Things were sort of scatter-shot today, so creating a narrative is a bit of a challenge.
There’s the post-post-debate (transcript) discussion of McCain’s reference to Obama as “That One,” which has led to all sort of fun (and prescient) refererences to “That Won.” There’s the inevitable fact-checking, wherein we discover that the “overhead projector” earmark slam that McCain nattered about was actually for a replacement lighting system for the Adler Planetarium (a truly marvelous place). McCain’s clever mortgage buy-out solution is not only largely covered by the existing bail-out bill, but would pay the face value to banks while handing to homeowners the devalued equity. Even the venerated Saint General Petraeus seemed to be turning against McCain’s positions.
Oh, well, at least McCain didn’t have to worry that pundits would be criticizing him for pronouncing country names correctly. Yes, yahooism is alive and well in “Fly-over America.”
Cindy McCain continues to attack Obama for putting her son’s life in danger (what happened to “we don’t talk about our sons”?) by voting against a troop funding bill — not realizing, perhaps, that John had done exactly the same thing.
Running mate Sarah isn’t doing all that much better, as David Brooks, who only after the last debate was waxing eloquent over how exciting, fresh, spiffy, and sexy Gov. Palin is, now (less than a week later) talks about how she’s “a fatal cancer” on the GOP. Kathleen Parker, shocked by the vitriol spewed her way when she dared question whether St Sarah was ready for the presidency, continues to poke at how Palin and McCain continue themselves to rile up ugly crowds — though Palin seems to have dropped the Ayers references from her stump speech. Maybe she realized that her own “palling around” with a man considered a war criminal and domestic terrorist in many parts of the world might make people start calling her a traitor.
Another Obama slam keeps circulating, too, fed by Gov. Palin (and echoed by master of nuance, Sean Hannity), to wit that Obama libeled the military in Iraq for “air-raiding villages” and killing civilians. Never mind that it’s absolutely true, based on the testimony of such clearly treasonous individuals as George Bush and Hamid Karzai — not to mention that it’s not intended as a slam against the military in Afghanistan, but a plea to provide more troops there.
Don’t worry, though, Sarah — as you know yourself from this tearful interlude, God has personally chosen you to be VP. Though even that pales before the power of George Bush to do the impossible.
And so it goes …