Johnson Family Asks Presidential Candidates to Town Hall Meeting

I see NObama opted out again from a perfect opportunity to test his chops against McCain.

Question: "Mr. NObama, why are you so scared to answer unscripted questions directly from citizens in a town hall setting? Why are you only agreeing to the 3 media-sponsored debates? I thought you were bringing change to America? Or is that just the pocket change I'll have leftover over you raise taxes and eradicate NAFTA?"

Seth:

Why do you think that McCain is in a losing position? The race is going to be close but I think that McCain will take battleground states like PA, OH, and FL. I also suspect that there are a great many people who will throw their race-neutral ideals out the window once they are alone in the voting booth, so I'm taking the current polls with a grain of salt.

Sammy Davis Jr. makes a valid point. All you people falling for McCain's "I'm a different breed of Republican" shtick are forgetting he's had multiple opportunities to disavow Bush's disastrous presidency. Instead, he's embraced it.

To appease his party's Christian conservatives, Mucus McCain has traveled to Lynchburg, Va., to kiss Pat Robertson's ring and to San Antonio to wash John Hagee's feet (not literally) during the GOP primaries. Of course, when it came to light that Hagee called Hitler "God's instrument" in resettling Jews in Palestine, McCain disavowed him last month, but by then Hagee was of no further use to him since he'd clinched the nomination.

Some maverick. As his purported hero, (Jesus Christ) once said, "By their fruits ye shall know them." McCain is just another Bushist wingnut.

Cats, dudes, folks, douchebags, A-holes, Republicans, you people... whatever.

Cats? lame.

McCain sure has you cats fooled. He came back from five years of torture at the Hanoi Hilton to the love of his life - his successful model wife Carol and their children, who'd been waiting for him the entire time. I guess it was too bad she'd been in a serious car accident while he was gone, crushing her pelvis and arm and legs. She had so much crushed bone removed that it cause her to lose 5" in height and confined her to a wheelchair until she learned to walk again. A disfigured wife was not part of the plan, so he started having multiple affairs, eventually settling on Cindy since her dad was mega wealthy. He divorced Carol, a month later married Cindy and moved in with her in Arizona. So talk of this guy's character and integrity doesn't really hold water. He's a fake and an opportunist. He's not interested in serving you. He's looking for attention and glory and power for himself, which will definitely come at our expense. Enjoy!

random,

shit, I was writing in support of j. Mccain. He was a patsy for bush, though. He would NEVER gotten us in this fucked situation. But he never complained while bush was screwing things up. The only time he criticized W & Cheney was over their torture programs.

Seth

All this garbage about McCain being a bush lapdog/patsy, etc. A McCain term is a third Bush term. Really? Do you people really believe that? Seriously? I know people like Obama and are put off by the Republican Party, but c'mon. Surely people are smarter than that?

Enough with this partisan bullshit. The idea that the Democratic party has a monopoly on what is right and/or the Republican party is bankrupt of good ideas is the same ignorant, divisive bullshit that the Bush administration and Fox News has been pushing for years. There are those of you that believe the only reason republicans are in office is because there are those in this state country that hate minorities/gays/the poor/liberals. The world is that simple, huh?

We in this town treat a narrow minded and absolutist point of view with respect so long as it is coming from the left.

Grape,

Yeah, Bush has hugely embarrassed America internationally and screwed our credibility for decades to come. You're right to criticize McCain for being Bush's lapdog during all that. His lack of spine and independent voice for the last 7 years is troubling.

I don't think it's accurate to stereotype him as a typical redneck republican. If he were that, Rush Limbaugh would support him. This is the best candidate the republicans have fielded since I suppose Lincoln. The guy adopted an African orphan way before Madonna and Angelina Jolie, for a total of three adopted kids & one from screwing.

I consider myself a pretty devout liberal. I see a lot of qualities to respect in McCain that I've NEVER seen in previous republican presidents. So it bothers me when I hear my fellow liberals bash him for being old, etc. He doesn't deserve that. The motherfucker got tortured for four years while serving his country in a war as equally retarded as the current one. Came back home and married a model.

There's a reason John Stewart has had him on his show more than any of the other candidates. While Stewart and myself don't agree with all of McCains positions, he's a thoughtful, experienced leader who has really worked to get where he is. He's also respectful towards liberals & democrats and although he's in a losing position in this race, he hasn't stooped to divisive political tools like gay marriage, etc.

Seth

McCain is a Bush patsy whether he wants to admit it or not, hell I wouldn't be surprised to see him put Jeb on the VP list. He's on the same page and would be no more than just another version of Bush with a very similar administration. The guy is an old, very old, idealogical "USA all the way or no way" type of guy. Foreign policy amounts to ethnocentrism for him - if it ain't redneck it ain't right. I also believe that he is more than willing to leave troops in Iraq for years to come and would only exapnd the current global debacle that Bush created. You know it's fucked up when not only the rest of the world hates what you've done, but the people you lead all agree that you've done a horrible job of leading and no one wants to follow.

Unfortunately, there are too many stupid people in this country who think cutting gas prices for 2 months is an actual solution and they'll vote for McCain to save $60 in 60 days. For some reason common sense always seems to elude the Republican party and its supporters.

Hell if he had switched parties he could have been president in 2004. No way he would've lost to Kerry or Bush.

Cram, look, I don't want to get into some internet argument over the war. It's a bullshit war, and I think we agree on that.

What's the percentage of Americans who want the troops home now and/or in the near future and/or with some definitive timeline? Like what? 100%?

It's all about the oil. Just like it has been from day 1. McCain is trying to reset people's perspectives on our troop presence there. A lot of war supporters have compared the continued presence to our post-WW2 occupation of Germany & Japan. Same with Korea. McCain and the other pro-war types are trying to justify our soldiers staying in Iraq on the basis that we've got huge numbers of soliders in Japan, Korea, Europe, etc.

He's got a point. Americans haven't been bitching about all our military bases throughout Japan (I've visited many of them-- very comfy!). Where are the "US out of Japan!" banners? Mostly being held aloft in Japan by nationalistic Japanese people. The reason people aren't complaining is because Americans aren't getting killed in Japan.

We keep bases in Japan & Korea because they are of strategic value to us. Now that we've completely screwed up Iraq and left that whole country open to an Iranian takeover, McCain believes there is strategic value in our troops staying there. There's oil to protect, after all.

Out of touch? He's trying to lead. Just because 100% of Americans might think a certain direction is the way to go, doesn't mean it's in the best interest of everyone involved. Idiocracy is a great exploration of that concept of govt. / society.

Americans want the troops out of Iraq because they don't think it's worthy of their deaths. If our troops weren't getting killed and we were given priority access to Iraqi oil, people would be all about having our bases remain there to keep gas prices lower.

While you criticize him for not pandering to the polls, I think he's taking a difficult route by trying to change those poll results (the ones asking Americans if the US should stay in Iraq) by providing context and discussion. His main fuckup is that he didn't bail on the republican party in 2000 when Karl Rove smeared him with those illegitimate black child push-poll calls. If he would have switched parties then, I think he'd be able to win this election now with Obama as his VP.

Seth

Hey lets not get ahead of ourselves here-- boxers or briefs?

Uh, the guy said it wasn't too important if/when the troops came home from Iraq.

What's the percentage of Americans who want the troops home now and/or in the near future and/or with some definitive timeline? Like what? 100%?

That sounds pretty goddamned important to me. And his off the cuff blase bullshit response is clearly out of touch with what the American people want -- which is their sons and daughters/husbands and wives to be home in some definite time frame under 100 years.

Just because he's smarter than Bush and his homeboys, it doesn't mean he's in touch with reality. I can appreciate where you're coming from, but all evidence points to the contrary at this point in his life.

"Senator McCain, if you are elected president, do you think it might open doors for some of the people America has tortured in its secret overseas prisons? Could your presidency enable those people to attain public office in their own countries?"

BTW- McCain isn't out of touch. The guy's sharper than all the guys currently working in the executive branch. If it seems he's taken some dumb positions, it's because he's saddled with a dumb political party he's got to placate.

Seth

both are excellent questions! I can see this will be a fascinating debate.

"Senator McCain, why are you a delusional out-of-touch fucktard? Oh, and when do you plan to march us into Tehran?"

"Senator Obama, why do you hate America?"