What happened to our New kind of Politician? The Man who 'transcended' party lines? Barrack Obama Launched his campaign on January 17, 2007, promising a new tone in his campaign. The junior senator from Illinois broke the official word saying he would bring a "new kind of politics" to Washington. The masses bought into the mantra of "Hope and Change" but never listened to the rest of the message. Which we are finding out, in the Case of Barrack Obama really means, you better Hope you don't bet on my answer, because I could Change my mind at any minute. Because just weeks later in March of 2007, an "unauthorized" ad supporting Obama appeared on Youtube, titled "Hillary 1984" it merges the shocking images from the famous Apple Superbowl Ad with clips of current news shows. Although the Obama camp denied any involvement, they did acknowledge that the Internet would be the new advertising medium of this campaign. So technically if you bet Obama would run a campaign using a "new kind of politics" you get to keep your money...for another 6 months. Because in December 2007, just around Christmas, Obama released it's first attack ad against Hillary Clinton.
As the General Election season began in August, Obama was quick to release his first attack ad against John McCain and has since released several more including one where he attacks McCain for being out of touch because he doesn't use e-mail, it has more or less disappeared from the airwaves since it was pointed out that John McCain can't type efficiently on a keyboard, due to the injuries he suffered while being tortured as a POW at the Hanoi Hilton. As nasty and immature these ads are nothing could have prepared me for Barrack's Next assault.
On September 13th, Barrack Obama's press secretary, Bill Burton stated that McCain was running the "least honorable campaign in history". This is significant because within days a new ad began running sponsored by a 527 that challenged McCain's honor and the word "dishonorable" started showing up in all the talking points. I realize that the Obama campaign has no "official" ties to any 527 group, I didn't see the Obama camp out denouncing it either. You can say a lot of things about John McCain, you might not agree with his positions on the issues, but no one should never question his honor or his patriotism. But Barrack Obama's official spokesman did just that. Is this the new kind of politics, Barrack meant?
Somehow even though it's well documented, Barrack Obama's campaign has not received the scrutiny for some it's claims that I think they deserve. Each week a new staffer starts the weekly narrative with Obama's gonna fight back Now! As if that's why he's lagging in the polls, because of he's been to soft in his attacks. Check out these DrudgeReport headlines, "Obama Ready to Fight"-Sept 6 "Obama plans Sharper Attack" Sept 12 (I think it's worth noting the date on this one, just one day prior to the 'least honorable' comments. "Obama Supporters Ready for a fight"-Sept 14 and most today's gloriously positive headline "Obama tells supports to get in their face". Awesome. So can we now assume he's not the candidate that just 'transcends' anymore?
Just when I thought Barrack Obama had gone too far, he went further. Today is was widely revealed that Obama approved false and misleading Spanish speaking ads attacking John McCain. The basis of this ad is that Obama is trying to convince Spanish speaking voters that John McCain is anti-immigrant, never mentioning of course, that McCain received around 70% of the Hispanic vote in Arizona in his last election. The ad also superimposes pictures of McCain and Bush together saying they'll lie to get your vote, I'm paraphrasing but barely. I just don't understand how this narrative's supposed to work. I understand that both men are Republicans but that's where the similarities end. Each have gone their own path in politics and have many times had very public disagreements. In fact it could be said that one of the reasons that many conservatives were slow with initial support for McCain is because he didn't back President Bush up enough on the floor of Congress. Attempting to paint them as the same man is like saying that Barrack Obama is Jimmy Carter, oh wait he is. I guess it's more like saying a cat is a dog.
The most striking thing about the ad is that is attacks a private citizen, Rush Limbaugh. The ad takes not just quotes of Limbaugh's out of context, it takes them out of a comedy skit. As for Rush and McCain being 'cronies', as a Rush listener this is absurd to me. Rush has repeatedly criticized McCain specifically, as being too soft on Immigration, as well as many other issues. It may as a surprise to many, but Limbaugh also hasn't endorsed John McCain either. This commercial is vacant of truth and is intentionally misleading. You know that the Obama ad has crossed some kind of Karmic line, when ABC News comes to the defense of Rush Limbaugh and John McCain.
I find it the height of irony that Rush Limbaugh has often commented that the liberal democratic play book called for the "Politics of Personal Destruction" versus having a debate of ideas with an opponent and now he's been thrown into the mix by Barrack Obama the "new kind of politician". These ads don't attack John McCain on his proposed policies or his past voting record, they are character based assaults that are a combination of misrepresentations and flat out lies. This new ad is appropriately called "Two Faces" although the intent was mislead Spanish speaking voters about John McCain, it should reveal to all voters the two faces of Barrack Obama.
