So, I did my workout to the second presidential debate last night. It was interesting. It didn’t get as nasty as I expected, but McCain just gets more irritating all the time. He keeps repeating the same bald-faced lies, and he uses “I” constantly–everything is I, my, me, over and over. Obama says “we,” and “you.” McCain says, I, I, I, me, my and then repeats some whopper about Obama that has been thoroughly debunked. No wonder Obama kept insisting on running over his time to correct McCain, to the annoyance, and finally despair, of moderator Tom Brokaw. (Which one of the candidates got in front of Brokaw’s teleprompter and provoked that final outburst from him? I was done with workout and listening from the kitchen by then, but I nearly fell on the floor laughing.) And the way McCain kept addressing the audience as “my friends”–you know who used to do that? Classic snake-oil confidence men. Never trust someone you don’t know who calls you “my friend!”
What terrifies me is that there are so many people who actually support McCain–not merely, don’t want to vote for Obama, but actively support McCain. It’s frightening that so many people in America are such poor judges of character. I know that there was egregious election fraud in both 2000 and 2004. Nevertheless, the fraud wouldn’t have worked without, as Britain’s Daily Mirror said in 2004, close to 59,054,087 people being as dumb as posts…or as dumb as Bush, anyway. How many of those people have really gotten any brighter in the past four years? They may regret voting for Bush, but that doesn’t mean they’re any smarter about the next guy. Those of us who said on November 3rd, 2004 that the United States was fucked have now been totally vindicated. Don’t think we’re happy about it.
Anyone who believes the Republicans are not capable of such minor mischief as election fraud should read this piece in the Phoenix about what happened in St. Paul at the Republican convention.
For a long, detailed, and utterly terrifying biographical profile of McCain and his “record,” take the time to read this piece in Rolling Stone online. (Thanks to kradical for the link!)
According to The Global Electoral College compiled by The Economist online, virtually the entire planet is praying that Obama is elected. If we elect McCain, we probably will be attacked–by our allies, out of sheer desperation!
The McCain campaign is sinking to historic lows as Palin claims that Obama “pals around with terrorists.” In a rally in Clearwater, Florida on Monday, a man in the audience yelled “Kill him,” in response to this and Palin just smiled and let it pass. Obviously, it was the response she was angling for. This same crowd booed when Palin mentioned The New York Times, so maybe it’s Obama’s I.Q. that offends them. But isn’t this the same rhetorical tactic that Hitler used to inflame hatred of the Jews in 1930s Germany? And we all know how that one turned out.
War-mongering, hatred-inciting, gun-loving, lying, and full of phony two-faced folksy familiarity…this is what Americans want in their leaders? I guess on November 4th, we’ll know the answer to that.