Change We Can’t Believe In

By Broadside Opinion Editor Arthur Gailes

Senator McCain will not bring change to Washington. He’s not a maverick. He’s not an innovator. He’s not even a particularly good politician. What McCain is, and has always been, is mediocre. He’s a Republican without the political spine to back up his core positions. He’s a veteran brave enough to face enemy fire, but a senator who uses that experience as a shield whenever he’s attacked with words.

When it’s convenient, McCain is definitely a maverick. He’s all for bucking party administration when it’s weak and it benefits him. Under a Democratic president, he’s a maverick. When he’s running against President Bush, he’s a maverick. But when he’s trying to ingratiate himself within the Republican Party to get out of the primaries, he votes with George Bush 95 percent of the time—as he did in 2007.

Since this presidential race has begun, he’s resorted to the same dishonorable, Karl Rove-style attacks that have defined the Republican Party for years. He’s repeatedly berated Senator Barack Obama with false and ridiculous attacks, distorting Obama’s viewpoints, his record and his words. This past week alone, McCain hit Obama on things that are blatantly false distortions.

The most outrageous is his recent ad stating that “Obama’s one accomplishment” in education is “legislation to teach 'comprehensive sex education' to kindergartners.” This is a statement so obviously false that http://www.polifact.com, a truth-checking site for both candidates, called it “Pants on Fire,” their lowest truth rating. Even the sponsor of the bill, Carol Ronen says that, “Barack never had anything to do with it.” Even if he did, it wouldn’t be an “accomplishment,” because the bill was never passed.

Furthermore, in making this attack, McCain completely ignores all contexts. The bill’s purpose was not to teach kindergarteners about sex, but to warn them and educate them about child predators at that age. The bill specifically mentions the need to keep the information age-appropriate and “say no to unwanted sexual advances.” For McCain to think this is wrong would mean that he supports the rape of children.

Of course, we’ve all heard McCain’s recent criticism of Obama’s statement comparing McCain’s message of change to “lipstick on a pig.” McCain’s logic here is that since Sarah Palin mentioned lipstick a week ago and Obama hadn’t mentioned her in the statement, Obama must be talking about Palin—insinuating that Obama is sexist. Never mind that McCain has said the exact same thing about a Hillary Clinton proposal, that’s just not politically convenient.

These two issues encompass the type of dishonorable tactics that McCain has been engaging in this whole campaign. Whether it’s comparing Obama to Paris Hilton, or misrepresenting his tax plan or nuclear energy stance, McCain’s been lying his way through this campaign. I fail to see how this is changing the way Washington works; it looks more like the same Republican tactics that have been taking place since the Reagan administration.

McCain’s right about one thing: he’s more experienced than Obama. His 22 years in the Senate have taught him how to run the dirty campaign while pretending to despise it. He’s learned to smear his opponent without any real basis. Most of all, he’s learned that winning the election is all that counts—principles and morals are for rookies.

McCain is so unoriginal, he even stole Obama’s gimmick of bringing change to Washington. He criticized Obama during the whole campaign for being inexperienced, then turned around and picked a Vice President even less experienced. He fronts as a maverick, as an agent of change when it suits him, but proves to us over and over again that he is no different from the rest of Washington.