I don't get it. What's the problem?

I don't see how this inherently reflects negatively on him. Now, personally, I think everyone should get medical coverage, veteran, civilian or alien. I'm not here to argue the logistics of giving it to them, but everyone should have equal access to health coverage.

How much of the video did you watch? Did you miss the part where Mccain comes out in favor or re-instating the draft?

Oh, yeah, he says he doesn't disagree with what the lady said, and she said to bring back the draft. She sounds like she might be crazy, too.

I watched the whole thing, and I never heard that.

What I heard was a woman making the point that medical care for veterans is very poor, and if we don't take better care of the soldiers we have now, we won't have very many willing to volunteer in the future. She drove that point home by saying that unless we reinstate the draft, there won't be anyone left to fight.

I agree with her as well, and I'm against the draft, as is McCain.

You're becoming a liberal Limbaugh.

Obama '08.

Just to make it more clear, the woman never said that we should bring back the draft or that we needed to.

This is, by the way, about the 5th public statement in favor of the draft that McCain has made, so it is useless to claim that he opposes the draft. Perhaps a less ambiguous statement by McCain was: "I might consider it, I don't think it's necessary, but I might consider it if you could design a draft where everybody equally could serve."

In thev video clip above, the questioner worries about veterans benefits (benefits McCain consitently votes against) and ends by saying that to defeat Al Qaeda, we need a draft. McCain agrees. He does not say "I agrree about Vet's rights and the need to maintain our military but think a draft is Unnecessary". He just agrees. This would be less meaningful were it not for McCain's fair draft and WWIII statements (and others) in the recent past.

The personal attack was unwarranted.

I don't believe that the quote that you listed is a statement in favor of the draft as well, or in contradiction to his opposal of a draft. Saying "I might consider it" is politician speak for, "No, but I can tell you want me to."





Here's the direct quote from the woman (the last line of a longer statement, which puts it into even futher context), "If we don't re-enact the draft, I don't think we'll have anyone to chase Bin Laden to the gates of Hell."





Above quote != "To defeat Al Qaeda we need a draft" Again, when contextualized with her statements on veterans benefits, it's sensationalized point. If the woman said, "To defeat Al Qaeda we need a draft" and McCain had said, "I agree" you'd have a point. As it occured, you don't. What you and the rest of the Mark Penn liberals are doing is trying to play the Republican game of Gotcha. As an Obama supporter, you should want better.





There was no personal attack. Call it an intervention.

Mark Penn? That's below the belt, man.



I have to continue to disagree. In context, her statement and his agreement were very clear: She may not have said that she wanted a draft re-instated, but she did say that it would be necessary. The portion in bold is where she says this. It seems pretty simple: if we don?t X, then we won?t Y. Very simple If Then Statement. Anyone can follow this. X is (re-instate the draft) why is (have enough soldiers). I think that we can assume that she is in favor of Y (having enough soldiers), so it follows that she must be conditionally in favor of X (re-instating the draft).





There is a prior conditional appended by the context: that is the current poor state of vetereans benefits. John McCain has voted against every attempt to improve veterans benefits in the last decade. Ms Audience Member seems to imply that the draft would become unnecessary if we improve those benefits. Mccain states that he agrees with her. Draw your own conclusions.



AUDIENCE MEMBER: Senator McCain I truly hope you get the opportunity to chase Bin Laden right to the gates of hell and push him in as you stated on your forum. I do have a question though. Disabled veterans, especially in this state, have horrible conditions [...] My son is an officer in the Air Force, and I am a vet and I was raised in a military family. I think it is a sad state of affairs when we have illegal aliens having a Medicaid card that can access specialist top physicians, the best of medical and our vets can't even get to a doctor. These are the people that we tied yellow ribbons for and Bush patted on the back. If we don't reenact the draft I don't think we will have anyone to chase Bin Laden to the gates of hell.


JOHN MCCAIN: Ma'am let me say that I don't disagree with anything you said and thank you and I am grateful for your support of all of our veterans.

You are being intentionally myopic. I shouldn't allow it to frustrate me. You want to play If...Thens, though? Okay, I'm game.





Here's base equation 1 (very simple):

If we don't X, then we won't Y to Z.





X = Provide better benefits to veterans

Y = Have enough soldiers

Z = Chase Bin Laden to the gates of Hell





Number 2 (This one's a little more complicated, put on your thinking cap):

If we don't A, then I don't think we will Y to Z





A = Reinstate the draft

Y = Have enough soldiers

Z = Chase Bin Laden to the gates of Hell





Now, AUDIENCE MEMBER never in her statement came out in favor of Z, though you could easily infer that she might be by her hope that McCain has the opportunity to Z. She never came out in favor of A either. She obviously came out in favor of X.





To me, and anyone else who doesn't have an agenda, it seems clear that the point she was making is that:



Equation 3 (so simple it's eluded an intelligent gent like yourself):

If we don't X, we'll need to A to Z.





And just in case you're getting confused on where I stand, I'm in favor of an Obama presidency. I'd rather his victory be based on a true comparison of his candidacy with his opponent's, however. I believe that he does as well.





If John McCain ever utters words that equal "I am in favor of a military draft" no matter which conditions he applies to it (and consideration is not favor), then we'll have an argument.

If we don't X, we'll need to A to Z. Still missing the irony I guess.



If we dont X, we'll need to A in order to Z where X is (something Mccain has Voted against at everry chance) A is (bring back the draft) and Z is (something Mccain favors).

Irony? Who claimed irony?





The point is that it doesn't show a McCain desire for a draft. I'm in agreement with you everywhere else.

"I'm in favor of an Obama presidency." I thought perhaps you had changed your mind over the FISA fiasco. I noticed you took the Obama ad off your web site.

I did, and that is why. I'm still in favor of the guy, just not as fervently so.

fair enough.

Um...I posted a comment here, and it's not showing up, so I'll repost it.

"Ma'am let me say that I don't disagree with anything you said and thank you and I am grateful for your support of all of our veterans." sounds like there's a "but" coming after it. Was this the end of what he had to say on the matter? His words and even tone to some extent seem to imply that there was more to be said, either that he didn't say or that the video doesn't show.