The Republican Party is offering America a Third Bush Term. As John McCain nearly swept Super Tuesday, the "vision" the Republican Party is offering America came into focus. John McCain is offering four more years of failed Bush policies. It is as simple as that.

I think this was best illustrated when we remember what Bush and McCain were doing while America watched in horror the destruction of New Orleans when the levees broke after Katrina:

People were stranded and DYING as McCain and Bush parited it up for McCain's birthday. To me this is the ultimate symbol of what both Bush and McCain are all about: eating their cake while Americans are abandoned, left to die, forgotten by the Republican Party.

John McCain may be something of a Faustian figure. Once the true independent, anti-Bush voice within the Republican Party, McCain decided to make a bargain with Bush, selling his soul to get the nomination. Now he is no longer that voice of independence, no longer a voice of reason. He is the voice through which Bush can continue to push policies that have already failed years ago.

McCain has vowed to continue the Iraq quagmire. In fact he wants it to go on forever, or at least for 1000 years, to use his own words. To an America already tired of this useless war, this is absurd. Why must we remain mired in the Iraq quagmire for decades to come when the real enemy, Osama bin Laden, has been let off the hook by Bush...and apparently now McCain. The voice of America has been loud and clear: Mr. Bush, END THIS WAR! McCain has not heard the voice of America. He has only heard Bush's voice. John McCain has vowed to continue the Iraq war and was the architect of the so-called surge that has failed to bring the quagmire to an end.

America wants a moderate policy on abortion, the one that Hillary Clinton has expressed as "safe, legal and rare." Overwhelmingly THAT is the policy Americans want. Bush has ignored that voice as he takes an extremist stance that would force the victim of rape or incest to carry the child of the criminal who raped her...and McCain has voiced the same extremist view when he vowed to appoint judges who would overturn Roe v. Wade. John McCain has vowed to force women to carry the child of their rapist.

John McCain offers no better economic policy than Bush's failed policy of screwing working class Americans while giving the very wealthy and the big oil companies massive tax breaks. This is the economic policy that has given us TWO recessions with hardly any recovery in between. John McCain has vowed to continue these failed economic policies. I ask you, are you better off than you were 8 years ago? Me neither. America cannot afford 4 more years of failed Bush economics under McCain.

Then let's look at his voting record:

John McCain is anti-Veteran: ironically, McCain is not well liked by veterans groups, receiving a D rating from the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a zero rating from The Retired Enlisted Association and in 2005 and 2006 he received 25% or below from the Disabled American Veterans.

John McCain is an anti-choice extremist: John McCain has been one of the most anti-choice Senators, receiving zero ratings from Planned Parenthood and NARAL.

John McCain is anti-farmer: McCain received 25% or lower from the National Farmers Union.

John McCain is weak on civil liberties: McCain rates from 0 to 33% from the American Civil Liberties Union.

John McCain is anti-civil rights: John McCain consistently receives less than 25% from the NAACP and less than 20% from the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

John McCain is consistently anti-labor: He receives abyssmal to at best mediocre ratings from just about every union I could find.

About the only areas where McCain doesn't seem to be substantially in lock step with the corrupt and failed policies of the Bush administration are gun issues and the environment. He is merely mediocre on environmental issues rather than abyssmal, and somehow McCain manages to get low ratings from BOTH pro-gun groups like the NRA and from gun control groups like the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. I guess his stand on guns satisfies no one.

John McCain offers America nothing but four more years of failed Bush policies. And yet he is the best the Republicans have to offer? It is no wonder that voter turnout for the Republican primaries has been at a record low while turnout for the Democratic primaries has been at a record high. Americans do NOT want more Bush policies, but that is all the Republicans have to offer.