If you look back on news reports surrounding previous elections, undeniable patterns. For me, I noticed it when I watched a Simpsons episode about the Dole/Clinton election of '96 during the Kerry/Bush election of 4 years ago. The culture war, the "flip-flops" were all there. Every year they trot out how people you don't know are evil and looking to destroy your way of life, when they've done more than their share of damage to the status quo. It's a surprisingly effective strategy; even though a lot of the legislation they are responsible for directly hurts their way of life and/or benefits the kind of "elitists" they are suppose to hate, Republicans can always count on a decent share of the blue-collar vote. Would Bill Clinton have been re-elected if he had left the country in the shape it was in after Reagan's or Bush II's first terms?
Which brings me to John McCain. I like him, but I don't want him to be president. And the way his campaign is being run it seem like it seems like he doesn't want to be either.
1. Don't talk shit about your opponent's unused passport and then complain about it when he calls you on it.
What a freakin'backfire! We got to see how massively popular Obama is in Europe and at ease he is on a world stage. Then, McCain's campaign calls it a "premature political victory lap." Obama tried to down play this by bringing Republican senator Chuck Hagel and heeding the Pentagon's advice not to visit a military base's hospital, then McCain hammers him for that. He's hoping that the emotion of his objection will out-last the facts of the matter. Senator Hagel himself has accused McCain of "going over the line".
2. Don't throw glass "flip-flops".
You think after 8 years of an administration that has only flip-floped on the matter of their own legal responsibility, you think that the term would have lost some of it's potency. McCain better hope so, he's had quite a few himself, the most noticeable and recent one was chiding Obama for not supporting off-shore drilling, when he didn't support it himself until recently. McCain sees his run for the presidency of an extension of his patriotism, while Barack Obama is more fueled by his ambition, when in his own autobiography he admitted that ambition made him run for president. And who can forget his flip-flop on torture, where he famously has first hand knowledge about how in-effective it is.
Let us allow our politicians the right to change their opinions based on the facts and admit when they are wrong, so that we can put this to bed.
Politics is the only game where the players never admit that they're playing it.
3. Don't play the race card unless everyone knows what game's being played.
McCain's accusation of Obama playing the "race card" becomes itself a winning hand in the game of "He Who Doth Protest Too Much", becoming hair-trigger defensive. He said the right (not McCain himself) want to play on the fact that he "doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills". This is denying that there weren't people on the right who saw The New Yorker's recent controversial cover of Barack and Michelle Obama not as satire, but as a rare instance of the magazine showing the truth. This reminds me of people who called Obama racist after his comment about "bitter" people clinging to guns and religion when times are bad; besides the fact that it wasn't that far off, this phenomena is hardly exclusive to white people. You may see racism if you're looking for it, but don't be surprised if not everyone agrees with you.
4. Then there's those commercials.
I won't go into the "Obama is the cause of high gas prices" one, but I will mention the "Britney, Paris and Barack" one:
Hmmmm, so being popular is bad? It seems to have helped Ronald Reagan and George W Bush-as I mentioned earlier. You know who else being popular and well-liked helps? Everybody, so thanks for reminding us how popular your opponent is.
There there's this web-only one. It is the worst political commercial I have ever seen, not because of mud-slinging, but just because it is very close to being a pro-Obama ad:
Take the last sentence,"Is he ready to lead?", switch the first two words and change the question mark to a period and you have an Obama ad. Not a good ad, mind you, who wants to vote against "The One"?
I leave you with a live video of my new favorite song, "Cunts Are Still Running The World." This is NSFW but his introduction is priceless.
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