The Winkest Link

Eight years ago then-candidate Bush promised to be a hands-across-the-aisle, bring-us-all-together sort of candidate & president.

Of course he was just the opposite, running the dirtiest campaign (and presidency) in decades. (When Nixon looks good by comparison, you have besmirched the office…)

Early in the 2000 primaries John McCain was gaining some momentum. 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.  No tactic was too low for George Bush 

This year when Sen. McCain took control in the Republican primaries he repeatedly said Americans were tired of the smear tactics and promised he would run a different type of campaign.  We presume he meant he would stick to the issues and not smear his opponent (at the time it was down to Obama or Clinton) the way he had been trashed by Bush.

The WinkestLink staff argued about whether he really would stick to the promise of a clean campaign.  We ended up deciding he would NOT fight dirty for the following reasons:

-         He is an honorable man, who has tended to ‘do the right thing’ both in the Senate & the military

-         He would still be seething over the use of this tactic by Bush against him.

When poll numbers started to turn south, it was time for McCain to end all pretense of clean campaigning.  Curiously, McCain hired the same Bush campaign thugs who trashed him eight years earlier, to learn what type of smears will best bring down Obama.

We DID, however, expect Sarah Palin to act as an attack dog.  She showed this tendency in all her previous positions.  In fairness, we expect this of all veep candidates, and Joe Biden also performs this function.

The difference is in the type of the attack.  Saying your opponent will raise taxes is a fair tactic. (It is always nice if you have some facts to back up that type of claim).

Implying your opponent is un-American and/or supports terrorists is WAY out of bounds. By the way, saying it and implying it are exactly the same.  

These smears have nothing to do with what McCain (or even Obama) will do to right the tilting ship-of-state that is the US.  They are only designed to destroy the credibility of the other candidate.

Thus, we at WinkestLink are deeply saddened.  The accusations against Obama are old charges but,

Bring on the smears…

McCain/Palin now use the word ‘terrorist’ more & more frequently in the same sentence as ‘Obama’.  This type of tactic worked wonders for Bush against John Kerry.  (Actually Bush used it successfully for years, exploiting our fears to start a war he really wanted, Iraq, and impugning the patriotism of everyone who ever questioned him.)

It doesn’t end with terrorism.  The former minister of Obama’s former church once said “God Damn America”.  (I bet you remember that, since it has been replayed approximately three gazillion times by the liberal press.)  Now McCain operatives have begun to say “God Damn America” and “Obama” in the same sentence frequently.

For the longest time McCain tried to use the phrase “not ready” to describe Obama, but apparently that did not scare people enough.  After the initial “Palin bump” the poll numbers started going back down, and it became time to bring out the nuclear arsenal of catchphrases, including ‘terrorism’ and ‘God Damn America’.

These don’t tell you anything about how McCain will govern or solve our problems, but it may just be enough to scare you away from voting for Obama.

These are, of course, diversionary tactics.  They lead voters the opposite direction from actual issues that may affect their lives.  (We can’t EVEN imagine what kind of scurrilous comments would have been brought out had Hillary been the nominee.)

                        SUMMARY

Is Obama a terrorist?   No.  

Did he ever support terrorism?   No.

Did Obama say “God Damn America.”   No.

Does Obama support our troops?   Duh.

Does Obama love America as much as McCain?  Diehard conservatives will have to swallow hard on this one … Obama may just love America more, because he trusts the intelligence of Americans enough to not divert them from real issues.

Get the facts:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/04/palin.obama/index.html?imw=Y&iref=mpstoryemail

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/05/fact-check-is-obama-palling-around-with-terrorists/

(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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