Its about time

Its about time that John McCain finally asserted himself to tone down the unwarranted personal attacks on Senator Barack Obama. While campaigning in Lakeville, Minnesota on Friday, John McCain was asked a question by an older woman who read about Barack Obama being an "Arab." How sad. It is sad that a poor old woman would be mislead to believe that Barack Obama is an Arab and someone un-American.

For several weeks now, as predicted in this blog, the McCain Campaign has been openly attacking Obama as associating with domestic terrorists and painting the picture of a scary radical, "not one of us" candidate. These open attacks were initially led by Sarah Palin at rallies of Republican right wing supporters chanting "terrorist" and "kill him," echoed 24 x 7 by right wing hate mongers like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh on radio and FOX news, and a carefully orchestrated Internet whisper campaign of outright lies. Terrorists? These nuts are the real terrorists. They should look in the mirror. It is disgusting. Even Cindy McCain is now complicit in lying about Obama's record. I was shocked and surprised when John McCain defended Barack to the woman who asked him the question. He praised Barack as a decent man and urged civility. Where the hell has McCain been for the last few weeks? He has definitely condoned this distasteful rhetoric and promoted it through his running mate and surrogates. Now finally he tried to put the lid on it. Perhaps he knew it was getting out of hand or did the Secret Service tell him to back off? Maybe he was he finally coming to the realization that if he looses the election, he would be ostracized by most of his Senate colleagues for his unbecoming behavior. Whatever the reason, it is about time John McCain spoke up to put the lid on this.

At the next debate, John McCain should take just a few minutes and set the record straight. The guy who wants to be know for his "straight talk" should apologize to Barack and tell America that despite their policy differences, Barack is not an Arab, not a terrorist, and not a pervert. He is a respectable member of the United States Senate. McCain would do more for his campaign by setting the record straight for older voters and less informed citizens who don't read the "liberal mainstream media" but rely on FOX News and the trash talking radio kooks. Uncommitted voters would have more respect for McCain if he did this. Voters would be able make their decision on policies instead of this crap. It was McCain who offered the hope of having a "clean" race with Obama when Reverend Wright dominated the news this Spring. Now McCain could in fact challenge his opponent to spend the remaining time before the election on real issues and real policies. They could both take the high road and marginalize the un-American nuts. Perhaps the candidates could finally agree on something that would put America First.