Watch this video. And the second one too.

I know that, to the few readers of this blog (if you still exist after my having taken such a long hiatus), I am preaching to the choir with all of these political posts. Furthermore, the political climate in this country is so divided that I doubt I can convert most intended McCain voters anyway. Still, I feel that, for fellow Obama supporters, it is important to have some ammunition and to be aware of the smears, lies, and misrepresentation out there so that we can hopefully correct the perceptions of someone who has been misled in this campaign season, even if we don't change their vote. A vote should be cast in light of issues and facts, not a "blizzard of words" (what Palin gave during the ABC interview, the transcript of which you can read here) meant to mask ignorance of the important issues and make people vote on emotion.

One thing that has amused me, for lack of a better word, during this campaign, is the way that McCain's camp and Republican pundits have changed their tune when it suits them, lambasting Hillary Clinton, for example, for speaking out when people assaulted her campaign on the basis of gender, while turning around and pointing fingers and hurling insults whenever Palin's gender was mentioned. Relatedly, of course, there is the whole lipstick debaucle, when the McCain camp jumped on Obama for using the saying that the idea of change under a McCain regime would be like putting lipstick on a pig (hopeless and wouldn't change a thing). Now the McCain camp is saying that Obama called Palin a pig. Obama wasn't even referring to Palin; he was using an old expression he'd used before. McCain himself used this same exact expression when deriding Hillary Clinton's healthcare proposals. Was it sexist then? No. Did the Democrats ever try to paint it as such? No. But, apparently, because Palin referred to herself as a pitbull with lipstick during the RNC, it's sexist now. Republicans get away with this flip-flopping of rhetoric all the time.

Anyway, on to the video that you should watch, because, for one, it's hysterical. Also, it is completely on point. Jon Stewart addresses the Republican practice of turning rhetoric on its head. It is a must-watch.



Another important example of Repubs changing their tune is found here on the Huffington Post, a highly biased, left-leaning political blog, it should be noted in case you've never heard of it. Still, the video is there, and you can see for yourself that McCain's words are his own. Facts cannot be refuted.

Obviously, politics is a shady game. Anyone in the running for president has not gotten there by wearing his heart on his sleeve all the time and always speaking his own thoughts truthfully and straight-forwardly. Campaigns are run to be won. However, the misrepresentations and about-faces of the McCain campaign have gotten to be too much. As Barack Obama said, "enough!" McCain always talks about putting country first. The one thing I have garnered from his campaign is that the well-being of this country, as a priority, falls well behind his own personal ambition-- himself as president, whatever it takes and whatever the ultimate cost.