5 thoughts on “And watching for Pigs in Lipstick”

1. As Josh Marshall put it, McCain is running the “sleaziest, most dishonest and race-baiting campaign of our lifetimes.”

   All politicians stretch the truth, massage it into the best fit with their message. But, let’s face it, John McCain is running a campaign almost entirely based on straight up lies. Not just exaggerations or half truths but the sort of straight up, up-is-down mind-blowers we’ve become so accustomed to from the current occupants of the White House. And today McCain comes out with this rancid, race-baiting ad based on another lie. Willie Horton looks mild by comparison. (And remember, President George H.W. Bush never ran the Willie Horton ad himself. It was an outside group. He wasn’t willing to degrade himself that far.) As TPM Reader JM said below, at least Horton actually was released on a furlough. This is ugly stuff. And this is an ugly person. There’s clearly no level of sleaze this guy won’t stoop to to win this election.

   And let’s be frank. He might win it. This is clearly a testing time for Obama supporters. But I want to return to a point I made a few years ago during the Social Security battle with President Bush. Winning and losing is never fully in one’s control — not in politics or in life. What is always within our control is how we fight and bear up under pressure. It’s easy to get twisted up in your head about strategy and message and optics. But what is already apparent is that John McCain is running the sleaziest, most dishonest and race-baiting campaign of our lifetimes. So let’s stopped being shocked and awed by every new example of it. It is undignified. What can we do? We’ve got a dangerously reckless contender for the presidency and a vice presidential candidate who distinguished her self by abuse of office even on the comparatively small political stage of Alaska. They’ve both embraced a level of dishonesty that disqualifies them for high office. Democrats owe it to the country to make clear who these people are. No apologies or excuses. If Democrats can say at the end of this campaign that they made clear exactly how and why these two are unfit for high office they can be satisfied they served their country.

   Also known as mooseshit.

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   1. but I guess when the incumbent Republican is as much of a failure as Dubya, and when you have spent the last eight years kissing up to him, as a candidate lies are all you have.  Still, its shameful, and a disgrace, and one wonders how hungry that old man must be for power to sink to such lies and tactics.  He’s my dad’s age, and after 50+ years of work, dad has the sense to be enjoying retirement.  

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      2. Remember, McCain didn’t spend the last eight years “kissing up” to Bush — he bore a grudge (rightly so) over Bush’s treatment of him and his family in the 2000 primaries and flirted with switching parties in 2001. Later, when fellow vet John Kerry got the nomination and told the truth about Iraq, earning McCain’s agreement, he was in discussions with the Kerry campaign about a “national unity” ticket, but balked. It’s only in the last two years McCain has been so wholly in Bush’s pocket and only in the last couple months Rove has held sway. That’s why it’s so hard for the national press (McCain’s “base”) to tell it like it is.

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