Sticks and Stones

In 2000 and again in 2004, the Republican standard bearer used a liberal dose of negative charges against his Democratic rival.  The architect was Karl Rove, but the hands of George W Bush were dirtied just the same.  Now in 2008, there are signs that John McCain may resort to the same methods in his race against Barack Obama.  Will the outcome be the same?

On Saturday, McCain’s campaign issued a charge that Obama had “short changed” the GI’s when he canceled a visit to an Army hospital in Germany.  McCain’s turd throwers said Obama preferred instead to spend his time in front of crowds of Germans.  While the facts are close to correct in that (1) Obama did cancel his planned visit to the hospital, and (2) Obama did draw 200,000 Germans to his speech, there is as always more  to the story.  The Army had raised concerns about getting itself involved in politics by having someone running for office visit.  At this point, Obama was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t.

There will be many more of these type of negative charges.  Each one requires a swift explanation before Obama can move on.  Even worse, no one is served well by this type of charge in any case.  There are important issues, for example, the lagging US economy, the struggling banking and investment industry, the broken US monetary and fiscal policies, the country’s addiction to imported oil, the ugly prospects of global warming, and the future of healthcare and social security.  Why do the Republicans not speak to these issues?

There is no national consensus on any of these issues.  A rich debate over the next 100 days would help educate the public on these subjects and possibly develop some agreement on how to attack them.  During the past 8 years, the Bush Administration’s answer for these concerns was more like “what me worry?” or half baked ideas like private social security accounts when if they were created the rest of the social security fund would collapse even quicker than now forecasted, and drilling for more oil instead of breaking the addiction by developing alternatives sources and finding ways to consume less energy.

If John McCain will not begin this important discussion then Barack Obama should.  Obama will not only look like a President, he will be acting like one.  McCain should remember “sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me”.

Explore posts in the same categories: 2008 Election, Barack Obama, Democratic Party, George Bush, John McCain, Politics, Republican Party

Tags: negative campaigning

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