I think Im with you on that Mid McCain might be the best of four evils.You gotta love it to see where we may go after the election on this one.I for one want our country to get back our kids and there education.asap.and space next! I can stomach another chickenfriedstk. LoL DONTEATUS everyone VOTE!

I say Ron Paul is clearly the best candidate for president.

Well that's just fact being stated as an opinion.

I would vote for him any day than voting for an Obama or Hitlary...which both never did any service time...

Who is mcClain?

That's odd because I remember the Republican debates last year when it was all praise for Reagan and the party was looking for the next 'Reagan'. A lot of those candidates were in power very recently or still are in power in the senate or congress.



Maybe my opinion of Reagan would be better if he wasn't responsible for so many deaths around the world. Instead of just going on about how great his policy was, maybe you ought to consider the people who are dead now because of his actions. That's what really matters. Many thousands of people dead for slightly lower taxes and a better economy in one country? Sounds like a good reign to me.

Thank you for writing that. When I think of the thousands of people that died horrible deaths because of Reagan it makes me ill. As you said, he had blood on his hands.

By KARL ROVE
April 30, 2008; Page A17

It came to me while I was having dinner with Doris Day. No, not that Doris
Day. The Doris Day who is married to Col. Bud Day, Congressional Medal of
Honor recipient, fighter pilot, Vietnam POW and roommate of John McCain at
the Hanoi Hilton.

As we ate near the Days' home in Florida recently, I heard things about
Sen. McCain that were deeply moving and politically troubling. Moving
because they told me things about him the American people need to know. And
troubling because it is clear that Mr. McCain is one of the most private
individuals to run for president in history.

When it comes to choosing a president, the American people want to know
more about a candidate than policy positions. They want to know about
character, the values ingrained in his heart. For Mr. McCain, that means
they will want to know more about him personally than he has been willing to
reveal.

Mr. Day relayed to me one of the stories Americans should hear. It
involves what happened to him after escaping from a North Vietnamese prison
during the war. When he was recaptured, a Vietnamese captor broke his arm
and said, "I told you I would make you a cripple."

The break was designed to shatter Mr. Day's will. He had survived in
prison on the hope that one day he would return to the United States and be
able to fly again. To kill that hope, the Vietnamese left part of a bone
sticking
out of his arm, and put him in a misshapen cast. This was done so that the
arm would heal at "a goofy angle," as Mr. Day explained. Had it done so, he
never would have flown again.

But it didn't heal that way because of John McCain. Risking severe
punishment, Messrs. McCain and Day collected pieces of bamboo in the prison
courtyard to use as a splint. Mr. McCain put Mr. Day on the floor of their
cell and, using his foot, jerked the broken bone into place. Then, using
strips from the bandage on his own wounded leg and the bamboo, he put Mr.
Day's splint in place.

Years later, Air Force surgeons examined Mr. Day and complemented the
treatment he'd gotten from his captors. Mr. Day corrected them. It was Dr.
McCain who deserved the credit. Mr. Day went on to fly again.

Another story I heard over dinner with the Days involved Mr. McCain
serving as one of the three chaplains for his fellow prisoners. At one
point, after being shuttled among different prisons, Mr. Day had found
himself as the
most senior officer at the Hanoi Hilton. So he tapped Mr. McCain to help
administer religious services to the other prisoners.

Today, Mr. Day, a very active 83, still vividly recalls Mr. McCain's
sermons. "He remembered the Episcopal liturgy," Mr. Day says, "and sounded
like a bona fide preacher." One of Mr. McCain's first sermons took as its
text Luke 20:25 and Matthew 22:21, "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and
unto God what is God's." Mr. McCain said he and his fellow prisoners
shouldn't ask God to free them, but to help them become the best people they
could be while serving as POWs. It was Caesar who put them in prison and
Caesar who would get them out. Their task was to act with honor.

Another McCain story, somewhat better known, is about the Vietnamese
practice of torturing him by tying his head between his ankles with his arms
behind him, and then leaving him for hours. The torture so badly busted up
his shoulders that to this day Mr. McCain can't raise his arms over his
head.

One night, a Vietnamese guard loosened his bonds, returning at the end of
his watch to tighten them again so no one would notice. Shortly after, on
Christmas Day, the same guard stood beside Mr. McCain in the prison yard and
drew a cross in the sand before erasing it. Mr. McCain later said that
when he returned to Vietnam for the first time after the war, the only
person he really wanted to meet was that guard.

Mr. Day recalls with pride Mr. McCain stubbornly refusing to accept
special treatment or curry favor to be released early, even when gravely
ill. Mr. McCain knew the Vietnamese wanted the propaganda victory of the son
and
grandson of Navy admirals accepting special treatment. "He wasn't
corruptible then," Mr. Day says, "and he's not corruptible today."

The stories told to me by the Days involve more than wartime valor.

For example, in 1991 Cindy McCain was visiting Mother Teresa's orphanage
in Bangladesh when a dying infant was thrust into her hands. The orphanage
could not provide the medical care needed to save her life, so Mrs. McCain
brought the child home to America with her. She was met at the airport by
her husband, who asked what all this was about.

Mrs. McCain replied that the child desperately needed surgery and years of
rehabilitation. "I hope she can stay with us," she told her husband. Mr.
McCain agreed. Today that child is their teenage daughter Bridget.

I was aware of this story. What I did not know, and what I learned from
Doris, is that there was a second infant Mrs. McCain brought back. She ended
up being adopted by a young McCain aide and his wife.

"We were called at midnight by Cindy," Wes Gullett remembers, and "five
days later we met our new daughter Nicki at the LA. airport wearing the only
clothing Cindy could find on the trip back, a 7-Up T-shirt she bought in the
Bangkok airport." Today, Nicki is a high school sophomore. Mr. Gullett
told me, "I never saw a hospital bill" for her care.

A few, but not many, of the stories told to me by the Days have been
written about, such as in Robert Timberg's 1996 book "A Nightingale's Song."
But Mr. McCain rarely refers to them on the campaign trail. There is
something
admirable in his reticence, but he needs to overcome it.

Private people like Mr. McCain are rare in politics for a reason.
Candidates who are uncomfortable sharing their interior lives limit their
appeal. But if Mr. McCain is to win the election this fall, he has to open
up.

Americans need to know about his vision for the nation's future,
especially his policy positions and domestic reforms. They also need to
learn about the moments in his life that shaped him. Mr. McCain cannot make
this a
biography-only campaign - but he can't afford to make it a biography-free
campaign either. Unless he opens up more, many voters will never know the
experiences of his life that show his character, integrity and essential
decency.

These qualities mattered in America's first president and will matter as
Americans decide on their 44th president.

Mr. Rove is the former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to
President George W. Bush.

Obama


McCain '08

I agree.. Ron Paul has a larger grasp on all the issues than the other 3 candidates.

I respectfully submit that both you and Cradle have been reading nonsense regarding AIDS and President Reagan. Indeed, I was having a difficult time imagining what you were talking about...blaming him for thousands of deaths and saying things like the President thought they deserved their disease, reflecting some skewed religious viewpoint.

This is a vast distortion. I'm not quite sure where such things come from. Perhaps you watch too many movies?


President Reagan, concerning AIDS, cut through alot of the early mis-information and confusion regarding the disease, and much of the hysteria regarding it as well. Recall if you will that schools at that time, were denying entrance to children with the disease, and some hospitals were even denying treatment to people with the disease!

Reagan's actions eliminated this discrimination, and declared that people with AIDS were handicapped under Federal law which protected people from such discrimination! Given the political climate of the time, and the uncertainty and in fact hysteria about the disease, his moves were courageous.

As Douglas Kmiek (former Constitutional legal counsel to President Reagan) stated regarding the President's actions concerning AIDS:



President Reagan fought with his conservative base regarding a disease which was known to be largely transmitted through sexual promiscuity. He encouraged their charity toward those people who were handicapped, no matter why they were handicapped!

Reagan was responsible for 6000 deaths? This is nuts. He battled with people to be charitable and used the power of the Federal government to insure that the law addressed these people, and didn't discriminate against them.

Reagan spent about 6 billion dollars on AIDS...alot of money for someone who supposedly left them to die.

The fact is, it seems you've watched too much TV...perhaps that lunatic "The Reagans" mini-series, where completely unsubstantiated comments were made by the President...later to be admitted to be "license" by the writers (no evidence to support the statements they assigned to President Reagan in the movie...)! It was left wing anti-Reaganism.


Reagan had no responsibility for 6000 deaths. He had no responsibility for allowing people to die, and he made no such comments about people deserving to die because of their sexual promiscuity. He did exactly the opposite...a difficult job, but a morally right position, and a legally advisable position. He got crap for it several times.

This supposedly religious fanatic President who didn't care about AIDS and it's victims said in his 1986 budget address, " AIDS remains the highest public health priority of the Department of Health and Human Services.”

In 1982, he started spending money on AIDS. He increased the budget the next year 450%! Further, against many negative opinions, he increased the budget every year...the lowest increase from the prior year being 44% in 1989's budget.

Sure...he ignored AIDS, and allowed people to die....


You really ought to get your history screwed on straight. Reagan responded as a President should...even before it was fully understood what it was he was responding to, and against opinions put forth by his own political base!

Bocephus, thanks for that post. While not totally aligned politically with the man, I can see him doing every bit of what you wrote.

AIDS, it's a disease. I might carry kids with it on my bus (we have some who ride, though the law prohibits us from knowing who). No matter, I'll help any and all in an emergency, they're "my kids" as long as they are aboard with me. It bothers me when "conservative" is somehow equated to heartless and uncaring...nothing could be further from the truth.

Some folks need to work on their stereotyping mechanisms...

Boy that's the truth, Mr. B.
You're attitude about "your kids" is noteworhty, and honorable.
The law does prohibit you from knowing who among those in your charge might be infected with AIDS, or anything else for that matter.

And as I previously addressed, to those who have the incredible idea that President Reagan was responsible for ignoring aids and mercilessly did nothing about it, allowing thousands to die because of his right-wing religious convictions and his cold-heartedness( )...that law is one of the results of Reagan's concerned stand on the issue!



True enough. It would also do many well to actually research what they speak to, instead of believing already disproven and completely unsubstantiated mainstream left-wing media tripe...

we are constantly ranting about how stupid americans were for voting for G.Bush, but here we are again, voting for an equally useless president

we are constantly ranting about how stupid americans were for voting for G.Bush, but here we are again, voting for an equally useless president

yes John McCain is useless. Obama not so much.


Stop watching Fox news for your source of information.

Obama..not so much "useless"?
I don't know precisely what that means, but whether or not Obama is useful or not, his naivete and policies are downright scary...

Carter revisited, with an extra dose of liberal thrown in for good measure.
The "Misery Index" (that descriptive device of the latter 70s, inspired by Jimmy Carter's abject failure) needs to stay in its grave...



And there's another source???