Americans who watched last night’s debate, including independent and undecided voters, concluded by an overwhelming margin that Obama decisively won. Viewers of Fox News, as Glenn Greenwald notes, beheld a different reality, a wholly different debate. For these fair and balanced viewers, by a margin of seventy percentage points (86-12%), McCain utterly crushed Obama. These Fox Watchers must be ecstatic about the victory of their candidate. They must believe that McCain did such an effective job of making his case to the American people that the population will now overwhelmingly vote Republican in November. Right.
Not everyone on the right is so sanguine, of course. Andy McCarthy writes that:
We have a disaster here — which is what you should expect when you delegate a non-conservative to make the conservative (nay, the American) case. We can parse it eight ways to Sunday, but I think the commentary is missing the big picture.
…
Memo to McCain Campaign: Someone is either a terrorist sympathizer or he isn’t; someone is either disqualified as a terrorist sympathizer or he’s qualified for public office. You helped portray Obama as a clealy [sic] qualified presidential candidate who would fight terrorists.
I have to admit I don’t really understand the parallel reality many conservative extremists live in. Ian, who listens to a lot more right-wing radio than I do, may have insights here… but c’mon people. How can anyone, regardless of what political philosophy you embrace, convince themselves that McCain won last night’s debate? You could argue it was a tie, but McCain certainly didn’t triumphantly defeat or crush Obama. And while we’re on the subject of parallel realities, does McCarthy really believe that Obama is a “terrorist sympathizer”? Does he believe that Obama has no interest in fighting terrorism? I mean, does he want to stand behind and claim moral ownership of these arguments? Because if he does, he reveals himself to be living in as warped a parallel reality as the abovementioned Fox Watchers. The most generous gloss of McCarthy’s claims is that he’s a pure cynic.
Which would be all well and good. I mean, you can dismiss political pundits for being the blowhards and cynics they often are, but when someone like McCarthy says Obama is a terrorist sympathizer doesn’t he realize that there are people out there who may believe him and take his proclamation literally, people like the Fox Watchers who have so internalized the ideological scripts handed down to them that they believe wholeheartedly McCain won last night?
If all the Fox Watchers of the world genuinely believe that Obama is a treasonous terrorist sympathizer and a pal of left-wing radicals and some sort of anti-American Manchurian Candidate determined to take down the country, despite a world of evidence to contradict such claims, I fear for our future.
I think McCarthy is absolutely write in his “memo” to the McCain campaign: Obama is either a terrorist sympathizer or he isn’t.
If Obama is indeed a terrorist sympathizer (which is ridiculous), then there is no reason whatsoever for McCain to steer clear of this issue during a presidential debate.
If Obama is NOT a terrorist sympathizer, then there is no excuse for Palin’s lame claims that Obama has been “palling around with terrorists,” etc.
McCain wants to have it both ways, and it makes him look like just another a slimy politician, which is all that McCain ever was – except that McCain insults the American people more blatantly than Bush ever did. (This may be because McCain’s campaign strategists are nowhere near as smart as Bush’s strategists were.)
It reminds me of the time when McCain claimed his record of being 100% accurate in his campaign commercials would be supported by factcheck.org — prompting factcheck to send out a press release saying, no, actually, McCain’s ads were not 100% accurate.
McCain has said on the campaign trail that he is NOT questioning Obama’s patriotism, but merely Obama’s judgment — but it is impossible for all but the stupidest Americans to interpret Palin’s recent comments as anything other than a criticism of the way Obama “sees” this country.
McCain pretends to be a tough guy — but a real tough guy would throw an honest punch. A real tough guy would question Obama’s patriotism and then stand by his own line of attack. A real tough guy would accuse Obama of being terrorist sympathizer to his face. (And a real tough guy on earmark reform would at least try to explain why he voted for a bailout plan that included millions for Rum producers, wooden arrow manufacturers, etc.)
There are certainly many Americans who consider Obama a domestic enemy of this country. Are their moronic views fueled by McCarthy and his ilk? Absolutely.
Obama has made it the ultimate mission of his campaign to fight against the politics of paranoia, fear, hatred, and sleazy personal attacks.
He has done this by making “hope” the core message of his campaign — by saying McCain “isn’t a bad guy,” but “just doesn’t get it” — by making McCain’s sleazy personal attacks an issue in their own right with immediate pushback through ads, surrogates, etc — and by taking many opportunities to elevate the level of political discourse in this country, as he did with his race speech in Philadelphia following the Reverend Wright eruption on YouTube.
I believe Obama has said he won’t throw the first punch, but he’ll throw the last one — and that’s a message liberals can believe in: Don’t be a bully, but don’t let yourself be bullied, either.
As for McCarthy, I see utter cynicism. McCarthy sees the whole “War on Terror” concept as a political tool intended to manipulate the American people into voting for Republicans. Protecting this country from terrorists is the last thing on his mind.
Here’s what I think: patriotic Americans have a moral obligation to support Obama on Nov. 4. Anybody who supports McCain is voting to weaken and degrade this country, whether they know it or not.
Comment by Ian — October 8, 2008 @ 7:14 pm
Well, hey, that’s what you get when you put a bunch of mavericky mavericks together – one of them is bound to go off, over the heads of the mainstream media, like a maverick, and just start talkin’ straight to the American people. And, you know, askin’ what’s up with Obama and Ayers? I mean, I’m not sayin’ there’s a connection but, they are neighbors afterall. And what’s up with his middle name? Hussein? I mean wasn’t that like the guy who attacked us on 9/11? I’m not saying there’s a connection but, they do have the same name. And what’s up with his kids? I mean, he has two black daughters? What’s up with that? I’m not saying that they’re illegitimate or anything but, they are both Black. I wonder how Americans would feel if they had a President with not one but two Black daughters. What’s the matter? You don’t like this talk? Well that’s too bad because this is the straight talk of a Maverick. Takin’ it straight to the American People – maverick style.
I still haven’t managed to unravel the mysterious double standard of the Right’s character sliming machine – specifically, how they get away with it – but, I just hope that the majority of the American people aren’t buying it this time.
Comment by aaron — October 9, 2008 @ 12:02 am