Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Accountability

While I understand that American politics is a contact sport, there are—or should be—limits on simple decency which should be both expected and adhered to.

However, I have a hard time seeing any decency whatsoever in John McCain’s latest ad titled “Education”:

You might have noticed the Kansas City Star is used as a source for this claim against Barack Obama’s record on education legislation.

Here is the paper’s official response:

A new 30-second TV ad attacks Barack Obama's record on education, saying that Obama backed legislation to teach "comprehensive sex education' to kindergartners." The announcer then says, "Learning about sex before learning to read? Barack Obama. Wrong on education. Wrong for your family."

Why that's wrong: This is a deliberately misleading accusation. It came hours after the Obama campaign released a TV ad critical of McCain's votes on public education. As a state senator in Illinois, Obama did vote for but was not a sponsor of legislation dealing with sex ed for grades K-12.

But the legislation allowed local school boards to teach "age-appropriate" sex education, not comprehensive lessons to kindergartners, and it gave schools the ability to warn young children about inappropriate touching and sexual predators.

Y’know, although I do not support John McCain’s ticket for president this year, I always had a sense of admiration for his sense of patriotism and fairness. However, by putting his name on this ad, in my view, McCain has officially slunk down into the political frogshit with the likes of Lee Atwater and Karl Rove.

It is beyond sickening.

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