A suggestion for those looking for facts about the candidates and their
records on important issues -- see Project Vote Smart
http://www.vote-smart.org/
This site gives information on all candidates for public office ---
President, Governors, Congress and State Legislatures. You can find out
about the candidates backgrounds, their positions on issues such as
health care, their voting records, campaign finances and ratings by
special interest groups from throughout the political spectrum. Then you
can draw your own conclusions.
You can also search by keywords,the full text of candidates' speeches,
issue statements and position papers. The Vote- Smart organization says
they are completely non-partisan and are supported by the Ford, Carnegie
and Pew Foundations, 3,000 public libraries, CNN, NBC and hundreds of
other news organizations.
I searched for McCains public statements about Parkinson's and found
these 2:
From a speech in Concord, NH 01/11/2000
SPEAKERS:U.S. SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), REPUBLICAN PARTY PRESIDENTIAL
CANDIDATE
I'm honored to have had the support of the senior citizens in my state.
I'm honored to have-from time to time engaged in humor with my dear
friends. My dearest friend perhaps ever in the Congress of the United
States was my dear and beloved friend Morris Udall, who I watched
languish with PARKINSON's disease for six years.
I will never ever lose my commitment to see that we do whatever we can to
cure that terribly pernicious disease.
2) Talks To Sam Donaldson From His Home (Interview)
02/06/2000
Donaldson asked McCain about changing his position on fetal tissue
research.
DONALDSON: You promised the people of Arizona in a letter you would
oppose it in January of 1992. And then, in April, you began a series of
votes and you voted for it.
Sen. McCAIN: Yes, I did. And I changed my position on that issue, and
I'll tell you honestly-it probably shouldn't have been-but it was driven
by the-watching the spectacle of my dear friend, Morris Udall, dying of
PARKINSON's disease. His daughter, Ann Udall, and others came to me and
said, 'Look, we got a way that we may be able to find a cure for this
terrible disease.' I publicly announced that I was then supporting
fissal-fetal tissue research. I'm not supporting abortion to provide it.
I'm not-I'm adamantly opposed to the sale of it. But the fact is that
I've been convinced that it's promising in a way to find a cure for a
terrible, terrible disease. And I made no secret of my changing my
position. And I've changed my position on several other issues when I've
been convinced of it.
So I-I misspoke in San Francisco, but I still think that I-most
Americans-and by the way, it's like 93-to-4, Senator Thurmond voted for
fetal tissue research and so did many others. Connie...
DONALDSON: He's from South Carolina.
Sen. McCAIN: Connie Mack and-and others. And-and they did that because of
the information that we received that this would help in a dre-in trying
to find a cure to a terrible disease.
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I'm a registered Democrat, so I cannot vote for or against McCain in my
state's primary, but I greatly appreciate his past efforts on behalf of
PD research funding and sponsorship of the Udall Bill. I also hope to
hear further explanation of why he now opposes stem cell research.
Linda Herman
