therelevantrhino

If there are two Americas, they can be separated into these categories: Bullies, and the picked on. And like any seemingly opposing groups of people, they can find some common ground-picking on other people. You don’t get to the top of the steps on Capitol Hill without climbing over some people in the process, and attack ads help. Hell, they pave the way.

“Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for someone who fathered an illegitimate black child?” “My opponent’s own party knows he’s as inexperienced as an Orthodox Rabbi in a hot dog eating contest.” This type of thing works because it appeals to the lowest common denominator in a person- it makes us feel better because someone else is getting the sharp end of the stick. John McCain knows this, he hired Karl Rove’s support staff to produce his campaign ads. The recent string of attack ads are a carbon copy of what has been done to him in previous presidential bids. Say nothing about yourself, and drill home the point that the alternative is just horrible. As a person, as a potential commander in chief, and certainly as an option. McCain’s attack ads reek of desperation, childish behavior, and piss-poor taste. For someone who furiously wants to pass himself off as a “maverick”, someone who built the earlier part of his career supposedly reaching across the aisle, he’s now coming off as the person he actually is- the man who voted against the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, who voted 25 times against exploring alternative energy options- an adequate soldier who knows how to follow orders, but lacks the vision and leadership necessary to command even his own unit.

One of the problems I have with the Democrats is their gelatinous spines. Instead of battling back, they run home and tell a trusted adult who says, “It’s o.k. to cry, little Billy, we still love you…here’s a cookie.” The Republicans have presided over eight years of failures of Biblical proportions, and John McCain has supported nearly every one. This is the guy who boasted, “No one has supported President Bush more than I have”, who voted against his own immigration bill because it didn’t fit the President’s ideology, who flip-flopped on off-shore drilling to appease the two oil men in the White House. There is a wealth of ammunition for the Dems to unleash against any elephant they choose. It’s time for them to shed the image that they’re somehow above the fray, stop playing victim, and connect with the American people in a way that only victims can- by picking on someone else.

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