Written by Harris M. | 08 September 2008

As the McCain campaign continues to browbeat an increasingly fawning broadcast media crowd, it's important to remember exactly what happened last week during the republican national convention.

Watching parts of John McCain's acceptance speech really did feel like a Twilight Zone moment. There was Mr. 'I voted with George Bush 90% of the time' trying to convince us he wants to change Washington...a Washington in which he's been a foot solider for at least the past 7-8 years of the Bush Administration.

As I watched McCain stand there with a straight face telling the public he is a reformer who will bring about change -- as I sat shaking my head in disbelief -- I wondered whether or not he should be cited for plagiarizing not just Barak Obama's speech but his entire campaign message.

We now are supposed to believe 72 year old McCain is the one who can lead us into the 21st century in the categories of foreign policy, the economy, technology, etc. etc. etc.  But according to his speech, he's going to 'change' government using all or most of George Bush's wrongheaded policies.

 

In McCain's latest flip-flop (from experience to change), what we have is another admission that Barak Obama was right and John McCain was wrong when he spent weeks telling us Obama was nothing more than a celebrity; and telling us that experience was what mattered most. Apparently not.

In his attempt to morph into a completely different person, McCain criticized Washington politics. Selecting to skewer George Bush AFTER getting his endorsement for president doesn't make McCain a reformer. Bush has become an albatross around the republicans' necks so it's easy to use him and dump him overboard.

McCain's speech was too little, too late for a great number of people wondering just which McCain showed up Thursday night.

Taking on an administration after supporting it so thoroughly -- then jumping on the 'change' bandwagon --is not the kind of change I and many other independent minded people believe in.

For many, the issue of change isn't a flavor-of-the-week which can be picked up and put down when politically expedient.


> Who? Me?
After controlling Washington for almost a decade, the republicans are begging for another chance. At one point, they controlled the White House, the Senate and the House. They had the keys to the Kingdom, essentially, and ended up running this country into the ground. Complete with their own sordid sex and corruption scandals!

McCain, though, is giving speeches as if he had no part in it whatsoever. He was not the one who opposed the Iraq war. Obama was.  McCain thinks the problem with Iraq is a management issue instead of a distracting mistake from catching the real Sept 11 murderers; most of whom came from Saudi Arabia, by the way.

McCain was not the one calling for a timeline to bring the troops out of Iraq. The Iraqi prime minister was (see CNN.com). After attempts to browbeat Obama with 'cut and run' politics, the Iraqi PM knee-capped that Bush-McCain talking point. Bush is now cooperating with the creation of a timetable for withdrawal. (Timetable is a definition of timeline by the way).

McCain was not the one out front on the issue of universal healthcare. That was Hillary Clinton. Matter of fact, McCain wants to let the market decide how much you should pay for healthcare.

If you think $4 a gallon gas was bad, just wait until the markets get to determine the price of healthcare!

The market determined that a small 2-bedroom house in California was worth $750,000. The market determined SUVs were the bees-knees and energy efficient cars weren't salable. The market determined it would be cheaper for manufacturers to pollute than to spend extra money to make sure they weren't ruining the environment.    

The market also determined you were being paid too much money and that employers should ship your job to some other country where they would only have to pay employees 20 cents an hour (...if that much).

With shrinking wages, increasing unemployment, and record bankruptcies, we can hardly afford to catch a bad cold let alone deal with a massive illness. To let "the market" handle the price for how much you should pay to get well is almost diabolical.


>The Barracuda Blues
According to recent polls, and like a lot of women, I did not "fall in love" with Sarah Palin. Being a "pit bull" in a skirt is not enough to get my vote nor does she make McCain any more acceptable to non-republicans or moderate republicans.

Palin is anti-choice, anti-embryonic stem cell research, believes in creationism, wants abstinence-only programs taught in schools, and thinks humans have nothing to do with global warming (if she believes it at all). She doesn't want universal health care either. There goes the Hillary Clinton voters.

Palin is also currently under investigation in Alaska, took the money for the "Bridge to Nowhere" for her state, hired a lobbyist as Governor to get millions of dollars in earmarks, received donations from convicted felon Bill Allen, and was endorsed by indicted Senator Ted Stevens for Governor.

If that weren't bad enough, she has her own "pastor problem" and was apparently sympathetic to the fringe Alaska Independence Party (AIP) who pushed for Alaska's secession from the United States of America. You know, like how the Southern states seceded from the Union because they didn't want Northern liberals telling them how to treat their slaves?  

The founder of the Alaska Independence Party, Joe Vogler, said in 1991: "The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government. ... And I won't be buried under their damn flag."  

Palin visited the 2000 Alaska Independence Party's convention in 2000. She addressed their conventions in both 2006 and 2008.  Palin's husband was also a registered AIP member from 1995 to 2002, according to reports. (see article)

Why hasn't her patriotism been openly questioned yet? Can you imagine the fury which would ensue if Obama had a similar scandal?

I wonder whether or not the broadcast media would be more inclined to do some hard reporting on such issues if Palin literally looked like John McCain in a dress.

There is simply TOO many things wrong with her positions and her very recent past which causes problems for both the McCain campaign and her ability to reach those allegedly coveted Hillary Clinton supporters.

Interestingly enough, McCain's choice of Palin and jumping on the 'change' bandwagon has helped to add not only enthusiasm amongst Obama supports but also coat that enthusiasm with a healthy dose of anger.

Particularly noticeable is the anger around the way in which the republican party looked down their noses at urban cities, community organizers and basically anyone who doesn't live in a small town.

By many accounts, her Wednesday speech was smug and quite condescending to a particular section of the American population. The problem is there are many people who currently work in medium to large metropolitan cities or gigantic urban cities around the nation who don't think of themselves as godless troop-haters, devoid of family values.

Listening to republicans trying to reignite the culture wars during their convention last week was one thing. Watching the media get drawn into pulling their punches because they're caught up in Sarah Palin's personal story, is something else entirely.


> Please, baby, give me one more chance! I won't do it again. I promise!
Do republicans think the public is like a battered woman who gives her abusive husband chance after chance to make her life a living hell over and over again?

Nothing in Washington will change without consequences. Thus, rewarding republicans with yet another 4 years in hopes they will get it right is not a chance many independent minded people are willing to take.

No amount of political cross-dressing can hide the fact of republicans being in power these last 8 years. An 8 years which have brought about the ruination of so many hardworking Americans. And yes, many of whom live in small towns and voted against their own best interest in 2004 by re-electing George Bush.

I forget which public figure said we get the leaders we deserve. But no truer adage applies to our current election season.

Will this country act like a bunch of grown ups with a highly developed skill for analytical thinking in regards to their children's future? Or will this country act like a bunch of easily-scared, immature brats convinced that keeping the same party in power is "change"; brats who have no concept of how much their current actions will affect their future prosperity... or lack thereof?

Its true that change is the issue. McCain's brand of change is like changing the position of the deck chairs on the Titanic.

72 year old McCain is going to bring about 'change'? 'Change', my ass.