McCain And Palin Changing Tacts When First Ideas Draw Criticism

This week has been a very big disappointment to me as a voter and a citizen of the United States of America.

It started last Sunday, a week ago, when Sarah Palin addressed a group of McCain/Palin supporters and brought up, yet again, the ties between Barack Obama and William Ayers. Ayers, of course, was the leader of the Weather Underground which protested the Vietnam War by bombing several buildings including the Pentagon, The House Of Representatives and several police stations. And while this is a terrible thing to do, in my opinion, what Palin failed to remind voters was the fact that Obama was 8 years old when this happened.

How old exactly was John McCain when he was one of the senators who were basically bought by Charles Keating, a real estate tycoon who ran the Lincoln S&L. The same S&L that shut down costing taxpayers billions of dollars? Not only was McCain one of the senators, he was the one the ethics committee dubbed as "closest to Keating." He was at least 30 something years old. McCain was given a slap on the wrist for his dealings with Keating when in reality, the man should have been ousted from office along with the other 4 senators.

How old was Sarah Palin when she used her position in public office to get rid of her ex-brother-in-law? Sarah has been found guilty of using her position in office for personal reasons. And while a lot of Palin supporters will point out that "Troopergate" was started in order to defame the Republican nominee for President that's not true. In fact, "Troopergate" was started before John McCain chose Palin to be his running mate.

McCain and Palin spent the better part of this week defaming Barack Obama by saying that he was "hanging out with terrorist". They stood by and watched as their supporters, so caught up in the mud-slinging yelled, "Terrorist!" "Muslim" and "Take his head off!" (in reference to Senator Obama). They knew they were inciting voters by bringing up one of their biggest fears. Terrorism.

But by doing so, McCain and Palin were putting a huge target on Obama's back. We all know that this kind of mob mentality can get ugly. It only takes one crazy person deciding to "do something about Obama" to prompt what could be an attack on Obama's life. A man whose only crime is trying to become President. A man with a wife. A father to two beautiful little girls. But did they care? No. That is, until McCain and Palin realized that their tactic wasn't winning over the undecided votes. If anything, their attacks were turning people off and making them decide to vote for Obama. They didn't stop their attacks until the press brought this into the spotlight.

Now, all of a sudden, McCain is trying to stop the rampage he and his running partner have helped to cause. Friday night, McCain was booed by supporters for saying, "Senator Obama is a decent, honest man and no one should be scared to have him as President of the United States." And while I feel this course of action is a little bit late, Senator Obama thanked John McCain for sticking up for him. A very classy thing to do, I might add, since this whole McCain campaign has been one attempt after another to not address the issues but instead, to smear Obama's reputation. Still, I guess McCain deserves a pat on the back for trying, however, then again, how do we know McCain is defending Obama's honor because he's truly sorry he incited the voters so much or because he realizes his attack campaign on Obama is making him look bad to the undecided voters? Or maybe, McCain and Palin are afraid that Obama will start bringing up the Keating Five and Troopergate, smearing their reputations much worse than they could smear Obama's.

Yes, Senator Obama fought back and put up a 13 minute video called KeatingEconomics.com that has been airing on the internet but this was only after several (and I do mean several) attacks on his reputation. No matter how cool and calm Obama may be, a person can only take so much before their backs are pushed against the wall and they have to come out swinging. Unless you are John Kerry who tried to ignore George Bush's tactics in 2004. A choice that I believe ended up costing him a chance to be President of the United States.

Whatever the reasons for McCain and Palin stopping their attacks on Obama's personal life, I am glad it's over (hopefully). I believe that rational and smart Americans want to hear what the candidates plan to do on every issue instead of all the mud-slinging, so that they can make a wise and educated vote on election day.