Don't cry for Sarah Palin, America.
She -- ferociously ambitious and with an icy heart more durable than the frozen tundra beneath Alaska -- won't be embarrassed by the anger over her $150,000 fashion makeover. Or, we can be sure, let the extraordinary contribution she's made in a few short weeks to the well-deserved wrecking of her party's presidential hopes deter her from future pursuit of national office.
Instead, consider her enablers' actions as one more example of the GOP's long slide to the bottom -- its collapse into dead-end politics.
Perhaps some are puzzled at the idiocy of the McCain camp -- just when an economic crisis is exacting an alarming toll on Americans -- spending so outrageously to outfit someone they've been trying to sell as a "you betcha!" hockey Mom.
But, as Robin Givhan, the sharp Washington Post fashion writer, noted, this let-them-eat-cake behavior underscores the GOP's dynamic of "dissemblance" -- the difference between conservative rhetoric and the reality of conservative political behavior -- that's become more and more tawdry the past eight years.
Listing how that played out during the Bush years would require a booklet. And John McCain, in his brief moment atop the party whose base so dislikes him, has racked up his own impressive record of dissemblance, too.
That's why Colin Powell's endorsement of Barack Obama Sunday was the more powerful.
Not just because Powell's high-level military and governmental experience and his considerable personal stature directly undermined key GOP arguments against Obama.
Nor just because of the compelling case he made that Obama is a "transformative figure" who would be "a successful president... an exceptional president."
It was the more powerful because Powell's words underscored John McCain's near-total dependence on negative campaigning - and the fact that dead-end politics now seems to be the only kind of politics the GOP can play. And his stand confirmed a marked repudiation of the Republican ticket's "culture wars" strategy by critical segments of voters, too.
The erosion of support for the McCain-Palin ticket during the past month has been charted in numerous polls. Taken collectively, they've found that "going negative" has backfired: the mud McCain and Palin have churned up has stuck, not to Obama, but to them.
For example, a New York Times/CBS News poll released this week found that 53 percent of those surveyed have a favorable impression of Obama, an increase of 10 percentage points since late September. That compares to 33 percent who say they do not.
By contrast, just 36 percent of voters polled view McCain favorably -- the same percent that did so in late September. But the percent of voters who now view McCain unfavorably has increased by 10 percentage points -- to 45 percent.
In other words, Obama's gain has been McCain's loss.
Not surprisingly, the growing gap stemmed from more voters losing confidence in McCain: 23 percent said their opinion of him had changed for the worse (only 12 percent said it had changed for the better).
The reasons that segment of voters gave for their negative assessment of McCain were, in order of importance: his attacks on Obama; his selection of Palin as his vice presidential choice; his performance in the debates with Obama, and his "erratic/unsteady" actions on the campaign trail.
Another poll, released this week by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News, also had Obama leading McCain by ten points. And, among other things, it, too, found that Sarah Palin was a major cause of voters turning from McCain.
That repudiation is what Colin Powell articulated in his appearance on Meet The Press.
Ever the diplomat, Powell spoke in measured terms about his "friend," John McCain. He said at one point, "it isn't easy for me to disappoint Senator McCain ... I regret that."
Nonetheless, he zeroed in on the most dramatic example of the GOP's worthlessness as a national party. That is the "demagoguery," in Powell's words, of the attempts of McCain and Palin and their surrogates to smear Obama as a "Muslim" and a "Socialist" who spends his time "palling around with terrorists."
This line of attack has infected their campaign with an unmistakable racist undertone; and - along with the ludicrous choice of Palin herself -- produced a shock wave of disgust that has even led several prominent conservative pundits to criticize both of them in strikingly harsh terms.
One can wonder why McCain and his advisers would resort to negative campaigning when the American electorate had already made clear they were fed up with the Republicans' bare-knuckled and cynical practice of politics -- when it overturned the GOP lock on the Congress in 2006 and put the Democrats in charge.
That McCain did return to that brutal, cynical approach indicates that, in this moment when multiple crises are tearing at the fabric of the society, he and the GOP are bereft of any ideas and any spirit worthy of the American people.
Lee A. Daniels is a former journalist for the Washington Post and the New York Times, and former editor of the National Urban League's The State of Black America. His book, Last Chance: The Political Threat to Black America, was published in June by Public Affairs Books.
In the light of the fact that it is suspected that that poor girl Michelle Mackin may have lied and inflicted her own injuries (the B is the wrong way round, but looks right if viewed in a mirror), do you think that this poor girl is in fact a victim of McCain Palins 'Hate train' and negative campaigning.
The girl, who is a GOP activist, but very young must have been in quite a state to self harm like this, and then blame the eponymous anonymous 'Black man'
Surely this is resultant of the constant hate speak in the Republicans campaign.
Personally I hope she is okay, and despite the hate she must feel for Obama, I really do wish her well. Some rest and time away from campaigns and candidates might be a good idea.
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/10/23/why-that-mccain-volunteers-mutilation-story-smells-awfully-weird/
P.S. I don't wish to put down rats, they are just another of Gods creatures.
If McCain and Palin will not talk honestly about their campaign and how they are (or are not) working together, how can the Country trust them to work together and uphold the duties of the Offices that they are running for?
Additional Comment:
I believe that Palin's goal is/was to take over for an ill McCain early in the first year of his term and then run the Country under the RIGHT's direction!
I also believe that the GOP never dreamed that Obama and his "young" team could ever seriously challenge them, especially after Obama decided not to accept lobbyist money. Now they are running (a dirty campaign) scared; and the only things that can save them is if something happens to Obama before he is inaugurated or there is a MAJOR (racial and/or rigging) voting "surprise" favoring McCain.
I'd like to see Obama ask folks to donate for "an additional level of security" until he is inaugurated; I bet folks would really pony up for him!
The GOP is now on the receiving end of a national wave of change
(that they have resisted for years) and they don't surf!
We can only hope that the next election in 2012 will be a better one focused on issues and not all the "small talk" we have had to endure this year.
Has anyone else ever wanted to meet one of these people?
I wonder sometimes and am a bit curious.
There have been studies showing differences in the brains of "liberals & conservatives". Even if that's true, I fail to understand how they could possibly like the way they are.
At the Republican convention, they didn't mention one single thing about the economy, jobs, healthcare, infrastructure, or any other serious issue. They made fun of Obama and Biden and regaled the crowd with war stories. That kind of thing can work when everything is going swell--or at least, appears to be. Katrina washed away the veneer of "everything's fine, nothing to see here" and since then it's only gotten worse. In tough times, people want to know who is going to fix things. After 8 years, it is clear that the Republicans aren't remotely interested in fixing anything.
She's completely given up ALREADY on McCain-Palin, and is desperately serving her own selfish interests now.
Just watch the body language between her and McCain !
McCAIN KNOWS !
I wonder who are the 12% who think McCain changed for the better? Moderates, Independents or the radical fringe of the Republican Party? The Devil is in the details.
Don't say "it can't happen here." People are people the world-round. The current iteration of Islamic Terrorism began as a faith-infused political movement. As it found no traction it reacted to the rejection of the populace with accelerating insularity and violence, targeting insufficiently fervent muslims for assassination before turning it's insanity on the west.
The same hysteria is not at all difficult to hear in coming from the GOP. Backmann calls for an examination of Congress to determine who is anti-American. We learn from Palin that there are pro-America parts of America and anti-America parts. I am not convinced that THEY understand this sentiment as hyperbole. I am certain that anyone who can't see the GOP is bankrupt is not equipped to tell the difference.
If the GOP and Diebold and Sequoia do not manage to steal this election the Democratic party and liberal Americans will be making a fatal error if they think the job is over.
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