After Hillary... McCain; disabled vets remain skeptical

John McCain also made an appearance in Las Vegas this weekend. He spoke to a disabled veterans group and received a lukewarm response according to the Las Vegas Sun:

Just one of 14 veterans interviewed by the Sun after his speech said he is a certain McCain voter....

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.

And this from the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois former congressional candidate who lost both legs in Iraq, also criticized McCain for not supporting the "New G.I. Bill," an expansion of veterans' education benefits that became law earlier this year. Obama supported the legislation, while McCain, who had opposed it, was not present for the vote in the Senate.

"When the time came to cast a vote on the most important piece of legislation to improve benefits for veterans, Senator Obama was there for us," Duckworth said. "Senator McCain did not show up."

Duckworth, now director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs, was honored as the Disabled Veteran of the Year at the convention....

McCain has gotten low marks from the disabled veterans group in the past, earning the lowest grade in the Senate in the group's 2006 rankings, a 20 percent score.

The grade was largely because of McCain's votes against bills that included VA funding because of his opposition to wasteful spending. Obama got an 80 percent score.