Democrats vs. Republicans

Obama is talking about issues to illustrate the differences between himself and McCain. Issues like the economy, energy, housing and foreign policy. He’s identifying problems and putting forth his ideas on how to solve the problems.

Meanwhile, the self-proclaimed “straight talk express” is pumping out more and more of that old neocon staple – name-calling. This quote comes directly from John McCain: “Senator Obama has the most extreme record of any member of the United States Senate”. As a follow-up, he was asked if he thought Obama was a Socialist, a completely ridiculous question. Instead of truthfully answering “no”, he stated “I don’t know”, while intentionally implying “yes”. Recall that during the 2004 campaign, John Kerry was deemed the most extreme and liberal member of the Senate. When Hillary Clinton was the Democratic frontrunner, she was the most extreme and liberal member of the Senate. When Ted Kennedy takes a stand for the poor and middle class, he's deemed the most extreme and liberal member of the Senate. “Most extreme and liberal” is simply a label that Republicans put on anyone that they’re trying to attack at that moment. Since it’s an opinion and not based on anything you can measure, you can’t really say it’s wrong – they just happen to throw the phrase around as if it’s something significant. But it is not something significant, it’s just standard name-calling.

BTW, McCain aides told CNN that McCain intends to continue to attack Obama while he’s overseas. This coming after McCain stated that “politics ends at the water’s edge”, an old adage that means you don’t criticize someone when they’re out of the country. OK John, we’re used to you going back on your word, but how about talking about your solutions to this country’s problems instead of just sticking with the attack, name-call, and insult gameplan? I know you’ve embraced “neoconism”, but how about putting a LITTLE truth behind that old “maverick” label?