I'm deeply, deeply concerned over the way the election seems to be swinging in the last two weeks. The dems had a great convention, but then all of the sudden this game changer comes out of Alaska, and the Republican base has been "re-energized." I felt shocked when McCain picked the totally unqualified and terrifyingly right wing Palin as his running mate while he still yammered on about Obama's lack of experience. I thought people would reject her, especially Hillary supporters who could only see her being picked as a deeply cynical choice by McCain. And watching John McCain's rambling and nearly incoherent acceptance speech at the RNC, I thought there was no way McCain was still in this election.
But I was wrong. Many polls have Obama and McCain tied, with some of them showing McCain with a small lead. Obama still has an advantage in the electoral college polls, but some if too many of those key swing states turn red, we're in trouble. So yeah, I'm scared.
I can't imagine another four to eight years of a Republican White House. Why the hell can't we close this thing? We have a candidate who has inspired the youth, tons of registered democrats, and the worst president in history leaving office representing the other team. The economy is way down, the war in Iraq is still being fought after five long years, and McCain hasn't even said two words to describe how he plans to fix this mess we're in. So why is he up in the polls?
We're back to that same old, disgusting, Rovian mud slinging politics again. Tactics that twists a perfectly legitimate bit of legislation that encourages informing kindergarteners about how to protect themselves from predators into "comprehensive sex education." Strategy that includes using lightly critical quotes directed at Obama from the same editorials that slam McCain. The same politics that a guy who got out of fighting in Vietnam used to defeat a Vietnam hero by implying that maybe he was not that much of a hero, maybe sort of. Tactics that President Bush used to defeat... John McCain in the primaries eight years ago. Tactics that McCain claims he was above. This is not a "maverick." This is not someone who will "bring change to Washington." This is just another case of a politician who is so desperate that he's willing to stoop to boldfaced lies and ugly smears to win. But the sad part is that it's working, again.
Barack Obama needs to stand up now and not wimpily let himself get "swift boated" like John Kerry. He needs to rise above McCain's ugly tactics and call him out on it and prove that he's tough and will not be pushed around. He needs to stand up in front of the country and say, with conviction, "these ads are wrong and shameful. They are lies, and John McCain's campaign has become desperate to win at all costs, without ever saying one word about the actual issues that are important to all Americans. Bush did this to him 8 years ago and now he's stooped to the same level of nasty politics that he claimed to loathe. Enough. He can't talk about change and go back to Karl Rove's playbook. I am the only candidate capable of change. John McCain has proven that in the last, very pathetic week of his campaign."
Get up there next week, Barack, and do it. After you shoot down their pathetic and out line attacks, take back the reigns of the message of this campaign. Take back the word change for yourself and your party. I don't want to wait four years for you to prove that you have balls, as John Kerry finally did at the DNC two weeks ago. Show the country right now that you're a leader that can stand up to bullies. And show them that that's all McCain/ Palin are... just a couple of schoolyard bullies.
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