Does A Phony "Maverick" by Any Other Name Still Smell as Sweet?

The dishonest and phony repackaging of John McCain on economics, the lies about Obama, the whole "maverick" shtick with no basis in his record (Just because someone is occasionally rude and snippy does not make them a maverick) all of it is a cynical means to winning the White House, even at the cost of his honor and his soul.

If John McCain were not given the cooperation of the media in always referring to him as the "maverick" and taking it for granted that this is justified by reality, would he still come off nearly as well? Would he get away with his ethical lapses and his voting record if stories about both positive and negative actions did not begin with the same complimentary introduction, regardless of its dubious applicability? Would there be McCain the candidate without McCain the myth? In the case of John McCain, the answer is most certainly not: McCain the man does not measure up to the mythologized "McCain the Maverick." The true tragedy for America here may be that the public, which has been woefully disserved by the mainstream media on the subject of John McCain, are left in the dark about the true measure of the Republican nominee for President. What is needed is an assertive and widespread campaign to report the unvarnished truth about John McCain to voters who have been fed both outright lies in campaign ads and years of favorable shading of stories in coverage of John McCain that almost-universally casts all that he does in a heroic light, giving him the benefit of the doubt that is certainly not given to other candidates. Without major efforts to establish fact in the place of fiction about McCain we are not likely to have the chance to find out what the voters would think about McCain's policy decisions or his character. Simply put, the very deliberately crafted "maverick" image that surrounds John McCain is the product of an ongoing effort to position McCain in the eyes of the voters as something that he is not. McCain has sought for years to get credit for the work of others as well as for work that is not done at all, to dodge blame for his own excesses and flawed conduct, and successfully sell the American voter an airbrushed image of himself.

The problem with electing the version of John McCain being featured in the ads is that beneath the veneer of statesmanship lies a very different man. The trouble awaiting this country if we do elect McCain, will be allowed to happen, in part, by the media, be it due to laziness, complicity, or merely an excess of deference to their subject. The obligation that we all share to one another is to ensure that the John McCain and Barack Obama that we all decide between are the real McCain and the real Obama. From where I sit, that means that there is a lot of fluff to sweep away about McCain's philandering ways and reckless conduct while in the military, a story to be told about McCain's record of being an opponent of veterans benefits, and massive rebuttal of dozens of lies he continues to tell padding his own resume and spreading outright fabrications about Obama's policies. Making attacks about your opponent's plan on an issue is one thing, but what McCain and Palin do in their stump speeches and ads is to tell utter lies about what Obama proposes to do, and then criticize Obama for fictional policies quite different from what Obama proposes.

John McCain acts as if he is a friend and ally of America's servicemen and women, and casts aspersions about Obama's patriotism. The truth is that Obama has consistently been a strong advocate for veterans issues and the new G.I. Bill, while McCain has consistently voted against funding veterans programs and even helped kill money for body armor and vehicle armor kits to avoid the mounting IED casualties as well as opposing other vital monies for troops in the field; something he erroneously accused Obama of doing himself. Likewise, behind the "Putting Country First" backdrop, and underneath the bluster about his patriotism, lies the truth about the dead-end street that Bush has us on, and that a McCain administration will bring us even further down. McCain talks tough, just like G.W. Bush has, but the tough-guy policies which McCain promises to pursue, just as the current policies of Bush, make the United States weaker, not stronger, both in real-world hard fact and in the eyes and perceptions of other countries around the world. We cannot, for example, deal with the Russian crisis from a position of military or ideological strength or high ground, as both the perceived and actual readiness of our armed forces are continually lessened by the obvious strains of an Iraq situation which does indeed need to be wrapped up as soon as possible for the good of our troops and our international standing. At the same time as we are weakened by these deployments, so are our diplomatic arguments weakened by them; how to credibly ask Russia to butt-out of the affairs of their next-door neighbors when we have a years-long deployment based on false pretenses halfway around the world in Iraq. There is no way to credibly ask, and we lose all credibility when we continue to ignore the undermining hypocrisy of these policy mistakes.

As with McCain, one of the problems with Sarah Palin is that there is very little evidence of her being remotely prepared for the job, leaving only her superficial appeal to some voters. Palin is pointed to as a potential lure to the female voters who had been Hillary Clinton fans, but she shares almost nothing with Clinton in terms of stands on the issues, from a woman's right to choose, to the economy. Palin favors trickle-down measures, helping those who need help the least by allowing even greater wealth to accumulate in the highest economic strata, with the promised payoff for the rest of us almost never following. This is the last thing needed at a time when the very wealthy, and large corporations are reaping record profits, and record giveaways and tax breaks from the current administration, while the middle class, and the working poor settle for occasional small stimulus checks for pocket change. If all that was needed to fix this economy for the working poor, the unemployed, and the middle-class was for corporations and the wealthy to prosper, then we would not be in this mess; the fact is the wealth is already have made gains, but they have not "trickled-down," rather they have pooled and swelled while those in the middle and working classes have been suffering. This is one reason why the economy under Democratic stewardship has performed far better overall and far more equitably than it has under Republican mismanagement between 1948 and today (even if you leave out the second Bush term, the numbers are the same). In fact, in constant dollars adjusted for inflation, the working class saw roughly 8 times greater growth in income under Democratic economic policy than under Republicans. Similarly the middle class have seen roughly 3 times greater growth under Democrats. Even the wealthiest Americans have seen slightly better income growth under the Democrats, evidence that the true route to prosperity and growth for every American is the exact type of economic plan proposed by Barack Obama. What workers and families need now is not more of the same old Republican promises to cut taxes, while actually shifting the tax burden away from multinational corporations and the super-wealthy, right onto the backs of ordinary American families.

The Republicans saw the writing on the wall months ago. The public was angry and demanding change from a disastrous course at home and abroad. Their candidate was out of touch, and losing some of his nimbleness as he grew older. They needed to make some big changes. They were lucky to have a mythology in place about McCain, and they isolated him from spontaneous contact with the media. McCain added his hail mary selection of Palin, and the McCain re-branding and attack ads distorting Obama's image began in earnest. The cynical effort by the GOP to stifle the demand for real change, and to attempt to deceive the public into choosing exactly what it does not want may be sickening, but it is their job, I suppose, to try to win. The rest of us, the media, the public, all of us who are not unconditional supporters of McCain, it is our job to make sure that when a choice is made in this election, it is made on the facts, not on the lies. The media must take off the kid-gloves with which they handle McCain. When McCain lies it must be called lying, loud and clear, whatever fortitude he may have displayed while in Vietnam. When McCain or Palin are confused or unprepared, or even worse deceptive, the public needs the truth about that. As citizens and voters it is our responsibility to be discerning where the outrageous claims in McCain's ads are concerned, and demanding where the truth from McCain is concerned, and if those in the media whose job it is to get that truth for the public, do not understand that responsibility, we must make them understand it with our voices. We cannot allow our election to be the forum for one side to offer honest ideas, and the other attempt to win through so muddying the waters, that they prevail through misdirecting and exploiting dissatisfaction with their own policies. They will say what they will, now America must call them on it, and I believe that ultimately together we will.

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