If you've visited this blog before today, you've probably noticed that I list "Obama for America" as one of my favorite websites. So it's no secret who I'm supporting in the upcoming election (now just 29 days away). Aside from one message about Gov. Sarah Palin, I have steadfastly resisted posting any politically oriented opinions on this blog (as it has been, and still is, mostly about weather related topics).
However, with the nasty, negative turn that Sen. John McCain's campaign has now taken (and vows to continue right up till Election Day), I have to speak up. Sen. McCain had a nice post-convention bounce, and actually had a slight lead in polls coming out of the Republican National Convention. But instead of talking issues, his campaign turned to a series of out-and-out lies about Barack Obama and his (Obama's) positions. The result of that negative campaigning was a drop in support for McCain. Having seen that fail, McCain attempted to politicize the financial crisis in America, "suspending" his campaign to return to Washington and push the bailout package (which failed in the House after he became involved in the negotiations). The public and the press did not fall for this campaign stunt, so Sen. McCain did, in fact, debate Sen. Obama and lost that debate by a considerable margin. Last Thursday, Gov. Palin, while not self-destructing, as many expected, failed to convince many Independent and undecided voters that she is ready for the Vice Presidency (and, heaven help us, the White House). The McCain campaign has lost even more ground over the past few days.
Yesterday, the campaign announced that they would devote the remainder of the time before the election to attacking Sen. Obama's patriotism and honor. Those attacks began this morning with a new ad that paints Sen. Obama as "dangerous" and "dishonorable." Most of these attacks are, once again, based on more lies and deceptive video clips. Gov. Palin, over the weekend, accused Sen. Obama of "palling around with terrorists," and being "unlike most Americans." This morning, she commented on Sen. Obama's association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, conveniently ignoring her own association with the Wasilla Bible Church, which recently hosted David Brickner, the head of Jews for Jesus, "a ministry that is out on the leading edge in a pressing, demanding area of witnessing and evangelism,” according to the Church's pastor Larry Kroons. According to Brickner, terrorist attacks on Israelis are God's "judgment of unbelief" of Jews who haven't embraced Christianity. "Judgment is very real and we see it played out on the pages of the newspapers and on the television. It's very real. When [Brickner's son] was in Jerusalem he was there to witness some of that judgment, some of that conflict, when a Palestinian from East Jerusalem took a bulldozer and went plowing through a score of cars, killing numbers of people. Judgment — you can't miss it."
The McCain campaign is out of ideas. They cannot debate on the issues, as they are completely out of step with the American public. So they attack Barack Obama and they will bring out all the old, disproven ideas (he's a Muslim, he went to a madrassa as a child, he won't wear an American flag pin, etc.) to scare voters into supporting McCain (a man who graduated 894th in a class of 899 at the U.S. Naval Academy).
I never thought this possible, but the McCain-Palin ticket is, in my opinion, even scarier than another four years of Bush-Cheney. And this won't be my last political post before Nov. 4th.
It should be interesting to see how tomorrow night's second Presidential Debate develops now that the tone of the campaign has changed so dramatically.
