So I have heard people speak of John McCain as "John McSame" and heard them claim he will essentially put forth a third Bush term. Now, while I don't disagree with these things, there are shocking truths that reveal that the name "McCain" is imposing by itself, and that John McCain may be more dangerous than most people think.
In Gaelic, the prefix "Mc" means "son of". From Wikipedia:
Mac: for most purposes, taken to mean "son of", as in Mac Néill (son of Neil). However, literally, the "of" part does not come from the "Mac" prefix but from the patronymic that follows it. E.g., in the case of MacNéill, Mac merely means "son", "Néill" (meaning "of Neil") is the genitive form of Niall ("Neil"). In some cases if the second word begins with a vowel Mac then becomes Mag, as in Mag Eocháin.
Now, while it doesn't mention it, keep in mind that the prefix Mc is an abbreviation of Mac.
Some of you may have realized it, McCain, therefore, translates to "Son of Cain". And who else is related to Cain?
So when the a recent energy bill came before the senate which called for a rollback of tax breaks for oil companies, both Cornyn and Hutchinson (unsurprisingly) voted against the bill:
President Bush had threatened to veto any energy bill that raised taxes. The House passed a bill with higher taxes on oil companies last week.
Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison both voted against the motion to move the bill forward. Ms. Hutchison had negotiated to strip out the higher taxes on oil and gas producers.
There you have it- Cornyn and Hutchinson siding with both the White House and their campaign contributors.
Apparently, despite the fact that there was across the aisle support for the bill ("There is no reason why we shouldn't pass the energy bill today" Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY) and the other provisions that would "boost the nation's use of renewable energy, set new efficiency standards for appliances and - most dramatically - set aggressive new fuel mileage requirements for cars, trucks and sport utility vehicles", some Senate Republicans (not pointing any fingers) looked past that because of money received from certain exploitive corporations.
Because of these Republicans, the tax hike on big oil is going to be removed from the bill and it will be reintroduced. At least we still have some energy reforms to look forward to. (source)
So I got a press release by email from the Noriega campaign and evidently there has been a recent poll showing that John Cornyn isn't doing very well in public opinion.
AUSTIN - A new poll conducted for the campaign of Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Rick Noriega indicates incumbent Republican John Cornyn's re-election is neither guaranteed nor can it be helped by President Bush.
Cornyn's campaign declined to respond to the poll.
But only 31 percent of those surveyed said they definitely would vote for Cornyn's re-election. More than half, 53 percent, said they would consider someone else for the Senate. The margin of error for the poll, conducted Nov. 13-18, was 4.4 percentage points.
Cornyn, whose first-term tenure has been marked by his open support for the Bush administration, also may be hampered by his ties to the president.
The Lake poll found 53 percent of Texans disapproved of Bush's performance in office, with 44 percent having a favorable view. That is consistent with a Survey USA poll conducted in June that found Bush was rated poorly by 57 percent of the Texans surveyed.
Pollster Celinda Lake, in a memo written for Noriega's campaign, also noted that a Texas Lyceum poll released in June showed 62 percent of Texans believe the nation is on the wrong track.
Noriega consultant James Aldrete said the campaign commissioned the poll to show donors that Cornyn is vulnerable.
"Clearly, part of it is to show donors the volatility of the race," Aldrete said. "Right now, people might not be firmly with Rick, but they are firmly in the belief that we're on the wrong track."
When Noriega filed for Senate last week, he admitted that he did not have large statewide name identification.
Aldrete said that Cornyn should be bothered by the fact that 38 percent of the voters surveyed have either never heard of Cornyn or don't know enough about him to have an opinion of him.
Now, I guess it could be said that the poll is biased because it was commissioned by Noriega. In the above mentioned Statesman article states:
To Noriega's credit, it looks like the poll didn't oversample Democrats...41% of the polled voters at least leaned Republican, 33% titled Democrat, and 24% characterized themselves as independents.
This poll is definitely not conclusive and evidently has Noriega losing in a head-to-head match up against Cornyn, but it indicates a disapproval of Cornyn and the Republicans among texas voters. This is definitely something Rick's campaign can (and, most likely, will) build upon.
All we need now are some more independent polls backing this up...
