Yeah -- You and Whose Army?

So everyone's talking about the nasty spike of nastiness in the presidential race -- a spike brilliantly orchestrated by the Republican machinery -- and Republican John McCain takes a moment to point out that even this is Barack Obama's fault.

Y'see, all the crap being thrown at Obama -- the fear-mongering, the half-truths, the full lies -- all the character assassination hurling Obama's way, is in fact, his own doing.

"I think the tone of this whole campaign would have been very different if Senator Obama had accepted my request for us to appear in town hall meetings all over America," the Senator from Arizona tells us.

Am I just losing my friggin' mind? Seriously. I keep looking around the room to see if I'm living in some suddenly altered state where everything we know is now called the opposite, and nobody notices. Or can stop it.

"I wish I didn't have to take your lunch money, but you should'nt of hadda brung it."

We're in the 3rd grade again. The skinny, smart kid who just moved in to the neighborhood is getting roughed-up by the asshole bully. The kid who hits you in the head with your hand and says, "Why're you hitting yourself? Why're you hitting yourself?"

"Um, actually I'm not. You're hitting me."

"You calling me a liar?"

"No, I'm just pointing out that..." SMACK!

"Why're you hitting yourself?"

And there seems to be no one to appeal to. There're no grown-ups around when you need 'em. No one to step in and say, "Alright, that's enough now. We don't do that here, fella." And in the absence of any authority, the asshole gets to keep doing it.

"Why're you hitting yourself? SMACK! Why're you hitting yourself?"

From the few minutes of the GOP convention I could stomach watching, all I could think was that Giuliani and Sarah Palin were doing some big-person, lethal version of "I know you are, but what am I?"

America: "Well, respectfully, Governor Palin, it could be argued that you are, in fact, relatively inexperienced."

Her: "I know you are but what am I?"

"Hm? No, perhaps you misunderstood. We are talking about you."

"I know you are but what am I."

"Well, Governor, just listening to your speech, you seem awfully caustic."

"You are."

"And, frankly, a little bitter."

"You're bitter."

"I mean, where's your sense of humility?"

"I'm rubber, you're glue. It bounces off me and sticks to you."

"My God - you're... dangerous."

"I know you are, but what am I?"

Maybe that's the problem. Obama treats us like adults, and McCain's team treats us like children.

Obama seeks to inspire and raise us as a nation. McCain's people want to reduce us to infants.

Obama asks us to be deep. And courageous.

McCain prays that we're simple. And cowardly.

Now everyone is calling for Obama to "get angry." "Get out there and frown this way, curl your lip that way, and clench your fist like so." And, I don't know..... That'd be cool. Sure. But I don't think the fix can come just from him. There's only so much the guy can do. It's going to have to be us. I don't know what exactly we need to do, but I know we'll do it. I have to believe -- I mean I really have to believe we're big enough, strong enough and smart enough to reclaim what's ours. I love my children too much to let the assholes take over the school yard.

Comments

[CJsway]

They're counting on the 54+ million stupid Americans to do it again.

Be stupid so they can relate. Lie so they can believe. Put down intelligence so they can feel smarter. Promise what isn't possible so they can believe what they aren't willing to learn and know. All those years of killing education bills was for a purpose. Create a stupid voting base that you can manipulate to your platitudes and guile and you can control the government endlessly.

Who the hell wants a hockey mom in charge of this country? The hockey moms - oooohhh, she's one of us so she'll shoot these bad Russian hockey players and then our team will win, tee, hee . . . .

Stupidity put Bush in the presidency, they are playing to the same audience again. Be very sure it is possible the stupid ones can be stroked and can win again.

[Chapmanp2]

P.S. I really think that Obama needs to come up w/ some very creative ways of pulling dirty political tricks on McCain only do it in a way that will serve to slap the public in the face & wake up & make the media laugh at the same time. One example I've though of would be for Obama to wear his flag pin loud & proud to the debate. When McCain shows up not wearing his (he never does) just wait til the end of one of his responses & ask him why he refuses to wear a flag pin. I swear it would bring the house down & people would just have to stop dead in their tracks & realize what a bill of goods the Repubs have been selling US...

[Agentlady007]

He does seem stubborn. It could be a good thing.

[Chapmanp2]

I watced Brokaw on meet the Press this morning & as Giullianni repeats the McCain talking point about town hall meetings Brokaw say NOTHING.
This article nails it. There are no grown ups in the media that will simply stand up & tell these people to their face while they're sitting there that I'm sorry we fact checked what you're saying & it's a lie. Or what do town hall meetings have to do with a campaign you support or represent telling lies???
The Women on the View deserve a medal of honor for their interview with McCain. They indeed are the ONLY ones I've seen with the journalistic integrity to call him out for his lies.

[ramonagalen]

McCain listen to the people? Listen to our servicemen and women? Check out this video of McCain's Candidates@Google talk, especially the question posed to McCain at 56:39. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDDixe_N5sE

[wisechild]

Oh Paul Reiser, wish I'd seen this when you first posted it cause it would have helped my mood. Between you and Maher, you have just about said it all....

Yes, this is 3rd grade and they are bullies. They are adept at twisting every fact and statement. I saw it all again on the morning political shows. They are aided and abetted by the MSM and other pundit/com­mentators.

There is no way we can afford to trivialize the message, the candidate and the truth. If we are in their game, that's the one we have to play.

I was always ignored by bullies and abided by the popular kids. My humor got me out of every situation.

I say if this is ridiculous then keep saying it is. We should laugh them out of town.

Mc-cranky is no better than a 4 year old with a bad history. I fail to see relevance of the town hall meetings and why that is cause for negative ads or 'they Dems ran the first negative ad....wah, wah, wah.

Shine a light on the lies, laugh the bastards away and take back our country. If the law won't do it, congress won't step up and the MSM would rather eat BBQ, then we must.

As for Palin, Tina Fey on SNL did the best takedown...'and I can see Russia from my house'

[vandrop]

I heard McCain say that on the view and I was all, WHU!?!?!?! And it went by without a challenge from "The Ladies". HELLO!? AMERICA!?!? WTF!!?!?? McCain just admitted that his sleeze campaign is retribution for not being allowed to dictate the tenor and style of the presidential debates!

Freakin' unbelievable.

And Obama will win. He's on a financial roll. Thousands of new voters are joining the fight. It's gonna be over soon, folks. Relax.

[Einstein44]

Paul Reiser is on target ! I hope that we are smart enough, to not fall for the infantile behavior by the McCain camp.

[Agentlady007]

Don't you get it though? They are appealing to the masses. The ones that want to be walked to the park, and spoon fed jello, and changed before they get wet. The people who feel it is their right to retire before they are told to. The people who go with the flow. This world is heavily populated, and it will take hundreds of people to heal a nation in frustration, such as ours. So either way, it will be interesting to see who these politicians select as their staff members, and it will be our hope to hope they know how to wear the hat that they've been assigned.

[trinidadgirl]

Let's sort out the MSM. They are indeed the real swiftboaters! CALL THEM OUT ON THEIR SPIN!

[67yrolfe]

trinidadgirl: Way to go. Keep those emails and phone calls going at 'em! We have to let them know every day that thousands of us has got Obama's back.

[lizinatl]

WHEN CAN THE AMERICAN PEOPLE TRUST MCCAIN TO TELL US THE TRUTH?

WE ALREADY HAVE A PRESIDENT KNOWN FOR STREEEEETTTCCCHHING THE TRUTH...
are we going for act 3?

If McCain will lie once, he'll lie twice (and we know it) and he'll keep on lying because the American people have given him PERMISSION TO LIE!!!!!!

STOP THE MADNESS!!!

[achildofiam]

Look at your own party for a while and reply again. Do you think you can find the same problems even with Obama. The honest answer is YES. It is not about the party it is about the quality of the people we let in.

[Spesabsquemetu]

WRONG.

It is about MODELING what you claim to embrace and BELIEVE IN and subscribing to practices that uphold the tenets of our constitution.

And that is not about "letting" some in, and keeping others out.

It's about holding yourselves to the standards and ethics that DEMOCRACY cries out for.
It's about practicing what you claim to believe and holding those who destroy democracy, accountable for their conduct.

It's about upholding the LAWS that guide our spirit of democracy, and not desecrating them while dismantling our constitution and our bill of rights.

[certainot]

across this country on probably a few radio stations anyone can get, on a total of over 500 stations reaching 10 to 20MIL people, rush limbaugh said OBAMA'S HEAD NEEDS TO ROLL (sept 10).

so how many americans "got obama's back"

how many obama supporters heard it and how many called, complained to, boycotted, or picketed the local talk radio station that fills their airwaves with racist crap and lies about obama every day?

[achildofiam]

Be careful with the words you throw. The things you call lies might have deeper truths than you are comfortable discussing in the full public forum. Having the "R" discuss them is one thing but having an honest open public discussion might not be what you want.

[67yrolfe]

certainot: I don't listen to talk radio -- my blood pressure can't take it. As a 67 year old with bad arthritis; I'd not be too good on a picket line but you've got the right idea. I can't get around so good anymore but I've got Obama's back with the network and cables. I can still type and I write a mean email.

[GrannyH]

I don't know of any Obama supporter who is not stymied by the lack of fight-back (and no I don't mean low-blow attacks).

We all - bloggers, commenters, posters, my downstairs neighbor - have better ideas than the weak, half-assed stuff that the Obama campaign has lately been putting out there (whoever came up with that McCain computer thing should be fired on the spot - as well as whoever actually gave that juvenile, awful thing the go-ahead).

Seriously, either the Obama people have some HUGE ace up their sleeve or they've been infiltrated by McCain people or something. Nothing else would explain why this brilliant campaign has started to seemingly implode.

There's absolutely no making heads or tails of the campaign's impact/creativity downturn since the DNC.

[achildofiam]

It might be that it was all hot air. Obama's use of change is nothing but shallow. Even when I can find details behind his ideas I do not like what I find.

[Chapmanp2]

Excellent analogy.
I'm continually amazed every time I see James Carville or DeeDee Myers talking on behalf of Obama.
These are Clinton operatives & this is who we have to listen to 1/2 heartedly defend Obama & they NEVER miss their chance to somehow hit him for SOMETHING. Obama's team needs an intense media strategy in these closing weeks & I don't know if the media will even allow it. WOW!!!

[xargaw]

Frankly, the Obama surrogates are going to have to start standing up to the schoolyard bullies. The press will give McCain a pass more often than not because for the past eight years the press has rolled over. If they were to do their job the way they should now, it would shine a beam of light back on them as the accomplices to the meltdown that is taking place. The press will fly with a mild "shame on you," but not a rebuke for McCains vile campaign because they do have a stomach for anything that requires hard work. Should Obama pull this off, by February they will be blaming him for the awful state of affairs America is in. If McCain wins, it will be Bush's fault and he will be getting sympathy and understanding.

[achildofiam]

Please!

[JamesInDenver]

You're absolutely right! When I imagine a 4 year old saying this, it takes on a completely different meaning:

"I think the tone of this whole campaign would have been very different if Senator Obama had accepted my request for us to appear in town hall meetings all over America."

And now it has the same meaning when I imagine the 72 year old McCain saying it. Mommy it's just not fair when Barack doesn't do what I tell him.

[achildofiam]

Obama will not sit down if he does not have a script. That is the issue.

[ericmike]

thanks for giving voice and expression to something many of us are feeling. Obama/Biden 08!!!

[canobs]

Paul Reiser has conveyed the exact impression this pesidential election so far had left in the minds of American people. Obama does indeed look like "the skinny, smart kid" being roughed up by big, bad Rebublican bully McCain. He is screaming for an adult to help him, but there is no one around. While Americans may sympathize with "the skiny, smart kid" being smacked around and ridiculed, they are not about to make him their next Comander-inChief.

[Jenoah2008]

Well! Well! For those who originally thought Obama wasn't Black, or was "uppity" --unaware that his audacity was taking him out of his place--the absence of media or surrogate outrage at that racist subliminal ad depicting him as some sleezy black child molester should have made him quite certain that he is just any Black man in America.

[canobs]

It's got nothing to do with being Black and everything with being soft, indesive and unable to defend himself. If he can't do it in the presidential campaign, what makes you think he will be able to defend America's interests as the next President.

[achildofiam]

My School District wanted me to allow the same "innocent" things to be taught to my daughter’s kindergarten class. Can you speak from that position? The efforts of one person to "protect" can be more harmful than the danger. It depends on what you are “protecting” them from. Some things do need to be taught, but the parents should not be cut out of that discussion. THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH RACE!

[itsok]

Obama has awakened the lackadaisical ego of of our brethren who will be directly impacted by the radical and extreme views of the GOP. Although we have more work to do to pull in the middle end voters.The reality is McCain is no Reagan. The GOP however is clearly fanatical and their base is now energized so we cannot take anything for granted but to work steadfastly. the South did not fall easily to the antislavery and womens rights movement and the present is no different. But the GOP are a dying breed they getting older and are unable to compete with the multiculturalism of the world. Thats why they are going to try to squelch our vote by harassing the youth and minorities. Our base is invigorated and we are prepared for another 2000 voter dilemma. Another benefit we have is that the GOP are getting smug with the bump received from their convention and now they think they are going to win the election. This shows Palin/MCain ads are getting sloppy and lying to get their message across. This will hurt them with Independents and some unhappy Repubs that didn't like the Bush lies from the last 8 years. The game will now change as Dems new slogan is Enough is Enough. We will be diligent even if Politico.org and MSM, CNN don't want to stick to the issues and keep telling the GOP to their delight that the Dems are on their heels.