You can almost see the wheels (de-railed as they are) working in minds of GOP operatives. Witness the release of several important stories yesterday and today. Take a look:
First, today's paper ran a WAPO story with a scary headline:
"Military Prepares for Threats During Presidential Transition: First Wartime Handover in Forty Years Seen as Vulnerable Time.""Frightening." Note too the interesting choice of the word "handover." You can nearly see the reluctance to actually "handover." (Didn't WAP0 endorse Barack? Is this taking away with one had what the other has given?)
Read more closely the article actually makes the case that our military will be stable during the transition. And it makes the case that, no matter who wins, the US will be protected. The military will work with the transition teams of whomever. Noticeably missing is the point that Barack Obama has a very impressive group of military and foreign policy advisers.
But the frame and tone of the first half of the article is fear-mongering. Why wasn't the truth in the bottom half moved up-front. Here's what the headline should have read: "Military will protect Americans and smooth the transition with whomever wins"?
Up-front, the word "handover" disingenuously suggests the reader should worry more about Obama. The subtext: The article stops just short of promoting the McCain myth that John McCain "wouldn't need to be tested" because "he already has."
(Aside: That's easily rebutted because, as I have said elsewhere, John McCain has never had executive experience. He's never been tested in that way either. But he has tried to meddle in foreign affairs and stir up conflict. He also has a hair-trigger temper; foggy mind; belligerent behavior; and, despite all his years; complete lack of understanding and knowledge required to run our nation's foreign policy; and he thinks the Iraq war is reducible to the "surge." We have much more to fear from a Senator Hothead gaining the highest office of the land. And under McC, the military would be spread even more thin. But I digress.)
Then notice how the headline writers (RT print edition, Oct. 27th, 2008) at the Roanoke Times changed the headline in their run of the same article:
"Military on Guard for Presidential transition: Pentagon Officials say the first few months of a new presidents term offers an opportunity for attack."
Second, but then, in the same RT print edition, we read the the "US Threatens to Halt Operations In Iraq Without Troop Deal." My, my. So it's not gonna be so much transition during wartime, after all. But, wait, wait:
Third, there's the issue raised in the RT print edition today and in another RK blog here about Syria...Also in today's paper was an article about the movement into Syria.
Wait! Wait! wartime, after all. (Yes, I do know that there's a conflict in Afghanistan. But it alone doesn't spread the military too thin. Also, Obama had the prescience to urge US focus there, while safely withdrawing from Iraq.)
Fourth, by now, if the fear-mongering isn't ramped up enough, then there is this:
Pennsylvania GOP Disavows Holocaust e-mail here. The email read, in part:
"Jewish Americans cannot afford to make the wrong decision on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008," the e-mail reads. "Many of our ancestors ignored the warning signs in the 1930s and 1940s and made a tragic mistake. Let's not make a similar one this year!"Here's the TPM article about it.
According to a new Gallup poll, Jewish voters support Barack Obama over John McCain 74 to 22. Do Republicans really think the can overcome those odds with the kind of garbage someone unleashed in PA on their behalf?
Fifth, there is this from Sarah Palin:
"See, under a big government, more tax agenda, what you thought was yours would really start belonging to somebody else, to everybody else. If you thought your income, your property, your inventory, your investments were, were yours, they would really collectively belong to everybody. Obama, Barack Obama has an ideological commitment to higher taxes, and I say this based on his record... Higher taxes, more government, misusing the power to tax leads to government moving into the role of some believing that government then has to take care of us. And government kind of moving into the role as the other half of our family, making decisions for us. Now, they do this in other countries where the people are not free. Let us fight for what is right. John McCain and I, we will put our trust in you."
Aside from how outrageous it all is, especially the idiotic Sarah Palin rant, we need to ask: How many times can the McCain campaign, the Republicans and some writers and editors (who love them) in the "news" sections, jump the shark?