Responding to McCain's Dishonorable Campaign-to-Nowhere
The response by Obama spokesman Bill Burton to McCain's despicably false and inflammatory sex education ad may mark something of a turning point in the nature of Obama's public attitude toward McCain. Perhaps we will have no more of this conceding of "honor" to the GOP candidate, in deference to his past actions, now that McCain has forfeited such consideration by plummeting to the depths of dishonorable deceit:
It is shameful and downright perverse for the McCain campaign to use a bill that was written to protect young children from sexual predators as a recycled and discredited political attack against a father of two young girls - a position that his friend Mitt Romney also holds. Last week, John McCain told Time magazine he couldn't define what honor was. Now we know why.
Reflecting on the ad, Josh Marshall has some compelling words on how we should respond to the kind of campaign that McCain is running, regardless of our prospects for winning the election:
It's easy to get twisted up in your head about strategy and message and optics. But what is already apparent is that John McCain is running the sleaziest, most dishonest and race-baiting campaign of our lifetimes. So let's stop being shocked and awed by every new example of it. It is undignified. What can we do? We've got a dangerously reckless contender for the presidency and a vice presidential candidate who distinguished herself by abuse of office even on the comparatively small political stage of Alaska. They've both embraced a level of dishonesty that disqualifies them for high office. Democrats owe it to the country to make clear who these people are. No apologies or excuses. If Democrats can say at the end of this campaign that they made clear exactly how and why these two are unfit for high office they can be satisfied they served their country.
In short, calling out the Lipstick Express for the sleazy and desperate charade it has become is a matter of Country First.
As for the double standard being applied to the campaigns in this post-Palin environment, nothing says it better than an email forwarded by a reader -- excerpts reprinted after the break.
Meghan McCain, appearing on the Today Show, made one of the most egotistical and ignorant statements I've ever heard. It was stunning in its thoughtlessness and dismissive of the sacrifice of millions of people with loved ones serving in the Middle East.
When asked what she thinks when Barack Obama and others say her father doesn't "get it" she said,
I think my father gets it more than anyone. I mean, my family — I have two brothers serving in the military. One is about to redeploy to Iraq. My father is obviously a famous war hero. No one knows what war is like other than my family, period.
(Emphasis mine.) She then went on to point out that Sarah Palin's son, Track, is deploying to Iraq on September 11th.
Meghan, we need to talk.
"I Learned It From You, Mom!" -- Sarah Palin's shotgun wedding
I'm watching Fred Thompson on the teevee right now. He's making the defense for Sarah Palin. Since he's an actor, he's doing a pretty good job (other than the weird, ahem, mouthgrunts he makes every five seconds).
Apparently Ms. Palin is an executive, she can dress a moose, and, um, she's been an executive! An executive!
She also has small town values.
And she just might. But those small town values aren't the ones she weilds as a political bludgeon. Her public policy beliefs aren't ones she practices.
A 2006 profile of the candidate explained:
Sarah and Todd eloped in 1988, slipping away to the Palmer Courthouse where, learning they needed witnesses, they enlisted two from the pioneers’ home across the street, one in a wheelchair and one with a walker. They eloped because they were poor at the time and didn’t want their parents to foot the bill for a wedding, she says today.
Track
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