Living in the World of the Double Standard

It is absolutely amazing to me how divisive and negative this campaign has become in the past few weeks. I realize that I may be a bit biased, but almost all of it seems to be coming from the McCain side. As a matter of fact, the McCain campaign has actually seemed to define themselves as the attackers and have embraced the fact that they've gotten pretty damned good at it.

I even heard McCain yesterday state that Obama should really be enjoying this, that he should essentially lighten up, that these attack ads are really just light-hearted and playful attempts to demonstrate the differences between the two candidates. Well, my friends, we live in a world where the playing field isn't even, and if the Obama campaign and Barack himself were creating ads and slinging the mud in the same way that the McCain camp has, the media and the Right Wing talking heads would be all over him.

I would not advocate this kind of ad, but what if the Obama campaign came out with its own negative attack ad on McCain. With pictures of Berlin, Portland and several other huge events playing in the beginning, the voiceover begins, "Maybe Barack Obama is something of a celebrity. But people are ready for change, and he's the candidate of the kind of change they want."

The picture changes to McCain walking into Schmidt's German Restaurant. "Did you ever wonder why John McCain doesn't speak in places where a large crowd can gather?"
The picture changes to McCain photos with Bush, Rove, Phil Gramm, Ted Stevens, Charles Keating, (you get the idea) and the voiceover says, "Maybe John McCain has a little too much experience."

The pictures now show Barack sitting down leading his recent economic summit meeting, then fades to pictures of Barack meeting troops in Iraq. Then a clip of McCain saying that the economy is not his strong suit, saying he will rely on Phil Gramm to be his guru with the headlines of Gramm stepping down due to his calling the American public whiners.

An image of gas prices quickly shows in the background. Headlines flash across the screen showing how many times McCain voted against the troops in legislation that would support them, particularly the Gi Bill, in which he was absent altogether.

The voiceover says, "Barack Obama offers change this country can rely on and believe in. John McCain is old, tired and doesn't know what he believes in." McCain's recent speech plays where he delivers a mean accusation against Obama, then flahes that smarmy smile that we've all seen. And while the picture of McCain hugging George W. Bush appears and fills the screen, the voiceover says, "Can we really survice another four more years of George W. Bush?"

The ad ends with the woman in Denver being escorted away from the venue by the police and we hear the woman say, "I'm an American citizen. Why wouldn't McCain want me to point out that he's equal to George Bush? It's his party."

I realize that I won't be hired by any of the large ad agencies based on this, but I think you get the idea. Like I said, I don't think we'll see an ad like this, nor would I wish to see one, but we do have a double standard.

Why should McCain be able to attack and attack and instead of being ridiculed by the mainstream media, he is praised for taking Obama off message and doing what he has to do to get elected. There is definitely something wrong here.