It’s been clear for some months now that John McCain has decided that the issues matter far less than the character of his opponent, Barack Obama. With the choice of his running mate six weeks ago, Governor Sarah Palin, whom he has allowed to run wild on the character issue, and the more recent robo calls that at first concentrated on Obama’s connections to domestic terrorists (after saying, in the last debate, that he didn’t care about any “washed up terrorists” ) and today switched, with Rudy Giuliani’s help, to misrepresenting Obama’s position with regards to sentencing for crimes committed, McCain and Palin have put the final nail in the coffin of their self respect.
McCain and Palin are creating a culture war of vast proportions under the guise of “normal negative campaigning” and the American public, inured to negative advertising for far too long, now sees the abnormal and dangerous as business as usual.
When it is not.
John McCain and Sarah Palin are doing far more damage to this country than anything they can possible accuse Barack Obama of: socialism, Marxism, spreading the wealth, being a Muslim, not being a “real” American, not being a citizen, being involved in a friendship with a “domestic terrorist,” being willing to let murderers out of jail, being soft on drugs, ignoring his brother, being Godless, a liberal, an America-hater, a Communist, and gasp, not being a patriot. I am sure there are things I have left out.
What John McCain and Sarah Palin are doing is spreading nasty and irresponsible discontent in the guise of Truth. What McCain and Palin are doing is reprehensible. What McCain and Palin are doing is spreading hate.
Yet a certain segment of the American public is eating it up like the poor starving children in Oliver’s orphanage ate up the porridge and asked for “more, please!”
And we are to believe that McCain and Palin are like us.
Good, rock-solid, God-fearing, church-going, flag-waving Americans.
An American who happens to own seven homes, has a 100 million dollar fortune, and slid by on his daddy’s coattails. An American who recently had a make-over to the tune of $150,000.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - moon
Sarah Palin was now tarted up in red leather to do her red-baiting act; in a cut-rate imitation of Pat Robertson, she called for the military invasion of Venezuela.
The hateful little tart goes a long way toward demonstrating just is what is really disgusting about Gringos.
Fortunately, Hugo Chavez has a bullet-proof red shirt ready for her--and he doesn't have to pick up dollar bills without using his hands to get folks' attention.
2 - Baronius
He's been hate-filled, making fun of the candidate's marriage and his family...oh, wait; that was you.
3 - Lisa Solod Warren
Not making fun, Baronius, just pointing out how hypocritical the whole thing is..... How McCain and Palin act like they are so Of The People and then act like such slugs.
I was struck today when listening to the entire Joe the Plumber thing, how Obama took at least 3 or 4 minutes to seriously answer the question of a man who was clearly not even interested in the answer. How thoughtfula nd clear he was. How careful he was to explain his plan, and how he told "Joe" how he would benefit from capital gains cuts, and how he could hire more people and how more people could hire him and that was where the "spread the wealth" comment came in. And how McCain took that tiny piece out, made it a sound bite for 'socialism' and made the whole thing awful and evil and part of his hate mongering.
And then Joe turns out to never want to buy a business at all. To not even pay his taxes. To be a shill. A fake.
And John McCain uses this sham of a man to attack a man who was trying to be good and kind and decent.
And how now this man, Obama, is being villified as a socialist.
And how our country is completely divided by people who can't even listen to anything more than a 30 second sound bite.
It's truly deplorable. And McCain and his running mate are in the thick of it.
4 - Mooja
Division is rampant everywhere, including this article. No party wears a halo. Be a unifier.
5 - Baronius
Mooja, that's not true. McCain is a slug, and Obama is good and kind and decent. Apparently.
6 - Baronius
Sorry, Mooja. You're right. It's a valid point.
7 - Lisa Solod Warren
I didn't say the Dems wore a halo, but if you Mooja and you Bar can't even see what the McCain/Palin ticket has been doing, then I really despair... Nowhere has Obama done anything even close to what the Repubs have done.
8 - Baronius
Lisa, Obama lost me back when he lied about the effectiveness of the surge in Iraq. That involved human lives and the fate of a nation. Obama lost any claim to the high road. If you want to talk about which candidate has sunk lower, maybe you're right. I haven't paid attention to the ads lately. But I haven't noticed flat-out lies in McCain ads.
McCain's run a lousy campaign. He didn't do anything for about three months. Part of that was due to McCain sticking with federal funding, as Obama promised to do (and broke his promise). Now that he's finally started to campaign, he's trying to make up for lost time. But he should have been running an issues-oriented campaign for months, and he should have been hitting Obama about Ayers and Rezko, and spreading the wealth, and experience, and a hundred other weaknesses.
The narrative is out there that McCain's been negative, and everyone keeps repeating it. It's a shame. The lesson to be learned from the McCain campaign is the exact opposite. McCain's been so worried about losing the respect of the press that he failed to stand up for himself until it was (too?) late. Then, as is common for McCain, he followed up inactivity with unnecessary aggression.
9 - Heloise
Lisa you and I see eye-to-eye on this. I am not 100% Obama zombie not by a long shot. In fact I think he has not come completely clean on his relationship with Ayers, somebody is "putting on Ayers" and it ain't Heloise.
Who's putting us on about Ayers I wonder to myself. I think that the truth lies somewhere in the middle, not center, not right, not left. Obama is not only black enough but in fact may have been too black! Irony of ironies.
But it matters not who is hanging out in his beehive or who built it. McCain's rise to power was on the heels, high heels of some pretty powerful women and men.
Obama does have much in common with JFK. It turns out that he has more money, raised more money than Joe Sr. could ever or would ever spend on a campaign. Again more irony.
Obama's blackness makes me like him more actually. But would it have made white people love him more? I doubt it.
Finally, I ask "Can McCain lose his state, Arizona that is?" GOre did not carry TN and Edwards did not carry NC.
The significance of lucky 888 for Obama is simply, I predict, he will win 8 states he has no business even being competitive in.
Heloise
10 - pleasexcusetheinterruption
The significance of lucky 888 for Obama is simply, I predict, he will win 8 states he has no business even being competitive in.
Name them. So we can all have a good laugh.
11 - El Bicho
"Obama lost me back when he lied about the effectiveness of the surge in Iraq."
And of course, you know about the effectiveness how exactly? Because McCain, Bush, and Petraeus told you? Woodward reports that it's clandestine activity towards specific targets that has actually been effective, so you should wait until history tells the tale.
"I haven't noticed flat-out lies in McCain ads."
That's a reflection on you. Do some research. It's painless.
"McCain sticking with federal funding, as Obama promised to do"
that's not exactly what he promised. He pledged to discuss it, but even if your claim was true, why would anyone give away an advantage they had? That would be poor judgment for a leader.
12 - Baritone
McCain has run a shit filled campaign - especially when the shine began wearing off Miss Moose, and his numbers started to tank.
But McCain's real problem is that he hasn't anything to offer. Even his own campaign back in June couldn't find any real reason to elect John McCain. They couldn't come up with a "hook." McCain, when it comes down to it, is just a less agreeable version of GWB. Although our current president is inept and has a disturbing resemblence to Alfred E. Newman, he does possess a certain affability which would probably make him more fun at parties, an important consideration.
I doubt at this juncture that McCain has much input regarding what his campaign is actually doing. He has taken "Joe the Plumber" and run with it for over a week, not realizing that it is not resonating with voters. When Johnnie says he is "proud" of his sleazy adds, the robo calls, the tasteless mailers all making both scurrilous and spurious personal attacks against Obama, it seems that he either really has no idea of their content, or, worse, has simply and completely sold his soul in the vain hope of victory in November.
If there was a John McCain who had any sense of decency, honor or ethics, he has long since left the building. The John McCain we are left with is a bellicose, condescending, name calling, mean spirited, spiteful old man who is far too out of touch and reactionary to be our president.
As to the fucking surge. Jesus. From a political standpoint, the surge accomplished nothing. The ONLY reason that it worked militarily had much less to do with the influx of more troops than the buying off of the Sunni insurgents. The moment that money stops, the neighborhood killings, the road side bombs, the suicide bombings and more will quickly ratchet up to previous levels. A little payola is not going to heal hundreds of years of hatred and murder. Obama understood far better than McCain that any supposed success the so called surge had, was, at best, ephemeral in nature - not likely to last beyond the end of the payoffs.
The polls remain perplexing, with most showing Obama leading about everywhere important by a comfortable margin excepting the AP Poll which shows Obama clinging to only a 1 point lead nationally.
Should Obama lose, race will have been a factor, but not the only factor. Another major factor may well be the Republican efforts to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of votes in places like Ohio, Florida and other states.
John Kerry lost Ohio by something like 120000 votes. The Republicans managed to disenfranchise around 200000 mostly urban, mostly minority, mostly Democratic voters in 2004. They are attempting the same tactics again.
Dave and many others have been screaming bloody murder about ACORN's supposed voter fraud. First: ACORN has not been directly charged or convicted of anything. Secondly, the individuals who have been found guilty of misdeeds have been convicted of "voter registration" fraud. That is NOT the same thing as "voter fraud." There is no evidence that even 1 fradulent vote has been cast owing to ACORN's efforts. Mickey Mouse has not as yet turned up to vote.
Anytime apparent or suspected voter registrations have turned up, it has been ACORN that has separated them and brought them to the attention of the registrars upon delivery. By law, ACORN cannot remove any of those registrations. It is the sole purview of the respective registrars to filter through those registrations and determine which are, in their opinion, legal or fraudulent.
It is Republican efforts to disenfranchise voters that has has a far more deliterious effect on elections than anything supposedly perpetrated by ACORN. The outrage against ACORN is simply a distraction, a mis-direction and a strawman argument.
Fortunately, the Obama campaign filed suit against Ohio Republicans which managed to block their efforts to further disenfranchise voter registrations in that state. The weak-kneed Kerry organization did nothing. Their candidate lost. Obama will not be bullied.
B
13 - Dave Nalle
How thoughtfula nd clear he was. How careful he was to explain his plan,
Which as he explained it included taking away money from those who earned it and giving it to those who contribute nothing positive to the economy solely for purposes of forced equalization of wealth.
and how he told "Joe" how he would benefit from capital gains cuts,
Which are substantially lower than the Capital Gains cuts which McCain has proposed.
and how he could hire more people and how more people could hire him
Except that with the increase Obama plans for corporate taxes - already the highest in the world, there will be no one to hire him and so many large plumbing contractors will go out of business that he will be forced out of business by desperate fly-by-night competitors.
and that was where the "spread the wealth" comment came in. And how McCain took that tiny piece out, made it a sound bite for 'socialism' and made the whole thing awful and evil and part of his hate mongering.
The statement speaks for itself, Lisa. You're faulting McCain for telling the truth.
And then Joe turns out to never want to buy a business at all. To not even pay his taxes. To be a shill. A fake.
There's no evidence that he's a shill or a fake. But they sure did a nice witch hunt to destroy the man.
And John McCain uses this sham of a man to attack a man who was trying to be good and kind and decent.
And a socialist, which negates all the rest.
And how now this man, Obama, is being villified as a socialist.
As he should be.
It's truly deplorable. And McCain and his running mate are in the thick of it.
What is deplorable is how the MSM and the left have attempted to destroy Joe the Plumber and the fact that they think that Obama's marxist past can just be wished away.
It is his RECORD. It is his basic philosophy of government. It is not a smear, it is the most legitimate possible basis for campaigning against him.
Dave
14 - Dave Nalle
There is no evidence that even 1 fradulent vote has been cast owing to ACORN's efforts. Mickey Mouse has not as yet turned up to vote.
Nice job repeating the talking point there.
I'll say it yet again. You inflate the voting rolls. Then your poll workers can stuff the ballot boxes and no one is the wiser. If they can't pull it off safely, you then claim that all those extra bogus voters who didn't show up were disenfranchised or kept from the polls.
Dave
15 - Matthew T. Sussman
"And we are to believe that McCain and Palin are like us."
Actually I'm a lot like McCain and Palin in that I smear my enemies with the truth of their sordid pasts. Funny how every person who opposes me also drops their pants at elementary school playgrounds and sets puppies on fire in their spare time. It can't be coincidence!
16 - Dr Dreadful
You inflate the voting rolls. Then your poll workers can stuff the ballot boxes and no one is the wiser.
Including you, Dave. You have no idea if this is being done or not.
Like I keep saying... you Americans just should not be allowed to run your own elections!
17 - Dave Nalle
Dr. D. Check the links I posted on Glenn C's recent post. I know it's being done. I just don't know how much of it is going on without being discovered and I have no idea how bad it's going to be this year - but I'm guessing worse than ever.
Dave
18 - Blues
I thought some of you might appreciate these articles
What is happening to GOP electoral tactics?.
Partisan vision of America is laughed out of town.
19 - Cannonshop
Nice links, Blues. Scripted events in the second one, but nice to see they'll at least pay lip-service.
20 - troll
politics in America as represented by this election is so clearly corrupt at all levels that it is a wonder that any government that emerges is viewed as legitimate by we the people and by other world governments
21 - Heloise
Note to Palin--Using "bode" in a sentence:
The polling of the last two weeks showing Obama up by nearly 12 points does not BODE WELL for McCain on November 4th.
Sarah that's how you use "bode" in a sentence. Not that garbled crap you were saying in your Brian Williams interview. Telling Obama that if he rejected Ayers in public it would bode well for him. Huh? I am paraphrasing.
She needs to worry about the mote in her boat.
Heloise
22 - Lisa Solod Warren
#12 Brillian Baritone, Thanks...
And Dave, when Alan Greenspan goes national and says that his philosophy, ie., the philosophy of the entire US, the free market economy, DOES NOT WORK, withouy check and balances, without regululations, then perhaps, it is time to take a look at capitalism in general. I believe in it. But not run wild. Let's see if we can find a way to have a free market that DOES model compassion, with rules (Ruvy, rules are necessary in a civilized society) that work for all.
This is not scary socialism. It is merely a way of taking care of everyone, not just the rich.
And joe the plumber was a fake. An unlicensed plumber who doesn't pay his taxes now, illegally, and has no intention of even voting at all most likely, who hate social security even though it is supporting his parents, and who clearly was completely disinterested in what Obama was saying.
A man whom the McCain campaign has used, yes, used, for their own gain, just to make LIV feel better about themselves.
Which is a shanda. (Yiddish for worse than a terrible shame)
BTW have you looked at the market this morning?
23 - Clavos
is viewed as legitimate by we the people
Not all of us do, troll. I consider the elected clowns (and the bureaucrats, too for that matter) to be bastards, who, by definition, are illegitimate.
If one considers that American governments are supposed to be "Of the people, by the people, and for the people," we haven't had a legitimate government in my entire lifetime.
24 - Clavos
She needs to worry about the mote in her boat.
??????????????
25 - Baritone
Dave, you know nothing of the sort. I will restate: NOT ONE FRAUDULENT VOTE HAS BEEN CAST VIA THE EFFORTS OF ACORN. They are NOT guilty of voter fraud, nor is the organization guilty of voter registration fraud.
YOU are the one who is repeating unsubstantiated crap in support of the systematic disenfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of Democratic voters. Without the removal of Democratic voters in Ohio and elsewhere in both 2000 and 2004, Bush would not have ever sat his gimpy little butt down in the Oval Office.
There is evidence of further Republican voter fraud this time around. Republicans cannot win without cheating. That is the ONLY way McCain will prevail in November.
BTW - Obama is NOT a socialist. Does he lean in that direction? Yes. It is evident that pure bred conservative capitalists haven't the capacity or inclination to regulate themselves. Further government oversite is, for the near future at least, the ONLY way in which this economy will have even a ghost of a chance to right itself. Free market capitalists simply cannot be trusted. Your greed runneth over.
B