Posted on 09/16/2008 4:20:17 PM PDT by rhema
The sudden change in the polls the last 10 days, even though it may be temporary, has prompted a furor in the media that has no parallel in modern election history. Vicious words like "treason", "abasement", "liar", and "lying" are in the air now in an unheralded attack on McCain, often in association with the sex education ad, and the lipstick identification with Palin as a pig. (cf. e.g., Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen today). But as Byron York has shown, that ad alleging that Obama supported detailed information about matters of sex to be disseminated to younger children (for a variety of educational reasons), while tough and unnecessary, was nevertheless not a lie.
And as far as the silly lipstick moment, if one studies the tape carefully as Obama lets go with his similes, it is clear that the hooting audience at least seemed to make the association with Palin, and the further elaboration on a stinky old fish seemed to cement the allusion to McCain.
What otherwise are we to think of this silly controversy?— (a) a candidate is complaining about McCain and Palin; (b) in his exasperation the candidate next uses two metaphors (not 1, not 3) — (c) one to a pig with lipstick (after Palin had famously just used a lipstick/animal metaphor in her speech), and (d) a second one to an old fish — a theme of the Obama campaigning has been to suggest McCain is "losing his bearings", "confused", has "lost track", and "couldn't remember."
But from anger at those two inconsequential ads, and the selection of Palin, Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen, for example, makes a rather large leap to this conclusion:
... the lies of Vietnam and Watergate and Iraq. So many lies. Who believes that in Afghanistan last month only five civilians were killed by the American military, instead of the approximately 90 claimed by the Afghan government? Not me. I first gave up on the military during Vietnam and then again when it covered up the death of Pat Tillman, the Army Ranger and former NFL player who was killed in 2004 by friendly fire.
What does "give up on the military" mean, and what does it have to do with a McCain ad reminding voters of the difference between Obama and himself on the appropriate age to introduce children to sex education learning materials?
What we are seeing is a sort of meltdown in which the selection of Palin is associated with the first real possibility all summer that the messianic Obama may not necessarily ascend; that triggers a certain repulsion toward her in particular, and a general furor at the once likeable McCain (once likeable to present-day Obama's supporters in the past sense that in 2000 he was going to lose, perhaps divide Republicans, and was not George Bush), which, in turn, can conjure up all sorts of no longer latent demons, going back to Vietnam onto to Iraq and the ongoing war in Afghanistan.
The problem (inter alia) with this vicious, loose use of "traitor" and "lie/liar/lying" and blanket condemnations of the US military is that it achieves the opposite of what the authors intend — and repelling most readers to such a degree that they are scared off from anything the writer seems to be advocating.
We've seen that with the Atlantic Monthly pictures and blog rumors about Palin's recent Down Syndrome pregnancy, the unhinged hatred columns of the sort of a Salon's Cintra Wilson or those suggesting riots or global hatred of the U.S. if Obama loses, the Matthews/Olbermann rants, the daily salvos from the NY Times columnists,and the hourly Palin rage from spoiled Hollywood prima donnas.
Do they have any idea of how they sound or where this leads? Despite an unpopular incumbent, economic upheaval, unpopular wars, and a charismatic Democratic candidate, the media, hand in glove with Obama's messianic sense of self, are doing all they can to lose a once sure election by the sheer repugnance of the way in which their anger is expressed and expressed and expressed . . .
And again, it seems uncontrollable. Didn't anyone learn from the General Betray-Us ads?
Gov. Palin has awakened the silenced majority and we are speaking out as not seen since the days of America's heyday.
The govenor's gutter Rat Party (formerly the traditional, patriotic Democratic Party) enemies have proved that their enemy is America Herself.
Ive got news for the MSM...Not this time. Ive never seen the amount of pride and true affection for any candidate as Palin in 30 yrs of voting. The normal American folks will not stand for it.
“...the media, hand in glove with Obama’s messianic sense of self, are doing all they can to lose a once sure election by the sheer repugnance of the way in which their ANGER is expressed and expressed and expressed . . .”
There is SO MUCH anger. Half of the country needs to take an anger management seminar. It has built up over time; they ever havent gotten over losing in 2000 (hanging chad anyone?), which led to all the hostility towards Bush in 2004, which then fomented another four years.
So much anger! All this unleashed fury is turning this campaign into one long Democratic temper tantrum.
It is irrational, and that is exactly how they are acting: irrationally, from the attacks on Bristol, to the pig crack, The View, all the malicious columns in print, to Gibson’s obvious contempt for Sarah...and the list will continue to grow.
The apron strings tied to an affirmative action candidate reach all the way to a POTUS candidate election cycle. The left wing media is so panicked about this empty suit going down in flames that they do not even hide their biased coverage. They are as rabid as are those flaming communist idiots in Hollywood. God save the U.S.
I have to disagree here. It was not "tough and unnecessary". It was not a lie, and it was tough and necessary. Obama is a grown man running for an important office. He needs to own his policy positions.
He did propose sex education for the very early grades, and some of this stuff is already being pushed in the early grades. His defense? That he intended it to be "age appropriate".
Age appropriate as decided by the kind of folks who want to teach sex education in elementary school. They won't be asking your opinion on what is "appropriate" and they won't be asking mine. This is Obama's policy. Let him wear it.
bingo, it’s what they do when confronted with overwhelming Mystery, the sudden tragic Death of a Colleague, Wellstone and then sudden, tragic Electoral Death! They are really unhinged.
Most people find them repellant, and they are costing him the election. They are achieving the direct opposite of what they hope to achieve, and yet they can't help themselves. They would rather lose the election than control themselves. They want to vent their rage more than they want to win. They want to win, of course, but they want to rage more.
These aren't all Kos kiddies and DU spittle-throwers, in short, but ostensibly responsible journalists spouting the most irresponsible nonsense imaginable, and getting caught at it every time. This isn't a nerve that has been struck, it's a fault line that has cracked and revealed the seething lava underneath. It's out of control. And it's hurting their candidate.
I first gave up on the military during Vietnam and then again
Never interrupt your opponent when he is in the process of self-destructing....
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
They can't help themselves. Their own people are telling them to stop it, but they're so deranged that they can't. Liberalism IS a mental disorder.
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