The McCain "Lie-a-palooza" festival continues today with the classic republic "Destort and Divert" maneuver. Your candidate is going down the crapper? Try to get attention with a different topic.
Today's shiny object is the "Obama is a product of the corrupt Chicago machine" theme. Based on comments on various commentary sites, the talking points must have gone out last week. In it's lamest attempt yet at guilt by association, mccain is trying to make Obama responsible for Illinois politics of the last 50 years.
Once again, it is a lie so transparent that even a Republican Rag™ like the Chicago Tribune is calling it unfair. I don't think they post today's editorials until later in the day or the next day, so here is a recap.
Their overall judgement:
Chicago deserves the rap.
Obama does not.
The editorial recaps the new McCain ad which features William Daley, Emil Jones, Tony Rezko, and Gov Rod Blagojevich as examples of the "corrupt political machine" that gave rise to Obama.
The Trib then goes on to say:
Aside from an ill-advised relationship with Rexko, there's little here that reflects negatively on Obama.
They point out that McCain is trying to paint Daley as a lobbyist, but ignoring the fact that Daley is
a former US commerce secretary...an excellent go-to guy on economic
matters.
They also point out that neither Jones (State Senate President) or Blago is pulling Obama's strings, as evidenced by Obama's recent call to Jones to stop blocking an ethics reform bill--a bill that passed yesterday 55-0.
But here is the money quote, in case you need something to share with your friends:
But the suggestion that Obama is a politician in the classic Chicago mold is way off base. He wasn't a machine candidate in his bid for the Illinois Senate in 1996, and he won the 2004 nomination for the US Senate seat in a heavily contested primary without Daley's support. Though he now enjoys the support of establishment Democrats, Obama is a man governed by his conscience, not by his associations.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
UPDATE: Here is the link to the editorial: