Sam Lopez – 2/17/08

This page was last updated on February 17, 2008.

The nation needs McCain; Sam Lopez; Beaver County Times; February 17, 2008.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“In American politics these days, being partisan is the accepted thing.”

[RWC] It appears Mr. Lopez equates sticking to core principles is the same as being partisan. Does Mr. Lopez ghostwrite Times editorials? <g>

“When I hear of U.S. Sen. John McCain being blasted by Rush Limbaugh and other conservative big wigs, I cringe.

“What this country needs is a president who will get things done, tell us, the American people, what he believes in, not what his party believes in, and lead this country with experience.”

[RWC] Below it appears Mr. Lopez also likes Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. To what experience is Mr. Lopez referring? Mr. Obama was an unremarkable state legislator until he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004. Since then, he’s spent his time running for president. Mrs. Clinton has been running for president since her 2000 Senate campaign (That’s why she ran for New York senator instead of Arkansas senator.) and has no Senate accomplishments to her credit.

While Mr. McCain has a lot of legislative “accomplishments” to his “credit” (McCain/Feingold, McCain/Kennedy, McCain/Lieberman, etc.), as the other two he has no executive experience running so much as a corner store.

The only candidates with executive experience are/were Messrs. Giuliani, Huckabee, and Romney.

“When Limbaugh says McCain is not conservative enough, I say good, and that’s exactly why he’ll get my vote.”

[RWC] You’ll note Mr. Lopez never tells us which McCain positions he likes. Why do I doubt Mr. Lopez will vote for Mr. McCain?

“McCain is not owned by his party. Like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, he speaks what he believes and doesn’t care if you like it or not.”

[RWC] Actually, Mr. McCain is very different from Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton in the “party owning” category. In his three years in the Senate, Mr. Obama has an ADA liberal rating of 100% for two years and 95% for the third. During her seven years in the Senate, Mrs. Clinton’s ADA rating has never been below 94%.

Now let’s compare those liberal ratings with Mr. McCain’s ACU conservative ratings. The highest Mr. McCain has been since 1996 was 81% in 2000. Since 1998, he’s had ratings of 68% twice (1998 & 2001) and his rating for 2006 was 65%, for an average rating of 74.3%. The ACU hasn’t reported the 2007 ratings yet.

“Finally, a politician who breaks the mold. John McCain is just what America needs.”

[RWC] Sure. I don’t recall any letters from Mr. Lopez supporting Sen. Joe Lieberman (D/I-CT). As a reminder, Mr. Lieberman “broke the mold” on only one issue (national security), and the Democrats ran him out of the party forcing him to run – and win – as an independent to retain his Senate seat.