Before you say, "what the fuck???", hear me out.
It is clear that the corporate media is willing to ask John McCain the tough questions like "don’t you think that Obama is a flip flopper", and that his repeated gaffes, double speak, lies, pandering and outright crazy talk is not only being ignored but is being dismissed as something that he "didn’t mean" or that he "has enough credibility anyway" or is "no big deal" - when what he says and does is far, FAR worse than anything that Obama may or may not have said.
And yet, Obama still holds leads in every poll (even when the results or samples are skewed) and is doing a pretty good job of defending himself from the outrageous attacks and smears. Hell, he beat back the Edwards and Clinton campaigns pretty soundly - which is a very impressive thing. However and more importantly, by continuing to defend himself (or for us to spend so much time defending him), we are missing an opportunity to set the narrative on McCain and force him to go on defense. And when McCain is forced to go on the defensive, we see the angry, unstable, hothead McCain that is being hidden from millions of voters..
When Democratic Party representatives like Harold Ford are interviewed on TV and respond to charges of Obama’s flip flopping or whatever other nonsense is being conjured up on any particular day to hide McCain’s latest pander or lie or doublespeak with the most tepid of defense and even furthering the right wing talking points by admitting that Obama flip flopped on campaign finance or FISA instead of dismissing these charges or going on the offense against McCain and his panders, lies, "flip flops" or double speak, it is clear that not nearly enough time is being spent spreading the word on just how horrific McCain will be for this country.
There is so much information on McCain - some historic, some new and yes, some about Cindy McCain (hell, if they are going to continue to wrongfully attack Michelle Obama, then all is fair game) - whether it be his positions, his votes, his comments, or his lack of a clue - which is something that should be explored for someone who is into his 70s but is much older than his chronological age from a physical and mental health standpoint.
And it is time for us to start vigorously, forcefully, loudly and angrily going on the attack - cross posting everywhere, spreading the word to everyone we know about McCain’s neoconservative policies, shady contacts, far right wing social views and even his misogynist demeaning views towards rape victims and even his wife.
If you click on my signature line in any comment, you can find 40 diaries that I have written over the past 6 months, some with lots of detail and links, that highlight the horrific record and positions of John McCain. There are a lot of good resources to find out more information on McCain, including his voting record on Project VoteSmart’s excellent site, and also on McCainSource.
Over the next few months, I will be working with a few others on a series of diaries (hopefully we can do multiple posts per week) that highlight McCain’s panders, his flip flops, his outrageous positions - the truth about McCain. We have shown in the past that we can spread the word, that we can set the narrative - look at what happened with McCain and Hagee (thanks in large part to troutfishing) as one example. As I have written a few times, there is enough truthful information about McCain that most voters don’t know anything about that should sink his campaign and result in a 6% - 10% popular vote and 300+ electoral vote total for Obama in November. And frankly, it needs to be a blowout so that the election can’t be stolen.
If anyone is interested in taking part, please let me know - not a day should go by without at least one McCain diary on the recommended list so that there is an endless stream of information coming out - I know that not all of these items will make it into the news cycle but a steady stream of truths about McCain being made available in "bite size pieces".
All of us know a number of people who are either undecided voters or who are ill informed about McCain. And armed with not only the information about Obama but also with information that can set the record straight about McCain, there is no way that we can lose in November.
Update [2008-7-19 11:42:30 by clammyc]: see this comment by ArtSchmart for a list of media contacts.