From The New York Times:
KENNER, La. — Senator John McCain marked the unofficial beginning of the general election with a speech here Tuesday in which he sought to distance himself from President Bush and to argue that he has stronger credentials as an independent agent of change than his all-but-certain Democratic rival, Senator Barack Obama.
…snip…
Mr. McCain has worked to unite the Republican Party by vowing to continue many of Mr. Bush’s policies, including continuing the war in Iraq, extending the Bush tax cuts and appointing conservative justices to the Supreme Court. But he used his speech here to highlight his independence from the president in areas including the early handling of the war, global warming and government spending.
“You will hear from my opponent’s campaign in every speech, every interview, every press release that I’m running for President Bush’s third term,” he said, trying to pre-empt one of the central Democratic strategies of tying Mr. McCain to the unpopular president. “You will hear every policy of the president described as the Bush-McCain policy. […]
[…] Why does Senator Obama believe it’s so important to repeat that idea over and over again? Because he knows it’s very difficult to get Americans to believe something they know is false. So he tries to drum it into your minds by constantly repeating it rather than debate honestly the very different directions he and I would take the country.”
“But the American people didn’t get to know me yesterday, as they are just getting to know Senator Obama,” Mr. McCain said, noting several instances in which he opposed the leaders of his own party.
From Progressive Media USA:
CQ’s Presidential Support studies try to determine how often a legislator votes in line with the President’s position:
CQ tries to determine what the president personally, as distinct from other administration officials, does and does not want in the way of legislative action. This is done by analyzing his messages to Congress, news conference remarks and other public statements and documents.
So, these studies only track votes when the President has an explicit, stated opinion on a bill.
According to CQ, Senator John McCain has voted with President Bush 100% of the time in 2008 and 95% of the time in 2007:
HYSTERICAL RAISINS 
Sweet! I read earlier today”somewhere” that “some” organization said they couldn’t rate the percentage of times CU voted Chimpy’s way because he wasn’t present for enough votes in ’07 or ’08 to be statistically significant. (Sorry, no time to find the link right now.)
Good one, nonnie!
it’s at the above link to progressive media usa, it’s right after the chart, with more here.
we are going to see my parents next week – i’ve told my son that mccain is even older than grandpa.
god mccain looked awful last night. was that on purpose?
He DID look awful, Jenn. And I don’t think I’ve ever heard a worse speech in my life (and I’ve heard a lot of darned speeches). It was painful to watch.
But CU can’t really distance himself from Bush, no matter how hard he tries.
Oh, nonnie! I just had a flash of inspiration in my head and I’m throwing it your way to use or discard as you see fit. It’s a song, to the tune of that weepy country classic “I’m not Julie (My name is Lisa)”. I think it’s got a different title, but all I can remember is the first line and the tune. But it could start off with “I’m not Chimpy…My name is Johnny….” and then go from there.
At least I think it was a flash of inspiration. It could be residual gas from that cookie I ate last night…. 😉
i only watched part of capt u’s speech, because i couldn’t stop laughing at the chanting! they couldn’t think of anything more clever than just repeating his name 3 times?! 😆 😆 😆 then i changed the channel and watched house hunters.
gotta, i don’t know that song, but perhaps the lovely ms nightowl does. nightowl? are you around?
I’ll have to look into that song, gotta and nonnie…
After I thought about it, I think I’ve got the girls names backwards. I’ll have to go dig some and see if I can find it somewhere. It’ll drive me nuts if I don’t….
Here we go. I found a page that has both the actual song playing and the lyrics of the song all in one, tearjerking, melodramatic format. If you can do something with it, go for it (I’d kinda like to see dueling songs from both of you, nightowl and nons). If not, break out the tissues and cry copious country tears…..
“I’m Not Lisa” by Jesse Colter
http://deenotes.homestead.com/colter.html
omg! has there evah been a more boring song in the universe? i honestly couldn’t sit through the entire thing! i think my version would begin:
I’m not listening,
I’m bored $hitless…..
ROTFLMAO!!!
I know, it’s awful. It became part of my song lexicon by accident. I have old, dear friends named Lisa and Julie. Lisa was (and still is) a man magnet. She’s fun and funny, a little ditsy in the way that artists can be, and a pheromone factory. My friend Julie was cute as a button, but she tended to get sloppy drunk and ruin the cute effect. She’d hit on a guy when she was drunk and he’d immediately turn away from Julie and start to hit on Lisa (or me…I had my good points, too). When the guy would turn to Lisa, Julie would lean into me and start singing that awful song.
But as a song for McCain, the awfulness is kinda perfect, no? 😉
gotta,
if we dare to make capt u any more boring, we run the risk of putting the entire country into a catatonic state.
gotta, I agree to the challenge! Dueling parodies!
Chicken, nonnie? I’m calling you out. How about right here, Sunday?
PS Sorry I missed you guys calling me yesterday. It was NOT a good night…
nightowl,
i don’t mind a challenge, but i absolutely abhor that song. when i write a song parody, i wind up listening to it a dozen times. if i have to listen to that song even one more time, i will not survive.
That song really is something…
it’s one thing for a song to be boring. that one is deadly.
Smile… I’ll let you slide on the duel, but you still have to read my song if I write one, though!
i promise to read your song, but forgive me if i don’t listen to that crime against eardrums while i read.
It really is a crime against eardrums. But I can’t help but laugh whenever I hear it when I think of its prior connotations…
nightowl, I look forward to your effort. And you still might tempt nonnie into a duel as long as she doesn’t have to listen to the song. It has such a simple (in the cruelest sense of the word) rhythm that you don’t really have to listen to pick up the meter. C’mon, nons, you know you want to…. 😉
oh gotta, gotta, gotta,
when you laugh at horrors like that, you just become part of the problem! 😦