The simple FACTS of this case are this:
First, both Bush and Cheney were originally scheduled to speak at the convention. Their speeches were set in stone and were going to take place in the original convention agenda.
Secondly, neither man canceled their appearance due to anything that McCain or any of his staffers said or did. Bush was FORCED to cancel his speech due to hurricane Gustav. If any politicians have played dirty in this matter, it has been the Democrats, for the way that they have vilified and demonized Bush all of these years since Katrina, virtually blaming him personally for the problems that took place.
Politically, Bush had no other option open to him, but to cancel his appearance. Some weathermen had predicted that Gustav was going to pick up energy after going through Cuba, and get back up to a level 4 Hurricane. Some even predicted that it would be at level 5 strength by the time it hit the coast. There were even some predictions that Gustav could have been worse than Katrina. Of course, being it is the weather, no one could really know for sure how bad it would be.
Now, thankfully, just the opposite happened, and Gustav weakened as it approached the coast, instead of getting stronger. But Bush was looking at the possibility of a crisis as great as Katrina was when he changed his plans, and decided to devote all of his efforts to both managing the crisis, and then getting to the region ASAP, unlike the delay he did in visiting the area after Katrina.
Now would it have been appropriate for Cheney to address the convention, when Bush wasn't going to? I don't think so. Both men are lame ducks anyway, and are pretty much retiring from politics in January. Besides, the crisis in Georgia needed attention, and diplomatic missions of that nature are usually the primary job of the vice president. And as we now know, Cheney spent yesterday in Georgia, and spent most of Wednesday traveling there. And it would have taken him quite some time to prepare for the mission too. So that is the REAL reason that Cheney did not appear, he was too busy dealing with the crisis in Georgia.
So BOTH Bush and Cheney were tied up with crucial duties this week that needed to be taken care of. Those are the FACTS of what happened this week. All of this garbage about how instead it was McCain or his staff that somehow influenced whether they spoke at the convention is pure rumor and speculation. Playboy Penguin has provided no evidence that any individual in the McCain campaign has really said any such thing as has been alleged.
As I said before, Garbage in, and Garbage out. Yet, Playboy Penguin expected us all to accept this premise, in order to discuss this. Well, I certainly don't accept it as being a fact. Not by any means.
The Democrats and their sympathizers are clearly going to do everything they can to demonize McCain in the coming 2 months. This sort of junk is just the start of what will be a very nasty personal attack campaign by Obama's surrogates on McCain.
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