The good, the bad and the ugly

By
Amaury Cruz

The
past week offered astonishing developments in the race to the White
House. John McCain had to take the microphone away from a woman at
one of his “town hall meetings” after she declared that she was
afraid of Obama…

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By
Amaury Cruz                                                                     Read Spanish Version

The
past week offered astonishing developments in the race to the White
House. John McCain had to take the microphone away from a woman at
one of his “town hall meetings” after she declared that she was
afraid of Obama because he is an “Arab.” No, McCain explained,
Obama is really “a
decent, family man, [a] citizen that I just happen to have
disagreements with on fundamental issues.” The
audience was stunned. People are chosen for this type of political
theater according to casting principles and pre-screenings of their
viewpoints and political preferences. This was the “base.” These
were the most fanatical, most reliable, most well programmed extreme
right wing Republicans the Karl Roves of the world set out to find
and mobilize. And we saw that this “base” was base. They didn’t
want to hear anyone exonerating Obama, not even their standard
bearer. They were angry, hateful and aggressive. They were the ugly.

McCain
had been previously put in similar positions when individuals at
Republican rallies have been shouting “kill him,” “off with his
head” or “terrorist” when McCain mentioned Obama. The crowds
have booed McCain when he has declared that "[Senator
Obama] is a decent person and a person that you do not have to be
scared about as President of the United States."
Members of the media have been particularly abused, and may have been
placed in jeopardy by rabble-rousers who incited other radicals to go
after cameramen or reporters covering McCain. That was particularly
ugly, and is the result of the McCain campaign’s demonizing of the
“mainstream media.”

While
McCain was trying to educate his troops, however, his newest negative
ads continued to run. In them, he uses slick special effects to
associate Obama with William Ayers, who committed acts of domestic
terrorism as a member of the Weather Underground when Obama was nine
years old. This was the bad.

The
ads have been coordinated with appearances by Sarah Palin where she
has been lambasting Obama as someone whom Americans should not trust.
The same Sarah Palin who has just been found guilty of unlawfully
abusing her authority and violating the public trust and ethical
rules by an independent investigator, supported by a bipartisan
council from the Alaska legislature. Gallingly, she claims that this
council is made up of Obama supporters when it
is actually comprised of 10 Republicans and four Democrats and the
Chairmen and Vice Chairmen of the House and Senate Judiciary
Committees which authorized the investigator’s subpoenas and were
comprised by three Republicans and one Democrat.
That was also very bad.

With
the economy nose-diving as a constant reminder that the Republicans
are skilled at winning elections, but terrible at governing, it has
quickly become evident that linking Obama to Ayers and all other
Republican smears and distractions are not working. Just as they did
not work for Hillary Clinton. More bad.

And
with tens of millions of voters seeing that Obama is not a wild-eyed
tax-and-spend “liberal,” that he has the presence and demeanor of
a president, that he speaks eloquently about topics that truly
concern the America people, and that he can stand up to the personal
attacks not only of the Clintons, but also McCain, the only way to
compete left for McCain was to continue trying to bring down Obama.
That’s what his campaign has been doing relentlessly. And McCain
approved the incendiary messages. Now he wants to take them back.

McCain
has painted himself into a corner made worse by the fact he had
promised an influential conservative group that he was going to raise
the issue of Ayer’s connection in the next debate. Now he has
upset this group, his base in general, and anyone who looks for
consistency in a presidential candidate. McCain has been acting
erratically and his campaign seems to be out of control.

Having
admitted that Obama is a nice guy, a “family man,” a good
American, and with Sarah Palin losing any moral standing she may have
had to impugn Obama’s trustworthiness, neither McCain nor Palin can
do what the campaign had strategized for them to do. They have been
checkmated by their own moves.

McCain
perhaps was fundamentally a decent man who has been blinded by the
thirst for power. A maverick who made a Faustian bargain that
backfired. Both he and his running mate have disgraced themselves by
bringing out the worst in the American people and propagating
outrageous lies, all of which would taint and hamstring a McCain
administration if the Republicans were to win. Realizing they have
created a Frankenstein, it seems McCain had at least a slight
awakening. If he were a samurai on the ascent toward the Shogunate
during the Tokugawa period in Japan, he would have to commit
hara-kiri
at this point. Of course in our own times there are more culturally
appropriate options. He could, for example, declare a suspension of
his campaign — and start getting out of the way. Then the American
people and the world could begin to heal from the damage wrought by
the bankrupt ideology represented by the extreme right of the
Republican Party. That would be the good.