Despicable: McCain and Palin Revive McCarthyism

A Buzzflash Reader Contribution
By George Gerber
 
"We see America as the greatest force for good in this world, our opponent though, is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country."  -- Sarah Palin

Those are the words of Sarah Palin, a candidate for Vice President of the United States and an embarrassment to herself and our country. Her presence on the Presidential ticket of John McCain demeans all Americans who understand the words truth and civility.  It shows us once again that the Governor is only interested in attaining unbridled power and self-importance no matter what the cost to the dignity of the election process. Her words are lies and her lies tell us the truth: Sarah Palin is unfit to govern the United States of America.
 
McCain’s selection of Palin is just as revealing. It was a last minute cynical choice intended to take the spotlight off  truth and substance and replace it with lies and parlor tricks. It’s an affront to our election process and the American people. As a consequence, the Governor of Alaska has now settled into the immoral and unethical world of the gutter language of hate, distortion, lies and vitriolic attacks, in order to conceal the vacuum of ignorance in which she lives.
 
Mrs. Palin’s reprehensible comments were based on Senator Obama’s acquaintance with William Ayer’s, a member of the Weather Underground in the tumultuous sixties. Many major publications in this country including The New York Times and Time Magazine previously investigated this erroneous charge against Obama and then disregarded it as unfounded. Even so, in true McCain style the Republican candidate threatened to keep his accusations in the news. And now, like a ventriloquist he speaks little while he pulls the strings inside Palin in a blatant and transparent attempt to turn non-issues into issues.
 
William Ayers operated in an environment of division and hate over forty years ago during a defining time in America’s history. Ayer’s actions may have been inexcusable at the time but they were his actions, not Senator Obama’s.
 
Mr. Ayers is now sixty three and a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. By the McCain/Palin yard stick, that would make every faculty member and every student who has passed Ayers in the hall or attended one of his lectures, a terrorist sympathizer. The university has an enrollment of over 20,000 students. Are they to be accused of hanging around terrorists and found guilty by association as well? Is this the America we want to pass on to our children? Do we want to relive the Joe McCarthy days Do we not have enough real issues and decisions to discuss in the coming four weeks?
 
Edward R. Murrow, one of the great journalists of our time, said it best when confronting Joseph McCarthy:“We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of anot her. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason.”

A Buzzflash Reader Contribution

The McCain-Palin Recycled Attacks Debunked Again: See Fact Check. Verdict: False. There is no indication that Ayers and Obama are now "palling around," or that they have had an ongoing relationship in the past three years. Also, there is nothing to suggest that Ayers is now involved in terrorist activity or that other Obama associates are.

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