Desperate to try and distract Americans from focusing on possibly the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression, Sen. John McCain, trailing behind Barack Obama for the presidency, has given the OK to unleash their one and only weapon to try and destroy his opponent’s character. So his vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin is attacking Obama and loving it! Palin is accusing Obama of “pallin’ around with terrorists.” She specifically cites his links to Bill Ayres. Ayres is a former terrorist-turned-education professor, whose Weather Underground group bombed the Pentagon in the 1960s (when Obama was eight years old) and with whom Obama worked on community projects in the mid-1990s.
There is less than a month until the election, and McCain trails Obama in every major poll in the United States and even worse in the Electoral College — with Obama now leading in states normally reserved for Republicans. Last week, the McCain campaign suddenly pulled out Michigan, deciding it was no longer worth campaigning there. Republicans are frightened about how the economy discussion has hurt the McCain-Palin ticket and so now it is time to paint Obama as a scary black bogeyman who can’t be trusted. The McCain campaign has allowed individuals take to the podium and call out the name Barack Hussein Obama with such disdain that crowds are jeering with irrational anger. Seeming to revel in the disturbing twist of the campaign, Palin continues on her stump stirring the waters of anti-Obama attitudes as well as hatred toward Arabs and Muslims by association.
Obama, according to them, is not patriotically American because his middle name is Hussein. Secret Service is so concerned about death threats against him they are now investigating the situation.
The problem with the McCain-Palin tactic is there is no strategy in place to take on Obama at the level of issues. The Republican Party is on skid row.
Not leaving anything to chance, the Obama campaign has employed an eye-for-an-eye, tooth-for-a-tooth stratagem painting McCain as erratic, temperamental and not so steady in his decision-making. The Obama campaign launched an online offensive against McCain who was accused of improperly aiding his political patron and longtime friend, Charles Keating, chairman of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association. The bipartisan Senate Ethics Committee launched investigations, and although he was exonerated, McCain was formally reprimanded for his role in the scandal. Many feel the financial crisis the United States is in now has similarities to the Keating scandal. The Obama campaign remembers the tragic presidential campaign failures of Sen. John Kerry and former Vice President Al Gore. Both failed to fight back against George W. Bush in 2004 and 2000 when character accusations were initiated. When the Republicans came after Kerry and Gore, they laid down like rugs waiting to be walked on.
The second debate between Obama and McCain did not bode well for McCain and he is running scared. With one more debate coming on Wednesday before the election, it is quite easy to predict that Sarah “Barracuda,” a name she goes by and owns and McCain will continue to go on the strike of trying to make Obama into someone who does not see America like they do and should be stopped.
Despite their attempted diversions, American voters are more worried about food, shelter and clothing. Meanwhile, the Obama camp can take comfort from the fact that the election hinges on a handful of battleground states where opinion polls show Obama is making significant gains against McCain.
— Yvonne R. Davis is a freelance writer based in Connecticut, US. ([email protected])
