Starting Monday, The Young Turks will be carrying the ad that Brave New PAC and Democracy for America have put together on John McCain's health records on our XM satellite radio show and on our website - www.theyoungturks.com.
MSNBC pulled this ad after getting pressure from Bill O'Reilly. How does that work? If I yell at Rush Limbaugh, will he drop his advertisers? We are told that this ad is "controversial" because it brings up the issue of John McCain's health (you can watch the ad for yourself here).
Why is that controversial? Whether the man we elect will make it through the four years of his term is highly relevant to our decision making process. Especially when the person he has selected as his VP is grossly incompetent.
I really don't see the issue. Are we worried that we are being impolite to John McCain? Is it bad form to bring up the word cancer? Does it have to be whispered? Can it not be said in polite company or on-air?
If John McCain were a plumber and he was going to come into fix my sink, his health is none of my business (presuming that he gets the sink unclogged without having a health crisis). If John McCain had a health problem that is not life threatening, such as erectile dysfunction, then that is none of my business. It is not at all relevant. But if he has recurring cancer and there is some chance he cannot complete the job we are hiring him for - and that job is the most important job in the world - then his health is of tremendous relevance. It would defy logic to claim that it is not.
I don't want to hurt Senator McCain's feelings, but there are more important things on the line here. Especially because he picked an absolute imbecile as his vice presidential nominee (there I go again, hurting people's feelings). By the way, are we also not allowed to call Sarah Palin stupid because it might be impolite and make her feel bad? Yes, better to make a tremendous mistake about who we select as the leader of the free world then to hurt someone's feelings.
If Sarah Palin was ugly, it would not be relevant to the job she is seeking. If she had bad breath, we could live with it. But if she's dumb as brick and John McCain dies, we have just condemned the whole country and the world to a miserable four years because we didn't want to appear insensitive.
Have you seen the Sarah Palin interviews? Jack Cafferty of CNN summed it up best with just one word: pathetic. She has no idea what she's doing. You're goddamn right I want to know how healthy John McCain is. I'm scared enough of McCain, let alone this blank slate, uneducated, intellectually incurious, simpleton. I'm sorry, did I hurt her feelings again?
Right now, the McCain campaign is telling the press that Palin is a quick study. That's embarrassing. They are admitting that the person they've selected to be the VP nominee has to study up on foreign and domestic policy because she didn't care to learn it before she was selected. Think about a 44 year-old who is a politician and didn't care to learn anything about foreign policy before she was selected to be on a national ticket. That rivals George Bush in lack of intellectual curiosity.
She knows nothing and we're supposed to be reassured that she's a quick study? By the way, if you've seen the interviews, you know that she is in fact not at all a quick study. I can take almost any freshman out of Harvard and they would learn national policy a hell of a lot quicker than she has.
His VP nominee is busy trying to learn policy and McCain says he shouldn't have to release his health records? Are you kidding me?
We are going to run the Brave New PAC ad everyday from here on out until the rest of the media gets out of their shell and does their job. Your job isn't to be polite to the candidates, you're job is to make sure they are ready for the most important office in the world - and capable of serving their term.
Finally, I am not at all saying that people should vote against John McCain because he has cancer. All I'm saying is that it is relevant. It is a perfectly pertinent factor to consider when making the weighty decision of who to vote for. Are you voting for John McCain or are you voting for John McCain and a possibly a couple of years of Sarah Palin?
It would be grossly disingenuous to claim that question is not relevant. And that is exactly what the rest of the mass media is doing right now in the name of politeness.