St. Pete Times on McCain and Palin: "Unworthy campaign of lies"

[madfloridian]

Editorial: Unworthy campaign of lies

From the St. Pete Times today.

Unable to slow Barack Obama's momentum or win on issues such as health care and the economy, John McCain has resorted to character assassination. It is common for a struggling campaign to change the subject, but this abrupt change in strategy is beneath the Arizona Republican who claims to value honor and integrity. McCain needs to put a stop to it in tonight's second presidential debate before he does permanent damage to his own reputation.

Over the weekend and again on Monday in Clearwater, Sarah Palin tried to scare voters by attacking Obama's ties to 1960s-era radical Bill Ayers, one of the founders of the violent Weather Underground. The Alaska governor accused Obama on Saturday in Colorado of "palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.'' Since Obama was 8 years old when the Weather Underground was claiming credit for bombings, that was quickly labeled as a lie. So Palin retooled the line for Clearwater, calling Obama "someone who sees America as 'imperfect enough' to work with a former domestic terrorist who targeted his own country.''

The intent remains the same: Scare white voters by exaggerating the links between a black presidential candidate and onetime violent radicals. Raise doubts about those associations while questioning Obama's patriotism and implying he is too radical to identify with middle class values. And do it in the context of a speech that later leads to chants of "USA!" and is delivered with a backdrop of supporters dressed in red, white and blue. It's not subtle, and voters ought to reject these campaign smears.

Apparently some in the crowd yesterday to hear Sarah Palin were not that impressed.

Palin holds nothing back in Florida stops

But Democrats and political analysts questioned how such attacks will play to the Florida electorate, particularly undecided voters, with the economy reeling and on a day that the stock market fell 370 points.

Even some in the crowd of 8,000 at Germain Arena in Estero said Obama's connection to Ayers, and to his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, is old news and they wished the McCain campaign would instead tell voters how it would revive the economy.

"Don't slap people around," said Carl Brewer, an 83-year-old lifelong Republican from Naples.

Glad to see some honesty on this issue.

I am glad the St. Pete Times picked up on the red, white, and blue theme. Her being dressed all in white was very odd and a little creepy.

[Overseas]

1. K&R for the truth !! //nt

[speedoo]

2. K&R. Great stuff, the truth. Thanks. nt

[madfloridian]

3. We need more of it.

:hi:

[speedoo]

4. I know I can count on you to find it and share it!

:-)

[leftyladyfrommo]

6. I wish Molly Ivins could have lived to see all of this.

Man, she would have loved it.

I miss her so much.

[madfloridian]

11. Molly was a lonely voice there for a while.

We all were for a while in the early 2000s...only the last couple of years has there been less fear.

[leftyladyfrommo]

19. One good thing to come out of this mess, I guess.

It's safe to speak our minds again.

Bush didn't intimidate her at all.

[madfloridian]

5. WFLA's Keith Cates gets super duper exclusive Palin interview...softball questions

And he spins about the Ayers issue at the end. I guess if you are the only local reporter in the country to get a sit down interview with the lovely Sarah you want to be sure not to blow it.

Sorry Keith Cates, you blew it on the "recently distanced himself" comment. Video

http://www.tbo.com/video/xml/MGBR4QZMZLF.html

[Dystopian]

7. KandR!

Thank you, once again:)


peace~

[madfloridian]

17. Back at you.

:)

[madfloridian]

8. I hear she is wearing all white again today.

Is that some kind of super secret religious message? That is most unusual for a candidate.

[BlueKansan]

10. She wore black slacks

She wasn't all in white.

[progressivebydesign]

16. doesn't matter what she wore on the bottom... the crowd and cameras only see the top.

and it's white again today... and I have never seen her in WHITE before. Nothing is an accident... she has handlers who study psychology of what to wear, and she's wearing white repeatedly WHILE sending out dog whistle comments about Obama.

[Supersedeas]

9. Conservatives on the VERY SAME COMMITTEES with Obama and Ayers

[Cha]

12. Thankfully, there's the St Pete Times in Floridia

writing about the facts!

Rec'd~

[madfloridian]

13. There's been too little truth here.

I try to give credit when the media here gets it right.

:hi:

[Cha]

14. Kick to keep the truth front and center! Thanks~

:hi:

[april]

15. Go to the web site and give the TRUTH!!

[kwolf68]

18. They are replaying Nuremburg all over

Trouble is...we DO HAVE freedom and a whole bunches of us gonna be exercising it on Nov4th...and if you have a brown shirt on stay the hell out of my way.

[mscuedawg]

20. Ayup...and so it goes...

This late in the game...ppl get tired of the same ole' lousy politics...

:woohoo: :applause: