McCain Chooses Smears Over the Issues

[Herb Schaffler]

The McCain campaign is all set to roll out its message for the last 30 days of the campaign: "We may not be good for your bank account, your mortgage, your health care, or your job security -- but none of that will matter if you are dead. John McCain: If You Want to Live."
It's coming a little earlier than expected, but with an imploding economy and no solutions from the McCain camp other than yet another round of tax cuts, Team McCain is hitting the GOP's default key: Be Very Afraid!
The title of[LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. says it all: "Dangerous." The ad brands Obama as "dishonorable," "dangerous," and "too risky for America." That's right, folks, it time to appeal to the voters' Lizard Brains.
For the moment, McCain is allowing his high-sticking hockey mom to lead the fear-mongering parade, accusing Obama of "palling around with terrorists" and not seeing America "like you and I see America." For bad measure, Palin also teamed up with her mentor Bill "[LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. " Kristol to re-pry the manhole cover off the Jeremiah Wright sewer.
But Palin's Alaska crude will soon be mixed with McCain's own Maverick mud. At a Colorado town hall last Thursday, McCain [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. , "When are you going to take the gloves off?" His grinning reply: "How about Tuesday night?" So how long into Debate II do you think it will be before McCain brings up Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, or Tony Rezko?
Clearly, McCain has concluded that the only way he can get enough votes is to pay for them with his once-valued dignity and honor. And it appears he's not planning to leave any of that precious personal capital in the bank by the time election day rolls around.
So here it comes. One last desperate, pathetic, sordid attempt to distract the country from anything resembling a real debate about a real issue. Don't have health care? Rezko, Rezko, Rezko. Wonder why our financial system is on the brink of collapse? Ayers, Ayers, Ayers. Worried about whether we'll ever get out of Iraq? Wright, Wright, Wright.
Much to [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. , those around McCain have been very upfront about the campaign's intentions. "There's no question that we have to change the subject here," a senior Republican operative [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. . McCain adviser Greg Strimple cut to the chase, saying the campaign is "looking forward to turning a page on this financial crisis." Yeah, who wants to read any more of those boring old stories about foreclosures, job losses, and the market losing another 500 points, especially when there are so many more urgent things to talk about -- like why Barack Obama wants to let his terrorist pals blow us all up?
McCain and his hatchet mom VP nominee are hoping to expose the "real" Barack Obama to the people of America; but what they are really exposing is how morally corrupt McCain has become. And how complete has been his transformation from a noble reformer, willing to stand up to his own party when it failed to meet his moral code, into an ignoble hack, willing to abandon his most deeply held values in his lust for the presidency.

"Sooner or later people are going to figure out that if all you run is negative attack ads you don't have much of a vision for the future, or you're not ready to articulate it."

That was [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. , commenting on the disgusting attacks against him by Karl Rove, George Bush, and a few of the people now doing their very dirty work for him.
Wise words from a man who doesn't exist anymore. To paraphrase the classic Hughes Mearns' poem:

"As I was walking up the stair/I met a maverick who wasn't there/He wasn't there again today/I wish, I wish he'd go away."

Making his disappearing act all the more tragic is the fact that the noble McCain is still around, lurking inside the corrupted candidate, occasionally bubbling to the surface before being shoved back into hiding by his baser instincts.
For instance, it was just this past April when McCain took a principled stand against the muck being flung at Obama over his association with Rev. Wright, [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. "there's no place for that kind of campaigning, and the American people don't want it."
A little over five months, and an increasingly blue electoral map later, McCain now stands on the sidelines while Palin unabashedly gives the American people what McCain knew they don't want.
Despite its best efforts, the McCain camp's sneering attacks are not proving that Barack Obama is not like the rest of us. They are proving that John McCain is not like the rest of us. Americans are hungry for a serious conversation about the multiple crises we are facing. And by ignoring that conversation in favor of yet another round of fear-mongering, McCain is showing himself to be the candidate who is "not a man who sees America like you and I see America."
The most revealing thing about the nature of McCain's attacks isn't the contempt he has for Obama (that's been on display for a while now) -- it's the contempt he has for the country he claims to be putting first.


The McCain campaign is all set to roll out its message for the last 30 days of the campaign: "We may not be good for your bank account, your mortgage, your health care, or your job security -- but no... The McCain campaign is all set to roll out its message for the last 30 days of the campaign: "We may not be good for your bank account, your mortgage, your health care, or your job security -- but no...

[Corvair]

A "smear" would be something that is untrue, no?

[Herb Schaffler]

A smear is also an exaggeration such as how well Obama knew and was connected to Ayers. The point is that McCain said he was going to run a clean campaign. Now that his back is against the wall, he's throwing everything except the kitchen sink at Obama. He's doing everything he can to get the public's attention off the economy since he knows most people blame the Republicans for the bad economy. But the economy isn't cooperating with McCain. The stock market took another plunge yesterday inspite of the bailout, so the economy continues to stay on the public's collective mind.

[Corvair]

It is important that the public is aware of the vermin who are 0bama's friends.

Originally Posted by Herb Schaffler

...[McCain] knows most people blame the Republicans for the bad economy...

...but they shouldn't! Most of the blame should go to those who pushed the Community Reinvestment Act down the throats of lending institutions, and most of those are Democrats. Maybe McCain will point that out in the coming days, if he really wants to be president.

[Herb Schaffler]

Certainly the Community Reinvestment Act has contributed to the real estate crisis, but that's not the only thing that has contributed to our bad economy. The expensive unnecessary war in Iraq has caused us to have to borrow more money from China and has led to the Fed's pumping more money into the economy to pay for it by lowering interest rates which have led to more inflation and a devaluing of the dollar and encouraged more bad investments because of the lower interest rates. The devalued dollar has led investors to protect their investments by investing in oil and gold and other commodities. More investments in oil has driven up the price of oil and thus has led to increased energy costs which have hurt business in general. With higher gasoline prices and higher utility costs, people can no longer afford their high house payments and have had to foreclose.

Regarding McCain's and Palin's attacks on Obama, I believe they're promoting hatred with their demogoguery. Palin tells people that Obama pals around with terrorists. Then a sheriff at one of Palin's speeches tries to paint Obama as a Muslim by emphasizing his name, "BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA". So the connection gets made that Obama is a Muslim and pals around with terrorists and WALAH, OBAMA'S AN ISLAMOTERRORIST!!!! This type of desperate campaigning brings out the worst in people. Look at all the hate that is being stirred up at Palin's speeches. Peope yelling out TERRORIST!!!! and KILL HIM!!!. Obama will be luckiy if Sarah Palin doesn't stir up so much hate that somebody ends up asassinating him. This is the most demagoguery I've seen in modern politics since Hitler. I don't see how Sarah Palin, who calls herself a Christian, can engage in so much deception.

Regarding who the candidates pal around with, I'm more concerned about who McCain pals around with: lobbiests for foreign governments. I hate to see our foreign policy influenced by money from foreign countries. Didn't we have enough of that from Clinton?