Bridge to Notopia

CBS NEWS did an analysis of Sarah Palin’s story about the bridge to nowhere, doing a good job of explaining the truth. She was indeed for it before she was against it, and when Congress canceled the project, she kept the money, some $230 million, using it for various road projects, which means she used the earmarks, which she is now against. The same story was published in The Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.

Finally, it is refreshing to see some journalists are prosecuting her stories that needed analysis and airing.

But now a new nastiness has suddenly arisen. The McCain people released a new add today that is scurrilous, one that charges that Obama, when he was a member of the Illinois senate, sponsored a bill that promoted “comprehensive sex education for kindergarteners.” The charge is ridiculous on the face of it, but that doesn’t bother the lobbyists running his campaign. In truth, the bill was designed for “age appropriate” sex education for kids as a means of teaching them what was improper touching, as well as to protect them against pedophiles.

Why such an ad? Their target is a bloc of uneducated, moderate, or undecided mothers in the battleground states, to show them that Obama belongs to a different culture than they do, which is the populist, good Christian culture, as embodied by Sarah “The Saint” Palin. The Obama campaign came out with a statement that said the ad was “shameless and perverse.” Tomorrow Obama himself needs to come out with a kick-ass statement that will show his disgust for the tactic.

I am halfway through Thomas Frank’s new book, THE WRECKING CREW, a thoroughgoing study of what extremes the Right Wing of the Republican Party is willing to go to maintain power so they can continue to dismantle the State, which to them is no more than a road block to business, which is their only God no matter what they say in their speeches. He charts the progress of the ‘New Right,’ from their adoption of the aggressive tactics of SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) of the ‘New Left’ active in the sixties. There is no room for wimps or true believers who are a pussy. Moreover, it is okay to twist the truth and to hit hard, even if it is below the belt. There is only one goal, to win the election. Whatever works to that end is legitimate because Karl Rove says so. If Obama wants to win this election, he has to drop this cool intellectual posture he habitually takes. He needs to show some anger, some fiery emotion.