Why I lost respect for McCain

I've been in a bit of a debate lately. I posted up the segment of Palin's interview on ABC to show how unwilling she is to admit that she supported getting federal funding to build the infamous Bridge to Nowhere (http://www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/wm889.cfm). This is important because of McCain's position against porkbarreling. The McCain-Palin ticket hijacked Obama's theme of change and are now trying to run as reformers when Palin was a fully active participant in the pork! I am frustrated with McCain because of the way that he has run his campaign since he nominated Palin and found out that she was actually going to bring him media attention. I am also frustrated because the conservative pundits who so willingly lambasted Obama for his inexperience and chastized Clinton for her calls of sexism are now protecting Palin from the same criticisms (and people actually try to claim that the media is liberal!).

If you are my friend on facebook, you can read all of our dialogue if you look under my posted items. If you are not, you should add me or just send me a message and I can send you the conversation. Below is my latest response to my friend, who believes that Obama's work as a community organizer equates to communism. He started his post with why I wanted to point the finger at Palin.

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The finger is pointed at Palin because she is getting special treatment for her inexperience and her gender from the same media pundits who lambasted Obama for his inexperience and chastised Clinton for her gender. Her “experience” as a mayor and a governor span little more than the Illinois Senator’s, and his experience as a community organizer in an urban city as large as Chicago is far more valuable then Palin’s as an executive who is being investigated on corruption charges!

I’ll admit that Palin has done some good things, like take on the big oil companies and taxed them on their profits to return to Alaskans, which they rightfully should do AND falls under your definition of Communism. However, if she is such a qualified candidate, then why is she refusing to answer any questions from any journalists? She’s done one interview with ABC and has refused every other opportunity to speak to the media about her stance on the issues that matter! I’ll tell you why - she’s a puppet! She knows nothing about the issues that affect the entire country and her appeal to the GOP is nothing more than that she is a full on conservative woman who can attract Clinton supporters! She has to be fed the party line so that she pushes all of this special media attention onto the Republican Party! And the Fox News and conservative media old boys network are covering for her!

Obama’s work with the poor was never about redistribution of wealth or communism. You should know better than that, since you spend a lot of time working with the community. His work is about empowerment, about getting people who believed that they were voiceless and powerless to realize that they actually have more control over their lives. The job of an organizer is never to meet his or her objective alone, but to mobilize the people to their own benefit. How does his work with the community to get public funds to clear out asbestos in poor neighborhoods amount to Communism? How does his work with the community organizing churches for voter registration drives and town hall meetings equate to redistribution of wealth? The only thing that his work as an organizer has done was to redistribute power to where it belongs – the people!

Obama’s objective wasn’t to change the politics of Chicago, it was to bring people together! That’s what his experience as a community organizer means! It means that he knows how to bring people together, and ensure that every party gets a seat at the table. It means that he knows the art of compromise and compassion. It means that he understands the value of ethics and empathy. It means that we abandon the ridiculous notion of unilateral action and that we return to diplomacy as the profession of statesmanship.

If you’re getting your news from Fox, Bill O’Reilly, and the other Rupert Murdock wannabes, recheck your sources. Hannity and Colmes do NOT qualify to pass unbiased judgment. O’Reilly doesn’t even factcheck the crap that comes out of his mouth before he says it. I’m not going to tell you that CNN or MSNBC is completely unbiased, but the shit that passes for news on Fox could only satisfy the reality check of the most conservative of conservatives.

I don’t need to show both sides of the story. McCain and Palin aren’t even telling their own side of their story anymore. They’ve hijacked Obama’s message of change, and Obama’s message of change isn’t change for it’s own sake. Obama’s message of change is to change the culture of Washington from one that rewards cronyism, pork barreling and back door deals with lobbyists to one that focuses on the it’s work for the American people. I could’ve believed that John McCain was serious about this kind of change BEFORE he ran for president, but the way that he has been running his campaign since Palin got all this attention for him is absolutely ridiculous! I did respect McCain once as a true maverick. He now only proves that his ambitions matter more than his values.