Here are some words I never thought would ever come out of my mouth: I love The View… and here’s why.

What a fantastic woman, that Barbara Walters, requesting details and a little clarity from John McCain who seems more than willing to be tossed about on the seas of Celebrity as Sarah Palin quickly becomes the biggest American Heartthrob since Johnny Depp prowled Jump Street. I don’t think Obama’s the biggest celebrity in America anymore, though, to be more than honest, he deserves public recognition far more than Palin.

I wonder when ads will start running with photographs of Palin alongside her newfound kinsmen and women. Maybe Paris Hilton will make an appearance in this sequel of sorts, or possibly a sad shot of Lindsay Lohan from a while back when they poor girl looked ready to keel over on the cover of every ‘respectable’ entertainment publication. Oh well, it doesn’t matter… I’m sure some Political Wizard will find the right combination of images to make us all taste a bit of bile in our mouths, maybe a bit of grandma’s lasagna, too.

Back to Walters… what a fine woman she is.

And what of this latest bit of fabricated nonsense from our dear friends McCain and Palin?

There aren’t words to express how sickly the McCain camp has grown. It’s like watching a horrible train wreck… and, in all seriousness, I wish I wasn’t afflicted with a political addiction so that I could just look away.

Luckily, though I’ve not found the words, CNN’s Rebecca Sinderbrand and Scott J. Anderson have: “Obama never made any of the statements the McCain camp released to support the ad, and the comment that Palin was ‘good looking’ was made by the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Sen. Joe Biden, in a self-deprecating joke when he was asked what the ‘obvious’ differences were between the two vice presidential nominees.”

What’s this? Self-deprecating humor and… well, for lack of a better word, untruths? For the sake of whatever it is that you do believe in Mr. McCain, remember that you drive around in a bus you’ve titled the Straight Talk Express.

Oh, but CNN has more: “And FactCheck.org pointed out that the quote from an Obama adviser that Palin was doing ‘what she was told’ was taken out of context. The quote is taken from the response of Obama’s chief strategist, David Axelrod, in which he said Palin had misrepresented Obama’s legislative record. ‘Maybe that’s what she was told’ about his voting record, Axelrod said.”

This whole race has taken a rather sad turn since Sarah Palin was tagged in. I’m not saying it is her fault directly, but the whole dynamic changed (and not in that warm and fuzzy type of Change everyone seems to be offering these days), and I can’t understand the logic in it all. What did McCain’s people say to him to bring this all about? How did The Maverick come around to bringing on a woman with so little political experience? I mean, I wish I was making some of this up, but I’m not. Sarah Palin has done almost nothing in her very short political life.

Palin may strike a chord in your heart, dear Republican and Conservative friends, but you were the very people who asked us lefties to think about whether we wanted someone in power who we liked, or someone who could lead.

And what has Obama done, eh? That elitist fancy-talking monster who plans to take the whole nation down in a firestorm of Communism and False Hope unrivaled since the Cultural Revolution or the days of Uncle Joe Stalin — what has he done?

That question still remains, as it will until we have a new president, but why did John McCain pick someone so inexperienced that she makes Obama look like an incumbent? Why give the media and the American People someone even less experienced to examine?

This questioning keeps me up at night. I don’t recognize anything in this new John McCain of the Real Maverick from 2000, the Straight Talk Express riding cowboy who was going to serve his country, as he did heroically in Vietnam, in the greatest capacity that any politician can. Now he votes with George W. Bush, the very man who wronged him so badly in that 2000 primary, a fact checked 90+% of the time. And now Palin… the time bomb.

Andrew Sullivan gives a pretty fine answer to my questioning, one that actually gives McCain a little credit — it’s strategy, folks, McCain is not just misquoting, misrepresenting, and fabricating the truth for the hell of it, he’s trying to upset Obama so much that he’ll make a mistake. The Big Game requires a Big Game Plan. Maybe now I can breathe a sigh of relief…

The saddest outcome of this election will be to see John McCain disgraced. I may not like him much at the moment, but the man has done more for this country than a hundred other Americans could put together. He deserves to be remembered as a hero, as a dedicated public servant, not as this strange figure who has more in common with W than he does with the John McCain many of us were introduced to 8 years ago.

Posted on September 13th, 2008 by Lars Laing-Peterson
Filed under: Mason Learns, Opinion