So let me make sure I’ve got this straight.
John McCain has run a series of negative ads that paint an openly dishonest picture of Barack Obama’s voting record. If the facts he uses aren’t outright lies, they are misleading. Meanwhile, Sarah Palin tries to paint herself as an experienced, battle-ready hard-ass; in the process, she manages to insult community organizers and lie about her record as governor while glossing over her highly unethical hiring and firing tactics.
Yep, I think I’ve got a handle on the state of the Republican ticket.
I’ll break it down for those of you who still haven’t figured out that the Internet is more than Facebook and porn. In his most recent advertisements, John McCain has asserted that Obama wants comprehensive sex education for kindergartners, doesn’t think Iran is a serious threat, would raise taxes for middle-class families, doesn’t want to drill offshore and wouldn’t visit the troops without cameras present. McCain also claims he’s never voted against troop funding, has always worked to stymie lobbyists and will drill our way out of the oil crisis.
Every one of these statements is false.
Obama voted for a bill intended to warn children about sexual predators, cautiously supports offshore drilling, has visited wounded troops without media presence on numerous occasions and supports a tax plan that will lower taxes on the middle class. His comments on Iran were to show his support for diplomatic solutions — if we negotiated with Russia, why not Iran or Venezuela?
McCain, on the other hand, has voted against increased troop funding over 10 times, has received over $10 million from lobbyists in Washington and has over 150 known lobbyists associated with his campaign. As for the matter of drilling … you guys want to talk about drilling for oil? Next week. I promise.
So my thesis that McCain is a terrible person has been proved, but what about Palin? Well, she’s said that she declined the federal government’s offer of funding for the now-infamous “Bridge to Nowhere.” That, my friends, is not even close to true. Only after the bridge became a national symbol of pork-barrel spending did Palin back off … and even then, the allocated monies were never returned. She’s also been vilified for saying a small town mayor is a lot like a community organizer — “except you have actual responsibilities.” And, as governor, she regularly hounded any officials who disagreed with her out of office, filling any resultant vacancies with high school friends.
I’m not here to say that the Obama campaign is perfect. Obama is a gifted orator and a very charismatic man, and I agree with many of his policies, but Joe Biden still has the most punchable mouth in the Democratic Party. However, the difference here is that the Republicans seem to be running a ticket that consists of Douche and Douchier. (No, that isn’t a word, but I’m an English major. I’ll butcher my language any way I please.)
McCain has run his campaign up until now in a respectable way, riding aboard the “Straight Talk Express” and telling uncomfortable truths at the primary debates. Suddenly, he’s thrown away any and all good images he had. I’ve tried long and hard to figure out why, and at last I’ve come to the conclusion that I can’t be bothered trying anymore.
McCain and Palin are officially reprehensible. If you know me at all — if you read last week’s column — you know that I prize the truth above all else. And when the Republicans shat on the truth, they destroyed any respect I had for their bid for the White House. At this point, I’ll accept nothing more than a brutal, crushing defeat for the GOP in November.
Because they deserve to know what justice is.