LAT: McCain can't be sure veterans will fall in behind him/ LVS: McCain’s attacks on rival fall flat

McCain can't be sure veterans will fall in behind him
At a major Las Vegas convention, some veterans express concern about his positions on veterans' benefits.

By Bob Drogin, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 10, 2008

LAS VEGAS -- No one was surprised when both presidential candidates appealed for votes Saturday at the annual convention of the nation's largest organization of disabled military veterans.

But Fred Bristol, who has attended the Disabled American Veterans convention for the last 55 years, marveled at his fellow veterans' reaction to Sens. Barack Obama, who sent a video, and John McCain, who addressed the group in person.

"I think there's an unusual split in the group we haven't seen in the past," said Bristol, 81, of Sarasota, Fla. "I'm hearing that from a lot of friends."

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The 1.4-million-member group said that in 2006, he (McCain) voted for only one of the five spending bills the group considered most important -- 20%.
"It's a pretty low score," said David Autry, spokesman for the congressionally chartered nonprofit group. The group rated Obama (D-Ill.) at 80%.

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McCain also discussed his plan to issue sick or disabled vets a special access card so they could use private healthcare providers outside the VA system. Some veterans and the Obama campaign oppose the plan.
"Let me make very clear: This card is not intended to either replace the VA or privatize veterans' healthcare, as some have wrongly charged," he said.

The director of Illinois' Veterans Affairs Department, L. Tammy Duckworth, countered on behalf of the Obama campaign that McCain's plan would reduce veterans' benefits. An Army helicopter pilot who lost both legs in Iraq, she is the national group's Outstanding Disabled Veteran of the Year for 2008.McCain's proposal, she said, would push disabled vets "out into the local economy in hope that someone can take care of their combat wounds. It's essentially privatization, something I cannot support."
Obama pledged in his remarks, recorded before he left for a week's vacation in Hawaii, that he would fully fund VA healthcare, and add more veterans centers, particularly in rural areas. "We'll have a simple principle for veterans sleeping on our streets: zero tolerance," he said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-veterans10-2008aug10,0,6583664.story

McCain’s attacks on rival fall flat with vets group
Republican offers plan to let some get care outside VA

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The veterans, at Bally’s for their national convention, gave him a tepid reception, especially considering McCain’s life story. The Arizona senator was a Navy pilot shot down over Vietnam, tortured and held as a prisoner of war for 5 1/2 years.
Just one of 14 veterans interviewed by the Sun after his speech said he is a certain McCain voter, and the nonpartisan group’s legislative director expressed concerns about McCain’s proposed “Veterans’ Care Access Card.”

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To help veterans who live far from VA hospitals or need specialized care the VA can’t provide, McCain proposed giving low-income veterans and those who incurred injury during their service a card they could use at private hospitals. The proposal is not an attempt to privatize the VA, as critics have alleged, but rather, an effort to improve care and access to it, he said.
Joe Violanti, legislative director of the Disabled American Veterans, a nonpartisan organization, said the proposal would increase costs because private hospitals are more expensive. The increased cost could lead to further rationing of care, he said.

Other veterans, such as James Jewett and Jay Johnson of Texas, expressed misgivings about McCain using the occasion to attack his opponent so fiercely.
Duke Hendershot, a double amputee retired Marine who served in Vietnam, supported McCain’s run for president in 2000 but is undecided this year.
“John just isn’t the same as he used to be. He’s not his own man,” said Hendershot, who lives in San Antonio, Texas. “A lot of that has to do with how he’s wanted this job so bad for so long that he’s tied himself to President Bush.”
He said McCain’s embrace of Bush, whom Hendershot called a “draft-dodging coward,” is even more perplexing because of the rivalry between the two candidates during the 2000 campaign.
Hendershot also criticized McCain for taking swipes at Obama in his speech. “He should have been talking about veterans issues, not his opponent,” he said.

By contrast, he praised Obama for keeping his remarks tightly focused on veterans. The Democrat gave taped remarks via video.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/aug/10/mccains-attacks-rival-fall-flat-vets-group/