This year’s election season is like a movie so plot-rich that if you leave for a minute to buy a box of popcorn you no longer no know what’s going on. I’ve been out of commission for a day and a half, making a quick trip to West Palm Beach, and I’ve returned to find another huge day in the market, an apparent undertaking by the federal government to buy up all extant bad debt, and more charges and counter-charges between the campaigns.
One of the creepiest of the day’s headlines featured Charlie Rangel, who is desperately trying to hang on to his chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee. He’s been watching the news like the rest of us, so he thought he could solidify his position with his fellow Democrats by describing Governor Sarah Palin as “disabled.” Who knows, it could work, as bizarre attacks on Palin are the order of the day among Democrats. At least he didn’t suggest, unlike another Democratic “comedian,” that it would be a good thing if she were gang-raped. When it comes to Governor Palin, Rangel is practically a moderate.
Time magazine explicitly accused the McCain campaign of “racism” with the headline, “McCain Plays the Race Card.” Strong stuff–so, what’s the evidence? You can tell there is none by the article’s first sentence:
When politicians interject race into a campaign, they seldom do it directly.
Well, sometimes they do. Like when Obama said, “Did I mention he’s black?” But, needless to say, the McCain camp made no reference to Obama’s race at all. Time’s charge of racism was based on the fact that one of McCain’s ads talked about Obama’s ties to Franklin Raines, the former Chairman and CEO of the Democrats’ money-pot, Fannie Mae, but didn’t mention Obama’s “far more significant tie” to Jim Johnson, the former Fannie Mae chairman who headed up Obama’s Vice-Presidential search. Time thus creates a new standard of “racism”–equal opportunity in political attack ads!
As it happens, though, Johnson was absent from the ad that was the basis for Time’s “racism” charge because he is the subject of an entire McCain ad, all by himself. Here it is:
So it was a busy day, and that’s only scratching the surface. More to come.
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