The McCain campaign has become more desperate while watching their chances at victory slip away in the polls. This campaign has always been negative, but its most recent antics include virulent smears from all the usual suspects, including: Sarah Palin, Cindy McCain, and their surrogates. Historically, the down candidate has always gone negative during the waning days. This isn’t new, and can always be expected, no matter how much the public says it dislikes negative campaigning. The candidate in a losing position basically has nothing to lose by going negative, because it’s a zero sum game for him or her. Despite its protest against negativity, there is still some thrill and entertainment value which the public secretly enjoys. Otherwise, the public would tune out and write the media demanding this negative information not be broadcast of published. That is NOT the case. However, the Main Stream Media (MSM) has gotten into the fray and started calling foul on the McCain campaigns egregious claims and distortions.
These news reporters such as Campbell Brown are becoming part of the problem. I am not singling her out for any other reason than as an example. The MSM doesn’t sort out who started this negativity, and that really doesn’t matter. In their efforts to be fair, they always seem to point out Obama’s negative advertisements. The common term is "Barack Obama’s hands are not clean" on negative ads. This fair and balanced approach is just as racially shaded as the original slander by John McCain and company. Here is why:
Someone in a campaign almost always goes negative towards the end, always, it’s the American way. We as a people can either turn the channel, or watch. We seem to do more watching, or the media would broadcast the information (ratings?)In addition, the public wants to see the person being attacked respond. Here is the double edged sword. If Barack Obama did not respond, then the public would question his strength. The question would be asked "if he can’t defend himself, how will he defend us?" In addition, negative ads are cumulative. If Obama just ignored them, they would gather a life of their own and become fact. Therefore, the negative recipient HAS to respond for fear of being seen as weak. The recipient doesn’t have to respond "in-kind", but they must respond. This becomes more complicated when the recipient is of a different race. If you will remember, when Obama responded to some Palin remarks, the Republicans branded him as being "Disrespectful". For the unknowing, that’s code for "Uppity Negro". The media becomes complicit in this racially tinged attack by john McCain when it chastises Obama for responding at all. The implication is that he just take it or ignore it. No mention is made of the originator of the smear and fairness in responding, just that "Obama’s hands are not clean".
This is analogous to the Katrina disaster. When a white guy was seen on television coming from an abandoned market carrying food, the media said this person was "trying to feed his family". When a black man was seen doing the same thing, the media decried it as "looting". Now we have Barack Obama responding to a series of attacks originated by John McCain, and Campbell Brown, and those of her ilk say that his "hands are not clean" on negative campaigning. If Obama was white, they would say he was mounting an aggressive defense in response. This language just exacerbates the whole racial issue, and gives the McCain campaign cover to blur the lines on who started this. They also seem to forget that John McCain promised an honorable campaign with dignity. Republican John McCain has gone "nearly 100 percent negative'' in his campaign's TV advertising, an independent study reports today. This fact is lost in translation when the MSM says that Obama is just as bad, and it’s another form of racism. Skinny Whacko Cindy McCain terms Obama’s campaign as "the dirtiest campaign in American history". This begs the question of " is she on the PAINKILLERS again?? Or... perhaps the spoiled little rich girl is just throwing a tantrum that she isn't winning.
However, the MSM picks this up and runs with it as if it’s a matter of fact, giving McCain MORE cover for his smears. Does this all mean that the MSM gives more weight to a lie coming from a white person’s mouth? By definition, this means Obama has to walk an even tighter line just to get a fair break. His words count half as much as a white persons, and he has to be careful not to respond too harshly, for fear of being branded as "Disrespectful", or using too much force. The MSM has for the most part been fair to Obama, but some of the things coming out of their mouths just amaze me. Oftentimes in their quest to be fair, they balance the news with extraneous useless information. The persons making comments and gauging newsworthiness are off the chain. More recently, they have even sunk to such lows as declaring that the Obama campaign is bad karma because it won’t print up schedules or attend to the needs of reporters. In comparison, the McCain campaign dictates to them what they can say, that they cannot interview Sarah Palin, yet their reporter treatment is better? From what I have read, if you print bad news about McCain, he boots you OFF the plane. However, in this offending reporters view, McCain is better organized? That’s not reflected in the polling of voters. Reporters go to Iraq, are embedded with the troops, and often get killed trying to get the news stories, and all this whiner can find to complain about is his treatment under the Obama campaign. This is the first serious black candidate, so there would obviously be more safety and security issues to contend with. No one is going to assassinate McCain, because he has one foot in the grave already.
Reporters used to be professionals who satisfied the peoples thirst for information by sacrificing their own families and safety to gather that information. It seems now that those folks are gone, and we are left with this elite group of sissies with special needs, complaining that Obama’s airplane stinks. Since when do reporters BECOME the news? Americans have many options in news now (Internet, Cable etc), so no one cares if you’re comfortable or not. This reporter should get a life!!! This is drivel nonsense, racist, and decidedly weighted in favor of one side, even if unintentionally. When the MSM is reporting supposed facts about whose hands are clean or not clean, let’s do it from a neutral perspective. Fair and balanced reporting is a good thing, when placed in context. If John McCain hits me with a stick, and I pick up a stick and hit him back, I am NOT the aggressor in the situation, and my hands are clean. The MSM should remember the fair in fair.