The Trash Talk Express

[babylonsister]

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/16205

The Trash Talk Express
John McCain
by Bob Burnett | July 31, 2008


Once upon a time, John McCain merited his reputation as a maverick politician, a "truth teller." Reporters fought to get on his campaign bus, "the straight talk express," because they expected to hear the Arizona Senator spew uncensored opinions on a variety of subjects. Alas, those days are over. Three months from the presidential election, McCain has decided his only hope of besting Barack Obama is to wage a negative campaign. Get on board the trash talk express.

Polls consistently indicate voters are focused on five issues: the economy, energy prices, Iraq, healthcare, and terrorism. The same surveys show Senator McCain - mired in dogmatic conservatism and fatally associated with President Bush - has a big problem: with the possible exception of terrorism, Americans judge the Arizona Senator as less able to deal with these problems; they see Obama as a better fit for these troubled times.

McCain is desperate. Less than one hundred days before the presidential election, he has decided his only chance to win is to go negative, to attack his opponent at every opportunity. These assaults have occurred in McCain speeches, campaign advertisements and "independent expenditure" ads. Broadly speaking, these commercials have had three themes: Obama is a flip-flopper, negative, and determined to "lose" the war in Iraq.

The flip-flopper ad began running on July 23rd, sponsored by "Let Freedom Ring." It's similar to a McCain web ad, words, that focuses on Obama's apparent reversal on public financing for his campaign. The "Let Freedom Ring" ad also accuses Obama of reversing his position on Iraq and handguns.

These ads misstate Obama's position on public financing, handguns, and Iraq. And they blithely ignore a larger truth: it's Senator McCain who has made the largest number of policy reversals. It's McCain who deserves opprobrium for changing his position to further his political fortunes; as two of many examples, McCain once argued against Bush's tax cuts for the rich, now he supports them; McCain once supported affirmative action, now he's against it.

snip//

As we consider John McCain's recent advertisements and public statements, what's clear is that with less than 100 days before the presidential election, the Republican nominee has decided he holds a losing hand. Carrying President Bush as a millstone around his neck, and with policy positions that are out-of-step with the attitudes of ordinary Americans, McCain has grown desperate and made yet another flip-flop: he's abandoned his pledge to wage a positive campaign.

Now boarding, on track 2008, John McCain's trash talk express.
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[endarkenment]

1. "these commercials have had three themes" forgot number '4'

Obama is an uppity n*

That is rapidly becoming the only theme of the macclan campaign.