All presidential campaigns, it seems, require some apologies at some point. In this race, with McCain putting on his outrage once again, I think we should look at who those apologies should be directed to exactly.
First, McCain is calling for a personal apology from Obama himself for a comment that one of his supporters in Congress, Representative John Lewis, said, specifically one that compared McCain’s strategy of “sowing the seeds of hatred and division” with the efforts of segregationist George Wallace.
The McCain camp isn’t happy with the apology that the Obama camp already sent out, which was a campaign representative saying that while the comparison was over the line, the underlying message of his statement was true.
Now, how about we look at the strategy in question. For the past several months, McCain has been putting out ads, spreading stump speeches, and sicking his “hockey mom” on Obama, all in an effort to paint Obama as nothing less than a horrible person who hates America. For example, he inferred that Obama was a pedophile who wanted to teach children about sex before they could read. Also, Palin tried to make Obama out to be an America-hating terrorist based on a man he worked with in a charity.
Or how about the many, many lies Fox News has spread about Obama and continues to do so.
Even worse, McCain’s base is starting to take those lies and attacks and turn them into threats of actual violence, such as yelling “Bomb Obama” and even a threat that Obama’s Secret Service contingent is investigating. These attacks are obviously a lot more dangerous to Obama than Lewis’ comment about George Wallce.
But you don’t see McCain or Palin apologizing personally to Obama for lying in the most egregious and dangerous way. Really, who should be more outraged in this presidential race?
