The Real America

This week Sarah Palin has made many references to the "real America" and people being "pro-America"which I think is an interesting card to be played. The McCain camp is playing on the American people's emotions and the fears that they are not good citizens. Saying "pro-America" is just another buzz word that is targeting middle class small town Americans. Obama has been playing up to the middle class, because- well that who all of his policy's will benefit. The McCain camp is trying to steal some of those voters by making them think that they need to be part of the pro-American society that needs to vote for the good ol' boy and his lovely side kick. Fox News has been playing up on this idea by repeating the buzz words over and over in their news casts and talk shows. Hannity even went on to say that the real America is the small towns and encompasses the hard working middle class people. People that live in America's big cities aren't "pro-America," they aren't part of the real America? Small town hard working citizens can't vote for a liberal man? The small mill town I come from is full of very hard working Union men and women who are informed enough to know that Republican policies do not favor them economically and usually are not in line with their values. When Joe Biden toured Ohio last week he visited many small Ohio towns with people who seemed pretty "pro-America" to me. The American Postal Workers I spoke with at the rally in Athens and the students I talked to who are paying their way through school seemed pretty real to me.

- On a side note, Bill O'Reilly gave our Sherrod Brown a shout out on his show today- talking about a speech he made in Athens along with a few other Ohio cities, and then again at the Athens County Democratic dinner on Friday night. I found the story right on the money and very funny- Bill did not. http://www.foxnews.com/oreilly/index.html

ACORN and Ayers

After reading all of Johm McCain's speeches this week, it is pretty clear that McCain has given up the message of the week approach. McCain's speeched are littered with policy issues that separate him from his opponent. McCain speaks about the housing crisis, health care, experience, the economy, alternative energy and a variety of other subjects in just one speech. In past weeks it has been relatively clear what McCain's message has been for that week, but now it has just come to a rattling off of issues and statements on why he is the better candidate. Fox News is still hocked on the Ayers scandal as well as other sexier topics like the Sarah Palin parody pornography that is set to be released. Fox has also been spending a good amount of time on the ACORN voter fraud scandal. Fox News has been harping on the left wing organization and interviewing real people who were asked to register by an ACORN employee in Ohio. This week McCain has put out advertisements linking Obama to both the Ayers and to the ACORN scandal.
These issues may not be what McCain is specifically talking about in his speeched but they are obviously messages he wants the American people to hear. Fox News is covering both of these events extensively.

Getting Dirty - Fox McCain

It has become evident this week that the McCain-Palin camp has decided that they need to pull out all the big guns and get dirty for the last few weeks of campaigning. Falling polls numbers, due to the big hit McCain took on economic issues, have made this weeks campaign message not about policy or reform but about putting doubt in people's minds about Barack Obama's character. It will not be John McCain you see doing the Obama bashing, it has been and will continue to be his sweet and folksy running mate, Sarah Palin. During the last few days it has become much more clear why Sarah Palin was chosen as McCain's potential VP. Palin has a very special way of attacking Barack Obama that makes it seem truthful and honorable. Her personality and manner of attacking makes one think she is really just looking out for the American people, she wants them to know the truth about out potential next President because gosh darn it she just loves America. Palin has been attacking Obama on his connections to radical Bill Ayers. Bill Ayers was the leader of a group responsible for many bombings during the Vietnam Era, when Obama was only a child. Obama and Ayers served on a charity board together in Illinois. Obama has denounced all of Ayer's radical views and has stated that they barely new one another, although the did live in the same neighborhood. In a speech over the weekend Palin made the extreme claim that Obama "paled around with terrorists." I was pleasantly surprised with the Fox News coverage on the comment, the program I watched had many commentators both Republican and Democrat discussing the comment and labeling it as a complete exaggeration.
Fox News also went on the criticize Palin for bringing up Jeremiah Wright in a campaign speech in Florida Monday morning. McCain has said in past interviews that he wants to " disassociate himself from that kind of campaigning," when it comes to bashing Obama on his pastor.
In a New York Times article released on Monday, when pressed about Wright, Palin stated,
"I don't know why that association isn't discussed more, because those were appalling things that that pastor had said about our great country."

Fox News reporters went on to talk about Palin being used as a mudslinger when she should be trying to prove herself as a competent leader. Fox News has been spending a good amount of time discussing McCain's messages of the week, which by default gives the messages some form of legitimacy. However, the station has been rejecting many of the actions and messages of the campaign as rhetoric that is not needed at this stage of the game. I was pleasantly surprised by the journalistic integrity of the reports in exposing the truth and dismissing rumors for what they are worth.