Dirty Politics

It has been a while since my last posting. I have plenty of excuses ranging from visiting relatives to canvassing the neighborhood for Obama to no time to post! But in reality I just haven't been able to focus on a clear, concise topic for posting. Until today. Dirty politics.

I'm sick and tired of McPalin's lies, innuendos, rabble rousing, abuse of power, lame-brained ideas and not-so-subtle racism. Clearly, they believe that the end justifies the means and will stoop to any depth to get elected. 

I don't buy that they didn't hear people at their rallies shouting "kill him" and "off with his head." At the very least they should have addressed this outrageous behavior when they heard about it later!  Sure looks like they want to incite this sort of behavior. Makes me very fearful for the Obama family.

Then there is the issue of Palin found guilty of abuse of power regarding the firing of her ex-brother-in-law's boss. I certainly don't want a vice president who carries out personal vendettas using the power of the executive branch!

And of course I'm appalled by all the hog wash about Obama's relationship with Ayers. Speaking of relationships and guilty by association-- what about Palin and "First Dude's" relationship to the Alaskan Independence Party??? Obama and Ayers were both board members for an Annenberg Educational organization, run by the Annenberg's -- major contributors to the McCain campaign and staunch Republicans!! The Alaskan Independence Party calls for Alaska to secede from the US!! Anyone see a major difference here? 

But what bothers me the most about this use of "dirty politics" by McPalin, is the subtle racism that they use and the blatant racism that their followers show. When McCain is introduced and the person making the introduction refers to Senator Barack Obama as Barack Hussein Obama -- that is subtle racism. Of course that is Senator Obama's full name, but the context in which they use his full name is designed to tie him to the Arab world and to terrorism. In a town hall meeting recently conducted by McCain, a woman in the audience referred to Obama as an Arab. McCain then used the opportunity to back down from his previous rhetoric by saying they shouldn't fear Obama if he is elected. That statement was uttered in the manner you would comfort a small child in the face of impending disaster! Moreover, it gave him the way out from fulfilling his promise to another town hall groupie that he would confront Obama about all the accusations that McCain and Palin have said in the past two weeks. The extreme conservatives were disappointed that McCain didn't use all the anti-Obama stump speech rhetoric at the second debate. They want him to do so at the third debate. But it now looks like he is trying to back out of doing so. Bottom-line is that McCain on the stump will do anything, say anything to please his constituents and to avoid any depth on the real issues. McCain in the debates will continue to come up with half-cocked ideas for fixing the world just so he sounds like he knows what he is doing.

Every time McCain says that Obama is not a leader, not honest, lacks character, untrustworthy, is a terrorist, guilty by association, etc., it makes McCain look worse and does not diminish Obama one iota! The people who show up at McCain's rallies will vote for McCain no matter what. It is the independent voters and the undecided voters who have distanced themselves from McCain because of his failure to grasp the importance of the issues at hand and because of McCain's desperate, transparent mud-slinging.

Last, but certainly foremost in my mind, is the ugly racism that has begun to spew forth in the wake of McPalin's negativity. There were two incidents in Bellingham this week of very blatant racist items and pamphlets being sold / distributed to people attending political events. The fact that one individual was never challenged by anyone in attendance and the other sold his "branded product" for over an hour before organizers sent him away, does not speak well of the citizens of Whatcom County. But it isn't just Whatcom County. I understand this same sort of think is happening across the country. Last week at a christian college in Oregon, a life-sized cardboard cutout of Obama was found hung from a tree. 

Obama had it right when he talked about fearful people clinging to their guns and their religion. I would have added the word "ignorant," meaning lacking knowledge, not capable of critical thinking, to that description. And I blame McCain and Palin for their own ignorance of the harm they are inflicting on our country by promoting hatred and vengeance -- they are truly a throw back to some of the worst days of our country's history.