When the Sen. Barack Obama bashing was over and Sen. John McCain walked on stage to greet his vice presidential candidate, I was sure I was seeing double. McCain and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin have formed a campaign full of double standards and are two candidates who act exactly alike in many different ways.
After 12 years of a Republican-led House, 4 years of a Republican controlled House and Senate, and 8 years of President Bush, John McCain and Sarah Palin are running as a change ticket as well.
"Change" and "Reform" were the issues Wednesday night... after you looked hard enough through the negative attacks on Obama. McCain and Palin are now trying to make the case to the American people that they are the ones best able to reform the mess made by their own party.
Palin opposes abortion even in the case of incest, rape, and when the health of the mother is in jeopardy. At the same time Palin slashed funding for unwed teenage mothers struggling to raise their children. Palin favors no options for the mother and leaving low-income mothers with no funding to help raise the child.
Palin called Bristol's pregnancy and her decision to keep the baby, a privacy issue to Bristol. A McCain-Palin administration would make Bristol's choice open to the government who would be making the decision for her.
Palin and McCain have attacked Obama for "flip-flopping". This is interesting considering the position changes McCain has made in order to run for president. Presidential candidate John McCain would not even support his own immigration bill if he had to vote on it today.
Palin supported the "bridge to nowhere" before she opposed it. Palin strongly supported the bridge and told the residents of "nowhere" that they were not, "nowhere" to her. Political scrutiny over the bridge forced her to change her mind. She did not send the pork back to Washington, she simply spent the money on something else.
Campaigning as a candidate opposed to earmarks is not only a double standard, it is a lie. While attacking those in Washington for wasteful earmark spending, Palin has accepted more than her state's share of earmark funding and has done nothing to curb it herself.
McCain is now defending the scrutiny against Palin by claiming they are sexist attacks, while the criticism has nothing to do with the fact that Palin is a woman.
McCain has used subtle racism in TV ads and then claimed that the Obama campaign is playing the race card.
McCain surprised nobody by walking on stage to speak to the crowd on Wednesday after Palin's speech. Barack Obama did the same thing just last week. What McCain should have done when he walked on stage was to offer some ideas about how to fix America.
This would have been more of a surprise at a Republican convention. Will McCain do that Thursday night? We know 2000 presidential candidate John McCain would. I do not hold out much hope for 2008 presidential candidate John McCain giving that speech.