Let the mudslinging begin in earnest...

I've been impressed with Barack Obama. He said he would not run a dirty campaign, and he has remained true to his word. However, the higher Obama's poll numbers go, the more mud McCain and Palin throw. The latest is Barack Obama's association with Bill Ayers. Even though this has been thoroughly checked and rechecked by various news organizations and found to be nothing but 2 men who happen to live in the same neighborhood, served on a committee together and have attended some of the same functions, the McCain/Palin campaign will insist on bringing this "relationship" up in every speech they make until election time, just like they will falsely state that Obama has voted 94 times to raise taxes, and they will attempt to instill fear with the American people by saying that Obama will raise taxes, even though he has stated, and many economists who have reviewed his plan, state that his tax increases will not effect 95% of Americans.

I think that as a nation we are tired of this political mudslinging. I know that what I want to hear is "what is your plan, and how are you going to accomplish your plan? How are you going to budget all of your plans? How are you going to get Congress to stop with all the partisan BS so that there can actually be goals accomplished?" I don't hear that from John McCain and Sarah Palin. All I hear from them are lies and half-truths. Do we need 4 more years of lies and half-truths? It seems this is the same way that Bush won both presidential campaigns. We cannot afford to fall into this trap of listening to this negativity and making decisions based on that again. This nation will only remain great if we have great leaders, and John McCain is not a great man. He may be a brave man, and he may be a patriotic man, but he simply is not a great man. And Sarah Palin is far from greatness. There are no brilliant minds on the Republican ticket. The minds of the public ticket are minds full of Bush's speechwriters words and the Republican heavy hitters' policies.

What I find so funny is that with all of Sarah Palin's reputation for running the Alaska government with cronyism and bullying, with the "troopergate" issue ongoing, with her ridiculous interviews which have shown her to be obviously in over her head, I have not heard Barack Obama's campaign bring up any of these issues. They've not criticized her because she has a pregnant 17-year-old daughter, even though you can bet that McCain and Palin would be all over that if it were Obama or Biden with a pregnant teen -- especially if they were pushing abstinence only education in schools. Why do we not hear from the Obama campaign about these things? Because it isn't relevant to what we are dealing with in this country. Or is it? It certainly is if McCain wins the election - and then dies and leaves us with Palin as president. Still, Obama has insisted in keeping it about the issues. I have a lot of respect for that stance. He has remained true to his word. I believe that this man is honorable.

I hope that in November, people will remember that McCain and Palin slinging mud is nothing but that.... slinging mud, and we have more important things to worry about than who Obama's neighbor is. They're having to dig awfully deep to pull up anything on this man.