Book Description
Thinking about voting for McCain? Read this book. Cliff Schecter's hard-hitting profile explores the gap between the public record of Senator John McCain and his media image. Drawing on a range of sources and adding his unique perspective and humor, Schecter guides the reader though McCain's long history of expedient flip-flops--especially on his signature issues of national security and campaign finance reform. Far from a straight-talking maverick, McCain emerges as a temperamental political chameleon who will do or say virtually anything to become president of the United States. On issue after issue--including the invasion and occupation of Iraq, torture, abortion, and gay rights--The Real McCain reveals a politician who started as a Goldwater Republican, experienced a brief period after sanity after his loss to George W. Bush in 2000, and began pandering to the very groups he challenged after deciding to run again in 2008.
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 A disgrace and a message to all troops in the united states military not to run for public office
This book is a disgrace trying to portray an American hero into a traitor and a political puppet. People like John Mccain and others who are serving in the military have long been the reason why democracy exists in the united states and why the united states is the world leader. Maybe Cliff, the author of this book should try to serve in the military and see how it is. This isnt about john mccain winning the election but at least show some decency to his service in the vietnam war. Cliff needs to be ashamed and if he really believes in the "conservative values", i guess he needs to go to jail and have a talk with abramoff, foley and others who have disgraced the united states government, the blame needs to be placed on them for destroying conservatism not john mccain. Shame on you!
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 Thank you Mr. Cliff Schecter - Thank you !!!!
With your book, I have something well researched and documented that I can send to friends and family who argue for McCain ! I can't thank you enough, and I hope everything I spend on copies of your book goes to help the healing of America by causing the learned public to reject the RNC puppet, John McCain.
I hate to denounce anyone who I once fully supported, as in 2000, but I love America, and I want my children to have the same chance to learn to love America.
McCain can not be trusted as your book points out, and he is now a dastardly liar and flip-flopper, and no longer shows any righteous character.
He is now just a rich man's pawn, like he was when he backed the thief and monster Charles Keating, as pointed out in your book. McCain has no serious thoughts of doing anything positive for America's future - but positive for the RNC's future, and the RNC conservative right is a cancer, as you explain, on the face of our beloved America!
I've debated some McCain supporters in my book clubs, and what seems to anger them the most is when I speak the truth, as taken from your book,
on his documented record when it comes to voting for veteran's benefits.
If I had the money I would buy 10,000 copies of this book and pass them out to anyone who agreed to read the book with an open mind. This way I could feel confident that I was contirbuting to America's healing and future! Because of your book I'm sure Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson applaud the fact that America has a chance to avoid a third term for GW Bush!
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 Much needed mythbusting, marred by excessive partisan & personal barbs ( kissifur )
I am privileged to number among my friends, acquaintances, and relatives several people who are fairly high up in politics, government, and the military who have dealt with Senator McCain in one capacity or another in their lines of work. They represent points of view ranging from conservative to moderate to liberal to staunchly apolitical. They've all told me privately that the image of John McCain as a principled, consistent, reforming maverick is a myth based on very little truth - and that he's got a wicked temper and an "it's personal" approach to politics, too. Cliff Schecter's THE REAL MCCAIN is one of several recent books which (finally) are starting to deconstruct the McCain myth. From immigration to Iraq to taxes to the Religious Right - and even his signature issue, campaign finance reform - Schecter documents McCain's always-shifting, often unclear positions and inconsistent votes. He also notes how McCain deftly uses his (admittedly genuine) war hero status to get a free pass from the media, the public, and other politicians. All in all, Schecter portrays McCain as a skillful opportunist who holds very few genuine principles of any kind.
Unfortunately, Schecter's personal biases (leftwing/partisan Democrat) intrude upon what could have been a more objective narrative and tone; such a balanced style would have lent his revelations much greater authority and credibility among the independents, conservatives, and moderates of both parties who may be considering whether or not to vote for McCain. Instead, Schecter gratuitously fires off cheap shots at McCain and other Republicans, and also tries to pass off several extremely biased sources as objective and nonpartisan. Sometimes he criticizes McCain just for not being liberal enough, without any effort to relate this to what I thought was the focus of the book: the man's character. These types of things aren't necessary to make Schecter's point, and in fact end up detracting from it.
The nasty, partisan style of this book - reminiscent of a leftwing Anne Coulter -- is not surprising when you look at who exactly Schecter and his publisher are. Cliff Schecter is a hardcore liberal, with a resume that includes NPR, Air America, the Huffington Post, and organizations affiliated with the AFL-CIO, among other things, so he's hardly an unbiased, nonpartisan source. And Polipointpress, the publisher, also prints such objective, nonpartisan books as: WHY I'M A DEMOCRAT; JACKED: HOW CONSERVATIVES ARE PICKING YOUR POCKET; and HOUSE OF ILL REPUTE: REFLECTIONS ON WAR, LIES, AND AMERICA'S RAVAGED REPUTATION, among many others.
That doesn't necessarily mean the things written here about McCain are necessarily false, any more than the ideological bent of Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity means that the things they say about the Clintons or Barack Obama are always false, either. But it does mean that moderates, independents, and even many principled conservatives who have genuine reasons to dislike McCain will be turned off by the way Mr. Schecter presents his case here. I've never remotely been a McCain fan, and even I was bothered by it.
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A hard-hitting, critical analysis ( mwbookrevw )
Any interested in current affairs and politics will find THE REAL MCCAIN: WHY CONSERVATIONISTS DON'T TRUST HIM - AND WHY INDEPENDENTS SHOULDN'T makes for a hard-hitting, critical analysis of the gap between McCain's public record and his media image. Numerous sources blend with the author's sometimes humorous observations to make for an involving survey of McCain's history of flips on major public issues and policy.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
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This book further proves McCain is a master at manipulation...
uses, gets by on the free pass issued him due to a collective guilt associated with the Viet Nam War. It's a masterful piece of fraud coming from a man who graduated from the lowest 5 percentile of his class and who wants us to believe he's the best qualified to solve social security, the economy, make sense of an illegitimate war, serve as a world leader. Stacked up, his deficits are, should be, far too numerous for him to be a serious contender. The GOP made a huge mistake in offering him up.
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