“Even at this late hour in the campaign, there are essential things we don't know about Senator Obama or the record that he brings to this campaign…
…My opponent has invited serious questioning by announcing a few weeks ago that he would quote — "take off the gloves." Since then, whenever I have questioned his policies or his record, he has called me a liar.
Rather than answer his critics, Senator Obama will try to distract you from noticing that he never answers the serious and legitimate questions he has been asked. But let me reply in the plainest terms I know. I don't need lessons about telling the truth to American people. And were I ever to need any improvement in that regard, I probably wouldn't seek advice from a Chicago politician.
My opponent's touchiness every time he is questioned about his record should make us only more concerned. For a guy who's already authored two memoirs, he's not exactly an open book. It's as if somehow the usual rules don't apply, and where other candidates have to explain themselves and their records, Senator Obama seems to think he is above all that. Whatever the question, whatever the issue, there's always a back story with Senator Obama. All people want to know is: What has this man ever actually accomplished in government? What does he plan for America? In short: Who is the real Barack Obama? But ask such questions and all you get in response is another barrage of angry insults…
…I have made every single donor to my campaign publicly available, while Senator Obama has taken in over 200 million dollars from undisclosed sources. We have already seen the potential for fraud because of his refusal to disclose his donors. His campaign had to return $33,000 in illegal foreign funds from Palestinian donors, and this weekend, we found out about another $28,000 in illegal donations. Why has Senator Obama refused to disclose the people who are funding his campaign? Again, the American people deserve answers.” —John McCain
"Our opponent though is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country. This is not a man who sees America like you and I see America. We see America as a force of good in this world. We see an America of exceptionalism." –Sarah Palin
"It's kind of telling regarding someone's judgment that they would working with, associated with a domestic terrorist who had campaigned to bomb the United States Senate and our Pentagon and this is an unrepentant domestic terrorist. That's the scary part about it!" –Sarah Palin
“I haven't got eleven kids
I weren't born in Baghdad
I'm not half-Chinese either
And I didn't kill my dad[chorus]
If you hear more rumors
You can just forget them too
Fools start the rumors
None of them are true”—“It ‘s Not True” by the Who
“Well, I don’t want him to be president, either. I wouldn’t be running if I did. But, you don’t have to be scared to have him be President of the United States.” –John McCain
No Ma'am. He's a decent family man and citizen whom I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues. And that's what this campaign is all about." –John McCain
I’m mad at John McCain at so many levels, not least of which for screwing up my column in progress by throwing his latest change-up. It was probably my last opportunity to use this joke:
Q: Why has Obama been looking so skinny lately?
A: He’s been fasting for Ramadan.
Anyway, I’m wondering if it’s too late to offer McCain absolution. It’s clear that McCain’s spontaneous eruptions of decency at yesterday’s Nuremberg rallies (a reference to the crowds, not the candidate) were genuine, since McCain is too poor a performer to have faked the utter revulsion which showed upon his face and in his voice. This seemed too real to be just another desperate “Hail Mary Pass”.
But is that enough?
I do not blame McCain for creating the pure and naked hatred shown by those crowds and echoed elsewhere. I think it was there all the time, like some inert compound just waiting for the catalyst which would unleash it. Perhaps if that catalyst did not come from the McCain campaign it would have been emerged nonetheless.
And I certainly don’t blame Governor Palin, who clearly does not know any better. But Sarah Palin couldn’t ad lib a fart after a Hungarian banquet, and her talking points came directly from paid agents of Mr. McCain, who does know better, and therefore must be held accountable.
More importantly, outbursts of fundamental decency are something that John McCain has successfully managed to suppress through most of this campaign. We hear a lot about such moments when Senator McCain, or some of his more moderate supporters, talk about the Senator’s past, but we rarely have seen any examples since this campaign began. Mostly, we’ve seen examples of such decency repudiated. Not only has McCain dis-endorsed his own immigration reform legislation, but he’s lately based his entire campaign on the xenophobia he once fought with some measure of courage.
The fact that the moments of outrage looked so spontaneous is therefore not encouraging. While they may indicate what McCain feels in his soul, such moments of unrehearsed anger and slippery tongue are generally treated by campaigns as gaffes. The politician went off-message, without intent, so it doesn’t really count.
In the next few days and weeks, we will see whether McCain’s reconnection with his inner decency is really a turn for the better or an anomalous isolated incident.
Although my fundamental pessimism will prevent me from believing Barack Obama is going to win this race until the Electoral College actually casts its votes and Dick Cheney counts them, I’d like to believe that John McCain has decided enough is enough, and that if he’s going to lose an election, that is all he’s going to lose and he’d like to keep his honor, or at least as much of it as he’s already not squandered.
I’m on record as believing that John McCain was the best this year’s field of Republicans had to offer. While the prospect of a McCain victory is disturbing, given the Supreme Court’s current line-up, I began this campaign believing that, on a day to day basis, McCain in the White House would still be an improvement over a Bush administration.
Why?
Though too hawkish and adventurous on matters of war and peace, McCain would probably never fight a war on the cheap. While he certainly would allow defense contractors to make a good profit and probably a good bit more, one doubts he would countenance the piggish and unalloyed profiteering and privatization of military functions that have become the hallmark of George Dubya Bush. McCain’s record indicates an intolerance for genocide and a willingness to stand up to his own party on that matter. Moreover, McCain has never shown Bush’s smarmy disdain for “nation building”. Even with McCain’s recent disturbing flip-flops, it seems unlikely he would regard torture as just another tool in our arsenal of democracy. So, better than Bush.
On domestic issues, McCain has few fixed beliefs, beyond the idea that “Bi-partisanship is peachy”, and for this campaign had basically remade himself to embrace a far right agenda, but like any good soldier, a victorious McCain seemed likely to take a look at the facts on the ground, and, at least in his first two years, understand that any accomplishments meant working cooperatively with Congressional Democrats. So again, better than Bush again.
But, as the campaign proceeded, McCain gave us Sarah Palin and his disgraceful and disturbing performance during the negotiations over the Bush Bailout. Not to mention the not-so-covert stoking the fires of xenophobia to brand his opponent as something strange and un-American. Over time, it no longer seemed certain that McCain was in any way an improvement over Bush. Moreover, McCain’s erratic behavior kept intensifying as the election got closer.
Is this outbreak of decency just more of the same?
Even in the age of google, our national memory is a short one. As such, I think McCain can redeem his reputation in the next few weeks, possibly even enough to emerge victorious.
But, despite that seemingly small and quite unpleasant possibility, I welcome the New/Old McCain.
Take off your jacket and stay awhile.