Joe Klein, author of the brilliant electoral opus "Politics Lost", recently penned an article "Embarracuda". He completely demolishes the McCain campaign for the exact reasons we are. And it's exciting to see that people, mainstream folks, people outside of the DKos and HuffPo, can see the nastiness that McCain has lowered himself to.
Here are some segments and some of my thoughts, but the whole article is a must-read, so see it here
Their strategy is simple: you throw crap against a wall and then giggle as the media try to analyze the putresence in a way that conveys a sense of balance: "Well, it is bull-pucky, but the splatter pattern is interesting..." which, of course, only serves to get your perverse message out
He really strikes at the heart of the problem. The media are so interested in representing a balance they forget what they're supposed to represent: The FACTS. Just because idiots like Hannity spew crap out there, doesn't mean you have to give them equal time.
...every so often, we journalists have a duty to remind readers just how dingy the McCain campaign, and its right-wing acolytes in the media (I'm looking at you, Sean Hannity) have become--especially in their efforts to divert public attention from the economic crisis we're facing.
Again, Klein hits the nail on the head here. I mean, you're talking about Bill Ayers as Rome burns. You're talking about the sermons of the Rev. Wright while our stock market plummets.
Here's what the issue, as Klein and I recognize it, boils down to: the McCain campaign realizes it can't win on unfavorable turf (cf. the ECONOMY). So they go to turf they believe is favorable to them (cf. the fact that they're running against a black man with a funny name and some unfortunate acquantences). So what should we care about? Klein and I agree. IT'S THE ECONOMY, STUPID! Not some culture war remnants of when Obama was in diapers!
Klein goes after Sarah Palin.
It is appropriate that the prime vessel for this assault is Sarah Palin, whose very presence on a national ticket is an insult to your intelligence. She now has "credibility," we are told, because she managed to read talking points off notecards in the debate last week with unwitting enthusiasm.
Klein talks a lot about politicians insulting our intelligence in Politics Lost. And that's really what it is. Country First? Yeah right, McCain.
What good journalists and commentators do is they boil down issues in very few words. I can't think of a better way to explain the Sarah Palin phenomenon than right there, how Klein himself just did it.
Next up: Klein dispatches the Rev. Wright nontroversy:
Leave aside the fact that The Embarracuda allowed herself to participate in a cermony that protected her from witchcraft, how about her presence--she didn't "get up and leave"-- at a sermon by the founder of Jews for Jesus, who argued that the Palestinian terrorist acts against Israel were God's "judgment" on the Jews because they hadn't accepted Jesus.
Read this article. I'll just share one more quote: Here's how Klein ends his piece.
But what a desperate empty embarrassment the McCain campaign has become.
But please, do read the article here