Oct
31
HALLOWEEN 2: SEASON OF THE -IST
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A couple weeks back, we noted that the McCain campaign of the week was to TERRIFY you of Obama. Well, it seems like that one has stuck. Finally, a consistent John McCain campaign message: “I have nothing to run on, so I’m just hear to tell you the boogie man is real, and he’s going to be your President.”
So, since the “terrorist” thing never really did anything but drive up John McCain’s negatives and widen the gap in the polls, did their campaign decide maybe they should reverse course, possibly go out as his grandkids would want to remember him? Did he decide to go, as most do, out on a positive note, thoughtful of his legacy in case he didn’t win? Nope. John McCain decided to double down on the SCARY.
The next -ist we were told to fear was the SOCIALIST. Then it was ramped up a notch. MARXIST. Why? Because some guy (plant, I’m suspicious) named Sam Joe, an (unlicensed) plumber pressed Obama on his tax cuts. Obama happened to use the unfortunate (we’ll admit) term “spread the wealth around” and McCain pounced on it. This is actually smart, I’ll admit. Or rather, it would have been smart THREE MONTHS AGO as part of a typical “tax and spend liberal” campaign. Though, even then, that wouldn’t work because we haven’t had a traditional fiscally conservative, small government Republican in office for 8 years. We’ve had a “tax-cut and spend more conservative” who has bloated the size of the government (have you seen the homeland security budget lately?), run up our national debt and pretty much wrecked the economy with its carelessly brazen deregulation. No, it’s not the line of attack so much, but the way they go about it. They don’t just smear Obama with “tax and spend,” no they go right to the labels: Socialist, Marxist. Coupled with the Ayers/radical/unknown thing, that implies much more than “your taxes will go up.” They are actually trying to terrify their base, and some boot-shaking independents into thinking Obama is going to lead the next great Communist Revolution. Sigh.
So, that should be it, right? The last desperate salvo in a most disastrous campaign, right? Right?
Nope. It seems we are back to the TERRORIST. Or at least Arab ACTIVIST. The McCain camp is suddenly jumping all over the LA Times for not releasing a video of Barack Obama at a going-away dinner for Rashid Khalidi, professor of Arab studies at Columbia University. According to an article the Times published in APRIL (yes, April - quick on your feet, huh, Johnny), Barack Obama attended a dinner in which some exercised their freedom of speech, expressing in poems, for example, their opinions about the Israel-Palestine situation. Also at that dinner, Barack gave a speech. The subject of his speech? Finding common ground. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Barack listens to various opinions and seeks to build bridges between people. Oh, SCARY STUFF.
At this point, tit-for-tat doesn’t even really matter, but it is worthwhile to ponder that if McCain thinks Khalidi is so scary, then why did an organization McCain chaired give Khalidi half-a-million dollars for his Center for Palestine Research and Studies?
The scariest bit about this season of the -ist, is how low John McCain has sunk. You know, when Obama clinched the nomination, I looked forward to an Obama-McCain election. I bought into the Maverick brand, and assumed this Republican was the closest to voting Republican I’d ever get. I knew he had his flaws (temper, temper), but he’s done the right thing a bunch of times. And what Rove and Bush did to him in South Carolina made me positive that McCain would run a clean, respectable campaign. Boy, was I wrong. So, thank you John McCain for scaring me. Your creepy laugh, and that scary Fargo lady will forever haunt my dreams. Good work.
Written By
Politricks
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