Senator John McCain

Senator Barack Obama

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Quote from the Constitution: “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States…” U.S. Const. Art. I, sec. 8

Constitutional Issue: Tax and Spend Power; General Welfare Clause is Limited

Interpretation from Sen. McCain:: “Our government was conceived to protect our liberty in all its expressions, political, religious, and economic, and in many respects government provides services that are indispensable to us. But it was not intended to command our economy, or redirect its benefits to this or that interest group or subordinate its growth to the growth of government. Government's constitutional obligation to promote the general welfare did not empower it to assume the responsibilities of individuals but to protect our right to exercise those responsibilities without fear or favor, and to profit from the results. Government should never ask from American families more than is necessary to do the things they cannot do for themselves. It should spend money as wisely as they would, and exercise its responsibilities as competently as they exercise theirs.”

April 16, 2007, Address to The Economic Club Of Memphis.

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Quote from the Constitution:: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” U.S. Const., Preamble

Constitutional Issue:: Equal Opportunity for all Americans

Interpretation from Senator Obama:: This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign - to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together - unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction - towards a better future for our children and our grandchildren.

March 18, 2008, Remarks of Senator Obama, ‘A More Perfect Union.’

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Quote from the Founders: “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness…” Declaration of Independence

Constitutional Issue:: President as Commander in Chief, the Imperative of Establishing Democracy in Iraq

Interpretation from Sen. McCain: “When our nation was founded over two hundred years ago, we were the world's only democratic republic. Today, there are more than 100 electoral democracies spread all across the globe. We must reaffirm our faith in the principles that our founders declared to be universal, that all people are created equal and possess inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We fought a Revolution, a Civil War, two world wars, and a cold war to vindicate these principles and ensure that freedom could be enjoyed, as Abraham Lincoln promised, ‘by all people of all colors everywhere.' We were right to struggle for democracy then, and we are right to do so now.”

May, 1 2007, Senator McCain Addresses The Hoover Institution on U.S. Foreign Policy.

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Quote from the Constitution:: “No State shall… deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” U.S. Const., Amend. 14

Constitutional Issue:: Equal Protection, Stopping Discrimination on the Basis of Color or Gender in Criminal Justice System

Interpretation from Senator Obama:: “And it reminds us that we still got a lot of work to do, and that the basic enforcement of anti-discrimination laws, the injustice that still exists within our criminal justice system, the disparity in terms of how people are treated in this country continues. It has gotten better. And we should never deny that it's gotten better. But we shouldn't forget that better is not good enough. That until we have absolute equality in this country in terms of people being treated on the basis of their color or their gender, that that is something that we've got to continue to work on and the Joshua generation has a significant task in making that happen.”

March 4, 2007, Selma Voting Rights March Commemoration.

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Quote from the Constitution:: “…nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” U.S. Const. Amend. 14

Constitutional Issue:: Abortion, Pro-Life

Interpretation from Sen. McCain:: Wisdom suggests that we should be willing to give an unborn child the same chance that our parents gave us, but it takes courage in this political climate to insist on the protection of unborn children who can't vote, have no voice, and can't reward you with support and donations.

October, 19 2007, Address to the Values Voter Summit.

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Quote from the Constitution:: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” U.S. Const., Amend. 1

Constitutional Issue:: Separation of Church and State, Public Officials should Speak in Universal Terms in the Public Square

Interpretation from Senator Obama:: “So let's rededicate ourselves to a new kind of politics - a politics of conscience. Let's come together - Protestant and Catholic, Muslim and Hindu and Jew, believer and non-believer alike. We're not going to agree on everything, but we can disagree without being disagreeable. We can affirm our faith without endangering the separation of church and state, as long as we understand that when we're in the public square, we have to speak in universal terms that everyone can understand. And if we can do that - if we can embrace a common destiny - then I believe we'll not just help bring about a more hopeful day in America, we'll not just be caring for our own souls, we'll be doing God's work here on Earth.”

June 23, 2007, A Politics of Conscience.

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Quote from the Constitution:: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” U.S. Const., Amend. 2

Constitutional Issue:: Second Amendment, Individual Right to Bear Arms

Interpretation from Sen. McCain:: “When I first ran for Congress in 1982, I was proud to have the support of gun owners and the National Rifle Association. For more than two decades, I've opposed the efforts of the anti-gun crowd to ban guns, ban ammunition, ban magazines, and paint gun owners as some kind of fringe group, dangerous in ‘modern’ America. Some even call you ‘extremists.’ My friends, gun owners are not extremists, you are the core of modern America. The Second Amendment is unique in the world and at the core of our constitutional freedoms. It guarantees an INDIVIDUAL right to keep and bear arms. To argue anything else is to reject the clear meaning of our founding fathers.”

September 21, 2007, John McCain Addresses the National Rifle Association.

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Quote from a Founder:: “Treat them with humanity, and Let them have no reason to Complain of our Copying the brutal example of the British army in their Treatment of our unfortunate brethren.” George Washington on treating British POWs

Constitutional Issue:: Suspending the Writ of Habeas Corpus, Closing Guantanamo Bay

Interpretation from Senator Obama:: “If you believe, we can end this war, close Guantanamo, restore our standing, renew our diplomacy, and once again respect the Constitution of the United States of America.”

December 27, 2007, Speech Remarks of Senator Barack Obama: Our Moment is Now.

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Quote from a Founder:: “[T]he willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by our nation.” George Washington

Constitutional Issue:: President as Commander-in-Chief, Care for Troops and Veterans of War

Interpretation from Sen. McCain:: “George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, instructed us, care for Americans who fought to defend us should rank among the highest of national priorities. Those who have borne the burden of war for our sake must be treated fairly and expeditiously as they seek compensation for disability or illness. We owe them compassion, knowledge and hands-on care in their transition to civilian life. We owe them training, rehabilitation and education. We owe their families, parents and caregivers our concern and support. They should never be deprived of quality medical care and mental health care coverage for illness or injury incurred as a result of their service to our country.”

April 15, 2008, Remarks by John McCain To The Members of The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW).

Quote 5

Quote from the Constitution:: “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and General Welfare of the United States” U.S. Const. Art. I, sec. 8

Constitutional Issue:: General Welfare Clause, Tax Cuts for Middle Class Americans

Interpretation from Senator Obama:: “I think it's time to restore fairness and responsibility to our tax code. We need to reward work - not just wealth. We need to stop giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas, and put a tax cut in the pockets of middle class Americans. That's why I've proposed a "Making Work Pay" tax credit of up to $500 for workers, and $1,000 for working families. This will cut taxes for 150 million Americans. It will help you deal with rising costs, and give our economy a boost by easing the burden on Main Street.”

May 9, 2008, Remarks of Senator Barack Obama: Economic Discussion.

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Quote from the Constitution:: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” U.S. Const. Amend. 1

Constitutional Issue:: Establishment of Religion and Free Exercise of Religion, Religion Should Have a Role in Public Debate

Interpretation from Sen. McCain:: “If America stands for anything, it stands for the freedom to follow our own hearts, to determine our own relationship with God. Our constitution did not establish a national religion but neither did it banish any worship. Religious freedom does not require Americans to hide their faith from public view or that communities must refrain from publicly acknowledging the importance to them of faith. We are only abjured from using the law to make those who do not wish to adhere to the creed that we embrace. Judges should not legislate from the bench and actually restrict religious freedom by banning its expression in the public square.”

October 19, 2007, Address to Values Voter Summit.

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Quote from a Founder:: “...talent and virtue, needed in a free society, should be educated regardless of wealth, birth or other accidental condition.” Thomas Jefferson

Constitutional Issue:: Equal Opportunity, Education

Interpretation from Senator Obama:: “We're the party of Jefferson who first believed that every child in America should be educated regardless of wealth and birth and circumstance.”

May 11, 2006, Speech Remarks by Senator Barack Obama at Emily’s List Annual Luncheon.

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Quote from the Constitution:: “The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority…” U.S. Const. Art. III, sec. 2

Constitutional Issue:: Judicial Nominees, Anti-Judicial Activism

Interpretation from Sen. McCain:: “Why has the appointment of judges become such a flashpoint of controversy in the past twenty years or so? When you understand our system in the way I've just described, when you see the wisdom in it and the humility it requires of public servants, it's easy enough to understand why we are so concerned that the judges we appoint share that understanding of the nature and limits of power.

“Some basic attributes of judges follow from this understanding. They should be people who respect the limited scope afforded Federal judges under the Constitution. They should be people who understand that the Founders' concern about the expansive tendency of power extended to judicial power as well as to executive or legislative power. They should be people who are humbled by their role in our system, not emboldened by it. Our freedom is curtailed no less by an act of arbitrary judicial power as it is by an act of an arbitrary executive, or legislative, or state power. For that reason, a judge's decisions must rest on more than his subjective conviction that he is right, or his eagerness to address a perceived social ill.”

November 16, 2006, Speech to The Federalist Society.

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Quote from a Founder:: “All violent policy, contrary to the natural and experienced course of human affairs, defeats itself…” Federalist 25

Constitutional Issue:: Commander in Chief, Ending the War in Iraq

Interpretation from Senator Obama:: “So when I am Commander-in-Chief, I will set a new goal on Day One: I will end this war. Not because politics compels it. Not because our troops cannot bear the burden- as heavy as it is. But because it is the right thing to do for our national security, and it will ultimately make us safer.”

March 19, 2008, Remarks by Senator Barack Obama: The World Beyond Iraq.

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Quote from the Constitution:: “…nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” U.S. Const. Amend. 14

Constitutional Issue:: Same-Sex Marriage, Pro-Traditional Marriage

Interpretation from Sen. McCain:: “Wisdom is a virtue. Sometimes all wisdom asks of us is that we recognize common sense. Don't federalize issues not addressed in the constitution. Don't constitutionalize issues where federalism has a chance to work. But sometimes, wisdom, as do all other virtues, requires courage. Wisdom suggests we should be reluctant to change a definition of marriage that has existed for thousands of years, but it takes courage in this day and age to insist that a mother and a father have unique and complementary roles in the raising of children, and that marriage reinforces public support for those roles.”

October 19, 2007, Address to the Values Voter Summit.

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Quote from a Founder:: “[T]he willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by our nation.” George Washington

Constitutional Issue:: President as Commander in Chief, Care of Soldiers and Veterans

Interpretation from Senator Obama:: “Washington understood then what every veteran here knows now - that when we make the decision to send our troops to war, we also make the decision to care for them, to speak for them, and to think of them - always - when they come.”

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Quote from the Constitution:: “Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it becomes a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his objection to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at larger on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it…” U.S. Const. Art. I, sec. 7

Constitutional Issue:: Presidential Veto Clause, Opposing Congressional Earmarks

Interpretation from Sen. McCain:: “If that authority is entrusted to me, I will use the veto as needed, and as the Founders intended. I will veto every bill with earmarks, until the Congress stops sending bills with earmarks. I will seek a constitutionally valid line-item veto to end the practice once and for all. I will lead across-the-board reforms in the federal tax code, removing myriad corporate tax loopholes that are costly, unfair, and inconsistent with a free-market economy.”

April 15, 2008, Remarks by John McCain on the Economy.

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Quote from the Constitution:: “He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur…” U.S. Const., Art. II, sec. 2

Constitutional Issue:: Treaty Clause, Strengthening Nuclear Non-Proliferation

Interpretation from Senator Obama:: “And as President, I will secure all loose nuclear materials around the world in my first term, seek deep cuts in global nuclear arsenals, strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and once more seek a world without nuclear weapons.”

March 19, 2008, Remarks by Senator Barack Obama: The World Beyond Iraq.

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Quote from a Founder:: “It is sufficiently obvious, that persons and property are the two great subjects on which Governments are to act; and that the rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted.” James Madison

Constitutional Issue:: Fifth Amendment Takings Clause, Public Use Justifying Takings does not Extend to Increasing Tax Revenue

Interpretation from Sen. McCain:: “The need to protect private property rights, once so obvious to Madison and Adams is now becoming lost in a tangle of intrusive government takings. Nowhere has this been truer than in the disastrous decision issued in 2005 by the U.S. Supreme Court in Kelo v. City of New London…”

August 6, 2007, Address to The Cedar Rapids Rotary Club.

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Quote from a Founder:: “Let him beware of an obstinate adherence to party-Let him reflect that the object upon which he is to decide is not a particular interest of the community, but the very existence of the nation-And let him remember that a majority of America has already given its sanction to the plan, which he is to approve or reject.” Federalist 85

Constitutional Issue:: Faithful Execution of the Laws, Responsibility to the American People

Interpretation from Senator Obama:: “But we must decide - in the debate that leads to Denver - just what kind of Party we want to be, and what lessons we've learned from the bitter partisanship of the last two decades. We can be a Party that tries to beat the other side by practicing the same do-anything, say-anything, divisive politics that has stood in the way of progress; or we can be a Party that puts an end to it. I am running for President because I believe that we need fundamental change in America. Not just a change of Party in the White House, but change in Washington that the American people can believe in - unity instead of division; hope instead of fear; a politics that leaves behind the fights of the past so that we can finally take hold of our future.”

January 30, 2008, Remarks of Senator Barack Obama: The Past Versus the Future.