This stuff bores me. Hearing the words “lipstick” and “pig” just makes me want to yawn and take a nap. Of course, the media is having a field day with it, living up to their usual standards. It kind of reminds me of the neighborhood gossip circles trying to prompt the two big kids on the block into a fistfight. I guess that’s why I was never part of those gossip circles, just doesn’t seem practical to me. Regardless, this stuff is better suited for ET and Us Weekly than CNN and Fox, yet it remains a topic of conversation for the third consecutive day.
Poor Obama. He is such a victim, isn’t he? Consistently taking the high road, refusing to resort to cheap shots, while that meanie McCain says awful things about him. The 2008 campaign is going great when he is talking about McCain’s “$5 million” remark, or the seven houses, or the hundred years in Iraq, or Palin’s “explain to me what the vice president does”. All of those things are valid issue discussions. But heaven forbid McCain actually fires back.
I guess what bothers me about all of this isn’t necessarily the mud-slinging and misrepresentation. We’ve all come to expect that in modern-day presidential politics so long as it’s fairly balanced. Granted, there is a line and sometimes folks from both parties step over it. But if the candidates get a little muddy, America simply accepts it as normal political behavior. And Americans in general adopt the notion that turnabout is always fair play.
No, what bothers me is Obama’s incessant whining, as if he is the only one in this campaign who has been unfairly attacked. It’s been 19 months and it’s been seemingly nonstop. Whenever Hillary bruised him up a bit, he immediately ran to the press, who was always there to kiss his bo-bo and give him a popsicle. And now that McCain has shown that “two can play that game”, Obama continues to look like someone who hasn’t yet found his inner manhood. Now, I don’t blame a candidate who takes a stand when things go too far. Bush lashed out when his twin daughters were brought into the mudpit; and Kerry was justifiably angry when people questioned the validity of his purple heart. But let’s be honest, those things aren’t nearly equivalent to the pig-lipstick debate, which is nothing more than a typical poke at a poor choice of words. Yet, Obama has taken deep offense to the notion that his opponent won’t allow him to misrepresent and quote out of context without a little turnabout. It seems this hurts Obama’s feelings. Come on, Senator. Be a man.
We’ve watched Sarah Palin get dragged through the muddy swamp for 2 weeks, and she has taken it with a smile. I don’t see her running to the press all misty-eyed. Granted, people complain on her behalf…again, that’s politics. They do this because it’s a bit unflattering for a candidate to whine and whimper about being attacked, especially when those attacks are fairly petty and that same candidate is just as guilty. It looks as though he can dish out but can’t take it on. It looks wimpy. In short, it looks un-presidential.
America wants a president that can take a punch. Again, for emphasis, America wants a president that can take a punch. Lord knows our current president has demonstrated that ability quite well, as did his predecessor. McCain has taken it. I’m sure he wasn’t happy about Obama twisting his “100 years in Iraq” line into some endorsement for never-ending war, yet McCain pressed on, making the obligatory mental notes to fire back when the opportunity arose. Palin has taken it, in more ways and more directions than one. She maintained composure and dignity even when her daughter was pulled into the fray. That’s tough to do. Obama acts like he wants to play full-contact, yet runs to mommy the moment someone delivers a hard blow. When Americans see Obama behave this way, do they wonder how he’ll respond to foreign leaders? If big bad McCain can rattle his cage, how will Obama fair against Putin or Ahmadinejad? Will he run to the press and yell “enough”? Because I don’t think that will have much effect on a lunatic nuke-obsessed dictator who wants to destroy Israel, or a lunatic Bolshevik driven by the nostalgic good ol’ days of the hammer and sickle. Obama has to learn how to brush this off of his shoulder and press on because America is not going to vote for a cry baby.
Personally, I’d like to see Obama talk about his “95% tax cut” a little more. Of course, Obama doesn’t want to discuss this because the more people learn about it the more they won’t like it. In truth, these distractions help him more than anything. So McCain would do himself more good if he exposed this “tax cut” as the fraud that it really is rather than take pot-shots designed to get under Obama’s skin. Indeed, we’d all be better off.
3 comments:
I'd suggest there's a difference between asking the campaigns to stick to actual topics and whining.
We've got to get beyond this politics of demonization and move to discussions of positions and that is what I hear Obama doing. And rightly so.
It's also why I think he'll win. People are tired of these silly sidetracks into "He called her a pig!"
Then you'd agree that the "$5million" remark or the 100 years in Iraq remark or Palin's "what does the VP do?" remark are also silly sidetracks, right?
Oops, I forgot, it was Obama who kept pounding those.
Yes, let's please get back to the issues because that's where Obama loses this election.
I have to agree, the whining gets old, especially with the MSM in the tank for Obama. He seems to consistently play the race card... and it's getting old. The thing that got me going was during the RNC, people made jobs at his "community organizing" and the media had their own moral dilemma about whether or not making fun of a community organizer was racism. Please.
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