Column for 31 August, 2008

“Then the Lord said to me. ‘The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds.’”
--Jeremiah 14:14

Despite the best efforts of John McCain’s swooning cheerleaders in the mainstream media, the Democrats have managed not to screw it up at their convention (of course, they’ve only gotten as far as Joe Biden’s excellent acceptance speech as I type this, so there’s still time). The broadcast and cable network coverage of Denver has consisted pretty much exclusively of trotting out an endless stream of pre-packaged GOP talking points to toss underhand back and forth between insipid “journalists.” What’s the likelihood that liberal pundits will be called upon by CNN and MSNBC (much less FOX) to dissect the Republican convention in Minneapolis? Yeah, I got a full-color, glossy, laser-quality picture of that happening. Hillary Clinton is going to wreck the convention, they breathlessly announced. Then she gave a heartfelt speech endorsing Barack Obama and they said she secretly hated him because of their expert analysis of her “body language.” She personally made the motion to nominate Obama by acclamation and all the punditocracy could chatter about was a handful of embittered delegates whose sense of personal insult is so great they have forgotten their candidate, let alone the issues she champions. I haven’t yet seen the parsing of Bill Clinton’s rip-roaring address, but no doubt the Mainstream Media has secret telepathic evidence that he really wants Obama to lose so he, Michael Moore and Osama bin Laden can seize the White House in 2012. The Media’s fawning obeisance to John McCain has grown to such an astonishing, embarrassing degree that “the Maverick” and his surrogates now feel emboldened to simply lie with impunity, secure in the knowledge that he will never be called on it. “Not a single drop of oil was spilled after Hurricane Katrina,” went one blurb. A lie. Millions of gallons were spilled. Has he been called on it? No. “The troop surge led to the Anbar Awakening,” the McCain Campaign continues to trumpet. No, it did not. The Awakening, a true success story in Iraq, happened months before the surge. McCain is lying. Again, he is not called on it. The media continue to slather McCain with glorious accolades for his “straight talk” and his alleged refusal to change in response to politics, ignoring his wholesale abandonment of virtually every position he held on virtually all issues before he started running for President. McCain went from voting with George W. Bush only 77% of the time in 2005, to a slavish 95% a mere two years later. When Democrats do that, they are called “flip floppers.” McCain has said Obama wants to increase the size of the government by 23%. A lie. He stated that Obama opposes nuclear power and electric cars. Lie. He claimed Obama called for bombing Pakistan. Lie. He stated to Katie Couric that Joe Biden wanted to break Iraq up “into three different countries.” Another lie, and of course Couric failed to call him on it. McCain has said that lobbyists don’t come to his office, when his campaign is run almost exclusively by lobbyists, including a former lobbyist for the Republic of Georgia who opposed efforts to keep guns out of the hands of terrorists. McCain stated that Obama tried to prevent funding for the troops, or funding for the Surge. Both statements are lies. McCain claimed that Obama called Iran a “tiny country” that “doesn’t pose a serious threat.” Another lie. McCain claimed that Obama would raise taxes on “everyone earning more than $42,000 a year.” Lie. I could go on and on. The fact is, the Republic Party is now so morally bankrupt, so devoid of ideas, their strategy to defeat Obama consists of attacking him for being a “celebrity” in Europe—as though it is now somehow un-American to want our allies to like us—and screaming “communist!” and “Muslim!” at every opportunity. It’s gotten so bad, the standard attack talking points, regurgitated in this very newspaper, consist of despicable, cowardly contemptible slanders against Obama’s deceased mother. Is this really what has become of the party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan? Pathetic. And it’s only going to go deeper into the gutter from here. The only thing worse than Republicans when they are winning is Republicans when they are losing. McCain would be much better off, at least in terms of preserving what’s left of his dignity, by sticking with the “lack of experience” line, and hope people don’t realize that if “experience” was the criteria, Al Gore would be President.