2008 Woodie Awards
Obama and McCain don't make the grade
ERNEST DUNLAP
ARBITER JOURNALIST
Issue date: 10/9/08 Section: Culture
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If you listen to their shallow rhetoric it’s easy to mistake the sound bites as being from John Kerry and George Bush in the last election. If you listen to McCain long enough you might even think he is Ronald Reagan – he seems to mention him enough.
Obama is pimping change so hardcore he has yet to establish just what it is he will change. The media and the candidates themselves have spent a lot of time making sure that we as Americans know there are only two possible choices to everything, either Democrats or Republicans.
Boise State student Anjuli Waybright caught onto this during Monday’s Vox Discipuli debate.
“The two ended up arguing against their own arguments because the political spectrum in America is not as polarized as they make it appear,” Waybright said.
If you scratch just below the surface it is very apparent that the candidates are more of the same.
Obama takes aim at corporate interests while at the same time fails to mention that five of his top 20 contributors are major financial institutions (www.opensecrets.org). You may recognize a few of these institutions as the ones who lobbied Congress to spend $700 billion that our government doesn’t have in order to save their companies because of their bad business practices. So while Obama preaches change it seems his pockets are still lined by the good ol’ boys on Wall Street.
McCain is so busy trying to pander to voters that a few weeks ago he forgot he said, “the issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should.”
This is when he decided it would be good for him to return to Washington to try and pass a bill to bail out Obama’s major contributors on Wall Street.
Of course his presence was hardly noticed since he left early to make a televised debate against Obama, and also because he admittedly has no clue what the economy is all about. Tack that onto vice-presidential pick Sarah Palin and you’ve got yourself an outline for Pandering 101 and, yes, Professor McCain is the teacher.
Sarah Palin can hardly run her own household let alone the state of Alaska. God forbid that anything would happen to McCain if he is elected, because having Palin take over the country is not a pleasing thought. For someone who can hardly identify the Bush Doctrine of preemptive action against entities seen as a threat to this country, I think Palin has done an excellent job during her brief political career. Knowledge of what is actually happening isn’t necessary when you look as good as she does. I’m sure if she mentions family values and Ronald Reagan enough she and McCain will get elected.
The sad truth is that neither party’s presidential candidates will make things all better. Further, if you really believe that the two political parties have put the best candidates forward you are fooling yourself. There were plenty of quality third party candidates that didn’t get media time because they weren’t a part of the dominant parties.
An audience member at the Vox Discupli debate Monday evening captured the failing of the party system this election perfectly when she said could only vote for “the lesser of two evils.”
The good news is that Americans will have to live with the decision they make this November, no matter how bad their decision is.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Steven Philbert
posted 10/09/08 @ 7:46 AM MST
You are not politically savy if your choice is "There is no choice." Of course not! There never was a choice. The first time Americans had a chance to "choose" was for Old Hickory, and that little piece of mind control has been running down the pipes ever since. (Continued…)
Catherine
posted 10/09/08 @ 6:47 PM MST
You have no idea how relieved and yet how surprised I am that my point of view is finally being represented in this newspaper. I would have been happy if someone at the Arbiter had conceded that "their side" of the bipartisan catfight was not wholly perfect, but I take a sort of bittersweet delight in the fact that you just said they both suck and there are better options from third parties, because I agree and I have not heard such concession anywhere else in this publication until now. (Continued…)
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