McCain/Palin Ticket Nosedives Along With Economy

Wish I could say I am happy about all the Republicans tanking but...the economy is front and center and nobody is happy. We are, in fact, scared. These are scary times and I am glad my father, who would have been 98 this year, is not alive to see this. Dad lived through the Great Depression. He was not a child. He was working for Florsheim Shoes in downtown Chicago when the market crashed. He actually saw people hit the pavement outside his basement window in an office building. He never forgot the fear, the panic and the aftermath. Nobody who lived through those years forgot the aftermath. My mother-in-law, born in 1927, wore dresses made of flour sacks to school in Pennsylvania. She never forgot the humiliation.
My ability to relate to the Depression is through the stories of my relatives , photographs and books such as The Grapes of Wrath and Dorothea Lange photographs. The candidates studiously avoided characterizing the economic free fall we are in with the word "depression". They didn't even want to use the word "recession" although too late for that.
What I want to know is, who's going to be made accountable for this mess? We all know who is going to pay for it...we are. But where is the accountability? I mean, when you have CEOs appearing before Congress, such as the $186+ million dollar compensated CEO of Lehman Bros, Richard Fuld, wanting to know "where's our bailout?" without so much as an apology, you know we are getting screwed, blued and tattooed...and not in a good way.
Unless we, as tax payers, demand accountability and recompense for this debacle, we are going to watch our country become insolvent, our assets diminish and disappear and mortgage our children and grandchildren's future for some time to come.

I Don't Know What to Think

I watched the debate last night til I could stand it no more. My take, overall, was this: McCain was able to corner and bully Obama by repeatedly going on the attack, talking over his responses to the attacks, and belittling Obama for his "naivete" and lack of understanding (aka "experience"). I was devastated.

Do I buy into what McCain had to say? Hell no! But, do I buy into the American people buying into what McCain had to say? Hell yes! I'm in advertising, remember? It's not what you say, it's how you say it, how often you say it, and how receptive (or dumb) the audience.

Obama certainly came off as the more reasonable of the two. He showed incredible restraint against increasingly vitriolic accusations about his record on all fronts. I would have liked to have seen more passion, less restraint and more offense, less defense.

Keith Olbermann, God love him, thought Obama won. Mr. O & the rest of his MSNBC cohorts, including Pat Buchanan, thought Obama's show of restraint, grace and composure, contrasted sharply with the surly attack dog tactics of MCain. Several of them, including Buchanan (!) went so far as to suggest that McCain's pugnacious stances are exactly what America wants to get away from...more of the same of the past 8 years.

I hope to heaven they are right but, I just don't know.

Not Ready for Prime Time Players or Grandstanding?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26900453/?GT1=43001

Whaddyaknow? McCain is going to show up for the first debate tonight after all. I know it's almost October and we're waiting with baited breath for the Pennant races and World Series but John McCain's grandstanding is not the sort America wants to see. His stunt to "suspend the Presidential campaign" until the financial bailout is achieved was just that...a stunt. I have to wonder if his campaign simply doesn't think he is ready for the event and wanted an out. Of course, McCain's placing himself "above the fray of politics" to step in and act presidential smacks of the worst kind of hucksterism. The entire gambit has backfired and I don't think even the most die-hard Republicans are too pleased right now.

But what a great night on tv for the rest of us!

Citizen McCain, Faust or Both?

John McCain's evolution from a hard charging truth telling centrist with some liberal policies to conservative-base-pleasing win the race at any cost candidate is reminiscent of the great cinematic character, Charles Foster Kane.

"Citizen Kane" is a movie about many things on many levels, not least of which are the extraordinary changes in the political views of the title character. Charles Foster Kane's career begins as a person determined to "use journalism to protect the interests of ordinary people."
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033467/synopsis)

He does so with great vigor and is heralded, at first, as a reformer. But Kane becomes a man
consumed by his own ambition and he leaves his well known crusading values by the wayside as he struggles to achieve political success. As one critic noted, "This is a mighty exposition of American society and a devastating critique of the American Dream which, coming on the heals of the Great Depression found an audience that was all too aware of the shortcomings associated with a capitalistic free market enterprise system when it does not work. To a great extent the film is a contemporary version of Faust (a fact that was no doubt not lost on Hearst or Wells), the story of a man who gains the world and loses his soul in the process."

This, sadly, is the way I see John McCain, a politician I once admired. I defended him many times over the years, believing he was one of the few truth tellers, unaffected by pressure put on him by the Republican party. I honestly believed he went his own way.

John McCain has succumbed to the very people he once resisted. His desire to be President has overcome his desire to maintain his moral code. He is a maverick no more.

"Really, there is no beautiful style, no beautiful design, and no beautiful color: there is just one beauty, that of the truth that is revealed."

This quote about truth is by Auguste Rodin. Double click on the title and you'll link to a Sep 10 Washington Post article on truth vs lies and whether those lies, in this presidential campaign, become facts before they can be "undone".

I am appalled by the television ads the McCain camp is running. They present lies and they are spending alot of money for high frequency among viewers. Some examples: 1) Obama will raise your taxes 2) Obama will retreat from Iraq, etc. 3) Obama knows nothing about foreign policy.

Last night's Rachel Maddox show, MSNBC 9pm EST, debuted a new tv ad implying Obama was for sex education to kindergartners. The visual shows a photo of him, smiling, next to that is a photo of young children. The juxtaposition of the two looks as tho' he's leering down at them. The voice over discusses his desire to teach sex to children. In reality, he had sponsored a bill to protect children from sexual predators by teaching them simple questions to ask strangers. Hells bells, I worked for a radio station in the early 90's that sponsored predator protection programs all over San Diego County aimed at elementary school children, K-6. It was co-sponsored by the San Diego Sheriff's Dept, Police Dept and Fire Dept. I used the techniques with my children. It had wonderfully simple ways to help your child when confronted by a stranger. My sons, now 20 & 21, remember those techniques to this day and I've no doubt they'll teach them to their own children.

My point is these lies are costing Obama votes. Why? People accept them at face value. People want to believe the worst. This is why tabloids flourish. My question is, when is the Obama/Biden camp going to combat these lies with their own pointed ads? They want to take the high road, I know. But the Republicans never do and this is no time to play nice.

Consider the fact that John McCain is now stooping to the very tactics used against him by "W" during the 2000 election. Consider the fact he is working with a Karl Rove alum for strategy. that is enough to give everyone pause...unless of course you approve of lies, subterfuge, no first amendment protection and the end always justifies the means.