McSame campaign strategy: same as Bush

With the election cycle in full swing, we’ll hear the standard talking points from the conservatives: anyone not agreeing to the GOP policies is a dangerous liberal that cannot be trusted, liberals hate God, liberals will force homosexuality on the populace, liberals will take away your guns, and of course global climate change is a myth.

Smear, smear, smear.

So, more attacks against Obama from the right. This time, $15M is going to be spent by the NRA on a misinformation campaign. As always happens in national elections, the fear-mongering is that Democrats want to abolish the Second Amendment and take away everybody’s guns. This is, of course, not true. Obama does favor a waiting period, supports a ban on automatic weapons, and supports the limit to one handgun purchase per month. To explain the thinking behind his positions, Obama said:
"I'm a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, but I do not think that that precludes local governments being able to provide some kind of common sense gun control laws ... that keep guns out of the hands of gangbangers or children."

One of the members of John McCain’s new Truth Squad — which his campaign says was launched to respond to unfair attacks on his record of military service –- was a member of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, and appeared in an attack ad for the group in 2004. So, McCain has placed, at the highest levels of his campaign, smear artists who have no qualms against calling a patriotic soldier a traitor. You'd think he would not like such people.

CNN article

There have been a lot of character attacks leveled at Barack Obama by his political adversaries. Some have outright questioned his patriotism, using lies and rumors as “proof”. Rather than sink down to their level and similarly try to smear John McCain’s patriotism, Obama flatly vowed never to question the patriotism of others in the campaign. Then, as he has done many times on the campaign trail, he pointed out John McCain’s military service as a shining example of patriotism to one’s country.
"No one should ever devalue that [McCain’s] service, especially for the sake of a political campaign, and that goes for supporters of both sides. We must always express our profound gratitude for the service of our men and women in uniform. Period.”

It’s unfortunate that the ironically-named “straight talk” from the right continues to resort to slander instead of the issues. At least it’s good to see a candidate like Obama rise above the mud-slinging.

So, as the right-wing smear machine tries once again to spread lies about candidate positions, patriotism and even religion, find out for yourself what the actual positions are – not what the conservatives’ ads tell you they are.