Can We Vote Already?

I just scanned the news headlines on several sites. The ad infinitum presidential campaign has become ad nauseam. Television and radio are worse. Barack Obama might be progressive, but the Republican campaign ads here in Western Pennsylvania are definitively regressive:

Obama is a socialist … palling around with terrorists … unethical … who will raise taxes on the middle class.

If Sen. Obama responds directly to these accusations, I fully expect the McCain camp to break out in a chorus of I'm rubber, you're glue. Everything you say bounces off of me and sticks to you.

Update, a day late: I'm concerned that regressive Republican tactics might garner Sen. McCain some votes at the cost of widening the polarization of the citizenry. On Wednesday, Glenn Greenwald noted that recent attacks by right-wing politicians have fallen flat, leaving the perpetrators to backtrack or apologize “for insulting liberals or impugning their patriotism."

Greenwald closes on this hopeful note:

We're gradually seeing not only the demise of the right-wing faction that has dominated the Republican Party for decades, but also the death of their ugliest and most toxic tactics. When numerous right-wing figures crawl across one's television set desperately denying and abjectly apologizing for attacks on the patriotism of Democrats and liberals, that is potent evidence that, at least as a matter of political rhetoric, a genuine sea-change is taking place.

The Mercurial McCain

"You're putting out stuff that is unbelievable George, and it's got to stop … and your ads have got to stop."
Sen. John McCain addressing Gov. George W. Bush at a Republican Presidential Primary Debate in 2000.

Senator McCain was so stung by accusations attributed to the Bush campaign that he admonished the Texas governor: "I don't know if you can understand this, George, but that really hurts. You should be ashamed. You should be ashamed."

During the primary campaign for the 2004 election, there was a rumor that John McCain might become John Kerry's running mate. The possibility of a unity ticket was appealing to some Democrats. They respected Sen. McCain and were anxious to end President Bush's partisan reign. Reportedly, McCain was not interested.

Four years later, Sen. John McCain is waging a campaign that should give pause to Americans of every political party.


Thanks to TPMtv

Senator McCain Requests Debate Delay

"A stage, an audience, a moderator, and at least one presidential candidate."
Robert Gibbs, Obama campaign spokesman, quoted in The Washington Post, on what to expect at Friday's scheduled debate.

Senator John McCain, who has missed voting on 412 bills in the current session of the Senate, wants to delay Friday's presidential debate and meet, along with Senator Obama, with leaders of both Houses of Congress to work on a solution to the financial crisis. Among the 64.1% of floor votes Sen. McCain missed were the F.I.S.A. Amendments Act, 2 energy development funding amendments, and a bill to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as increase education benefits for certain veterans who served after September 11, 2001 (G.I. Bill).

Senator Barack Obama, who missed 295 votes, many of them during a prolonged primary contest with Sen. Hillary Clinton, has rejected the proposal to delay the debate.

The Trail, A Daily Diary of Campaign 2008 in The Washington Post also reports that the Commission on Presidential Debates said that it is "moving forward with its plan for the first presidential debate at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, MS, this Friday, September 26," despite the McCain announcement. "We believe the public will be well served by having all of the debates go forward as scheduled," the Commission said.


Update: Marc Ambinder of The Atlantic reports that "A senior (McCain) campaign official says that McCain will NOT debate -- no matter what -- if Congress hasn't reached an agreement on a bailout package."

Chris Cillizza opines in The Washington Post that "The move is an obvious attempt by McCain and his campaign to paint the Arizona senator as above politics, willing to put aside his campaign for the good of the country."

Defining Citizenship

"Are we so lost we have to be sold our own democratic right?"
Craig Ferguson

John McCain's campaign manager, former lobbyist Rick Davis, insists that "this election is not about issues."

Davis forgot to tell Craig Ferguson, who became a naturalized U.S. citizen a few months ago. In this video, Ferguson riffs about lipstick on a pig, show-business style campaign coverage, and your duty to be informed and vote.


Thanks to Fred F.

If you believe that the media (formerly called the news media), is often derelict in their coverage of the presidential race, you'll appreciate Glenn Greenwald's dissection of the vacuous lipstick on a pig story.

McCain Campaign Runs Huge Deficit

Less than 60 days before the Presidential election, the campaign of John McCain and Sarah Palin is running a huge integrity deficit. Reprising the swift-boating tactics Republican proxies used against John Kerry four years ago, McCain and Palin are repeatedly using lies in an attempt to discredit Senator Barack Obama.

Washington observers are wondering why McCain isn't more careful spending his credibility, particularly since his ally, President George W. Bush lost his passbook years ago.

Update: Conservative Andrew Sullivan has a more stern take on McCain's integrity deficit.