Saturday, October 25, 2008

McCain tactics, Jeremiah Wright and Shakespeare


Look for the Republicans to pull out the last stop in their disgraceful campaign next week: a full court press on the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

Even if the (air quotes) "McCain campaign" refuses to raise the topic in a last shred of decency, surrogates will do the dirty work for them.

Why?

Because it is the Republicans who are more interested in winning the election than the good of the country. Despite all their lofty rhetoric, they are the ones who are the real traitors.

It makes a mockery of John McCain's slogan, "Country First."

The real tragedy here is not so different from Shakespeare's MacBeth, the ultimate story about someone who would do anything (or say anything) to accede to the throne. Like MacBeth, a decent man who was unfortunately misled, McCain was once a decent man, too. He had the gumption to protest the Bush tax cuts for the rich and to prevent the "nuclear option" in the Supreme Court confirmation process in the U.S. Senate.

But, as they say, bad company corrupts good morals. McCain's fatal error occurred when he hired Rove's accolytes to take over his campaign's tactics. All he really had to do was to be who he was, and the election would have been close (and it may still be). But if McCain loses, and it's looking increasingly that way, he will rue the day he signed on to the Republican right-wing attack machine.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

McCain and Bush's October surprise


George Bush and John McCain are planning an October surprise to steal the election from Senator Obama.

What is it?

No less than the capture or killing of Osama Bin Laden. The clashes along the Afghanistan/Pakistan border have picked up notedly during the past three weeks, and the reason should be clear to anyone who has observed the political preoccupation of the Bush White House.

Bush believes in the "war against terrorism" with a single-minded fervor and even believes he became President just for that purpose. What good would all his efforts be if Obama became President and focused on the domestic economy instead?

When it happens, remember that this blog predicted it first.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Pit Bull Sarah Palin, a Disgrace to the Assembly of God


How do you define demagogue?

A demagogue is someone who stirs up the crowds, who appeals to the baser elements of human nature.

And what is Sarah Palin doing?

She is appealing to the base, to the right-wing fringe of the electorate, and they are frequenting her rallies with cries of physical revenge against the Democrats.

How well do we know Barack Obama?

I say, how well do we know Sarah Palin? I know her because I can judge by her actions. Yes, she is a pit bull, as she herself characterized her own personality.

But what kind of pit bull? Not the kind that protects her young but the kind who lunges at and bites innocent people. The kind that must eventually be controlled because it is not fit to live in a civilized world.

Sarah Palin is a disgrace to her gender, a disgrace to her party and a disgrace to her religion. A disgrace to the denomination I belong to, the Assembly of God. If for no other reason, it is for this one that she must be defeated.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Coming Down the Homestretch

I've got to hand it to Obama. He deserves to win this election because he has out-thought, out-maneuvered and out-spoken his rival candidates every step of the way.

To bring down the Clinton machine, he realized the importance of the caucuses and created a grassroots organization from scratch to get his supporters to the "polls," even though it may have consumed an entire evening as opposed to travelling to a local school to pull a lever.

And this was despite the fact that the local Democratic organizations, including district leaders, ward captains and elected officials, were often bound through loyalty and expediency to support Senator Clinton.

To beat the Republican attack machine, the Obama campaign did not panic but maintained a cool demeanor in the face of one crisis after another. While the McCain people were constantly reacting to events and re-calibrating their message, Senator Obama's team built an email and donor base, leveraging organizations already in place in nearly every state, thanks to the long primary challenge that Republicans were hoping would sap the Democrat's strength.

The results may still change, but just like the Clinton primary, it seems the Obama team knows how to build a lead and run out the clock.