five Stages of Adjusting to Palin

    As a socially liberal McCain supporter living in one of the bluest towns in a blue state, I’ve learned how to reconcile myself to various aspects of his candidacy. The most glaring example is abortion rights, where I think McCain is on the wrong side of the issue. But for me the issues that trump […]