McCain's Campaign is All About Nothing

[tekisui]

http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080914/OPINION01/809140339

There was a time when Republicans campaigned on their ideas, programs and values.

This year - lacking ideas, programs or values - John McCain and Sarah Palin are running for the White House on an elaborate fictional narrative of victimhood. Their supposed persecutors are Democrats and the news media, and the aim of this whole charade is to keep Americans from talking about ideas, programs and values.

Every day, the McCain campaign brays anew with over-the-top indignation at "the outrageous attacks" on Palin's family. The McCain people don't cite specifics, because there are no specifics to cite. What newsworthy Democrat has ventured any personal criticism of Palin or any member of her family? What serious news outlet has done any such thing?

I hear McCain's amen chorus screaming, "Lipstick on a pig! Lipstick on a pig!" But they're well aware that Obama was unambiguously talking about McCain's economic ideas, not his running mate. It seems incomprehensible that the McCain campaign would make so much noise about an allegation that clearly doesn't hold a drop of water - until you realize noise is the whole point.

As long as people are talking about barnyard beauty tips, they're not talking about substance. Any day spent arguing about meaningless ephemera is a small victory for a campaign that has nothing to say.

It's not in McCain's interest to talk about the 46 million Americans who don't have medical insurance; Obama has a plan to get most of them covered, while McCain promises a modest tax credit and his best wishes for good health. It's not in McCain's interest to talk about the economy; Obama wants to renew our sense of shared enterprise and responsibility, while McCain is happy to stick with the Republican philosophy of "I've got mine, suckers." It's not in McCain's interest to talk seriously about the occupation of Iraq; Obama was prescient in calling for a withdrawal date, while McCain outdoes even George W. Bush in insisting that our troops stay where they are no longer wanted.

The most important fact about the political landscape this year is that 80 percent of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction. It doesn't take a genius to realize that McCain's only chance of winning is to obscure the fact that on the issues voters most care about, he essentially proposes to stay the course.

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[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. McPalin not funny-ironic like Seinfeld. McPalin is stupid-sad. Back to issues: economy, health, war

[tekisui]

2. I am convinced we got to get back to the issues.

And off these "character" distractions.