Obama not fazed in campaign
Although Mr. Burgundy’s words came on the heels of a vicious cockfight among rival news teams, they could just as well have followed the ignorant, xenophobic ugliness that has (suddenly?) seized John McCain’s campaign like a moronic KFC factory worker choking chickens for kicks.
Praise Allah these people have been quarantined to the battleground states.
By now you’ve probably heard most of it: the Virginia Congressman who, in all seriousness, compared Obama to Osama bin Laden; the sheriff in Florida (among others) who made a point to orally shove HUSSEIN in between Barack and Obama, as if it revealed something sinister about the candidate’s character; the shouts of “Kill him!”; the racial epithets lobbed at a black cameraman; the woman who claimed she couldn’t trust Obama because he’s an Arab (he’s not, although that’s not the point); the repeated assertions by Sarah Palin that Obama has been “palling around with terrorists”, despite all evidence (and relevance) to the contrary; and the vaguely racist ads that ask fearfully “Just who is Barack Obama?” as if he’s some mysterious alien entity and not an American senator who’s been running for President for the past 18 months.
McCain-in a move that can only be described as ‘mavericky’ in its defiance of both logic and ethics-appears to be staying the muddy course despite the fact that every poll in the country says it’s tarnishing his (already damaged) image. At the final Presidential debate, he shrugged off the hate-filled remarks at his rallies as “just a few crazies”, failing to acknowledge that the rhetoric and direction of his campaign has directly encouraged such vitriol.
Then, less than 24 hours after saying that he didn’t care about “a washed up old terrorist” like William Ayers, McCain started sending out robo-calls (Terminator-esque recordings sent back from the future to prevent the golden age of prosperity that will occur if Obama wins) in twenty states that go something like this: “Hello. I’m calling for John McCain and the RNC because you need to know that Barack Obama has worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers.” Oddly, the recordings fail to mention that Ayers was never responsible for any deaths, or that Obama was eight when the bombs were laid, or that every major politician in Chicago, regardless of party, has had some passing association with Ayers (Obama has not “worked closely” with him by any stretch), due to the fact that he’s a respected college professor, education expert and noted philanthropist, who-in spite of his undying hatred for America-managed to win Chicago’s Citizen of the Year Award in 1997.
(Personally, I don’t think the robo-calls’ omissions are deliberate. These are exactly the kind of careless errors that occur when one is behind [6 points] on a deadline [Nov. 4].)
The latest boogeyman tactic by the McCain campaign has been to link the word “Socialist” (ahh! Run!) to Obama’s economic policy. Really, John? Correct me if I’m wrong: Didn’t you just sign off on a $700 billion bailout plan that is quite possibly the most socialist piece of legislation to ever pass through the Senate? That event did occur just days ago, did it not? Okay. I thought so. Just a head’s up: With the economic crisis still emptying wallets and crushing souls, the bailout bill is sort of fresh in people’s minds. You might want to give it a week before you send in your robots to ameliorate the situation (i.e., “Hello. I’m calling for John McCain and the RNC because you need to know that Barack Obama recently signed off on the most socialist piece of legislation to ever pass through the Senate.”).
As for Obama’s tax policy, give it an effing rest. I’m sorry you don’t approve of sharing the wealth, but any selfless person does. (Rich people will be okay because hope floats, and most of them have boats.) Trickle-down economics makes even less sense in practice than it does in theory, and it makes no sense in theory. History has proven that again and again; in fact, the New York Times recently produced a side-by-side comparison of how the economy has fared over the past 80 years under Democratic Presidents versus Republican ones. The result: If you had invested $10,000 in the Democratic presidencies, you would have made over $300,000. Had you done the same with the Republicans (excluding Hoover’s Depressing stats), you would have made roughly $51,000-which, when you consider inflation, is even less than it sounds.
Score one for the good guys, and apparently, for Socialism.
The only good news in all this (besides the fact that he’s likely going to win) is that Obama is the most unflappable human being I’ve ever seen in my life. Seriously, the man cannot be flapped. You can attack his religion, his politics, his friends; you could probably hit him with the most vicious Yo Mama joke in the book, straight to his face, and the guy wouldn’t even blink. He would just wait his turn to speak, then calmly and coherently explain that his mother is deceased, but while alive she was an intelligent, well-educated woman who almost never stared at her orange juice for an hour, despite the fact that it said concentrate.
This is exactly the kind of cucumber-cool demeanor we need in the Oval Office.
As for those fear-mongering hotheads-John McCain, Sarah Palin, and some of their more fanatical followers-take a cue from Obama and chill out, before some brick-smart character kills a guy.
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Oct 24 2008. Filed under Opinion.
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