With every day that passes, I get a little more fascinated with the huge differences between the Obama and McCain campaign's tactics and strageies. Here's a little sample of what we've heard today from both sides.
Sarah Palin
- “They are also building schools for the Afghan children so that there
is hope and opportunity in our neighboring country of Afghanistan” - “People say that I speak too simply, or don't have quite the — I don't
have my thesaurus in my back pocket all along through my speeches. Well, I don't have time for that.” - “Our opponent is someone who sees America as
imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country.” - “The comments are about an association that has been known but hasn't
been talked about…I think it's fair to talk about where Barack Obama kicked off
his political career, in the guy's living room.”
Analysis: Sarah Palin once again shows us how ignorant she thinks we are. The anti-intellectualism here is startling and frightening, characterizing anyone with a reasonable command of fact and the English language as having a 'thesaurus in [their] back pocket.' Interestingly enough, this was in repsonse to her reference to Afghanistan as our 'neighbor,' which leads one to wonder whether she understands the difference between a thesaurus and an atlas.
Also interesting; she's been harping on Joe Biden's erroneous reference to Roosevelt appearing on TV after the 1929 stock market crash (Roosevelt did appear on radio and television many times; his 'fireside chats' were the precursor to the modern practice of a weekly radio address, and Roosevelt leveraged this new medium to offer reassurance and discuss recovery strategy from the Depression in the late 30's, as well as various matters related to WWII. But he didn't do it in 1929 when the stock market crashed, because he wasn't president at that time and there weren't any televisions anyway), but she (and her followers) are content to give her a pass on referring to Afghanistan as 'our neighbor' – a mistake of equal magnitude and frankly equal irrelevance. But again, we see the double-standard here in a classic move from the right-wing playbook.
Also, here comes the William Ayers conversation…again. The Obama-Ayers connection has – in stark contradiction to Palin's assertion – been 'talked about' repeatedly, by Obama, by McCain, and by the press. The conclusion reached by every reputable information source is that Obama and Ayers are neighbors; Ayers' days as a radical activist and founder of the Weathermen are far behind him, and he's been a professer at one of the better colleges in the US (The University of Illinois) for a couple of decades. Obama and Ayers live in the same neighborhood, were both members of an advisory board for local schools, and Ayers hosted a fundraiser for Obama early in Obama's career. The man are hardly 'friends,' and certainly a woman whose husband was part of an Alaskan separatist/independence organization has little credibility in criticizing Obama for a tenuous association with a man who last committed a crime in 1968. This has all the logical foundation of claiming that Ronald Reagan is a hollywood liberal because he was president of the Screen Actors' Guild, or that George W. Bush is a terrorist because of his family's long-standing ties to the bin Laden family (indeed the Bush-bin Laden connection is far stronger than any between Obama and Ayers).
So, from the McCain campaign we have the same gutter politics appealing to the lowest common denominator – salacious, tabloid-level sensationalism, anti-intellectualism, and egregious distortions of fact.
Let's see what Obama had to say over the weekend:
- “I want you to know
that I’m going to keep on talking about the issues that matter – about
the economy and health care and education and energy.” - “Let me be clear – I don’t think government can solve all our problems. But I reject the radical idea that government has no role to play in protecting ordinary Americans. I reject the thinking that says preserving our free market means letting corporations and special interests do as they please, and everyone else has to fend for themselves.”
- “And here’s how I’ll pay for my plan. First, I will aggressively cut health care costs by reducing waste, greed and paperwork; lowering the cost of prescription drugs; and eliminating wasteful subsidies to private plans in Medicare. That will save a lot, but will still leave a cost of about $65 billion a year. I’ll cover that remaining cost with a portion of the money I’ll save by ending George Bush’s tax breaks for people making more than $250,000 a year.”
- “Senator McCain and his operatives are gambling that he can distract you with smears rather than talk to you about substance. They’d rather try to tear our campaign down than lift this country up. It’s what you do when you’re out of touch, out of ideas, and running out of time.”
Whether you agree with the Obama plan or not, these two speeches present an excellent picture of the dichotomy between the two campaigns. On the one hand, you have fear-mongering talk of terrorists, anti-intellectualism, and well-poisoning. On the other hand, you have a brief but firm dismissal of those tactics, an in-depth analysis of current health care and economic issues, and a series of clearly articulated proposals to address those issues.
If you prefer to live in a world where you don't have to think; where intellect is something to be laughed at and scorned rather than embraced and admired; where what a casual acquaintance did forty years ago is more important than what a candidate is doing this week; then McCain is your man. If you prefer to be lied to and manipulated; to be sold a $5,000 credit for a $12,000 bill and you are currently not paying and told it's an improvement; if you would rather be distracted by non-issues and empty rhetoric than deal with the serious problems this country is facing today…then McCain is your man. If it's more important that your leaders be 'cute' and 'plucky' than substantive and intelligent, then McCain is your main. If you believe a leader should be 'just like me' rather than having unique and valuable attributes that qualify him or her for leadership…then McCain is your main.
Contrariwise, if you believe that leaders should lead with vision and inspiration; if you believe that we are all in this together; if you understand that the failure of your neighbor comes with a price that you have to pay; if you understand that excellence in the world is built not by scoffing at intellect but embracing it; if you believe that our systems are broken and need repair; if you believe that the failed policies of the Bush administration and the neo-conservative economic theories of 'trickle down' are not working for you; if your life cannot pass the 'Reagan Test' (“Are you better off now than you were eight years ago?”); if you are sick of watching American culture and thought being co-opted by the politics of greed, fear, and division; if you believe that, as FDR said, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” then perhaps you would be better served by voting for Barack Obama for president in November.