Now, I don’t believe that Senator McCain doesn’t care what’s going on in the lives of Americans. I just think he doesn’t know. Why else would he define middle-class as someone making under five million dollars a year? How else could he propose hundreds of billions in tax breaks for big corporations and oil companies but not one penny of tax relief to more than one hundred million Americans? How else could he offer a health care plan that would actually tax people’s benefits, or an education plan that would do nothing to help families pay for college, or a plan that would privatize Social Security and gamble your retirement?
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Well, it’s time for them to own their failure. It’s time for us to change America. And that’s why I’m running for president of the United States.
Yes, in some ways it lacked the gravitas that his March speech on race had, but this speech was brilliant in its own right.
I know I’m blogger #425653 to mention this, but someone might want to tell John McCain that he might be better off changing his tone a bit during the Olympics. Has anyone on his campaign staff actually, you know, watched the kind of commercials and noticed that they’re all kind of heartwarming and inspiring? Take, for example, Budweiser, which is rolling back out its heartwarming Clydesdale commercial from the Super Bowl. Or Coca-Cola, which has a billion and one different positive ads. Or Visa, which has those awesome Go World ones. What I’m trying to say is that people look for a certain type of commercial during these times, and John McCain’s negative ads are likely to leave a sour taste in most people’s mouths rather than convince them otherwise about Barack Obama. The Obama team seems to get it insofar that their ad is very positive and hits on his themes and gives a positive message. Sometimes this can be a real deal breaker if people really do get tired of the negative McCain ads before this thing is all over.
Alls I know is that the next time I see that stupid McCain ad while I’m trying to watch NBC’s ADHD Olympics broadcasts, I might be liable to hurl.
I have to admit that it’s weird to look back at my previous post about the writing on the wall and see that I called Tim Russert a Beltway wonk now that he passed away. Not that he wasn’t (entirely) a wonk, but it’s a bit strange in the wake of all that.
Am I the only person unmoved by the John Edwards affair business? Yes, it was a slimy thing to do, but that’s a matter to be addressed between Edwards and his wife. Why are people so surprised? More than that, why are they so outraged?
We should be aware by this point in time that men in positions of power often cheat on their significant others. Earlier this year Eliot Spitzer’s political career came to a halt when it was revealed he was Client #9. Long before the bitter divorce scandal, Jim “I’m a Gay American” McGreevy resigned after it came out he was having an affair with a man he put on the state payroll. It wasn’t that long ago that Bill Clinton was getting serviced by Monica Lewinsky right in the Oval Office. John F. Kennedy was widely speculated to have more than just a passing fancy in Marilyn Monroe. Hell, if you want to really stretch it back, we already know about the infidelities that Thomas Jefferson had, and now there are a lot of African Americans who are related to him. The point is that men in power often feel compelled to sleep with women (and sometimes men) who are not their spouses.
I’m not trying to say that what happened here is right. I’m just trying to say that this is outrage that is highly misplaced. I think a lot of people take offense to the fact that his wife had cancer and he cheated on her. That’s bad business, to be sure, but again, that’s a personal issue between him and her. And, yes, he lied about it. Of course he lied about it. These things take down politicians. Think about it this way though: in the end he got what was coming to him. His life in public service is over and he’s going to be branded as a cheat and a bad man. What else is left?
Things are bad enough for that family right now. Let’s just let sleeping dogs lie and understand that Edwards is more than paying for his sins.
28. male. new jersey. technical support specialist. rutgers graduate. tried and true democrat. loyal yankee fan. geek. movie and music lover. opinionated. unique. mero.
