Saw an interesting quote today:

“If you don’t have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run away from. You make a big election about small things. Ohio we are here to say, ‘Not this time, not this year, not when so much is at stake.’”
-Barack Obama, Oct 27, 2008

Ok, so John McCain is the one without the record to run on? Seriously? Obama has spent half of his one term in the Senate in a presidential campaign.

Paint your opponent as someone people should run away from?
“He voted with Bush 90% of the time!”
“We can’t afford John McCain!”
Check.

Make a big election about small things?
“Change!” (without explanation)
“Change!” (without definition)
“Change!” (without qualification)
Check.

Not this time, not this year, when so much is at stake?
Oh wait, that’s a big fat hypocritical FAIL.

Every once in a while, you see something that makes you say “WTF?”

Police: McCain volunteer made up robbery story

I like the quote from Maurita Bryant, the assistant chief of the Pittsburgh police department’s investigations division: “We have robbers here in Pittsburgh, but they don’t generally mutilate someone’s face like that. They just take the money and run.”

They probably know how to spell ‘B’ too.

Columnist Orson Scott Card has written an open letter to the local daily newspapers of America. It’s a good read, find it here (with an excerpt below):

Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights?

Your job, as journalists, is to tell the truth. That’s what you claim you do, when you accept people’s money to buy or subscribe to your paper.

But right now, you are consenting to or actively promoting a big fat lie — that the housing crisis should somehow be blamed on Bush, McCain, and the Republicans. You have trained the American people to blame everything bad — even bad weather — on Bush, and they are responding as you have taught them to.

If you had any personal honor, each reporter and editor would be insisting on telling the truth — even if it hurts the election chances of your favorite candidate.

Because that’s what honorable people do. Honest people tell the truth even when they don’t like the probable consequences. That’s what honesty means . That’s how trust is earned.

So now that both parties have laid the groundwork for their fraud lawsuits if they lose on November 4th, I suppose we can sit back with some popcorn and watch the fireworks. If Obama wins, we get to watch the Republicans screaming about ACORN and how the Democrats let Mickey Mouse vote and stole the election. If McCain wins, we get the Democrats screaming about how the Republicans suppressed the black vote and stole the election. Either way, we have adults acting like children, and the worst part is that they’re the ones who are supposed to be running the country.

It’s interesting how the campaigns characterize the voting demographic here in Nevada. Here is a rough outline for a typical Obama radio ad:

Hi, I’m [name], [hunter/fisherman/something related to guns], and for me, there’s nothing better than [hunting/fishing/something related to guns]. This election, it’s important that our next President respects our 2nd amendment rights. Barack Obama will let us keep our guns. He supports guns. Barack Obama supports our right to have guns and shoot guns and defend ourselves. He has a plan to rebuild America and keep our jobs here, but McCain is just like Bush and wants to send your jobs overseas. Let’s keep our jobs and our guns. Vote for Obama.

Paid for by Obama for America.

The best part is that there have been several different versions with several different people, and they’re all the same. I’m convinced.

Is the election over yet? I’d like to get back to my guns and hunting and fishing and guns.

Historic bailout bill passes Congress; Bush signs

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

-T.S. Eliot, “The Hollow Men”