Stuff that caught my eye in the news lately

[catsittingstill]

Barak Obama decided to forgo public funding in the election.  John McCain is trying to paint this as some sort of flip-flop.

“Senator Obama’s reversal on public financing is one of a number of reversals that he has taken,” Mr. McCain said in Columbus Junction, Iowa, where he had been touring the floods. “I’m especially disturbed by this decision of Senator Obama’s because he signed his name on a piece of paper, signed his name.”

“This election is about a lot of things but it’s also about trust,” he said. “It’s also about whether you can take people’s word.” New York Times June 20, 2008

So, when John McCain obtained a bank loan for $1,000,000 for his campaign, using his promise that he would take public funding in the primaries as collateral, did he not sign his name?  I didn't think you could get bank loans without signing your name, but perhaps he had some sort of special...personal....relationship with this bank.  That would be better, surely, than making a promise he didn't intend to keep. 

So here we have McCain trying to smear Obama for pretty much exactly what McCain did.

Yes, sometimes election is about character.  Like, you know, hypocrisy.


 

Comments

[maiac.livejournal.com]

Last night Keith Olbermann was all over McCain for lying about Obama on this issue. To paraphrase Keith, "An 'if-else' where the 'if' didn't happen." Obama had said he would limit himself to public financing if his opponents did the same. And McCain didn't file for public financing for the general election until after he'd claimed that Obama had promised to and then broken the promise.

Unfortunately, in the very next hour, Dan Abrams talked about Obama "breaking a promise" that he had never made.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there is the issue that Obama promised to work to reach an agreement with McCain to take public financing. McCain wouldn't meet him halfway. Obama didn't cave. Good on him and we could use more Democrats like him.

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

Is this the "soft money" thing they talked about in The West Wing once? Because I didn't understand it. I know that was about "campaign finance reform" and it didn't get resolved.

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

McCain: I can't believe it's not logic!