The Hottentots Arrive For McCain/Palin

To be perfectly honest, since the economy started dominating the political talk, the Right’s attempts at addressing it have been more than absolutely ludicrous, barely worth mentioning; except, of course, as a means of showing just how outrageous and duplicitous their stance is. Tom Tomorrow’s weekly comic This Modern World nails the particulars, as usual; and BATP's Matski should be lauded for pointing that neoconservative W has now found himself introducing fiscal socialism to the realm of how government deals with the private sector. Amazing.

What has been interesting about all of this folderol, is how the Right has used this fiasco as a means of distancing themselves from their various stances, most notably the notion they’ve actively scorched the earth in supporting: The unlimited/unchecked power of the Executive Branch above the Legislative and Judicial branches of government. Glenn Greenwald does a stellar job of spelling it all out.

Meanwhile, Senator McCain continues to exhibit just how deaf an ear he has for the majority of domestic issues, which Obama has done a great job of hammering away at. Take this ad, for example:



Being pro-deregulation not enough of an indictment? Okay, what about McCain’s statement in Detroit that he’s been buying American automobiles for the entirety of his life? Guess what? Another lie. Maybe McCain is inadvertently proving that he has no idea what the internet is all about, otherwise why would he lie so blatantly about something that will be fact-checked and distributed nationally within a matter of seconds?

Again Obama has not hesitated in taking a jab when the opening presented itself. Considering how impossibly close the race is right now, it is important that Obama’s campaign take up these matters themselves, instead of letting the media do all of the work. If they don’t, then the media will ignore it instead of actually doing their job of doggedly reporting the facts to the people. (More on the media in a separate entry.)

Where is La Palin, other than being interviewed by Right wing shills? Being protected from any outside intrusion, almost to the point of detriment. The campaign seems perfectly willing to let her be painted however the media wants, and the picture isn’t pretty. From David Talbot’s borderline series of slam after slam (today’s piece, which thankfully uses no anonymous sources, merely describes her as a political Mean Girl who parasitically climbs up the career ladder by exploiting the “old boys’ network” and then usurping the carcass of whoever she’s latched onto), to the Politico’s revelation that out of the 578 days (19 months, or 397 workdays) Ms. Palin served as Alaska’s governor, she was actually present for 85 of those days...Palin will soon only appeal to the Republican base and that’s it.

All of this still doesn’t really address the state of full-on higgledy-piggledy that marks the McCain/Palin campaign heading into the first Presidential debate, not that heartland voters are noticing. Maybe they will be taking notice soon: Traditional and respected conservative voice George Will came out with an editorial comparing McCain to Alice in Wonderland’s Queen of Hearts. When you’ve been abandoned or harshly criticized by your own party this many times, one probably starts to get twitchy.

This twitchiness can only be amplified when his foreign policy credentials come into question this week during the debate. Here’s something else Obama should be hammering away on: The neocon strategy of focusing on the Middle East to the exclusion of everything else, along with McCain's own hard-line posturing over Georgia, has led to Russia's becoming a player once again in the Latin American theater.