Is he a dangerous guy who is “palling around with terrorists” or his he a “decent family man” who we “shouldn’t be scared” to have as POTUS?
If he is associating himself with terrorists then why shouldn’t everyone be scared? If he is a decent family man, then why is McCain standing by Palin’s inflammatory remarks?
Or is this a case of McCain’s deteriorating campaign’s left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing?
I have voted GOP in every election my whole life. I am one step away from breaking that tradition…
It’s perfectly reasonable to say that Candidate A is a decent family man and an honest American, but that he doesn’t have the correct judgment to be President, and to present as evidence of that his association with unsavoury characters.
I’m not saying I agree with the criticism concerning his rather small acquaintance with Ayers, but it’s not logically inconsistent to say that a person is a decent family man but does not have the judgment to fill a particular job.
I think Palin has stopped with the claims of “palling around with a terrorist” (and moved on to abortion). So, I’m guessing that we’re supposed to think that Obama is a decent family man, and that nobody ever claimed otherwise. Into the memory hole!
However, if Palin (or someone else in the campaign) starts back up with the Ayers stuff, then I have no idea what the McCain campaign expects people to think.
You’re right - but that’s a far cry from “palling around with terrorists”. One makes it sound like the person has bad judgment, and the other makes it sound like the person is literally dangerous.
Palling around with terrorists is the message, repeated ad nauseum until the point where your more dimwitted and violent voters want to kill Obama for being a terrorist. At that point, you backpedal and say he’s a decent family man, and there’s nothing to be afraid of.
The reality is that McCain’s campaign has been saying terrible things about Obama in an effort to scare off voters, and didn’t quite realize just how dangerous that message will be with some people. Surprise, tell people that a guy is hanging out with terrorists, and a few of them will start thinking that assassination isn’t the worst option going.
Maybe, but the Palin quote doesn’t question Obama’s judgement, but rather his patriotism:
That quote comes pretty close to saying that Obama not only associated with Ayers, but that he hates America so much that he agreed with Ayers past terrorist attacks.
I can’t see being that dismissive of a comment like “palling around with terrorists”. That statement doesn’t imply an error in judgement. It implies a far more sinister purpose.
But then he is a “good family man”, so apparantly good family men across America have terrorist buddies as a routine part of life…
I think it is the right hand arguing with the left hand and the upper hand going to which ever way the polls seem to be blowing that day. McCain has run a campaign that really can only be described as erratic. He never did find a message and stick to it other than “POW” and “surge worked.” And now he’s still scrambling without success to find one that resonates.
But my curiousity persists … what’s keeping you (and by extension a host of Republicans who are none too happy with McCain’s campaign and finding Obama to show a steady hand and not be all that scary after all) that one step away?
The candidates may no longer be saying it outright on the campaign trail, but the disgusting McCain ads on Ayers are still running.
You’d think that, living as I do in true-blue Massachusetts, I wouldn’t see them, but they’re being run on the major Boston-area cable channels because those outlets reach a goodly chunk of New Hampshire.
Like I wrote in another thread.
Ayers is a English Professor at Univ. of Ill.
His title is Distinguished Professor
He has edited and written many books on educational theory and practice
He worked with Mayor Daly in shaping the reform of public schools.
He is one of 3 authors of the Annenberg Challenge which got a 49.2 million dollar grant to reform public education.
Since 1999 he has been on the board of Directors of Woods Foundation which works on anti poverty and philanthropy .
This is the terrorist Obama met.
He was involved with the Weathermen when Obama was 8. He was a community worker and a committed helper of the inner city poor.
I generally disagree with a larger role for government, but in this current economic situation, we need a degree of socialism to dig us out.
On social issues, I couldn’t disagree with Obama more. I’m against abortion, gun control, etc. and if Obama is elected, Stevens will retire and Obama will appoint a Justice who will guarantee Roe forever.
But, I can’t feed my family or pay my mortgage with illegal abortion or illegal gay marriage, so to speak.
I like Obama personally. I hated Clinton. Hated Gore, hated Kerry. I like Obama. He is a good family man and his heart is in the right place.
My “one step” is getting over what I have thought for my whole life, and making sure my Dad never finds out if I do vote for Obama.
I think part of it is that he planned for a more successful campaign. If McCain was doing well enough that his supporters could be confident then they would believe largely the same things but it wouldn’t make waves because people would keep it to themselves. In the present apocalyptic mood all kinds of ugly things come to light that weren’t meant to be seen.
What happens in the polling place is just between you and your conscience. (And the Diebold corporation.)
Just wanted to chime in and say that here in central Ohio, we’re still getting a crapton of Ayers ads in evening primetime. I lost count after six tonight.
John McCain has no message. He has no conviction except that he desperately wants to be President. He has no developed vision for America, or platform of his own, and that is why you see him floundering and flailing away, unsure of each step. As a result, he’s being buffeted by every wind that blows his way, or dancing to the strings of his right wing Republican fundie puppeteers.
He is easily swayed by the next or newest thought, woman, suggestion, pleasure, etc. Though he’d like all to believe he’s a maverick, he’s far from that. He’s a poor actor that has strut and fret his way on our stage of life, and soon we’ll hear no more from him. Won’t be a moment too soon.
He’s lived a long life, but in truth has not learned from his early days as a bully, a spoiled brat and an impulsive opportunist. This election more than any other has shone a bright spotlight on his character, built and carried forward from his youth.
He has no message because he has never truly had what a man his age is want to have at least once in his lifetime - a Eureka moment - he really has never got it.
I meant to add that in general, McCain’s message on Obama is that he’s not experienced enough, with the backup message of “he’s not what he says he is.” The first part is pretty clear, but the second is extremely muddy both in terms of how the campaign has tried to bring it across and in terms of its implications, which range into fearmongering and other weirdness.
Well, judging from the nonstop ads and public statements from his campaign, for which he must be considered responsible, McCain’s message is the same as it’s been: Barack Obama is a dangerous, terrorist-loving unpatriotic malcontent.
The difference is that the polls and instant debate trackers have revealed that every time McCain goes negative, his approval rate plunges. So now This Week’s McCain (they differ by the week, don’tcha know) has decided to try playing Good Cop; everyone else on his team gets to be Bad Cop.
Honestly, no matter what’s behind his lurching from one message to the next, he looks horrible. If he believes the crap his campaign is spewing yet still claims Obama’s a ‘decent man’, he’s an ignorant coward who lacks the courage of his convictions and who’s afraid to own this negativity. If he knows his team’s vile accusations are false (and he isn’t a stupid man, so I believe this is the case) but hasn’t ordered them to shut the fuck up, he’s a lying, cynical, disgraceful hypocrite who’ll do anything to gain power.
Either way, this is not a man to trust with the presidency.
