McCain Camp Loses All Credibility

Can you imagine Joe Biden this past weekend making speeches in swing states saying, “John McCain has been palling around with convicted felons”? Let’s say that the accusation is that McCain has been a regular visitor to convicted Senator Duke Cunningham in his Tucson, Arizona prison cell whenever he gets back to Arizona and that he secretly meets once a week with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff in Maryland every time he visits his Northern Virginia office.
Well, it won’t happen, because number one, it’s probably not true, and secondly, it would make Joe Biden and the Obama-Biden campaign look like petty fools, allowing them to lose all credibility and open themselves up to a tremendous amount of well-deserved criticism. This is exactly the condition that the McCain-Palin campaign finds itself in, and opens them up to a massive amount of well-deserved criticism and focuses the electorate’s attention on their hypocrisy and tremendous lack of credibility.

It was just last week in the famous vice-presidential debate that Sarah Palin chided Senator Biden for constantly looking to the past and that the McCain-Palin ticket only looks to the future. If we were to take the Bill Ayers-Barack Obama palling around attack seriously, we’d have to believe that they are good buddies, hanging around on a regular basis and secretly meeting so that Ayers can contribute advice to the Obama campaign. Yes, there was some connection during the initial efforts of Barack Obama to get elected to the Illinois State Senate, but making a link to Obama’s current campaign is just absurd and completely lacks any shred of evidence or reality.

Furthermore, Ayers’ questionable activities took place when Barack Obama was a child, and Senator Obama has made it quite clear that he thoroughly denounces Ayers’ actions and does not subscribe under any circumstances to any terrorist activities of Ayers or anybody else. I’m 100% certain that even a cursory investigation into John McCain’s memberships on boards and commissions would reveal that he associates himself with unsavory characters that would not meet with the approval of the American people, and yet the Obama campaign will not stoop so low as to accuse McCain of subscribing to the positions and actions of any such acquaintances.
With the upcoming presidential debate tomorrow evening, it is time for Barack to turn to McCain and say, “Senator McCain, your campaign has accused me of ‘palling around’ with known terrorists. Are these your words? Do you feel that I pal around with terrorists?” My assumption is that McCain will back away from such charges and certainly not expect such an interrogation, and if he has the temerity to adopt that accusation, then he should be forced to back up his charge right then and there. After all, wouldn’t a United States Senator be open to immediate investigation and discipline if he truly had known terrorists associated with his campaign?

His use of Sarah Palin as attack dog is just another demonstration of John McCain’s desperation. Ms. Palin couldn’t possibly have any firsthand knowledge of what she speaks about, and Senator Obama should point out in tomorrow night’s debate that Senator McCain’s campaign has simply run out of gas, that all it has left is to attack, to belittle its opponent and that its biggest fear is that the American people will actually concentrate on this country’s economic woes and that McCain was pretty well linked with the failures of the Iraq occupation during the last debate.
Although I’m not fond of references to McCain’s involvement in the Keating Five scandal, I do think it’s time for Barack to be prepared to make that link should John McCain continue his attack mode and outrageously rude demeanor from last week’s presidential debate. I think he should be called out on his no vote on the current GI Bill, his lack of support for the troops in almost all of his votes and his very poor rating with veterans’ groups. I also think that there are numerous references that have been made recently in debates, both by McCain and Palin, about Israel, taxes, spending and earmarks that Barack should clarify. For example, it’s not wrong to point out that Barack enjoys an A+ rating by the American-Israel lobby, which definitely wouldn’t happen if he hadn’t already proven that he is a steadfast supporter of Israel.

The McCain-Palin campaign, led by Karl Rove, dozens of lobbyists and previous Bush-Cheney staffers, has now gone into full attack mode. They are prepared to pull out all the stops in dragging Obama into the mud, and unlike Al Gore and John Kerry before them, Barack cannot sit back and allow this to happen, and we can’t sit by and just watch it, either. But the McCain campaign is hoping to play on stereotypes of blacks and play the race and fear cards, and in pointing out the complete lack of credibility of the McCain campaign’s message and the unfair and untrue way they attack, Barack must do it in a thoughtful, calm but lethal method where he looks right at McCain and calls him out for the fraud that he is and the way he conducts himself and his campaign in the most hypocritical manner.

Once again, let’s take it to ‘em, make strong points and make John McCain accountable for his campaign’s completely untrue and mean-spirited attacks. With 29 days left, it’s time for Barack to establish himself and Joe Biden as the preferred choice of the American people and why, and conversely, he must demonstrate how severely John McCain and Sarah Palin are completely out of touch with the best interests and wishes of the voters in this country.