Posted on 02/17/2008 4:17:13 PM PST by Osage Orange
Courageous leader: McCain is well equipped to be President.
By Senator Tom Coburn
The American people have the opportunity to elect as president John McCain, a man who is uniquely equipped to tackle the two greatest challenges facing our country — radical Islamic extremism and a Congress that refuses to correct our unsustainable fiscal course.
I'm confident in McCain's leadership because I know and trust his character. I have served with many professed reformers in Congress. John McCain stands out as one of a handful of true reformers who will stand up and be counted. He has demonstrated time and time again the rarest virtue in politics upon which all else depends — courage.
Sen. McCain risked his life for his country while serving in the military, and has consistently risked his political life while serving in public office, including during his presidential campaign.
When the surge in Iraq was announced last year, a policy change McCain himself helped orchestrate, a reporter asked if he was worried the unpopular policy would hurt his presidential ambitions. McCain said, "I'd rather lose the presidency than lose the war.” America desperately needs that kind of courage in its leaders.
Courage matters most in Washington especially when dealing with Congress. Conservatives, in particular, should be heartened that when the Republican Party and its leaders were expanding government through pork-barrel spending and new entitlements, McCain was fighting that trend.
He was one of only 11 Republicans who supported me in my fight to kill the "Bridge to Nowhere,” and has pledged to shut down Congress' earmark favor factory on Day One of his administration.
McCain also had the foresight to oppose the largest Medicare expansion since Lyndon Johnson. He believes Congress should keep the promises it has already made before making new promises it can't keep.
The contrasts between McCain and either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama are significant. On the two greatest challenges facing our country, both Clinton and Obama would lead our nation in a disastrous direction.
In the war on terror, Clinton and Obama would essentially hand Iraq over to al-Qaida at a time when Iraq is stabilizing as a result of the policy changes McCain helped implement.
On the domestic front, Clinton and Obama are offering yesterday's classic liberal proposals that sound good, but don't work. Clinton and Obama want to put government in charge of health care, while McCain has a plan that will use common-sense, free-market principles to make health care more accessible and affordable. His plan encourages health care choice, freedom and security by providing every American with a $2,500 tax credit ($5,000 for families) they can use to shop for their own insurance.
Regarding judges, McCain will nominate judges like the ones he supported in the Senate — John Roberts and Samuel Alito, among others — while Clinton and Obama have signaled they will nominate liberal, activist judges.
The American people are clamoring for change this election, and rightly so. Yet Washington won't change with yesterday's ideas. If some believe we are re-litigating the 1960s, that is because one party keeps re-legislating the 1960s. John McCain is the one candidate who has been ahead of his times, and will lead with ideas that work.
Coburn didn’t get the memo. Conservatives want OBAMA to win this year.
Poor ol’ Tom is a RINO.
5.56mm
I’ll never believe Dr. Tom is a RINO, but I think he’s quite wrong on this issue.
If the latest FR poll reflects even 1/8th of the country for opinion of McCain, Obama wins in a landslide.
Since you hate conservatives, why do you post here?
All you do is insult people. You must be from DU, here to stir up trouble. Nothing you have said will help McCain any.
“...well equipped to be president.”
1) Liberal - check.
2) Lies -check.
3) Supports illegal immigration - check.
4) Two faced - check.
5) Vain - for no obvious reason - check.
6) Long ago lost any vestige of morals - check.
Yup, they’re right.
Isn’t that one of Kim Jong Il’s titles?
The weasle is well equipted to follow rats down their holes.. and plot malicious deeds with them..
No Barf Alert?
I don’t particularly have any dog in this fight. But I do know that every time I come on FR and read a few threads, this is the kind of stuff I see. The truth seems to be that those of us who should be allies are tearing each other up worse than any opponent could ever do. This is shaping up to be one of the worst slaughters in my voting lifetime for Republicans and conservatives. Probably the worst, since I first voted in ‘68 and was not old enough to participate in the LBJ/Goldwater fiasco.
Yep, wrong candidate for this time around. Makes you wonder. One would think that since this election is so important, we would have had strong candidates to offer with a great appeal to the whole party.
What does that tell you?
It doesn't matter if you agree or disagree with people who say they cannot support McCain.
The significant fact is that he cannot win an election when one third of his own party doesn't believe in him and don't buy into his hollow promises he will now respect the conservative viewpoint.
Talk is cheap - The only possible way to change the situation is for him to walk the talk.
He is still a Senator and we have almost 9 months to the election.
That is plenty of time to do something to show he means what he says - like organize a fight against the democrats' amnesty bills that keep creeping back into the spotlight.
lol...Good luck with your little campaign, John.
WHOOPEE, WOW! Can we discuss the details now?
I’m a Redneck, but I’m not an idiot, and I’m all grown up, to boot! Stop trying to puff smoke up my ASS, I am tired of all the insults!
Once upon a time I figured I might get lucky, dig up enough bucks to buy my way in, to a high mucketymuck republican function, and find someone there who would listen, to what I have to say!
Y’all never wanted to hear MY opinion, but, hear it now, I hope that Hilary, or Obama, bankrupt your sorry Asses!
What y’all got coming is exactly what you asked for!
North Korea officially refers to him as the "Great Leader"; until the mid-1990s, his English honorific was "Dear Leader".
It also states that Dave Letterman refers to him as Lil' Kim.
For later.
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