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October 10, 2008

Keating Five vs. that "Terrorist" Ayers

Hart Williams puts a much clearer perspective than I've seen anywhere on the right-wingers' ravings about Barack Obama's "terrorist" friend, William Ayers, while ignoring completely McCain's relationship with Charles Keating:

John McCain was "palling around" with a convicted banking felon WHILE he was committing his felonies — which included the largest failure in US banking history to that time.

Barack Obama was "palling around" with Chicago's "Citizen of the Year" for 1997 decades after he was a member of the Weather Underground, a radical response to the Nixonian excesses (like the Kent State massacre) of the 1960s.

The former is relevant and legitimate. Obama didn't take his family on vacations, free of charge, several years running at Ayers' private Carribbean estate. McCain didn't either: he took them at Keating's Carribbean estate.

I'm all for being completely fair in judging the two candidates, and both have skeletons in their closets. Find out more about McCain's very troubling skeletons here and Obama's somewhat troubling skeletons here (the Rezko thing is the only one that really bothers me).

Republicans are right now furiously forwarding slanderous emails about Obama, full of half-truths and spin. I know because I'm getting several of them a day from well-meaning friends and relatives. These people really believe that we are about to elect the Antichrist or a radical Muslim Manchurian candidate.

I'm going to say something here that might surprise you. I still have not made up my mind about how I will vote in this race.

If you are truly one of the undecided middle, as I am, and you're willing to listen to both sides, you can end up feeling like you're faced with making a choice between horse shit and bull crap. The amount of research required to discern which rumors are legitimate and which are Rovian lies is beyond my ability, as I am working two full-time jobs right now. I know that at a point I will have to weed out the peripheral noise and focus on something that really matters to me enough to cast that vote one way or the other.

That has been a very big challenge, and I still have not been able to do it. I am personally under tremendous pressure from my extended family to vote for McCain. I mean, there will be long-term consequences for me in terms of how they view my judgment and intellect if I vote for Obama because they really believe he will destroy this country and everything we care about (this typifies their feelings). He's the scariest thing since Freddy Kruger, after all. And if things go badly, which they will, of course, because we're in a very deep hole, they'll blame it all on him and I'll never live it down.

And as much as I have defended Obama here, you have to realize that I have never voted for a Democrat for major office in my life. But I've been dissatisfied with the GOP for a very long time. In fact, in every single presidential election since Reagan left office I have cast a protest vote for the major third party candidate because I couldn't stomach the Republican candidate. Still, I fear the far left as much as I fear the far right, and that fear prevents me from feeling good about a vote in either direction. The recent rumors about Obama's affiliation with the Democratic Socialists of Chicago trouble me. I've actually very seriously considered not voting at all, though that choice is also one I can't feel good about. I know it is time for me to grow up and choose a side, but as an independant, moderate person, that is not easy. So I'm asking you all to make your best case for me, one way or the other, as we head into the home stretch. I don't want to hear why not to vote for either one of them - I already know all those reasons. Convince me why I ought to vote for one of the two. Give me a reason to feel good on November 4.

Perhaps there is something to be said for people's resistance to seriously considering what the "other side" has to say. At least, in their ignorance, they can get a good night's sleep!

Posted by Becky at October 10, 2008 08:16 AM