Values and Truth

Sarah Palin wears a seatbelt here. If John McCain wins we'll need more than that.

by Michael Ekstract

Sarah Palin is an attractive choice for Vice President on the surface, but then again George W. Bush seemed an attractive choice for President once upon a time. If Palin were to become President, do we really deserve four more years of someone in the George W. Bush mold?

Let me explain. Sarah, like George W., is the life of the party (okay even more than George). She’s the gal we’d all much rather hang out and have a drink with. She’s fun, lively and looks great on TV.

When I look at how we admire Gov. Sarah Palin, it reminds me of how we used to admire Gov. George W. Bush. Bush, the “outsider” was gonna fix Washington. Instead, Washington (and the entire American economy) are more broken than ever.

Remember how George W. presented himself as one of us: just a good ol’ born again Christian man from Texas — deeply humble and a compassionate conservative? Of course, then he got us into a war with reckless arrogance that was anything but humble or conservative. And worse, he used lies to talk us into going along. And his “compassionate” economic policies have run up the greatest debt this country has ever seen and threaten the economic well-being of every single one of us.

You see, George W. Bush made a good beer-drinking buddy but he’s the last person you’d ever want to drive you home. And yet he’s been behind the wheel for almost eight (very long) years.

Look, not everything George W. Bush has done was bad (he is human after all — and capable of good works) but on balance are we really better off thanks to that man’s presidency?

So now we have a new, even more fun and appealing drinking buddy (and shooting buddy if you like to hunt). She’s really “one of us.” But is she really?

Actually, most of us don’t live in a place like Alaska. Most of us, while we believe in God, we think evolution should be taught in science classes. Most of us, while we abhor abortion and want to do everything we can to prevent it, we still respect a woman’s right to choose for herself whether or not to make that harrowing and painful decision. Most of us would not lie about another person to advance our own careers.

Hey, I liked Sarah Palin, too (now that she’s crossed the line with deceitful defamation of character I’ve lost a lot of respect for her.) And, I might yet enjoy a Moosehead brew with the Governor but let’s let it end there. I won’t be giving Sarah Palin the keys to my car and the rest of America shouldn’t either.

by Michael Ekstract

How crazy is this? John McCain is being booed at rallies for saying that Barack Obama is a decent man. C’mon, John, you let Sarah Palin and your attack team unleash this ferocious and extremely deceitful campaign against Obama claiming falsely that he pals around with terrorists (don’t take my word; check with the Annenberg Center).

I remember when John McCain was a man I respected, a man of seeming integrity. Sure, I might disagree on issues but he seemed like a decent man with the potential to promote bipartisan moderation and compromise.

They say that absolute power corrupts but it seems that so does watching potential power slip away. It’s sad really. How can John McCain allow vicious and disgraceful attack campaigns to go on and then try to participate with any integrity in the U.S. Senate?

Maybe that’s why McCain is now saying that Obama is a decent man. I see a few possible reasons:

1) The Republican Campaign Directors have told John that he needs to appear fair and decent. Let the pit bulls and sleazy ad folks do the tarring. You just blow around some feathers.

2) This is part of the Republican Attack Campaign strategy. Raise serious doubts about the opponent’s patriotism and character and then have the Republican candidate say decent things so he can pretend to moderate voters that he never intended to say these bad things. But the seed is planted and elsewhere Attack Specialists are reinforcing the negative story even while the candidate pretends he’s not.

3) McCain is actually a decent man and there’s a limit to what he will tolerate.

4) The smear campaign against Obama had made many Republicans so fiercely hateful against Obama that McCain and his team feared a backlash and decided to try to reduce the flames (without fully extinguishing them — McCain told supporters they should still be ferocious).

I’m sure other folks could have other possible reasons but I don’t think any of us can trust John McCain’s motives unless he clearly and unequivocally denounces this ugly deceptive smear campaign and the hatred it has encouraged.

If Senator McCain is truly a decent man who cares about America, he needs to clearly state that his campaign was wrong to make false accusations that tried to link Senator Obama with a terrorist. Mr. McCain needs to very openly publicly apologize to the Obama campaign. He needs to unequivocally tell his supporters that Senator Barack Obama is a good, Christian American who is very capable of being a good, decent President.

And he needs to see to it that the negative smear campaign is stopped and that his people send out clear information to correct the public record and to reduce the hate.

That would signal that McCain really is both a man of integrity and a maverick willing to break from the nasty divisive tactics of the Rove/Ayles wing of the Republican party.

Ironically, that might help McCain much more than this hate-stirring nonsense his handlers have created for him.