Crossposted from MY LEFT WING
To call a spade a bloody shovel means more than speaking plainly; rather, it means saying something that is true but unpalatable — or impolitic.
During an otherwise stellar appearance on David Letterman’s show last night, Barack Obama missed an opportunity to deliver a kidney punch to John McCain. In my view, this missed opportunity vividly exemplifies a weakness in the election style Democrats have used over the past three decades.
(I’m not saying Obama’s campaign exemplifies this style; to the contrary, despite a few missteps — and who among us could do better? — I submit that, given the fact that Barack Obama has steamrolled over every obstacle thus far, this man just might know better than anyone how to correct the Democratic Party’s mistakes of the past and finally, FINALLY beat these bastards in this rigged game. But I’m making a point here, so… bear with me.)
Letterman asked, and I’m paraphrasing,
“If you’d been able to pick your Vice-Presidential running mate after McCain picked Palin, would you have chosen differently?”
Obama answered — and again, I’m paraphrasing:
“I chose the person I want in the room with me, giving me wise advice and different points of view…”
Intelligent, cogent and sincere.
But I think he should have phrased it thusly:
“Maybe this is another difference between Senator McCain and me:I didn’t pick my running mate because I thought he would help me WIN; I picked him because I thought he would help me GOVERN.”
Stark, simple and true. Did John McCain pick Sarah Palin because he thought she was the best of all possible candidates for the role of Vice-President in a McCain Administration?
The very suggestion is a joke. Nobody could make that suggestion with a straight face unless he worked for McCain or Fox News. McCain picked Palin to help him win the election.
Just one more in an endless series of proofs that John McCain’s campaign slogan of “Country First” is an empty, shallow and insulting lie.