Blogs For Victory

Leaving aside the nattering nabobs of negativism on the right and the liars on the left, McCain speaks to Joe and Jane Average:

Sarah and I have news for the big-spending, smooth-talking, me-first, country-second crowd in Washington and on Wall Street:

Change is coming!

We need reform in Washington and on Wall Street. When the financial crisis threatened the economic security of all Americans, I laid out principles to protect hardworking Americans. I believed that inaction was not an option.

I put my campaign on hold for a couple days last week to fight for a rescue plan that put you and your economic security first. I fought for a plan that protected taxpayers, homeowners, consumers and small business owners.

I went to Washington last week to make sure that the taxpayers of Ohio and across this great country were not left footing the bill for mistakes made on Wall Street and in Washington.

Some people have criticized my decision, but I will never, ever be a president who sits on the sidelines when this country faces a crisis. Some of you may have noticed, but it’s not my style to simply “phone it in.”

I am a Teddy Roosevelt Republican. I believe our leaders belong “in the Arena” when our country faces a challenge. I’ve never been afraid of stepping in to solve problems for the American people, and I’m not going to stop now.

Senator Obama took a very different approach to the crisis our country faced. At first he didn’t want to get involved. Then he was “monitoring the situation.” That’s not leadership, that’s watching from the sidelines.

And watching from the sidelines is exactly what got us into this mess. It was the lack of accountability and oversight that put your tax dollars on the line. But it shouldn’t be surprising that Senator Obama isn’t interested in protecting your tax dollars.

Senator Obama has proposed more than 860 billion dollars in new spending. He was asked in our debate Friday to name a single program he would consider cutting to help our country through this crisis, and he struggled to name a single program!

Senator Obama is a fan of all that spending because he’s always cheering for higher taxes or against tax relief. He’s voted that way 94 different times.

Two times, on March 14, 2008 and June 4, 2008, in the Democratic budget resolution, he voted to raise taxes on people making just 42,000 dollars per year. He even said at the time that this vote for higher taxes on the middle class was “getting our nation’s priorities back on track.” Then something amazing happened: on Friday night, he looked the American people in the eye and said it never happened. My friends, we need a President who will always tell the American people the truth.

Senator Obama’s record of higher taxes and more spending isn’t going to help “95 percent” of Americans, as he likes to say: it’s going to hurt 100 percent of us by growing government, slowing growth, and destroying jobs.

Obama is, indeed, just part of the problem…another in a long line of liberals who claim to fight for the little guy but whose whole being is absorbed in gathering personal wealth and power..to live a life of the privileged elite, insulated from the day to day concerns of the American people. It is good all around that McCain noted Theodore Roosevelt’s dictum about the arena – allow me to quote:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

That is the sort of man John McCain is, and the sort of woman Sarah Palin is, too. Obama? He’s stood aside from every tough call he’s ever been matched against – afraid to wreck his image with the risk of failure, even if it is to be a glorious failure fighting for a noble cause. Obama is the archetype of the “cold and timid” soul – the lukewarm man who is so justly condemned in theology, and who would be the bane of the United States – and the world – should he ever obtain the White House.

We need people like McCain and Palin who will dive in, feet first, polls and pundits be damned. McCain is catching a lot of flack for heading back to DC…but the country called, and the man with the servant’s heart answered the call. There probably wasn’t even much debate about it…America faced a crisis, and McCain knew that is place was at his post, doing what he was supposed to do. Obama fled his post – and was only dragooned back to his place by others, and even then he fell silent and with an entirely disgusting cowardice, refused to either support or condemn the late, defeated bail out package. The only thing we know for certain about Obama and the crisis is that he views it as a means for attacking McCain, as if that will help a single homeowner, or provide an iota of hope in America.

Covered in dust and sweat and daring greatly, McCain has already proven himself the better man, and it is my prayer that he’ll one day be the better President.