Regrets: I Have a Few

"I'm going to strip the bark off that little bastard and make Willie Horton his running mate!" So said Lee Atwater about Governor Michael Dukakis during the 1988 presidential campaign. Atwater, was Bush Sr.'s manager, and is legendary among the loathsome bottom-feeders of right-wing attack politics. On his deathbed, however, Atwater expressed deep remorse for his vile ways and was particularly ashamed and most deeply regretful over his treatment of Governor Dukakis. One hopes, most likely in vain, that this epiphany of regret would be an object lesson to others. But, alas there are those who have completely ignored any lessons to be gleaned from Atwater's dying wishes. Their worship stops short of the final chapter of their hero's sorry saga.

Head goon at Fox Fake News, Roger Ailes, and fugitive slime king Karl Rove are the heirs to this spiritually bankrupt intellectually fraudulent style of political discourse. It is depressingly clear that the corporate media has been co-opted, polluted, and all too willingly become the dance partner of these soulless ghouls.

Soon, I hope, this despicable demonization of presidential candidate Mr. Barack Obama will, like a giant filthy finger down the throat of America, force us all (particularly the so-called mainstream media) to once and for all regurgitate these sulfurous impurities in our once sacred body politic.

Comments

[Larkrise]

McCain is running a campaign based on racism. The Media is calling it something polite; sugarcoating the truth; and giving McCain a free pass on his disgusting, racist implications. The OBVIOUS gist of his remarks are that: Obama "has gotten too big for his britches." As in: "Now, hey there, Boy, you done got too big for your britches. You need to learn your place." The Rovian Republican campaign meisters will deny this vehemently, and whine and pule that Obama is playing the "race card." In fact, they are playing the racist card. Their implications are that Senator Obama has no right to run for President. He is, according to their playbook, inexperienced, arrogant, out-of-line, and a figure to ridicule. They wish to define him by degrading him and "putting him in his place." Try telling me that this isnt racism, and I will tell you that you are either incredibly naive, incredibly stupid, or incredibly enabling. .McCain has no plan to assist this country out of its quagmire. He offers 4 more years of failed policies.When the polls begin to show that this wont wash, he has become desperate and vicious. His views of Obama's popularity are nothing more than sour grapes.He is now appealing to the basest instincts, the lowest denominator, and harming the country in the process. Some of us will call him on it. Where is the corporate-owned media in this situation? Cheering him on?!!!

[Pantelleria01]

Henry David Thoreau once wrote "the mass of men serve the state not as men mainly, but as pieces of wood." There is always someone who for money, for darker reasons, will serve the paymaster and the lie-maker. Politicians depend upon such people, pray for them in fact. The media has learned that the money is where the darkness is. The voter, being awake, understanding what is real is about the only hope we have perhaps, and it is a slim one. Ghouls only eat the darkness and people who need these ghouls serve from a place of shadows, such as the back rooms of CNN and FOX and the money-handlers for the candidates. At any moment nearly any and every person could actually wake and refuse to be fooled again.

[Tags]

One of the benefits of believing in a just God is that you get to imagine these guys not getting to heaven until a red-hot snail pushes them nine times around pluto's orbit by their hemorrhoids.

And that's after the deathbed confession.

[PerryWhite]

May Willie Horton be released with the provision that he live in your guest bedroom.

[separatingwheatfromchaff]

A lot of the harm is fostered on the public by the MSM.As an example take Howard Dean with his infamous scream heard worldwide.Even though it was found early on that Mr. Deans microphone was isolated from the roaring crowd that had a much higher decibel level, Mr. Dean sounded like a crazed madman.Even to this day, years later, we still hear it on this same MSM , mocking Mr. Dean with seemingly innocent humor that probably is responsible for the injuries and deaths of thousands of US soldiers and Iraqi civilians.All because our election process was gamed by slick broadcast of something that never happened.Sure Mr Atwood was sorry,just as sorry as I think Karl Rove and Roger Ailes are.There has to be a way to punish or take broadcast licenses away from media outlets who repeat known lies for whatever reason.Not a year down the road,but very early on and with vigor.We can make sure they're sorry right away.

[Cuneo]

Let's face it. They get away with it. The malevolent bullies are allowed to destroy the country and the world through the simple exploitation of ignorance and fear having planned their "deathbed conversion" since childhood. I believe none of it, and if there is a hell the only consolation is that they end up rotting in it. Meanwhile this plane of existence continues to become more like hell every year and nothing is done to stop it.

Looking for even a hint of moral misgivings or the ability to feel guilt in any of these people is futile. I appreciate your sentiment, but think you fail to recognize that the only difference between these people and your garden variety psychopath is stealth and the level of complexity.

[dfrossar]

"Malevolent bullies" is right, but "conservative authoritarians" or "conservatives without conscience" is more like it. To really understand this mindset, read John Dean's book of that name (Conservatives Without Conscience). It has the added advantage of inoculating the reader against their disingenuous arguments in the future.

[DarkWitch]

And money.

[robXdion]

VERY skillful to say all of that and NEVER mention the actual word: RACISM. We all know Willie Horton wasn't Dukasis' old college pal. And Lee Atwater's shame wasn't merely because he offended a fellow white man. C'mon!! The very reason you had to perform these verbal gymnastics to reach people is precisely this country is in denial and will never face the truth of it's history.

[Wilburrr]

Americans in the past 20 years have enjoyed and emphasized sound bites and one liners. The quick, verbal repartee has been used by the media do decide the winners and losers of presidential debates, which was then transferred to the voting booth. After 8 years of Bush, and a longer legacy including Clinton and Reagan, my hope is that voters now realize the need to look a lot deeper.

[hiprogloho]

The great tragedy in all this isn't so much that political spin masters wallow in unscrupulous smear campaign tactics. It's that the voting public are so dimwitted as to believe anything that they see on the idiot box. That such tainted image tarnishing actually works to sway simple minds at the ballot box.

The late George Carlin was right. This country is finished. The average citizen in the US is a fool, naive and none too bright. We celebrate our Forrest Gumps as salt of the earth types when they really are just stupid dumb sheep who will vote for covert fascism and die for nothing in an imperialist oil war.

When I see low IQ folks who are always wrong on the issues, I SEE DUMB PEOPLE. Oh, the horror!

[busybeez]

I have to disagree with you and Carlin. The generation coming up is more educated and worldly. Many have studied abroad for at least one semester so they don't have the arrogant belief that the world centers on America. They are also less about greed and more about serving those who are less fortunate.
While the older generation are hanging on to those old prejudices to their grave, this country is becoming more progressive through our youth. No doubt that ten more years will make a huge difference in the mindset of this country. The Republicans are a dying breed, literally. And our country will be better for them being gone.

[lacitepq]

Sorry, but I think you are generalizing a bit too much. Perhaps the priviledged youth are more educated and worldy, but they do not comprise the majority in this country. Most average citizens, young and old do not take the time to really dig down into the issues that really matter. We do not take our jobs as citizens very seriously. I would contend that many people vote based on their gut or "impressions" or likeability. How else can you explain George Bush as our President for the last eight years? If you really dig into this guy's pre-presidential history and his accomplishments the guy was an empty suit.

I think back to John Kerry and how the right took a fairly honorable guy and denigrated his service to his country in Vietnam. Pretty despicable. Do you think we would be in Iraq today if John Kerry was President? Do you think our reputation as a world leader would be in the crapper today if John Kerry was President? I would agree that JK didn't make the best candidate and he takes some of the blame for running a pretty lackluster campaign, but substance-wise he had more Presidential material in him than Bush had in his pinky finger. Most people were duped (and quite easily I might add) by the slick image crafted by Karl Rove. Such a shame for this country...

[GrainOSand]

Three things come to mind, karma causing deathbed atonement for sins newly realized due to nightly ghostly visits by a guilty conscious upon a guilty person, delayed responses to wrongdoing doing nothing to heal deep wounds, and the death of a nation by the toxic process of a presidential election of divide, deceit, and lack of decorum. Can America afford such slow responses to what harms a nation and such toxins in the public stream of being that define a nation? Process is goal for goal is informed by process. If you have one eye on the top rung of the ladder that leaves you crossed eyed when you come to look at the rung you are on which may result in a misstep of calamitous proportions. Better to focus fully upon the nature and quality of what is at hand and thereby tend to the quality of the desired outcome. McCain wants to play dirty and then later say he is clean. His process is dirty; therefore, a resulting presidency will be equally unkempt. McCain is channeling Pigpen of Charlie Brown fame. He is bringing dirt wherever he goes.

[UnknownSoldier]

Atwaters attack would not have worked if it wasn't for a complicit media. Basically the media is supposed to act as a judge. The media does a great job of presenting both sides of an argument, but the argument is always based on something the Right Wing and the Reps bring up.

The media is biased against dems

[Rog49Thomas]

Deathbed conversions are not only highly convenient but highly suspect.

[sdskelton03]

I haven't seen the demonization of which you speak, at least not by the McCain campaign.

[Darsan54]

Demonization ? Not so much, but the condescending attitude which runs through every ad stinks to high heaven. Not so much racist (but with contextual imagery for sure) McCain wants the public to equate Obama with those intellectual heavy weights Spears and Hilton. Maybe McCain should be shown hugging Bush again, wanting more of our children to be wasted in their useless war.

[Freesia2]

A sacred body politic. What a lovely thought. In my adult life, I've never seen it. What was it like? Did people actually talk issues? Did people limit their attacks to policy differences, and draw the lines at attacking the families? For that matter was there a line that a man who felt himself decent enough to be President would decently draw and never cross?

From your lips to God's ears, Mr. Belzer. It would at this point take an act of God to clean up this sewer they call politics. Hey, maybe Mr. Atwater will have a quiet word with Him about that? (I'm giving Lee the benefit of the doubt. :-) )

[joefazio]

Atwater was a vicious and cruel man. He suddenly go religion
when he was fatally ill. His expression of any type of remorse
only came when he was dying and his seeking forgiveness was a lot of crap.
He destroyed a lot of people.

Rove and the rest of "the destroyers" have a likened adgenda.
Politics to people like them is a blood sport with no one given any type
of break . People like Rove are a blot on the decency of society.
Their aim is to win, no matter what the cost and who
is sacrificed.

I have my fingers crossed for Obama. I feel he is a good man
and will uplift this country.