....Yet
The McCain campaign is flailing around in these last days, throwing everything at the wall and hoping for something to stick. I had the misfortune of flipping through the channels last night and running across some Fox News dude trying to make hay with the whole Rashid Khalidi thing. Think of this as just another culture war thrust, trying to link Obama to a second "radical professor" in the minds of rubes everywhere. I don't think McCain is really going for the PLO-Israel angle here, although it would be a nice bonus for him if he picked up some Jewish votes here and there. He's really just trying to add to the Bill Ayers thing, throwing another pointy-headed, anti-American liberal "perfesser" on the fire, hoping to stoke the flames of doubt about Obama's character. They're saying, "see, it doesn't matter what Obama says in public about his official policy stances -- in reality, he skulks around at nefarious dinners and cocktail parties with terrorists and Israel-haters." Never mind that these "associations" are always above-board and fairly common among politicians of all stripes. Never mind that a McCain organization donated a half million bucks to Khalid's group in 1998. And more substantively, a huge group of respected politicians and (gasp) scholars, as well as significant portions of the Israeli population itself, consider the Israeli government's stance towards Palestinians to be cruel and oppressive. Chuck all that, because it's too sophisticated anyway. McCain is not going after the public policy crowd with this Khalidi attack. He's going after the undecided voters who don't give two shakes about Israel or Palestine, or the complexities of 70s radical groups like the Weathermen, for that matter. McCain and Palin are just throwing an 11th-hour grenade of doubt into the mix. They're providing a shellac-thin veneer of credibility for those who are wondering if they really want to vote for a black guy with a funny-sounding name. In that sense, the Ayers-Khalidi motif, whether by design or accident, can provide cover for any latent racism that might be lurking in the hearts of the undecided voters. I don't throw the race card around lightly here. I think "racism" is a very loaded and vague concept. It obviously exists, but it is also just as obviously abused as a substitute for legitimate debate and disagreement. I'm just saying that the guilt by association attacks linking Obama to these radical professors provides a very nice justification for those folks who are hesitant to vote for an African American candidate. In effect, they can say, "hey, I got no problem with his race -- but he obviously hangs around with some pretty unsavory characters, so...."
Enough on that, but in a related theme....I have been surprised at the smirking tone of McCain and Palin in this home stretch. Obviously, they're behind, so they have to attack. I've got no problem with that. It's the style of the attack that startles me. With Palin, it's that ridiculous pursed-lip, slow nod and pivot to each part of the crowd thing, like a professional wrestler who's just called out his back-stabbing ex-manager, much to the delight of the pork rind and Bud Light addled crowd. That's to be expected from a gussied-up Alaska gal. But the smarmy McCain tactics have been unnerving and, frankly, infuriating. Not that I had any real respect for McCain in the first place. In earlier posts, we covered what an actual d-bag McCain has been throughout his life. He's the spitting image of Dubya: legacy baby, intellectually lazy, brash and hot-tempered, abusive. Only he's actually a little worse than Bush, because McCain also continuously sought the spotlight, changed his views constantly to go with the shifting political winds, and doesn't even claim a road to Damascus conversion that brought him Jesus and tea-totaling. I've never thought McCain to be a saint or real maverick, and his behavior in the 2000 campaign was pretty sleazy. But he's an elder statesman now, and he was trying to play up the experience card. When you're doing that, it just doesn't make sense to stoop to the lowest level of character assassination, crying about Obama's money and his terrorist friends and his slick TV infomercials. It just looks petty, and I'm surprised he didn't just leave all of that for Palin and the vast right-wing media to perform. He should have stayed above it all and just stayed on the meat and potatoes of the economy. But I guess when your economic platform sucks, there's not many places to go with that. And I guess if deep down you're just an a-hole with a Messiah complex, you can't hide your utter disdain and disgust for what you perceive to be an inferior human being (despite the jokes and jabs at Obama the supposed Savior, I've always thought that McCain has a much more intense Messiah complex, in that he so clearly sees it as his detiny to be President).
And finally, McCain unveiled a bizarre campaign ad yesterday, which ends with the phrase "Back Obama's not ready.... yet." This is obviously getting quite a bit of attention in lefty circles, with the usual interpretation that McCain is throwing a sop to undecideds, admitting that Obama is an impressive guy, but just not this time around. Vote for McCain this time, and then next time maybe you can vote for a more seasoned Obama. In that sense, it is similar to the Khalidi tactic: giving voters with doubts, possibly of a racial nature (but not necessarily), a semi-plausible and guilt-free way to vote against Obama. There's a couple problems with this. The "yet" caveat is a complete non-sequitur, since all of the stuff that comes earlier in the ad is the usual bogus boilerplate that Obama wants to raise your taxes and increase spending in these tough economic times. And at the beginning, there's the usual snark about the real "truth" lying behind all the fancy, high-falutin' Obama glitz. Yes, the "truth" is that Obama lacks experience, as this McCain ad says -- but then the usual tax-and-spend accusation comes directly afterward. So McCain is mixing the metaphors here: Obama's problem is inexperience, but also liberal overtaxing and overspending. How do the two fit together? With another four years under his belt, will Obama see the light and magically become a Republican? In any case, the internal dissonance of the ad is probably not that important. It's just a stringing together of multiple attack tactics, again in hopes that something will stick. But it is also dangerous to slip in that "yet" at the end, because the lurking eye-wink here is that McCain really does know that Obama will be President someday -- just not now. That's a pretty slim line to walk. But as this ad is really just a rationalization veneer for the hand-wringing undecideds, rubes, racists, and short attention span nitwits, not much will come of it in the long run.
Final note: I only caught the end of the Obama-mercial last night, but the parts I saw were heartfelt, very well done, and pretty genuine. I thought it would be overkill, but it was good stuff.
Final note: I only caught the end of the Obama-mercial last night, but the parts I saw were heartfelt, very well done, and pretty genuine. I thought it would be overkill, but it was good stuff.
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