Have You No Sense of Decency-Senator McCain?
October 23, 2008
Dear John:
On the occasion of our mutual 72nd birthdays I sent you my birthday greetings, expressed my admiration for your career, but explained in detail why upon reaching age 72 and despite our potential to make substantial contributions to our country in our golden years, I had concluded that both of us were too old to assume the heavy burden of President of the United States.
I am still receiving emails commenting upon my birthday letter, mostly favorable, but some expressing the view that I am guilty of age discrimination. Many have asked why I am publicly expressing my personal views about aging. It is because I believe that we are facing a true crisis and that it will take an exceptional individual with a broader, more forward perspective to lead us away from the brink to which the Bush administration has brought us and to ensure my grandchildren have any hope of sharing the privileges and benefits that you and I have enjoyed. In other words John, it shouldn’t just be about us, but about our children and our children’s children.
Unfortunately, your actions since your 72nd birthday provide a myriad of additional reasons, some age related, some not, why you are not fit to be our President. While your candidacy will shortly pass into the dust bin of failed political campaigns, the legacy and the damage that you have left behind will haunt the Republican Party for years to come. Although you continue to mouth the shibboleth “country first ” it is apparent that an overweening ambition to win at any cost has obliterated your sense of honor and the respect for fairness and truth that was instilled in us as young naval officers.
• On your birthday you shot from the hip, subjugated your instincts, pandered to the GOP base, and mindlessly followed the advice of your campaign advisors in naming Sarah Palin your running mate. Enough said. You have subsequently further demeaned yourself by defending her qualifications and inane behavior.
• Your demeanor and temperament ¬¬— as widely reported, displayed in the debates, and revealed in your interview with the DES MOINES REGISTER, and your various interviews — reinforce your image as hot tempered and distinctly not presidential.
• The final straw for me, however, has been the continual, false, personal attacks by you, Governor Palin and your surrogates against Barack Obama. You have repeatedly and unequivocally stated that you support these attacks which are filling the airways, in robo calls and RNC mailers which falsely suggest that Senator Obama is not a real American, not like us, a terrorist. Your approval and endorsement of a smear campaign of guilt by association against Senator Obama based upon fleeting past contacts with William Ayers is no doubt the result of your choice to surround yourself with lobbyists and former White House functionaries from the Bush administration. These people, John – among them, yet in no particular order-- Nancy Photenhauer, Tucker Bounds, Nicolle Wallace, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Randy Scheynemann, Rick Davis, and Steve Schmidt evoke all too many unpleasant memories of White House spin masters of the past eight years. They lie, change the subject and evade. In responding to questions and attacking Barack Obama they remind me, the parent of five, of the childish plaint “everybody does it” or “he did it first.” As we both told our children, John, you know better than that. For you to suggest that you, previously injured by them, now must use them is absurd.
• Lastly, I was especially saddened when your campaign was asked to supply a spokesperson last Friday for the Chris Matthews show and your staff suggested Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachman. On the Matthews show, your surrogate proceeded not only to claim that Senator Obama holds “anti-American views,” but called for the media to conduct an expose to determine who among the members of Congress were “pro-American” as opposed to those who were “anti-American.” I am so saddened, John, that you who suffered in the 2000 campaign the despicable lies promulgated by George Bush, Karl Rove and Carter Askew abandoned your navy principles and not only adopted their tactics but hired the same sleaze-balls to “do unto others” what wrongly had been done to you. I thought once you were better than that. Now, unfortunately, I wonder “have you no sense of decency,” Senator McCain?
Senator, you have an opportunity now with twelve days to go to cool this rhetoric, stop the lying and character assassination, and stop distribution of inflammatory talking points to the likes of Hannity, Limbaugh and Bachman. Stop our Republican Party from once again embarrassing itself by baseless allegations of vote fraud, or worse voter suppression. You have the time to end this campaign on a high note, regain your reputation and perhaps limit the damage that you and Governor Palin have done to the Republican Party.
Now is the time for you to disavow the lies and slanders that have permeated this campaign and support an interpretation of the First Amendment that exempts “hate speech,” or deliberate lies when uttered in the course of a political campaign, from the protection of the First Amendment. You must do this unilaterally, not relying on the lame excuse that all of the slime in this campaign is Barack Obama’s fault because he didn’t agree with your proposal for joint town hall debates. It is only by taking a bold step and concluding your campaign on a high note that you can restore a modicum of honor to your heretofore illustrative career.
Very truly yours,
William A Wineberg
Dear John:
On the occasion of our mutual 72nd birthdays I sent you my birthday greetings, expressed my admiration for your career, but explained in detail why upon reaching age 72 and despite our potential to make substantial contributions to our country in our golden years, I had concluded that both of us were too old to assume the heavy burden of President of the United States.
I am still receiving emails commenting upon my birthday letter, mostly favorable, but some expressing the view that I am guilty of age discrimination. Many have asked why I am publicly expressing my personal views about aging. It is because I believe that we are facing a true crisis and that it will take an exceptional individual with a broader, more forward perspective to lead us away from the brink to which the Bush administration has brought us and to ensure my grandchildren have any hope of sharing the privileges and benefits that you and I have enjoyed. In other words John, it shouldn’t just be about us, but about our children and our children’s children.
Unfortunately, your actions since your 72nd birthday provide a myriad of additional reasons, some age related, some not, why you are not fit to be our President. While your candidacy will shortly pass into the dust bin of failed political campaigns, the legacy and the damage that you have left behind will haunt the Republican Party for years to come. Although you continue to mouth the shibboleth “country first ” it is apparent that an overweening ambition to win at any cost has obliterated your sense of honor and the respect for fairness and truth that was instilled in us as young naval officers.
• On your birthday you shot from the hip, subjugated your instincts, pandered to the GOP base, and mindlessly followed the advice of your campaign advisors in naming Sarah Palin your running mate. Enough said. You have subsequently further demeaned yourself by defending her qualifications and inane behavior.
• Your demeanor and temperament ¬¬— as widely reported, displayed in the debates, and revealed in your interview with the DES MOINES REGISTER, and your various interviews — reinforce your image as hot tempered and distinctly not presidential.
• The final straw for me, however, has been the continual, false, personal attacks by you, Governor Palin and your surrogates against Barack Obama. You have repeatedly and unequivocally stated that you support these attacks which are filling the airways, in robo calls and RNC mailers which falsely suggest that Senator Obama is not a real American, not like us, a terrorist. Your approval and endorsement of a smear campaign of guilt by association against Senator Obama based upon fleeting past contacts with William Ayers is no doubt the result of your choice to surround yourself with lobbyists and former White House functionaries from the Bush administration. These people, John – among them, yet in no particular order-- Nancy Photenhauer, Tucker Bounds, Nicolle Wallace, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Randy Scheynemann, Rick Davis, and Steve Schmidt evoke all too many unpleasant memories of White House spin masters of the past eight years. They lie, change the subject and evade. In responding to questions and attacking Barack Obama they remind me, the parent of five, of the childish plaint “everybody does it” or “he did it first.” As we both told our children, John, you know better than that. For you to suggest that you, previously injured by them, now must use them is absurd.
• Lastly, I was especially saddened when your campaign was asked to supply a spokesperson last Friday for the Chris Matthews show and your staff suggested Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachman. On the Matthews show, your surrogate proceeded not only to claim that Senator Obama holds “anti-American views,” but called for the media to conduct an expose to determine who among the members of Congress were “pro-American” as opposed to those who were “anti-American.” I am so saddened, John, that you who suffered in the 2000 campaign the despicable lies promulgated by George Bush, Karl Rove and Carter Askew abandoned your navy principles and not only adopted their tactics but hired the same sleaze-balls to “do unto others” what wrongly had been done to you. I thought once you were better than that. Now, unfortunately, I wonder “have you no sense of decency,” Senator McCain?
Senator, you have an opportunity now with twelve days to go to cool this rhetoric, stop the lying and character assassination, and stop distribution of inflammatory talking points to the likes of Hannity, Limbaugh and Bachman. Stop our Republican Party from once again embarrassing itself by baseless allegations of vote fraud, or worse voter suppression. You have the time to end this campaign on a high note, regain your reputation and perhaps limit the damage that you and Governor Palin have done to the Republican Party.
Now is the time for you to disavow the lies and slanders that have permeated this campaign and support an interpretation of the First Amendment that exempts “hate speech,” or deliberate lies when uttered in the course of a political campaign, from the protection of the First Amendment. You must do this unilaterally, not relying on the lame excuse that all of the slime in this campaign is Barack Obama’s fault because he didn’t agree with your proposal for joint town hall debates. It is only by taking a bold step and concluding your campaign on a high note that you can restore a modicum of honor to your heretofore illustrative career.
Very truly yours,
William A Wineberg
Labels: FIrst Amendment, Honor, Lies, McCain, Obama
posted by SFFANTASY | 9:16 PM
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