Crossposted at MLW
I am so sick and tired of the Republican attack dogs and their presidential candidate “whining” about the lack of news coverage their candidate is getting. Despite the fact of its inherent untruth; no one has been allowed to make more gaffes than Senator McCain and his supporters. The once media darling is now complaining that he can’t get any coverage. Well, let’s examine what Mr. McCain has been doing the last week while Senator Obama was touring the world. Mr. McCain and his surrogates used every opportunity they could find to attack and try to discredit Senator Obama. Whatever happen to the pledge to campaign on the issues and take the high road, no swift-boating for McCain. That lasted maybe a week.
While Senator Obama was addressing a record crowd in Berlin, Mr. McCain was in a small German restaurant in Columbus, Ohio. Now while that trip to Columbus may be newsworthy in the Mayberry Gazette, it can hardly compare to the speech Senator Obama gave before 200,000 cheering Germans. Now granted I’ll admit that for the first time in the history of America a black man is traversing the globe speaking and acting Presidential and may one day lead the free world is news. I’m sorry it is a compelling story for so many reasons and not only in America but around the world. But regardless of the historical value of the candidate, even if this were another campaign between two white males John McCain would still be boring.
I’m sorry but this guy is the most boring candidate I can remember in recent memory. Knowing what they were facing, how the Republicans could nominate this guy just shows they recognize they haven’t got a snowballs chance in hell of winning this election. The country and the world is hungry for change and they trot out a 71 year old who can’t even send email as their candidate for change. Change of what his diaper? There is no excitement around this guy’s campaign and his supporters appear just to be going through the motions. They try to defend him and rally support around him, but he is as charismatic as day old beer. So before you start hammering the media for their coverage of Senator Obama take a look at your candidate and what he is bringing to the table.
Riding around in a golf cart with the elder Bush is not going to bring the reporters out in droves, I think there was a Brittany Spears sighting somewhere or was it Hannah Montana. If this is the campaign we have to look forward to let’s just call it off now and save ourselves a lot of time and money. I saw McCain shopping at the grocery store with “average Americans” and he looked dumbfounded. He looked like the kind of guy that hadn’t been to the grocery store in years, does this sound familiar? If John McCain is suppose to resurrect images of Ronald Reagan he has a long way to go. So far the only parts he has gotten right are the forgetting of facts and the naps.
If John McCain wins this election then it will come down to one fact and one fact only. It won’t be because Barack Obama is too young or inexperienced, it won’t be because he is too liberal, and it won’t be because he is not a leader. It will be because when it was time to close the deal the American public could not see themselves being led by a black man. It reminds me of all those times I was interviewing for jobs and I left the interviews excited thinking I had the job in the bag. I mean on many occasions I would be introduced to the top brass and given the royal tour, only to be told that a call would be forthcoming. The problem is that in many of those situations the call was never forthcoming. Sometimes we are enamored by the idea of something, but then when it is actually time to implement or to accept the reality of the idea we hesitate. Does this mean that those people who wanted to hire me and didn’t were racists. I don’t know it is not for me to judge, but what I do know is that there is such a thing as buyers remorse.
Let’s face it we are about to do something that even the founders of this nation would never have conceived of. While there are many who will say, “it’s about time”. Let’s not forget that there are many who are unwilling or ill-prepared for that day. So while Senator Obama is currently the “media darling” that could change in a New York minute. The press and the wing-nuts have already begun to call him the “messiah’ and the “anointed one”, it just goes to show you how seriously they take their “so-called” religion. Religion is fine for them so long as it is for the downtrodden and the natives.
John McCain has done just about everything wrong a candidate at this stage of the election could do and yet the polls are still relatively close. My personal belief is that Obama is going to win and win big. There are just too many things wrong with this nation to continue with business as usual and Mr. McCain is offering nothing in the way of solutions or new ideas. His latest new idea is to set a timetable for withdrawal in Iraq and to open up Alaskan and offshore drilling for oil as if the answers to the questions Americans are asking is to continue down this road to destruction.
You want better coverage Mr. McCain and you Republicans get a better candidate. But don’t blame the public if we don’t won’t to spend our time listening to Mr. McCain fumble through another acceptance speech or answer a difficult question. It is not our fault that your candidate is not very interesting. It is not our fault that your candidate represents the past. It is not our fault that your Party is bankrupt of any new ideas or answers for the future. It is not our fault that we are living through what many Americans see as a crossroads or a historical period in this nation’s history. It is not our fault that the majority of this country is tired of the politics of fear and division. Really, it’s not our fault!
Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever persuasion, religious or political. – Thomas Jefferson