Citing the public’s “. . .deep seeded antipathy toward the president, the war, gas prices, the economy, foreclosures and, in some areas, the underlying cultural differences that continue to brand our party,” former Republican Party leader Rep. Tom Davis this week observed that “the Republican brand is in the trash can. . . if we were dog food, they would take us off the shelf.”
So distressed at Barack Obama‘s successful “Change” theme, the Repugs have tried to claim some of that turf as their own with their new campaign slogan—”Change You Deserve.” Unfortunately for them, that is the trademarked advertising slogan for the anti-depressant Effexor, used to treat generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, and panic disorder in adults. (Who said that the Most Highs don’t have a sense of humor?)
Speaking of the president, who has done his best to insure that his once mighty party will spend the next generation or two polishing the back benches of Congress with their pudgy, white keisters, Mr 28% used the Israeli Knesset as a platform to paint presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barak Obama as a Nazi appeaser.
So much for Harry Truman’s dictum that domestic politics should end at the nation’s borders. As Bill Clinton‘s former assistant secretary of state and the State Department’s chief spokesman and ardent Hillary supporter Jamie Rubin observed in the WAPO:
“It is bad enough that Republicans use the politics of personal destruction here at home, but to deploy that kind of political weapon at an occasion as solemn as an American president addressing the parliament of a friendly government marks a new low.”
John Kerry called Bush’s remarks a “disgusting and dangerous political game.” Senator Joe Biden called them “bullshit” on the Senate floor. After Obama pointed out that Bush’s bull in the china shop Middle East policy had, among other things, strengthened Iran and weakened US security as a result, Saint John McCain piled on.
“It was remarkable to see Barack Obama’s hysterical diatribe in response to a speech in which his name wasn’t even mentioned. . .”
A bit hyperbolic (not to mention hypocritical), even for McCain. But the sainted maverick was just warming up. He continued his critique with this ridiculous, juvenile strawman:
“It would be a wonderful thing if we lived in a world where we don’t have enemies. But that is not the world we live in, and until Senator Obama understands that, the American people have every reason to doubt whether he has the strength, judgment and determination to keep us safe.”
Poor, naive Barack. His insistence that there is a categorical difference between talking, negotiation, and appeasement was just too ‘elitist’ for us lesser citizens to understand. He even went so far as to challenge McBush to debate these issues— any time, any place— obviously relishing the prospect of confronting them with a foreign policy record that has to be the worst in American history. As John F. Kennedy said in his inaugural address:
“So let us begin anew— remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate.”
Bring it on.
