On The Road…

I’m attending a spiritual retreat in Alabama this weekend. As I have never really traveled in the south at all, and since I detest flying (I always get sick, and the first few days after the flight my head feels like it’s under water), I decided to drive. I left this morning from Long Island and got into Roanoke, VA around 10pm tonight. It’s odd that I’m driving through all the areas where the nasty battles are happening. As I exited I-495 around Washington and hit I-66, traffic basically stopped, so I decided to take a local road to try to bypass the traffic jam. On the sides of the road were George Allen signs and Jim Webb signs. Tomorrow I’m heading to Tennessee, home of the Corker/Ford battle. Here in Roanoke, there’s an Allen or Webb television ad at virtually every commercial break. There’s also lots of talk about one of Allen’s constituents who was attacked by Allen personnel when he tried to ask the Senator about his sealed police record regarding his first wife and whether or not he spit on her.

I don’t think I’ve been alive at a time where there has been more mudslinging going on. It’s not just the candidates themselves though that seem to be getting in on the act. Even the local news up in NY was getting into the Kerry story, for example. The local FOX affiliate played the clip a few times and, of course, stopped the clip before the part where the audience laughs at Kerry’s poor attempt at paraphrasing a joke. You see, the audience “got it,” and understood that Kerry’s remark was directed at George Bush, and not at the troops. But most talk shows and television coverage didn’t play the laughter. They cut the clip short. They also didn’t mention that one sentence before Kerry made the poor attempt at paraphrasing a joke, he had been talking about George W. Bush. It’s called context, and it’s the reason the local audience got the “joke.”

I was rather shocked that John McCain came out immediately and condemned Kerry for… wait a minute. What am I saying? I shouldn’t be shocked that he’d come out and condemn Kerry for allegedly “insulting the troops.” McCain sold his soul to the GOP when he spoke at the 2004 Republican National Convention on behalf of Bush.

You see, the Republicans all know what Kerry meant. When Sean Hannity says he’s outraged at Kerry’s statement, he’s lying. As if John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam Veteran, would ever insult the troops or claim that the military was made up of uneducated people. Even Bill O’Reilly of all people defended Kerry by claiming he didn’t think Kerry would commit career suicide by saying such a thing. The Republicans are just looking for any quote they can take out of context and throw it back at people with mock outrage. It’s so transparent that I hope most people can see this for what it is — an attempt to distract from the real issues of the day. Kerry said as much in a formal apology printed on his website, where he managed to get in a very apropos comment that “It is clear the Republican Party would rather talk about anything but their failed security policy.”

It appears there are only so many dirty tricks the GOP can pull. Hopefully America now has the entire playbook written down through observation and is ready to usher in a new era of responsibility and accountability by putting Democrats in power. And lest anyone think the Democrats will be just as inactive as this most recent Congress, Nancy Pelosi was on the Ed Schultz show this afternoon detailing all the things a newly elected Democratic congress would accomplish in its first 100 hours. Priorities include raising the minimum wage, cutting education loan interest rates in half, implementing all the recommendations of the 911 commission, reversing GOP legislation that forbids the government to negotiate drug prices, etc.

There really is a difference between the parties this year. I guess we’ll find out in a few days whether or not the negative ad campaigns and lowest-common-denominator appeals of the Republican talking heads have further turned people off, or if they’ve been effective.