"Just Another Election" Appearance Disastrous for Obama

Here we are again, in the midst of yet another Presidential Election. For three and a half years we bemoan politicians and talk about how full of shit they are, and then for six months, actually start believing one of them running for President. At the start of this election, both party's candidates told the world that they were going to run a different campaign, an elevated campaign, one that was going to be about the issues and not about mud. Well they were telling half the truth I suppose, they haven't been slinging mud at each other. It's full fledged human shit being hurled at each of the camps. 

We all know how these things work. Both parties do what they must to win because each want to govern, and you can't govern unless you win. This is their overall objective above all else during an election. What we as the public find despicable is the lengths at which individuals will go to smear another just to win an election. Both parties in this campaign have done it, but I have to say, and perhaps I am perceiving this through the filter of my own bias,  that the Republican party has taken this game to a whole other level. 

Senator McCain is a smart man, and a good strategist. For or against him, one must acknowledge the shear brilliance of the Palin selection from a strategic standpoint. It was an ingenious political maneuver, probably the most ingenious in Presidential election history. Unfortunately, it was also the most reckless and irresponsible thing I have ever witnessed a politician do for political advancement. Let us stop the partisan bickering, stop making excuses for it, it is clear that Senator McCain selected Governor Sarah Palin simply because she is a woman, and given the circumstances of this election, knew it would be a move that would knock the Democratic ticket off balance. Like I said, genius, but unbelievably irresponsible. 

Another tactic that the McCain campaign has decided to run with is a tactic that has been used by the Republican Attack Machine many times before in the past. Given the fact that although the overall voter turnout in this country typically leans Republican, there are more people in this country that identify themselves as Democrats. Then there are Independents, more of which tend to vote Democratic. Given this reality, both parties find themselves in divergent circumstances, and thus employ divergent tactics. If there are more people that will generally vote Democratic if inclined to vote at all, the Democrat's logical agenda would be to INCREASE voter turn-out, the Republican party's logical agenda would be to DECREASE voter turn-out. The best way to decrease voter turn-out? Negative campaigning. Negative campaigning has been shown to dissuade voters from showing up to polling booths more effectively than any other method. 

The Obama Campaign seems to have no idea, but they are doing exactly what the McCain campaign wants them to. There are two reasons why McCain selected Palin: 1. To inject the Republican ticket with excitement and appeal, the very thing it was missing, and 2. To use a political shield by exploiting the sensitive nature of having a female on your ticket by taking every statement made by the opponent out of context and make it appear as a personal, sexually motivated attack on her. It doesn't even have to make sense necessarily, just take a statement, like lipstick on a pig for instance, and smash it together with any sound bite you can find that has to do with her, and in the viewer's mind it will appear as if he were responding to something she said moments ago, even if it really was two weeks prior.

This seems to be the Republican's strategy. Talk about lipstick, talk about flag pins, harp on the novelty of Governor Sarah Palin being a V.P. selection, imply that Obama is a baby killing pervert that wants to teach kindergartners about sex if you have to. Just don't talk about the issues. Don't talk about the issues because there's no way you can convince the American people that the last 8 years of Republican rule has brought a desirable result. 

The Obama campaign has obviously been thrown off its game with the Palin pick, as any opposing campaign would be by such a move. If it were smart, it would avoid getting in the mud with the McCain campaign. If it were smart, it would do what it was doing during the primaries, and play the role of the antithesis to its opposing camp. Hillary Clinton couldn't wait to get in the mud, and Obama was wise to avoid it. That's how he inched by with the nomination. Going negative is not a game he plays well, and he needs to stick with what he's good at. Make the enemy fight your fight, do not fight theirs. This is how McCain has overcome Obama's lead in the polls, and will continue to do so if Obama keeps trying to fight his fight. 

Obama needs to kill McCain with kindness if he wants to lock up this election, that's his only chance amidst the Palin phenomenon.  He needs to instead say that he is certain McCain did not intentionally mean to imply that he wants to teach sex to kindergartners, and negative accusations from both conservative and liberal outlets need to stop the bickering because it will not help solve the problems this country faces. He needs to say that Senator McCain does want to change Washington, just like we all do, but that he is just too set in his ways to know how to do it. He needs to say that the corrosion of media objectivity of which both Fox News AND MSNBC are guilty of, is purposefully intensifying the angst of the country and causing more division, not unity. He needs to return to his message of change, and say that if we honestly want to change the way things are done in this country, then we have to stop looking at ourselves and each other as Republicans or Democrats, and instead look at ourselves as Americans. That the problems this country faces effects all of us, rich, poor, black, white gay or straight, and arguing over who picked who or who said what to who is not going to solve those problems any faster or more effectively than the same arguments we were having four years ago did. He needs to say that if he is given the privilege to serve as President of this great nation, then his vision will be to see the Sean Hannitys and Al Frankens, the Laura Ingrahams and the Chris Matthews, the Ann Coulters and the Keith Olbermans all working together to address the issue of weaning off foreign oil, or the downward spiral of the economy, or how we can ensure that the climate crisis doesn't escalate to apocalyptic proportions in generations to come. If Obama does this, it will remove him from the stain of being "just another politician" that the Republicans have been effectively tainting him with, and make McCain appear as overtly aggressive and borderline menacing. McCain will be forced to buckle and take on a more positive tone as well, and then the rest of us won't be subjected to AS MUCH human shit flinging. 

Obama's message up until now has basically been "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got." This election so far has proven to be more than likely the most exciting Presidential election we will see for a very long time. If this election takes on the appearance of "Just Another Election," between two unscrupulous politicians, then it will cripple Obama's message and catapult McCain into the Presidency. After all, if they're both doing what has always been done, then we might as well get what we always got.