Monday, September 22, 2008

No more bull. This is the real John McCain

John McCain and his running mate have blatantly lied to the public and they should be called on it. Yes, of course, all politicians lie. But in this case, I am referring to Cheney/Bush/Rumsfeld sized lies that are intended to hurt the public and mislead voters. Between McCain playing political hop-scotch to a new philosophy of the day and Sarah Palin's pathological string of lies, these two should be polling somewhere in the 20 percent range. Why aren't they?

If it were any other politician, wouldn't the parallels of a candidate sitting on his hands during a current scandal that mirrored a scandal of the past be called out in every news outlet?? If Bill Clinton were caught with a second intern last week, would anyone be giving him any deference??? But yet, here we are, years after the S&L crisis and Keating 5 scandal, which stemmed from a failure and disdain for regulation, split on whether to elect a major player from that episode to the highest office! Yet we have not seen one major story on the Keating 5. John McCain is an alumni of that institution and the media is afraid to paint that picture. And if they aren't afraid, but feel that it's not relevant, than shame on them for being obtuse.

Should we really put aside the social/religious scrutiny about Sarah Palin and her husband? I mean, after Obama went through a public religious debate over Christianity in 2004 during his Senate run, the media still subjected us to rumors in 2008 that Obama was a Muslim (insert sarcastic "not that there's anything wrong with that"). Would Michelle Obama pass muster if she were in an secessionist political party? Would she be torn down if she had an unwed pregnant teenage daughter? Would either Obama be politically viable at this point if they had stonewalled, lied, evaded as much as the Palin's did? Obama sat down and did a full open interview with the Chicago Tribune in March on his ties with Tony Rezko. Just imagine what the media cycle would be if Michelle Obama had a history of stealing drugs? I'm not saying Cindy McCain should be raked over coals, but Michelle has received much harsher treatment during this election cycle when she should be hailed as role model.

Many have said that this John McCain is not the Straight-Talk Maverick of 2000. I argue that the 2000 McCain was never the real John McCain. Let's face facts. He was a crappy student who graduated 894th of out 899. He is an opportunist who capitalizes on his war record to this day by pointing to that time in his life as way to deflect scrutiny. He was a deregulator and got caught in one of the biggest financial market failings in history...20 years ago!!! He adopted the persona of a maverick reformer to fix his image. In the past 2 years, because it was politically necessary, he reversed his positions and his political philosophy and caved to the right-wing of his party. He has chosen an un-vetted running mate to play the Rove game with him, and has tried to steal his opponents mantra.
I hope that over the next 6 weeks, people will realize that the John McCain of the 2000 election was a fabrication. He was no more real than Sarah Palin's record as a reformer.

Inspired by this article in the NY Times.

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