Out of respect for the day, I’ll be avoiding any political posting tomorrow. But I’ve got plenty more to talk about today …<\/p>\n
The belipsticked-pig story is getting the most media play, despite the the media being quite aware that they are being manipulated by the McCain campaign<\/a> into focusing on it. On the bright side, most of the analysis has been brutally critical<\/a> of the GOP tactic and ad — and, in fact, CBS has had the YouTube version of the web ad taken down<\/a> for using (and misrepresenting) one of their reporters in a political advert.<\/p>\n The one bright side to the whole mess is that Obama has managed (in my eyes, at least) to come off as for more a statesman and leader<\/a> than I expect McCain or Palin can ever be. His response was appropriately firm, critical, but non-hyperbolic. He spelled it out for people that these are the tactics of distraction, and a tacit admission that the McCain campaign has nothing constructive to say or argue from.<\/p>\n Of course, that not the only ad where an Obama quote is being distorted out of context<\/a>. But what it all boils down to is, honestly, a true tragedy. Eight years ago, McCain was held in respect, even admiration, by a sizable amount of the electorate. He really was seen (with some justice) as a maverick, as someone who might have feet of clay, but who could be counted upon to fight the good fight. Even if you didn’t agree with all his positions, his foul mistreatment by Rove and the Bush Campaign during the 2000 GOP primaries garnered tremendous sympathy.<\/p>\n Now, though, the campaign being run in his name is the same Rovean engine of distortion and lies that brought him down in 2000, and by letting that happen McCain has utterly lost the respect of both his opponents<\/a> and a number of his friends<\/a>. There are only two explanations I can see: either he’s shown his true colors as an angry, power-seeking demogogue, willing to sell his soul in order to win — or else he’s a latter-day John Gill<\/a>, insulated, unaware, or otherwise powerless to do anything to rein in his handlers. <\/p>\n I’m charitable enough to assume the latter, but neither seems a good choice to be the next president.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And since no election post can go past without a mention of Sen. McCain’s running mate, the tale of earmarks<\/a> and Troopergate<\/a> keep getting incrementally more and more interesting, and damning. Nothing exciting and new, but more rocks to add to the stone bucket.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Out of respect for the day, I’ll be avoiding any political posting tomorrow. But I’ve got plenty more to talk about today … The belipsticked-pig story is getting the most…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections-2008"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":40619,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/01\/08\/intentionally-avoiding-any-bridge-puns-here.html","url_meta":{"origin":12899,"position":0},"title":"Intentionally avoiding any “bridge” puns here","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 8-Jan-14 5:33pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Chris Christie has been interesting to watch. \u00a0He's apparently very popular in the state across political boundaries, he's been widely touted as a potential 2016 candidate by the folks looking for someone other than the \"stupid\" candidates on the fringe to run, and while he's done plenty to anger the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":138237,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/03\/12\/finding-safe-places-to-wear-a-maga-hat.html","url_meta":{"origin":12899,"position":1},"title":"Finding “safe places” to wear a MAGA hat","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 12-Mar-19 11:01pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Cats in hats might get into spats","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Trump-and-the-MAGA-Hat.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Trump-and-the-MAGA-Hat.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Trump-and-the-MAGA-Hat.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Trump-and-the-MAGA-Hat.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6899,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/12\/06\/you_will_respec.html","url_meta":{"origin":12899,"position":2},"title":"You will respect my authoritay!","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 6-Dec-04 10:25am","format":false,"excerpt":"You only have to go to one room in this particular museum in order to get the gist of what's going to be said in all the other rooms. How...","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24985,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/01\/money-makes-the-political-world-go-round.html","url_meta":{"origin":12899,"position":3},"title":"Money makes the (political) world go 'round","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 1-Jan-12 9:47am","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, on the bright side, maybe all that Super PAC campaign spending will boost the economy ... #ddtb Embedded Link 'Super PACs' are showing their power Political committees unfettered by donation limits are dominating the last weeks of the presidential nominating contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, funding aggressive attack\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18995,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/23\/tweets-from-2010-10-23.html","url_meta":{"origin":12899,"position":4},"title":"Tweets from 2010-10-23","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 23-Oct-10 11:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Took an invigorating walk around Newport Circle twice, just under 3 mi in 40 mins. Worked out some future written dialog. # A lot fewer execs out to walk\/jog this a.m. Apparently there was quite a gathering after the cruise bus returned. # Main meetings over. Cocktails plus final banquet\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7107,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/10\/28\/angst_watch_200.html","url_meta":{"origin":12899,"position":5},"title":"Angst Watch 2004","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 28-Oct-04 9:43am","format":false,"excerpt":"I've decided to spare everyone the trouble of reading daily installments of my internal debate over the election. Instead, I'm storing all my thoughts in a nice file that I'll...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2004"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2004","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2004"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12899\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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