I was just on and saw the two new Obama ads they have said are dishonest. Spanish, and Seniors
I know it’s politics but this kind of thing really gets so fucking old. I support Obama and think his campaign has been the cleaner of the two, but IMO that doesn’t excuse these ads. If both campaigns are willing to eagerly distort the truth do we vote according to who lied the least. Obama needs to stop his campaign from distributing this kind of bullshit. He can still fight back hard and call them on their distortions without resorting to the same tactics. This undermines his call for a better political discussion and real problem solving.
Just Stop it!! When a presidential candidate puts his name on and ad in approval, it ought to dam well mean something.
As for the ad in Spanish, I could agree with the dishonest charge but for some bothersome details:
Most of the defense comes from declaring the quotes are out of context, I would say that it is mostly the blogs or media being fair to el rushbo. However saying it was out of context is stretching it IMHO. The problem was that that option means that the intention was not to insult immigrants but Mexicans, the problem I see in calling the ad dishonest is that the critics are not taking into account that most of the immigrants the ad is targeting were or are Mexican or of Mexican descent.
Many defenders of Rush had to admit it was not the best way to make a point:
“If you are unskilled and uneducated, your job is going south. Skilled workers, educated people are going to do fine 'cause those are the kinds of jobs NAFTA is going to create. If we are going to start rewarding no skills and stupid people, I’m serious, let the unskilled jobs that take absolutely no knowledge whatsoever to do – let stupid and unskilled Mexicans do that work.”
Of course, the defenders are also making the point it was Rush just joking, ha ha, you can not take a joke? Funny thing is many of the listeners of Rush do not see that it supposed to be.
Just like ESPN did not see the funny when Rush stumbled on a very unfortunate way to compare black and white quarterbacks, I do not see the funny here.
One very silly defense being mentioned is that Rush and McCain do not agree with each other, this is ignoring on purpose the latest news: after McCain choose Palin Rush has jumped to his camp. And so far the worse McCain has said on Rush has been that not all people on the right will support him, but that was before Rush had his conversion; now with that obstacle gone and as McCain decided to run hard to the right, it is clear that now it is the time to ask McCain if he still respects Rush.
I actually believe both McCain and Obama are, for the most part, honest and earnest. And I wish they’d stand by their original vow to run a clean campaign so that we can all make a decision based on their ideas for managing the country.
For the most part, I suppose they are. Though not sure if you can consider someone who hands his campaign to that vile specimen Schmidt honest. But they’ll lie to win, like any politician. They have no choice. Honest people just lose, because, sadly, people like shooting the messenger when news is bad. Example: McCain getting blasted because he says the auto jobs aren’t coming back.
It’s unfortunate that people are so eager to swallow falsehoods but I think we need a push to fight back aggressively by making dishonesty in politics a major issue. With Bush’s history the time is right. Hammer them mercilessly on every lie told and make it about trust. We trusted the Bush campaign promises and look where it got us.
You can’t do that credibly if you use the same tactics.
I think the dishonesty comes with equating McCains attitude with those specific words from RL. A better and more honest ad might have pointed out that while McCain claims to have supported favorable immigration laws he recently dropped support for HIS OWN BILL. Stress that regardless of his Maverick claims , he’s shown that he won’t stand up for the Latinos against his own party.