I wrote this soon after the Republican convention, but never posted it. I’m posting it now because I believe that it’s still an important point to make:

There were several things parroted by Palin that bothered me, but this guy hits the nail on the head with one of her statements:

All I heard was a long, long stream of pointless attacks against Barack Obama, the Democratic Party in general, and the media.

No solutions. No real content. No anything.

There was one line at the end that really twisted things for me.

“Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America … he’s worried that someone won’t read them their rights?”

Every single human being has the right to a fair trial and to be treated humanely by their captors. John McCain, of all people, should understand this. He was a prisoner of war.

On the one fundamental issue that his entire campaign is centered around - the character-building experience of his POW stint - he gets it wrong.

America cannot be a shining beacon of light in the world when we condone policies of treating our enemies with the same standards as the Viet Cong treated their enemies.

Every criminal, no matter how heinous their crimes, deserves humane treatment and a fair and expedient trial. Period. That is a fundamental human right.

When you’re giving the central speech of your party’s convention, to make a joke out of it makes a joke out of me. Not just as a (former) Republican, but as an American.

On a side note, when McCain said “She (Palin) never took earmarks as governor.” he really meant the following (source):

Palin, in fact, requested $198 million in federal earmarks in February, including such expenses as $487,000 to fight obesity in Alaska and $4 million to develop recreational trails.

When asked for comment, his campaign said:

“Sen. McCain was in the throes of a discussion about her record of reforming government, which includes drastic cuts in wasteful spending in the Alaska state budget,” said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds. “If he gave viewers a mistaken impression, it certainly wasn’t intentional or without some basis in fact.”

So let me get this straight - if McCain gets too deep into a discussion he loses the ability to recall facts? Or maybe he just likes to say cute little sound bites without having the burden of representing actual facts?

Check out this McCain campaign ad:

As of 10:30pm tonight you can still see this ad directly at McCain’s site (it’s the featured video on the homepage). To the casual observer this video sure makes Obama look like he said some pretty sexist things…

Now view the original video of Obama, this time with the words that came before that 5-second clip:

This is the “straight talking” McCain? This is how he wants to change our politics? How, for the love of all that is holy, did McCain allow such a BALD and DISGUSTING LIE to be released by his campaign?

I can only think of two possible answers:
1) John McCain is willing to distort the truth well beyond even Rove-ian type attacks in order to attack Obama on a personal level. This is an embarrassment to him and his campaign.
or
2) John McCain does not have control over what his own campaign releases. If he’s not even able to control his own party, how the hell is he going to change them (let alone lead a nation)?

Where are the issues? Where is the meat? How do you excuse McCain for this type of bullshit?

Obama had some very good things to say about this whole nonsense:

Maj. Gen. Craig Campbell, adjutant general of the Alaska National Guard, in an AP interview said the following:

Maj. Gen. Craig Campbell, adjutant general of the Alaska National Guard, considers Palin “extremely responsive and smart” and says she is in charge when it comes to in-state services, such as emergencies and natural disasters where the National Guard is the first responder.

But, in an interview with The Associated Press on Sunday, he said he and Palin play no role in national defense activities, even when they involve the Alaska National Guard. The entire operation is under federal control, and the governor is not briefed on situations.

Regardless of all the Republican spinning, it’s not the reason I wouldn’t vote for a ticket with her on it. I could never vote for her because of her stance on the issues.

UPDATE: McCain has canceled his appearance on Larry King because his campaign believes this exchange was over the line. These seem like pretty simple and straight forward questions for a campaign which has preached so heavily about the importance of national defense and security experience. Why isn’t anyone able to answer these questions?