When you ran in 2000, you were the maverick candidate who road on the Straight Talk Express, and you had many Independents in your corner. The Bush campaign ran a vicious and nasty attack ads and a phone campaign against you. The accusations were terrible, and beneath contempt for the persons who ran them.
Now it is 2008, and in the primaries, you stated that those who run and state nasty attacks are running from the real issues. There are many interviews of you stating it. It seems you are not listening to your own words, as you and your running mate have been attacking Barack Obama with some of the nastiest attacks yet, saying he is a terrorist or associates with terrorists.
This is so very beneath you, and one would think you would remember the hurtful and vicious campaign directed against you and your family back in 2000.
The John McCain of 2000 is not the John McCain of 2008, and this new line of attacking is further proof.
This is partisan politics at its worst, and it will scare off what is left of your independent support. You already had the conservative support, and the people who cheer those attacks would never vote for Sen Obama anyway, so the question comes up as to why you would allow this.
You have such an impressive record and have made many sacrifices in your war record, and these attacks do take away from that.
Please stop these attacks by your campaign and running mate, and reclaim your dignity before it is ruined for good.

This commentary is mine and does not reflect ATS or any other members.

Whether we like it or not, those nasty political ads work....for some.

I may not appreciate them, you may not appreciate them, but the majority of the voting public in this country DO. They find them entertaining. And, I am sure it sways some of those voters.

Here's the thing, though. There is a nugget of truth in every one of those ads. The voters can believe the ad in whole or they can dig up all the info they can on that "nugget" to inform themselves.

They won't, but they can and they should.

Politics is a dirty game; I don't see it getting cleaned up any time soon.

Indeed. Even relatively smart people whose judgment I respect can be misled by some of these attack ads and the ensuing coverage of the same, partly because many people just don't have the time in their lives to look for in depth coverage any more, and any media beyond print tends to reduce things to what the lowest possible common denominator can understand..

Originally posted by kidflash2008
The John McCain of 2000 is not the John McCain of 2008, and this new line of attacking is further proof.

This is the saddest part of it all. My husband and I used to really like John McCain. Even though we disagreed with him on some issues, he appeared to be a man of honor, which is something we both respect highly.

Now, he has become someone I feel I could never relate to or think of as honorable. So, the question becomes, Was he really a man of honor, or were we fooled by him? Because as far as I will let myself believe, a true person of honor does not give it up when things get rough. A person of honor does not "sell out".

What got to John McCain? Does he feel that this is his last chance to "be somebody" and he is willing to pull out all the stops to gain the "power" of the highest position in the country? Are people pressing him to use any and every available tool (dirty and dishonorable) to get what he's going for?

Isn't dying a war hero and long time US Senator enough to feel he lived a satisfying life? On his death bed, will he regret using the very tactics he so condemned in his past?

Sadly, I don't expect him to stop using these tactics, but rather, I think he's going to step it up in these last days of the campaign. And if he loses the election, how will he feel about himself and his willingness to employ the very people who smeared against his own daughter and that he SO condemned a few short years ago?

How will his daughter feel about it? What will she think of him?

Obama held a rally in my hometown last Sunday. We don't get major politicians very often in this part of the country, so there was a lot of interest and excitement, and he drew thousands to hear him .

One store owner put the following on the sign outside his store:

Osama-Obama
Not American
Not welcome

To the credit of my fellow citizens, there was an uproar about it. Unfortunately, the whole thing was covered by the local tv station and the sign writer got lots of free air time.

No matter how rational a candidate might be, there are some who will believe almost anything they hear about him or her. I count the store owner among those who would never vote for Obama no matter what he said or did.

Obama has never stooped to such depths in his campaign against McCain, and that is very much to his advantage. I do believe some people will recognize sand appreciate that.

There are many people who vote with their emotions, not with their heads, McCain is trying to appeal to them. Obama supporters just hope those do not constitute the majority.

Originally posted by kidflash2008
I think it is beneath John McCain to pull the kind of nasty politics where his audience members shout "terrorist" and "kill him". Sen McCain had stated earlier he would never do such campaigning.

And you believe this is part of McCain's campaign? Where is there any evidence to suggest that McCain is telling people to yell such things at his rallies? He can't be expected to be held responsible for the actions of his supporters, just as Obama can't.

I should of not mentioned anything about independents and just focused on my outrage of the tactics that Sen McCain's campaign has taken, with his approval.

Again, in regards to the supporters. I would be just as ready to accept that Obama is planting these people at the rallies as I would that McCain is supporting this.

In fact, I would argue that it's more likely they are plants than agents of McCain, although I really think its neither.

It's all one big political game of who can get who to believe them. Both parties are playing it and have played it their whole political life. It's all about them not us. If it were about us then why do they keep attacking each other. I want to hear about us " the people" who are the ones paying their salaries and bailing out all these huge governmental companies. No it's always McCain did that or Obama did this. How about them saying people need jobs and to lower company taxes will create more job. How about overhauling our tax system will create jobs. Or firing those who messed up our economy will create new jobs in the Senate, congress and other areas. Nope just a political boxing match with both parties bashing the other. What about us?

Originally posted by kidflash2008
Why no rebukes from them? Plants by Obama would not state things like "off with his head" or "kill him".

Why not? I think that's exactly what they would say. That way the media can paint the picture (like they are now) that McCain supporters are bigoted hicks who only dislike Obama because of his race.

I do wish the John McCain of 2000 would come back and stop this.

You and I both my friend. For some reason though, McCain has this notion in his head that he has to be friends with democrats to win this election. It's for that reason that he is acting the way he is, trying to please everyone.