Senator McCain has suspended his presidential campaign. Perhaps for good. Instead of campaigning, he seems now to be traveling the country trying to make sure that no movie version of President Obama's life will ever win an Oscar.
A generation from now you can imagine the taunts from the movie reviewers. They'll blast the screenwriter, especially. Come on, they'll complain, did the script really need to make John McCain look so cartoonishly evil? Does the screenwriter really expect us to believe McCain's speeches provoked lynch-mob shrieks of "terrorist!" and "traitor!" and "treason!" and "kill him!"? Does the screenwriter need to exaggerate by claiming McCain's campaign put out two statements in one day basically excusing the bigots and wannabe assassins? I mean, poetic license is one thing, but this is ridiculous.
"And the Academy Award for best screen writing goes to Tucker Bounds for 'Honesty is Such a Lonely Word.'"
I give up. Not on America, of course. I give up on McCain and Palin.
I started this week with a post called "Question for Gov. Palin: Who Would Jesus Smear?". In the name of what I narrowly termed "basic Christian decency," I urged Palin to stop her inflammatory lies that Obama sees America "as being so imperfect that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country."
My post generated a heartening response from HuffPost readers -- typed-out proof of what has been obscured by the culture wars: that in the hearts of many, many Christians there's a determination to follow the example of Christ. Comments like this:
"Your post describes exactly what I feel as a white, Christian, independent. I literally had to pray last night for God to expose her for what she is. She is giving Christianity a bad name! I know there are many on this website who are not Christians, and I hope they see that there are those who really do take Christ's teachings seriously."
And this ...
"I was delighted to read this article as I had two discussions today with Christians who felt embarrassed by Palin's interpretation the Bible and Christs' teachings through her words and actions. We wondered where our God of love, mercy, grace and kindness went. We wondered how she could speak so terribly as to incite violent remarks from a crowd, and all with a smile on her face. ... In becoming our greater selves, we will all stand against her hatred and her untruths and even show her mercy when she will beg for it. And surely, she will."
Lacking any evidence that Palin or McCain will repent before Election Day, please join me in giving up on them. Their slogan -- "Country First" -- isn't worth the bumper sticker it's printed on.
So let's forget slogans, forget smears, and get back to issues. I'll write about two soon: Pakistan and earmarks. McCain has made bizarre statements about both that deserve to be scrutinized and publicized.