Marlon Brando has been quoted as saying that the one thing he didn’t want to happen was for his last words to be, "I wonder what that was about." I thought about that quote today when I thought back on McCain’s Acceptance speech last night. I recall a number of hero/fight references and, of course, a lot of, "How about my pistol packing VP choice!" Then there was an animated run about cleaning up Washington and about how he was going to veto this and that – kick ass and take names. It seems that he and Sarah weren’t going to put up with something any more Then he listed all the tired old Republican policies.
It’s the part about being a reformer who is going to clean up Washington and eliminate earmarks that I wondered about. Who is his enemy? The people he’s talking about are his Republican colleagues mostly – himself included. And the real culprits, Bush and Cheney, weren’t mentioned. He’s co-opted Obama’s message of change [in every sentence]. I’m surprised he didn’t start talking about "Yes we can!"
From my daughter’s blog: Why are the Republicans always talking about how much Democrats spend, when they are the ones who consistently put us into more debt as a nation?
The ad was in left field on all counts. Again, I thought, "What was that about?" I suppose that almost all political wrangling involves setting up "straw men" – some non-real version of one’s opponent. But this McCain offensive takes it to a different level. The enemy he’s going after in his speech last night is the very group he’s been a part of for eight years – an integral part. The Democrats he’s warning against don’t exist. If anything, he’s describing his own Party. Deficit Spending is a Republican thing. Obama proposes a tax-cut for the Middle Class. The corruption of the last several Congresses has been primarily a Republican thing. The earmarks have been from both sides of the aisle, but mainly his side.
“Is he counting on the American people to be so uninformed that they don’t know they’re being played for fools? ” Perhaps so. That graph really helped me to udnersatnd that issue. It’s defense. We like to spend money on programs that support people – and it ends up costing a lot less than tankers.