Not too long ago (February 14 to be exact) we at Winkest Link expressed our displeasure about how often opponents just make up s*** to trash the president.

In the political arena we don’t mind a little hyperbole. Politics, after all, is hardball, so….

1. GOP: Feel free to say Democrats spend tax dollars like drunken sailors.
2. Dems: Go ahead and say the GOP are heartless bastards who only care about their rich friends.

It is okay to say both of these things because they have just enough truth to qualify as hyperbole. They are not outright lies.

‘Hyperbole’ is not how you would describe the statements by Michelle Bachmann in the attached article. These are lies. She is making up s***.

Ignore the John Wayne comments. She was in Iowa, John Wayne was born in Iowa. Close enough. (Okay, it is a LITTLE bit humorous that Waterloo, the town she was bragging up, was once the home of John Wayne Gacy).

But the rest of it is typical Bachmann, and comes from the GOP playbook.

Just make s*** up, repeat it and repeat it.

The GOP plays to an important axiom: A microphone in your face gives you the appearance of credibility. People will believe whatever you say as long as they would otherwise agree with you.

And never apologize. Apologizing is NOT in the playbook.

Democrats are not clean on this issue either. They too get snagged for specious statements.

But this is not a rare occurrence for Republicans. It is not a slip-up, it is a tactic. This is a scorched-earth strategy that makes people hate all politicians. They will even use it against fellow Republicans if they have to.

Let us examine a Carl Rove example, since he pretty much wrote the playbook on how to trash your opponent.

Early in the 2000 Republican primaries John McCain was gaining some momentum against George W. Bush. Rove, for Bush, “push-polled” South Carolina, auto-dialing thousands of people, telling them John McCain had a biracial child out of wedlock. (Yes, McCain has a ‘biracial’ child, an adopted daughter from Bangladesh.)

It worked. Bush beat war-veteran McCain in South Carolina, which eventually led to Bush taking the GOP nomination, etc.

The ‘biracial child out of wedlock’ story wasn’t hyperbole, it was a crass attempt to stir up racist sentiment in South Carolina.

Make up s***, scorched earth.

Nowadays there are outlets to double-check these statements, most notably politifact.com, but it doesn’t matter too much. People believe what they want to believe, in spite of documented evidence to the contrary. How else can you explain the high percent of Iowa Republicans who STILL believe Barack Obama was not born in the U.S.?

Make up s***. It sticks.

Republicans refused to provide additional health benefits for 9-11 responders.

The above statement is not made up, is not from ‘The Onion’.

What guiding principle would cause the GOP to delay any sort of aid for 9-11 responders?

Let say it all together now…… “Tax Cuts for the wealthy!”

For years you have heard that only the GOP cares about 9-11 and, by extension, America.

Fact: Everybody everywhere agreed with the Obama plan to reduce taxes for all income less than $250,000.

This would never be enough for Boehner, etc. All government would stop unless tax cuts were extended to those over $250G.

Obama caved, and offered tax cuts to those making less than $1,000,000 per year.

Even THAT was not enough. To repeat, tax breaks for all income less than $1,000,000 per year was still not enough.

They talk about veterans, they talk about 9-11, but, when push comes to shove, which 2% of Americans do they really-really-really care about?

Their argument tends to be ‘tax breaks for the extremely wealthy stimulate the economy.’

This is so obviously wrong. The tax rates they are defending are the same ones that have been in place for the last 10 years. The same ones that lead us into our current recession. These rates are NOT pulling us out of this recession.

When did we last have a booming economy? During the 90’s, the Clinton era, when the tax rates were higher on the upper class.

GOP hatred of all things ‘Clinton’ is so strong, that they simply deny that obviously provable fact.  Okay, maybe it is not simply a hatred of Clinton. Maybe it is just an overwhelming compulsion to gift the very most wealthy among us.

Brief Summary….
Clinton Era:  Higher taxes for the wealthy – economy booms, plenty of jobs.
Bush Era:  Massive tax breaks for the wealthy – economy crashes, years of poor job growth.

It is mystifying that anybody anywhere thinks the GOP cares about the ‘little guy.’  They do not care about the poor, even the poor who make only $249,000 each year.

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John McCain found more that 6000 earmarks in this most recent budget, totaling more than $6 billion.

Horrible, right?

The tax breaks for the wealthy will cost the U.S. $700 billion.

$6 billion versus $700 billion.

Go ahead, guess which dollar figure Sen. McCain is more apoplectic about…

High political season tends to elevate my blood pressure. The vitriol of the last presidential election raised my hackles, and caused me to write multiple articles about the, shall we say, ‘disputable’ accusations that were raised.

To reduce this stress, and because I didn’t want to seem obsessed with her, I decided a while back to stop writing about Sarah Palin.  I figured the sooner we all stopped paying attention to her, the sooner America’s political IQ would raise back up.

Not only has she not disappeared, she is now omnipresent.

Critical things to know about Mrs. Palin:

• She loves her family, just like I do.
• She (presumably) goes to church, just like I do. (And not one of those pagan, tree-loving churches. A real-live American Christian church.)
• She loves America and our troops, just like I do.

I know LOTS of people, really smart people, who love their family, go to church, and support America and our troops.

While family, church and country appear to be her top selling points, her REAL top selling point is that she is a celebrity. She is famous for being famous.

She has a combination of two things I truly detest: A smug religious superiority (that her fans tend to share), and TV celebrity.

She has done nothing, literally nothing, in her life. Had she completed her one term as Governor of Alaska I could count that as an achievement. Quitting made her a failure at that. Quitters are quitters. Period.

But she is still a celebrity. And (monetarily) that is worth much-much more. When a celebrity says ‘Obama is a socialist’ they get hired, for millions, by FOX. And the speech money? Don’t get me started…

I don’t hate Sarah, really!  I just hate pea-brains. I hate pea-brained liberals and I hate pea-brained conservatives.

The difference?  Pea-brained liberals are out protesting maltreatment of chickens, while pea-brained conservatives are leading contenders for president.

And you know what else? Sarah knows she isn’t very bright. If she was sharp, she would have no fear of real news shows. Instead of appearing solely on smooch-fests at FOX, she would go on network TV. Real TV.

Mitt Romney does it all the time. John McCain has, literally hundreds of times. Why? Because they are smart, and can handle hard questions.

She can’t deal with ‘Meet the Press’?  How would she ever be able to deal with the Chinese, Putin and the Middle East?

God bless you John McCain.

War hero. Alleged iconoclast.

You now tell us you never considered yourself a maverick. Really? Never?

Did you read your autobiography, or at least the COVER of your autobiography?

You are an extremely smart man. You know the word “autobiography” indicates you wrote the book, about yourself. You did write it, didn’t you?

Toward the end of the health care debate you declared you would not work with the president for the rest of the year. (This was in February)

Really, the rest of the year? No matter the topic? Even in areas where you agree with the president?

This precludes thought and makes you, Senator McCain, irrelevant, and even unnecessary. We can just put a monkey in that chair to push the ‘no’ button.

Arizona has had a tradition of choosing great senators, both Democrats and Republicans. Carl Hayden, Barry Goldwater, Dennis DeConcini, and yes you, John McCain.

(It is of note that both DeConcini and McCain were implicated in the “Keating 5” scandal)

Senator McCain, you have now renounced all your previous views on immigration, on “don’t ask don’t tell,” on working across party lines for the betterment of society, even on being a ‘maverick.’

My guess is you could stave off any Arizona Republican challenger without pandering, but apparently you are taking no chances.

Once you get by your lightweight opponent in the Republican primary, you will stomp an even lighter-weight Democratic opponent.

There used to be some good Dems in Arizona. Whatever happened with that?

Where have the Udall’s gone?

Oh, to Colorado and New Mexico….

In my September 1, 2009 article I made a perfectly rational argument that members of the U. S. House of Representatives are morons, compared to those who reside in the Senate.

I would like to update you on that, and let you know that I was mistaken, and the House members have really shown me the error of my ways.

I would LIKE to tell you that, but that would be inaccurate. Instead, I have more evidence of the IQ vacuum in the House.

As you know by now, during President Obama’s health care address to Congress Rep. Joe Wilson (Idiot-SC) shocked many observers when he shouted, “You lie!” after the president denied that health care legislation would provide free coverage for illegal immigrants.

There is protocol for how to behave when the President of the United States addresses a joint session of Congress. When he says something you like you applaud (standing is optional). When he says something you DON’T like, you sit, stony-faced. We adopted this concept from the British for whom (aside from soccer riots) protocol and proper behavior are extremely important.

Many members of the House, because they are not bright as a rule, are a little out of touch with the concept of proper behavior.

Afterward, according to Wilson, Republican congressional leaders told him that they wanted him to contact the White House and indicate that his comments were “inappropriate.”

Yes, he had to be told to apologize. Maybe he would have thought of that on his own. Maybe.

Republican John McCain called Wilson’s outburst “totally disrespectful” and added there was “no place for it in that setting or any other and he should apologize immediately.”

McCain, a Senator, gets it. He has the requisite IQ and comportment to be a Senator.

Need more evidence about the IQ of House members? During the same speech, Rep. Louie Gohmert (Dufus-Tx), wore a hand-drawn sign around his neck that said, “What bill?” Congressman Gohmert, did you get that cute idea from your nine year-old grandson? Maybe next time you can wear Mickey Mouse ears!

Watch the tape. No Senators wore hand-drawn signs around their necks.

More than one Congressman was seen sending text messages DURING the president’s speech. You would never, ever see a Senator doing that.

Other members of the House, when Obama asked Republicans to share their ideas, waived a stack of papers above their heads. What a great stunt! How long did it take you guys to come up with something that clever?

Were any Senators waiving stacks of paper? No.

Do you wonder why the audiences at the town-halls are so disrespectful? Why do they shout each other down and threaten those who disagree with them? Their congressmen lead the way.

House members aren’t bright enough to insist on civil discourse. They don’t even understand civil discourse.

Dear members of the House: Watch how the Senate works. It won’t fix your IQ problem, but you might just learn some manners.
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The Senate has voted to block expansion of one of the country’s most controversial and expensive defense programs, the F-22 fighter jet. The vote gave the White House and Pentagon a key victory over congressional supporters of the F-22, many of whom represent states and districts where jobs are tied to the production of the jet.

The President didn’t want it.

John McCain didn’t want it.

The military didn’t want it.

The Air Force recently reported that the F-22 requires more than 30 hours of maintenance for every flight hour, The Office of the Secretary of Defense put that figure at 34 hours of maintenance per single hour of flight.

Thirty to thirty-four hours of maintenance for every hour of flight? Is this worse than helicopters? (Note: helicopters require tons of maintenance)

The primary cause of its maintenance is a constant need to repair radar-absorbing metallic skin.

Another source of maintenance problems is that many components require custom hand-fitting and are not interchangeable.

Non-interchangeable parts? What a boondoggle!

Why did it take so long to kill this beast? Because your congressmen and senators insisted on keeping it, Democrats and Republicans alike.

In the olden days (50+ years ago) the military budget increased because the military kept asking for new and expensive weaponry. Congress pretty much always gave them everything they wanted.

In more recent years an interesting change has happened. The military budget is increasing because Congress has been ordering weapons that the military doesn’t even want. The F-22 is but one example.

This is the ultimate pork. It is safe to assume many in Congress knew these weapons would NEVER be used. They were just spending money to create jobs in their districts.

Disgraced ex-Senator Ted Steven’s $398 million ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ was horribly wasteful, but at least it would have helped 35 people get from the island they live on to the mainland Alaska. This is positively frugal when compared to Congress-ordered weapons programs.

Because they face reelection every two years, Congressmen are never NOT running for reelection. They repeatedly vote to maintain useless weapons programs and start new ones because it keeps money going to their districts, which keep getting them re-elected. This is my money, and your money, being poured down a rat hole.

Creating jobs is not a horrible idea. It shouldn’t take a rocket scientist (like me) to find better ways to create jobs.

Rather than building a $2 billion weapon that doesn’t work (and the military doesn’t even want), how about fixing an interstate bridge (see Minneapolis) before it falls into the river? How disruptive was the missing bridge to the Minnesota economy?

Our infrastructure, bridges, roads, highways, sewage systems, etc, are old and crumbling. The stimulus package is aimed at resolving that.

Ending crazy pork projects like the F-22 can help fund the stimulus package.

John McCain, according to one of his most perceptive & persistent critics, has struggled throughout his career to balance his principles and his ambitions, to reconcile the code of honor instilled in him as a boy with the insistent demands of political expedience. His worst moments in public office, this critic has charged, have come when he has failed to put country first – opposing a holiday for Martin Luther King Jr. to bolster his conservative credibility in Arizona, concealing his abhorrence of the Confederate flag to troll for votes in South Carolina. And before you judge, you should know that the critic in question is John McCain, who has explored and deplored his own flaws in remarkable detail in his books and speeches and has apologized for them with candor that is rare in a politician. In 2000, after sidestepping the flag issue during his first presidential campaign, he returned to South Carolina to flay himself for pandering. “I don’t seek absolution,” he said. “I can only try to resist future temptations to abandon principle for expediency.”

Well, that was in 2000. Obviously the temptations of the presidency were great. Some of the honor which he values so highly slipped thru his fingers in implying that the election of Barack Obama would not just be a boon to terrorists, but that Obama is in fact a friend of terrorists.

The honorable John McCain would never make such statements. He knows and likes Barack Obama, and knows Obama would fight terrorism. He knows Obama loves America as much as he does.

Terrible things come out of our mouths when we aspire to higher office. Things that dishonor us.

Both parties use hatchet men (and women) to tear down their opponent, but we heard much less ‘character assassination’ type of attack from the Obama camp.

Curiously not until the last days of the campaign did any Republican ads run the infamous “God Damn America” clip. Even then, they were run by some Republican operative, and not approved by McCain.

No doubt McCain demanded that “God Damn America” not be used in his name. This is the honorable side of McCain.  

Too bad. We could have used a lot more of that during the campaign.  

We were not surprised to hear his extremely gracious concession speech. That was the real McCain. The McCain we knew and loved. He understood the magnitude of the moment, was self-effacing, funny and smart. In a word, honorable.

We suspect Senator McCain will be the statesman that Bob Dole and Barry Goldwater became when they lost their last presidential bids. Finally free of any higher aspirations, they were no longer burdened by the need to chase votes, and could speak their mind. No longer would they pretend to support distasteful issues.

Senator McCain, feel free to cast aside the yolk of ideology and follow your heart.

And welcome back.

We missed you.

The phrase ‘jumping the shark’ is taken from the TV show ‘Happy Days’.  In one episode, Fonzie literally jumps over a shark on water skis. (For those of you born after 1979, Happy Days was a 1970’s TV show that was set between 1957 & 1962.  Fonzie was a leather-clad biker who, in a few episodes, jumped over various objects on his motorcycle. We swear, this was a VERY POPULAR show.)

The most common TV version of ‘jumping the shark’ is when one of the main characters becomes pregnant or gets married. Anything, anything to breathe new life into the series.

John McCain is a serious man with serious ideas. On occasion he has been willing to take on his party or president. When did the bell toll for him? When did his campaign ‘jump the shark’? 

When he chose as his running mate, an attractive moose-shooting Governor of Alaska.

At the time of the decision his poll numbers were comparable to Obama’s. One can only assume he really feared he had no more ‘juice’ to win additional voters. He obviously felt his numbers were slipping, and people were starting to believe in the charismatic Obama. The McCain campaign needed new life. Right?

Desperate action was needed! 

With a long life of national public service, John McCain must personally know hundreds of capable Republicans. So who did he select? A person he met one time, and talked with on the phone one other time. The vetting process took approximately 2 ½ hours.

We know for sure he was drawn to the part of her act that says she “took on” big oil in Alaska when, in fact, she is pro big-oil. This allowed him to call her a ‘maverick’ too!  And did you notice how attractive she is? And a female at that!!  Win-win-win!

Maybe using lobbyists as advisors is not the best idea. (See our previous article, “The Incredible Shrinking McCain”)

We are guessing when he chose her, he thought she could name all three countries in North America. He probably assumed she had been governor too short a period of time to be charged with any sort of unethical behavior.

Eventually, her lack of gravitas was sure to surface. And the ethics violations. Happily, these occurred before the election. Republican insider revelations of her ‘diva’ behavior did not surface until after the election.

A more conventional pick, even a boring old white male, would have given Senator McCain a better chance. At least a fighting chance.

Don’t blame “Sexy Sarah” for the loss. She performed her “hot-looking bomb-thrower” role to perfection.

It was McCain who chose her, and McCain who paid the price.

The pizzazz she gave to the campaign was sure fun while it lasted though, wasn’t it?

And this one.

And this one.

I am glad to see that America has picked the better candidate. He plans to get our economy rolling by eliminating taxes for the rich, because we all know they desperately need to keep five houses and three yachts in a crisis like this. He is also very smart when it comes to balancing the budget, planning to reduce military benefits like health care and the pesky cost of “PTSD” complainers. Another big budget cut is education, smart move. Why think about our future if the economy is bad now? And I know that McCain will lead us strongly through whatever crises we may face, because I have not yet mentioned that he faced a crisis while deployed in Vietnam. If you haven’t yet heard, he was a Prisoner of War that spent time in a Viet Cong Prisoner of War camp as a Prisoner of War, and he was way more deserving of his Purple Heart than that crazy liberal John Kerry. Did I mention McCain was a POW?

Sarah Palin is hard at work already as well. Two and a half months before she is officially VP she already has issued binoculars to the Alaskan Independence Party to make sure no Russians are hopping across the Bering Strait. Eventually, with the help of her husband, she plans to make Alaska its own nation, and I’m sure we all support her goal.

In celebration of this major victory, Dick Cheney fired a shotgun shell into the air and accidentally shot a quail in the face.

After finding out about the victory, current President George Bush gave John McCain a great big hug.

But I digress, we Americans will enjoy the next four years, just have we have enjoyed the prosperity of the last eight.

Once again, CONGRATULATIONS JOHN McCAIN FOR BEING ELECTED THE 44TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

10:56 CST: Kasson:  Even better if it was Tancredo

10:32 CST: Cessna: McCain’s speech was definitely a great one. It is truly a shame that he had to be the Republican candidate in this election. I would have felt better had it been Huckabee or Romney.

10:12 CST: Cessna: I am proud to say I was a part of this, I canvassed for Barack in Iowa and Nebraska, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Even when those to UP trains tried to slow us down.

10:04 CST: Ike: It is now official. Senator Barack Obama is officially the next President of the United States.

10:02 CST: Kasson: CNN now projects victory for Obama.

9:50 CST: Cessna: Check out WGN, I love looking at the Barack party in Chicago.

9:36 CST: Cessna: Obama currently leads 207-135 on MSNBC, 207-135 on CNN, and its apparently a dead heat according to FOX News at 0-0. This may be the only time I ever say this, but I prefer FOX News in this instance.

9:31 CST: Kasson: The senate race is interesting in Minnesota between Franken and Coleman.  So far Franken is up, but neither has 50% of the vote.

9:09 CST: Cessna: McCain is up in Nebraska by 1%, how much money do you want to bet that only 3 cities are currently reporting?

9:00 CST: Kasson: Time for some real news, Indecision 2008.

8:39 CST: Cessna: Obama is only up by 1% in popular vote and is (projected) up 110 electoral votes. Something might be wrong with the electoral college.

8:34 CST: Ike: At this rate, McCain might not even win 211.

8:30 CST: Kasson: I had a dream McCain won 411 electoral votes. I’m glad that wont happen.

8:19 CST: Kasson: Ohio goes to Obama. As you have heard 30 times now, no Republican has won without Ohio.

8:06 CST: Ike: The Senate has officially gone Democrat, with the latest count at 51-33. This will be the third year in a row that the U.S. has a Democratic Senate!

8:04 CST: Kasson: Hey I’m back and ready to catch up.

8:00 CST: Ike: McCain has picked up two more states, Wyoming and North Dakota, giving him a shocking jump of 6 electoral votes.

7:36 CST: Wink: Current election tally is 103-58 electoral votes in Obama’s favor. MSNBC has called Georgia for McCain. On that subject, McCain has been quoted saying, “That’s just peachy.”

7:01 CST: Wink: The newest tally is 77-34 in Obama’s favor. This is without California, mind you, but does include the majority of New England.

6:54 CST: Ike: As poor as things are going for him right now, Obama should be able to count on some electoral votes from his home states of Hawaii and Illinois, but probably will not pick up any votes in his home states of Kansas and Kenya.

6:47 CST: Wink: Electoral vote is 16-3 in McCain’s favor. If only Vermont votes for Obama, this could be the biggest upset in U.S. history!

6:30 CST: Ike: Early in Florida, Obama has a lead on McCain. However, the older people are still trying to get to the booth, so take this with a grain of salt.

6:02 CST: Ike: Senator McCain has jumped out to an early 8-3 lead in electoral votes. An upset in the making?

5:36 CST: Kasson: I will have to leave you with Ike and Wink for the next couple hours, as I have to go.

5:28 CST: Kasson: Welcome to the Winkest Link Liveblog of the action