False Ads are a Campaign Issue

Posted on September 9, 2008 in Campaign 2008

John McCain has given up honor for the sake of winning this election no matter what. Since hiring wienie king and Bush confidant Karl Rove, the conduct of his campaign has grown progressively more mean and false. His reasons are simple: Obama has him nailed on the Republican screw-the-middle-and-working-classes and on the background of his vice presidential pick. He has to reach out and put into the public’s mind a truly horrifying image of Obama, one that is both racially and sexually tainted. So he has come out and accused Obama of something akin to pedophilia.

We know the truth. Obama sponsored a measure designed to help kids identify sexual predators. To oppose this measure is to leave children defenseless, ignorant of those who might harm them. It is to help the pedophile.

I would not go about this by accusing John McCain of endorsing pedophilia. But a president does not lead by saying what is not true about his opponents. What we have here is a character issue. Where Obama and Biden are sticking to the facts, McCain and Palin have to make stuff up out of whole cloth.

The way to hit him is to point out the lie. Mean John McCain is cornered on the truth, one can argue, so he has to resort to falsehoods. A clever ad playing on this theme is needed soon. (Think of Jessie Ventura’s “Ventura vs. the Special Interests ad that won him the governorship of Minnesota. Humor helps.) Continue to promote Obama’s campaign of hope and change. Continue to point out the past that McCain and Palin are trying to hide. But make Karl Rove a campaign issue so that every time McCain launches one of these ads, we can nod and say “uh-huh. See what I mean? There you go again.” The last few words served Ronald Reagan well in the debates against Carter.

Obama stands for protecting the middle and working classes against the attacks of the wolves of the minute wealthy class in our country. Unlike us, they don’t risk their whole lives — they have made sure that when everyone takes a loss in one of their schemes, they don’t. When we complain about them and their lifestyles, they call it “class warfare”. Let it be so. There has been class warfare being waged on the middle and working classes for the many years of Republican rule. There has also been division, a country that is falling apart for the sake of the hubris of the few. There’s a commercial, too: show the country falling to pieces as John McCain continues the Bush legacy.

The ads show that his character is lacking.

Voted 90% of the time with Bush. We know he hates this line because it is true. The trick is to hold him accountable and to point out that he doesn’t care what harm he does by these commercials. John McCain is bad for America. Saying that just as plainly is a good idea.