"A half-truth is the most cowardly of lies." - Mark Twain

What is John McCain afraid of? And why does he expect you to cower in fear the same way he does?

Let's start with the answer to the first question: John McCain is afraid of losing. This man, who spent years in a Vietnamese POW camp being subjected to the most inhumane treatment imaginable, who once used his position in Washington to speak truth to power and stand up for what he felt was right against both enemies and allies - this man has been irretrievably, utterly broken by fear of losing an election. And he has realized that the only possible way he might win is to make voters scared for him to lose as well. Pardon my French, but when did Mr. Maverick turn into such a goddamned pu**y?

McCain's bid for the White House has been handled in the most dishonorable, dishonest way possible. Even right-wing commentators have called him and his advisors out on their constant barrage of negative, and misleading, attack ads. His campaign has never focused on his accomplishments, his record, his policies or positions. He has rarely said anything about himself in his ads, other than to claim his "maverick" status again and again. But what is the substance behind his claims? In what way has he distinguished himself as a maverick during the 8 years of George Bush's presidency? How will his administration differ from the one he seeks to replace? There has never been an answer to this question.

And there never will be, because his advisers have started warning the media of the new strategy they intend to utilize against Barack Obama - a smear campaign, aimed at raising doubts about Obama's character and judgement. That's right folks - they are straight up telling you, the American public, that they have nothing left in their strategical bag of tricks except to try and turn Obama into some sort of boogeyman. In the meantime, they want this to distract you from the most dire circumstances in recent US history. The economic meltdown, the record-high unemployment rate, the failing and endless war in Iraq, the decrease in worker's wages while costs on food, gas, and groceries are increasing - the McCain campaign wants you to pretend that Obama is somehow scarier than all of this, and that the idea of voting in a man like McCain, who helped to create the problems we face now, is somehow a safer bet than voting in a guy whose middle name happens to be Hussein and who happens to be a black liberal. It is a crock of shit, a web of deceit, and it just might work, because McCain knows that many Americans are just looking for an excuse to vote against Obama. Many Americans are pu**ies, just like McCain. And you know who you are, too.

You know that objective sources like PolitiFact.com and FactCheck.org have monitored McCain's ad claims and have been working overtime to point out the falsehoods that they are. You know that Obama is discussing his plans for the economy and foreign policy, health care reform and education, Social Security and alternative energy...but you haven't bothered to read these plans yourself. Maybe you haven't even read McCain's website either...so you don't even realize that most of his plans are the same policies we have in place right now. You've relied on sound bites from McCain, his campaign staff, his ads, or the right-wing press (sorry, but Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity DO NOT COUNT as reliable sources of unbiased information, and neither do Keith Olbermann or Chris Matthews).

Maybe you haven't even bothered to pay attention to the talking heads on the news. Maybe some friend or relative sent you an email telling you that Obama is planning to tax us all to death, or that he's going to institute some radical Muslim policy once he becomes president, or some other such bullshit. And you bought it without bothering to check, because you just don't feel comfortable voting for a guy like Obama, and anything that helps you justify your choice is OK with you. If you recognize yourself in this description, SHAME ON YOU. You can't make a decision on a candidate's ideas or positions without being informed. You can't be so fu**ing lazy. You can't choose willful ignorance just because it makes your life easier. This shit is important, folks. You have to make the effort to read this stuff on your own to get to the truth.

And truth is in short supply at McCain campaign headquarters. This is not really a new tactic - the past several months have seen many attempts by McCain and his followers to label Obama as an outsider. Some of the attacks have come from outside the campaign, and were instigated by independent conservative groups. But many have been the handiwork of McCain's own campaign, and their only purpose is to frighten voters away from his opponent.

How have the Republicans tried to make us scared of Obama? By lying, mostly, because the truth isn't scary enough. They have tried to convince voters that Obama is a Muslim (he isn't), that he's the Anti-Christ (ridiculous), that he favors socialist economic policies (not true), that he's not actually an American citizen (but he is), that he will raise taxes (false)...the list goes on and on.

Now there is a plan to bring Obama's character into question by highlighting his associations with two men: Tony Rezko and William Ayers. These names have been kicking around since Hillary Clinton brought them up during the primaries, and from that time to this, no evidence has come to light which indicates that there is merit to the discussion. In both cases, multiple investigations have turned up nothing to suggest any improper or illegal conduct on Obama's part, either with Rezko  or with Ayers.

But the truth never stopped John McCain before, and it's not about to stop him now. Especially now, when he is falling fast in the polls, and the economic crisis remains a weakness for his campaign. This is a desperate man, and we all know that there is nothing so vicious as an animal that is cornered and fearful for its life. So McCain and his supporters take the only avenue left to them - without a record of accomplishment to run on, without a clear plan for changing the policies of the past 8 years, without any substance at all - all that remains is to try and attack the character of Barack Obama.

Well I agree that character is important. That is why I am asking you to consider the following facts:

John McCain was one of the Keating Five, a group of senators who were investigated on allegations of improper conduct during the huge savings and loan scandal of the late eighties. He escaped with no more than a slap on the wrist from the investigating committee, but his relationship with key figure Charles Keating was in fact the closest of all those involved in the scandal.

John McCain started cheating on his first wife after he returned home from Vietnam to discover that she had been disfigured in an auto accident. In fact, McCain's current wife, Cindy, started dating McCain while he was still living with and married to his first wife. Both McCain and his wife are adulterers and have never even tried to cover this information up. McCain ultimately divorced his first wife to marry Cindy, and the marriage took place only 5 weeks after the divorce was final.

John McCain has made several well-documented tasteless comments and jokes at the expense of women. He has joked about a woman who enjoyed being raped by a gorilla, as reported in the Tuscon Citizen. At a GOP fundraiser, he joked that Chelsea Clinton was "so ugly", because "Janet Reno is her father". He has even reportedly called hiks own wife, Cindy, a "trollop" and a very rude word which referes to the female anatomy, and rhymes with "bunt". Only it starts with a "c" instead of a "b". He has refused to acknowledge or discuss this outburst in public, but it was witnessed and reported by 3 journalists and 2 aides who were there at the time.

John McCain has made equally disturbing jokes/comments about people from other nations. His "bomb Iran" song is already widely-known. He has also joked that the high number of cigarettes imported into Iran is "another way of killin' em". And he has repeatedly used the word "gooks" when discussing his experience as a POW in Vietnam.

And if you really want to get into a character issue, an issue of poor judgement, and an issue of guilt by association, there is only one thing you need to know about John McCain:



Over the past 8 years, he has failed to stand up to the George Bush administration against any major decision they have made which has brought this nation to the sorry state it's currently in. On the urgency to engage our troops in the Iraq war, John McCain agreed with President Bush. On the idea that our military presence in Afghanistan should be secondary to our focus on Iraq (where there were NO weapons of mass destruction and, at the time, NO Al Quaeda strongholds), John McCain agreed with President Bush. On tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, John McCain agreed with President Bush - and still does; his planned tax policy will result in massively reduced tax bills for those making the most money. On the subject of deregulating the financial sector, and taking a hands-off approach in which financial institutions would monitor their practices by themselves, John McCain agreed with President Bush.

Other than Bush, as if more is needed, his Republican colleagues have been the slimiest, most incompetent and most corrupt bag of scoundrels seen in Washington for decades: Rick Davis, Karl Rove, Alberto Gonzales, Tom DeLay, Mark Foley, Larry Craig, "Scooter" Libby, Donald Rumsfeld, and so on. McCain served in the Congress with many of these men, and he worked with them all in some capacity or other over the past 8 years. Are we to assume, based on his recent anti-Obama ads, that his association with them means he is guilty of seeking sex with teenaged male pages? That he assisted or approved of the unfair dismissals of 9 US attornies, and then committed perjury under oath during the investigations? That he was involved in the scandal associated with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff? Fair's fair, don't you think? If we're questioning the company Obama keeps, let's not overlook McCain's crowd, for there is far more of interest there. And let's not forget the most important facet of this situation: McCain's claims are about things that were done or said by OTHER PEOPLE who Barack Obama knew. There is NO EVIDENCE of any wrongdoing by Obama himself. So we're supposed to get upset that Obama knew people who did things wrong, but not that John McCain himself has committed one screw-up after another over his politcal career? Riddle me that, folks...I sure don't get it.

I can't imagine anyone out there looking at the records of these two men and really, truly believing that Obama's character is somehow more suspect than McCain's. If you've been avoiding the information on all these issues, I've done the work for you. Just click the links - they all go to reliable sources of factual information - not MSNBC or the Huffington Post, but sources that report the facts, period. Look it all over. And if you do, and you honestly, in your heart of hearts, feel that John McCain will be a better leader and a more morally upstanding president, then go right ahead and vote for him. But if you accept these facts, and you still believe John McCain when he tells you it's just too risky to vote for Barack Obama, then at least admit to yourself that you're choosing a candidate who has a 26-year history of making the wrong call and supporting the wrong people - and that you're doing it because you're just as much of a pu**y as John McCain hopes you are.

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