Distractions
when you can't run on the issues, bring on the lies
2008-10-07
By DeAngelo Starnes

Sarah Palin has transformed herself from clueless candidate to McCain’s attack dog.  Here in Colorado, she made a statement that Obama’s been “palling around with terrorists.” She’s talking, of course, about William Ayers, the University of Chicago professor and elementary education advocate who, in 1969, co-founded the Weather Underground, a radical group formed to protest U.S. policies through disruption of government-sanctioned events and the bombing of government property. After spending a decade on the run, Ayers turned himself in. Charges against the group were later dropped because of misconduct on the part of investigators.

Even though Obama’s relationship with Ayers is marginal, the McCain-Palin campaign continues to claim Obama is a close friend of William Ayers.  Did you even know who William Ayers was? Do you know that Obama was in elementary school when the Weather Underground was in its heyday?  But Obama allegedly is palling around with Ayers.  Last I checked, he was busy criss-crossing the country trying to win the Presidency.

Of course, he’s not palling with any terrorists.  It’s an incendiary comment that’s borderline slanderous.  Palin is knowingly making untrue statements.  And she made the comment to the audience with whom it would resonate: Joe Six-Pack. 

Now, she’s trying to resurrect Obama’s relationship with Jeremiah Wright.  Old news, But again something that will resonate with Joe and Jane Six-Pack.

What do you do when you’re desperate and losing?  Distract and exaggerate.  A lie ain’t going to hurt unless you’re in front.  And that’s what we’re seeing with the McCain-Palin campaign.

It’s the Lee Atwater/Karl Rove campaign-by-distraction tactic.  It works with simple-minded voters; Voters who don’t study issues.  Voters who vote based on buzzwords.  Voters who look for an excuse not to vote for a Black man.

The economy is the issue in this campaign.  But McCain can’t go there because at the center of this poor economy is banking issues.  And guess what?  McCain was at the center of the savings and loan crisis in the late 80s.  He needs to tread lightly lest he becomes required to answer questions about his membership in the Keating Five.

Palin has been lambasted and lampooned to no end.  To get the spotlight off her and her deficiencies as a candidate, she’s playing the guilt-by-association card.  But what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

So let’s call Palin’s patriotism into question because she’s married to a former member of the Alaska Independence Party.  The Alaska Independence Party advocates Alaska’s secession from the United States.  You wanna talk guilt by association? That’s beyond palling.  That’s sleeping with a secessionist. 

But because she has nothing constructive to say about how to fix the economy beyond “John McCain and I are mavericks,” she throws stones. 

Let’s dissect her asinine comment.  If she believes Obama is consorting with terrorists, she should do the patriotic thing and insist that the government investigate it.  After all, if true, Obama is the true Manchurian Candidate.  But more important, what is the source of her information?  Cuz she couldn’t name one major newspaper that she reads on a regular basis.  Does her running mate share her sentiment that Obama is “palling around with terrorists” and/or that his association with Reverend Wright needs to be re-examined?  And even if we were to revisit the relationship with Reverend Wright, how does that relationship impact his qualification to be President?  And how does that differ from her marriage to a secessionist sympathizer?

I give Obama much credit.  He has not campaigned on distraction issues.  He has not campaigned in soundbites.  He has not attacked.  I hope he continues to campaign in this manner.  Because we need to raise the level of intelligence in our public discourse as opposed to this dumbing-down approach favored by the disciples of Atwater/Rove.  But I hope with hope that he blasts McCain and calls him out in the debate.  Take the gloves off and show McCain what guilt by association really is, and that’s the association with an idiot for a running mate.

DeAngelo Starnes is a writer and attorney in Denver, Colorado. He is a regular contributor to EbonyJet.com.