Fear and Loathing On the Campaign Trail

I am not sure whether you heard about Senator Norm Coleman, currently trailing Al Franken? He announced today he is pulling his negative ads and re-tooling his campaign. The McCain campaign seems to be doing something similar today, faced with rising negatives and the impending investigative report on Sarah Palin. Which is that she abused her power as Governor, in the scant twenty months she was in office, to fight a pointless battle against a former brother-in-law. In a court decision setting terms for alimony the judge refused to grant Palin's sister a 55/45 split, noting that she chose not to work and that her family's lengthy and vicious efforts to get her ex-husband fired was like "killing the goose that laid the golden egg". And that their own vindictive actions served to threaten his future earning power, ruling out the grant of anything more than a 50-50 split.

The Republicans will do everything in their power to discredit the report, but they know that most Americans will not buy their story. Just as most Americans hear and know that Bush's wiretaps were used to eavesdrop on soldiers having phone sex with their wives and girlfriends, while other wiretap operators were called over to listen in, too. Not to guard our nation, but to enjoy eavesdropping on the troops.

Oh, and Obama's "dangerous associations"? Here is another. A distant cousin on the Dunham side (his grandfather's) was the first soldier in the Iraq war to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, for falling on a grenade to save the lives of his companions.

There is a lot more about that family as well. A long, long history in the United States. When McCain rather grudgingly said today that Obama is "a citizen" he could also have said "native born citizen" which carries more weight. But McCain is on the wrong side of history this election and is realizing that if he takes the high road, he loses, if he takes the low road he loses and will be disgraced for life. And McCain is a proud man. To become the butt of jokes and a metaphor for bad decisions and poor judgement would be almost more than he could bear, even if he remained a hero among ill-informed Republican stalwarts. McCain wants far more than that and my sense is that he is coming to terms with the realization that he is going to have to settle for something less than he aspired to. All of us can relate to that feeling, can't we.

I think we will need to give him some time to grieve, then come to terms with what the heck he is going to do with the rest of his life. It will not be easy for him.

And Sarah Palin? I have fewer worries that she will remain a conservative darlin'. There is something about being found to have violated State Ethics laws that takes the edge off a candidate, though of course she could still have a career as a guest on the rightwing talk radio circuit, but I'm not sure that's what she aspired to.

This should be an interesting debate next week. My guess is that the viewership will be enormous. History is happening before our eyes. Actually, about four or five types of history, one of them being the whole skin-color hoohaw, but an equally important one being the transfer of power from one generation to another.

Arthur