UNAMERICAN: The Politics of Any Means to An End

“We are looking forward to turning a page on this financial crisis,”said top McCain spokesman, Greg Stimple, in the Washington Post on Saturday, “and getting back to discussing”……

…..William Ayers.
Meanwhile, the Dow has dropped 734 points as I type. (UPDATE, it came up and closed with a 369.88 point drop.) And on Friday, the day that the bad-novel-sized bail out package passed, it was announced that the United States lost another 159,000 American jobs in September alone.

The ugly new route that McCain, his surrogates, and his high-heeled, how-low-can-you-go running mate have decided to travel, does not just represent down-and-dirty-politics-as-usual, it is unpatriotic in the truest sense of the word.

More specifically, at a time when we are in a true and very scary crisis, McFaust and WinkyGirl are actively and consciously putting the health and well being of this country a distant second to their own ambitions.

Here’s a clip from Joe Klien’s online column at Time.com today.

Their strategy is simple: you throw crap against a wall and then giggle as the media try to analyze the putresence in a way that conveys a sense of balance: “Well, it is bull-pucky, but the splatter pattern is interesting…” which, of course, only serves to get your perverse message out. I really don’t want to be a part of that. But…every so often, we journalists have a duty to remind readers just how dingy the McCain campaign, and its right-wing acolytes in the media (I’m looking at you, Sean Hannity) have become–especially in their efforts to divert public attention from the economic crisis we’re facing.

(As Klien points out the whole Ayers thing is particularly rich coming from Palin, “who is married to a man who belonged to a political party–the Alaskan Independence Party–that wanted to secede from the union.”)

Do I think it will work? Not at all. The majority of the American people are far smarter and more decent than these the-end-justifies-the-means fools believe.

I think Josh Marshall has it right with his remarks this morning at TPM. “One interesting thing to consider is that we may be on the verge of seeing McCain not only lose the presidency but his entire reputation as well.”

That’s not dumpster dive one wants or expects from a war hero and a man who, we once saw (as politicians go anyway) as essentially honest and honorable.

When I first wrote the headline for this post, I accidently typed: UNAMERICAIN.

As you can see, I changed it.

But, upon reflection, I think perhaps I was right the first time.