All right, you caught me out — I’ve been slacking off the last week-plus, consorting with furriners. What else can you expect from a terroristic socialism-supporter like moi?
Meanwhile, back in reality … a lot of what I might have blogged about is old news, but there’s plenty of fresh acorns to dig up, and a few older ones that have taken root.
In the McCain camp, the worst news is Obama getting the thoughtful and studied endorsement of Colin Powell. Though reaction in the fringes has been predictably vitriolic (thus demonstrating, perhaps, why Powell never ran for the top job himself, and in the process shootingthemselves in the foot), it’s seen by most as a huge blow to McCain’s campaign. Many of the GOP centrists who admired McCain back in 2000 like Powell for similar reasons, no matter how sullied he was by the Iraq War run-up. Moderates on the fence, already questioning McCain’s qualifications and temperament, might very well see Powell’s vote for Obama as an inspiration as to where they should be placing their vote.
(If the serious GOP really doesn’t want Powell around any more, do we have a deal for you.)
As important, though as the endorsement was another very special part of Powell’s message, where he directly confronted the idea that it was somehow irreconsilable that someone could be a Muslim and a good American (or, as McCain put it elsewhere, an Arab and a good family man). It’s speeches like that, even from a Republican, that give me (and, I should think, the world) hope in what America stands for.
Meanwhile, other endorsements roll in — some very surprising ones that don’t strike me just as rats deserting a sinking ship. From Christopher Buckley (William F’s boy, equally conservative, and now paying the price for his heresy) to the Chicago Tribune (which hasn’t endorsed a Democrat since the paper was founded by one of the GOP’s founders) to Christopher Hitchens (which might give me pause to reconsider my own vote), the number of people supporting Obama and explicitly rejecting the negative campaigning of the McCain camp continues to grow.
Another sign of Obama’s support: a record-breaking $150 million in contributions last month, the majority of which was small individual contributions (waves hand), and not primarily big $10K-a-plate celebrity dinner sorts of affairs. Though McCain tries to make this out as something horrible (waving around Watergate, of all things, as well as calling into question who all those “little people” are), it’s both a huge advantage for Obama right now (despite the large coffers of the GOP and their supporters) and, McCain’s rhetoric aside, an affirmation of how a large republic can work, and provides a better path than public financing (the risk is not with large total contributions, but with having large contributions from a few individuals).
Speaking of which, it seems the rich are divided on the race, with the “pretty darned rich” ($1-10 million) being for McCain (since he’ll cut their taxes), but the “super rich” (over $10 million / yr) being much more for Obama (probably because even an increase in their tax rate will still mean money coming in faster than they can spend it — which is one of the points of a progressive tax system).
In addition to the increasingly dismissed rhetoric about William Ayers (finally disarmed by Obama’s noting who else served on all those boards with the two of them), the McCain camp has decided that voter registration fraud is the key to throwing the election into doubt (and warranting draconian voter exclusion measures). Never mind that the fraud committed was by a few people and against ACORN itself, not the government, or that there’s a huge difference between registration fraud and voter fraud. McCain is busy painting ACORN as a bigger threat (kettle, black) to the republic than the Soviet Union ever was, a canard the GOP trots out every election like clockwork.
The result, of course, is some truly disgusting and threatening vitriol unleashed against ACORN by folks who have drunk the McCain Kool-aid on this and think anything is justified to protect the republic from that socialistic Muslim black liberal Arabic uppity commie — like hanging in effigy, assaulting campaign workers, trashing cars, killing animals, or slashing tires.
But remember — this is all about Change and Honor and America. Right?
No wonder some folks keep their Obama stickers on the inside of the glass.
And the dirty tricks continue to pile up, both petty and gross. Scaring off student voters. Stealing campaign signs. Frightening children. Or even blaming stupid voters when voting machines mysteriously change votes to Republicans.
Of course, such actions are fully justified to protect us from a “Totalitarian, Pansexual Society” full of “Disease, Dysfunction and Abuse”, and to combat Anti-American Liberals who “Hate Real Americans That Work And Achieve And Believe In God”.
(Yup, sounds just like me, doesn’t it?)
Oh, and Obama’s a druggie, though we shouldn’t pay attention to that when it’s inconvenient to our own candidacy, but should when it seems all is lost. He’s also busy creating his own “United States of Obama” flag — oh, wait, that’s the Ohio state flag, gosh, don’t we feel silly?
Okay, having said all of that, and heaped justified calumny upon some McCain/Palin yahoo supporters, let me also give credit where credit is due, and note that sometimes some of them stand up for what’s right. Mad props.
McCain also has taken to calling Obama a socialist (y’know, those guys who want to do things like nationalize the banking system and like that). Of course, the real Socialists are kind of upset by the comparison.
This wild thrashing about hasn’t impressed or built any better ties with the grass-roots state organizations, which can’t figure out if they’re supposed to be more slanderous than thou, or whether it would be better to be saving up their money for 2010 …
McCain isn’t getting any love from astronomers and stargazers, either. Maybe he’s decided to rely on astrology instead. Though if there’s someone in the campaign who doesn’t need astrology, it’s Barack Obama, who fits all the categories of being Mr. Self-Actualized; I’m sure there are some folks who will think that’s a bad thing.
Meanwhile, in and/or from the Great White North, we have Gov. Palin, who’s only doing interviews with such difficult adversaries as Fox News and the 700 Club. Heck, even the press covering her are being kept under a watchful eye by the campaign. That’s because Sarah, poor Ms. Sarah, is being mocked, mocked! And so is God!
I trust God can take care of himself. Sarah could probably avoid the mockery if she could string two coherent sentences together. To which end, pity the poor girl growing up with the name “Sarah McCain Palin.” No, I do not joke.
But Gov. Palin may yet serve a useful purpose besides reviving Saturday Night Live‘s fortunes. She may yet establish the “Palin Effect,” to wit, the VP choice can actually make a difference in the electoin. Palin may have been McCain’s “Jump the Shark” moment — “It sounded so good sitting around the table …”
So did the DMCA, John …
All of which, despite a slowing (inevitable) of the gap in the polls and the McCain campaign trumpeting that momentum is changing their way, point to the possibility of a huge Democratic landslide, a watershed event. And if that means the GOP has it’s (metaphorical) Forty Years in the Wastes figuring out how to get back to its conservative, small-government, sane roots — all the better for everyone (including the Democrats). But that means that, regardless of the outcome, we be willing to stay engaged with even our opponents, and not simply give up and leave if things don’t go our way. It’s our country. All of it and everyone.
And in a bit of non-Us-vs.-Them news:
- Pity the foreign journalist who needs to translate this year’s catch phrases.
- Ah, the joy of local politics.
- Atheists! Eek! Atheists!
- Things aren’t going well with opposition to California’s Prop 8. This is something I’ve contributed to, even if it’s not in my state; I have family and friends, some of them gay, in California, and equal protection under the law is an ambition of mine. Give, if you can.