The biggest kerfuffle in yesterday’s news remained the whole McCain/Spain thing. I already blogged about that separately, but it (and McCain’s increasing lack of access)did raise again the specter of McCain’s mental health. The senility card is a terrible one to discuss, because it’s both a scary subject and because it’s something that could be so easily abused. Senility, from various sources, is also a continuum, not a binary item, and is difficult to diagnose behaviorally even in normal circumstances, let alone in a stressful campaign situation.
That said, given our experience with Reagan, it’s a matter that needs at least acknowledgment, if not conclusions yet.
In the meantime, McCain, if not confused, continues to confuse both current and past allies. His campaign stoutly denied McCain was opposed to mountaintop mining, until confronted with him actually saying he was (if so, good on him; I’ll believe it, maybe, when I hear him continuing to say it). He’s also continues to alienate long-time supporters, such as an erstwhile supporter and biographer. And I’m sure the folks who like his ostensible global warming stance are a bit put off by his “oil wells are good for fishies” claim. Oh, well, at least he has other honorable supporters in his camp.
Over on the Palin side of the equation, plans proceed afoot to stop, sue, stonewall, and skip subpoenas on the Troopergate affair — which may turn out to have been the silliest and stupidest thing to ever derail a presidential campaign (one would hope). Though the McCain campaign talking point is that this is all partisan politics from the Obama campaign (conveniently ignoring/lying that the bipartisan investigation started long before Palin’s nomination), their main tactic is to simply defy the subpoenas (including the one for Palin’s hubby) from the legislative commission. They can’t do that forever (maybe), but they can certainly do it long enough to keep the investigation from completing before the election.
See? Palin clearly has all the know-how necessary to be Vice President. She can even find a bunker to hide in.
If there’s one reason to vote against the Palin/McCain ticket, it’s this same continuation of arrogant denial of accountability. My most fervent hope is that, at the end of the day, after the election loss, the tawdry nature of the underlying charges is confirmed one way or another, and Palin & Co. get slapped with hefty contempt charges. Sure, it won’t determine the truth before the election — but the obviousness of the cover-up practically does the same harm (I would hope).
One piece of inadvertent good news for Palin. Yes, her Yahoo account (used to bypass official email that might be officially investigated) was hacked. But as a result of the hacking, it’s been deleted, meaning a big virtual paper trail has been wiped out … which is sort of the reason the Yahoo account was being used in the first place. Imagine that. (Another plus for Obama, though — apparently he uses Gmail, not Yahoo Mail.)
Meanwhile, in breaking news, Palin lied some more — and, again, not even on something important, but on something trivial. I guess she doesn’t have to worry about it, though, since she is annointed by God to be the matriarch for her nation; I understand that gets you out of worrying about truth and falsehood. Certainly it appears to let you give yourself top billing over your running mate, and means that people can leave when you’re done talking, even if your running mate hasn’t started speaking yet.
The other matter dominating the news is “the economy, stupid.” Palin is busy telling people that it’s all the fault of major lobbyists who have been running amok in Washington (folks like, um, the people on her campaign staff). Meanwhile, McCain (Mr. Campaign Finance Reform) seems to be confused between contributions from individuals and contributions from companies in trying to pain Obama as in bed with Fannie May and Freddy Mac (he also seems to have ignored contributions he’s received from employees of said institutions). He’s also confused about who the president can fire about the problem.
McCain surrogates are also busy blaming liberals for the mortgage meltdown, saying (erroneously) that they “forced” banks to make bad mortgage loans to people who couldn’t afford them. Never mind that a huge factor seems to have been excess deregulation, a big McCain bandwagon. And notice you don’t hear anything from Messrs. Bush and McCain these days about how spiffy it would be to shift Social Security in to private stock investments.
And all through this, the McCain campaign continues to lie (defined here as “say things they’ve been shown aren’t true“) about the Obama tax plan.
And speaking of the Democrats, the poll numbers are beginning to reinflate hopes that were so panick-punctured the past few weeks. If folks stay calm and let Obama prove he can lead through difficult times (like an election), I think thinks will be okay. If folks panic and flounder about, we’re simply handing the GOP the election (I do keep hoping that post was a satire, not serious). The important thing is to keep fighting, but don’t get cocky or complacent if the polling continues to improve — and keep an eye out for dirty tricks on election day, regardless.
An interesting article is coming this weekend, looking at how Obama’s students (from the constitutional law courses he taught) thought of him. I’ll be curious to read about it.