October 12, 2008

Freedom? Had all the GOP kind we can stand!

Robert S. McElvaine

"If You Like Freedom, Vote McCain-Palin," a huge sign at the I-20-55 "Stack" tells passersby. Well. I'm all for freedom. Who isn't? But "freedom" has different definitions.

The current administration has defined "freedom" as the freedom of greedy Wall Street speculators to destroy our economy. The economy is experiencing freedom in the form of free fall.

George W. Bush made history this week when his approval rating tied the all-time low of 24 percent, set by Richard Nixon when he resigned in 1974.

How can nearly a quarter of the American people still approve this president? He squandered the goodwill of the world after 9-11, took the nation into an unnecessary war against a country that had no part in attacking us and, at cost approaching a trillion dollars, turned a budget surplus into the most enormous deficit in history, and led us into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

If that's the "freedom" you want, John McCain will give you more of it.

McCain 'judgment' poor

McCain's judgment was shown when he chose a running mate he had only met twice who is totally unprepared to be president. Some may like Sarah Palin. Fine. Have coffee with her. But would you want a president who can't answer the simplest questions and considers nose crinkles a way to show fitness for the presidency? Winking is not thinking.

"The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine," our own Republican Sen. Thad Cochran said of Sen. McCain in January. "He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."

All that John McCain and the Gone Old Party, who are wedded to a philosophy that has run the nation into the ground, have to offer us is increasingly despicable character assassination in an attempt to convince us that Obama is "risky"

In fact, what's risky is not changing what the government has been doing for the past eight years. We must change direction if we want to restore America to greatness and restore America's ideals.

The old adage is true: When you find yourself in a deep hole, the first thing to do is stop digging. Obama will do that; McCain will keep digging.

Barack Obama is the American future, but it is future based on the best of the American past: America's highest ideals.

Too often in our history, we have been the Disunited States of America: section vs. section, race vs. race, religion vs. religion, political party vs. political party, etc. Everything has been presented as irreconcilable opposites: us-or-them, black-or-white.

McCain/Palin's lies

Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are irresponsibly fanning such divisions and hatred with such outrageous lies that Obama "pals around with terrorists."

McCain knows that these are dangerous lies, but he is so desperate that he is willing to put "Country Last."

The McCain of this campaign has joined forces with the evil people who smeared him in 2000.

We knew John McCain; he was a friend of ours. The current GOP candidate is no John McCain.

Barack Obama offers us a chance to get beyond such destructive oppositions. He literally embodies the unification of America. He is black-and-white, us and them.

Barring some unforeseen development, Barack Obama is going to win by a wide margin on Nov. 4.

An Electoral College landslide is taking shape. Obama has all the 2004 Kerry states, plus the Bush states Iowa and New Mexico, locked up. He leads in Florida, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado, and Nevada - all "red states" in 2004. If the trend continues, Obama will probably win Missouri and Indiana. He's gaining in Georgia, West Virginia, Montana, Arkansas, Louisiana . . . and Mississippi.

There hasn't been an election that so clearly pitted the past against the future since 1932. Then, Mississippi joined with most of the nation in choosing Franklin D. Roosevelt and the future over Herbert Hoover and the past.

Let's do it again: Embrace the future. Join with the majority of Americans in declaring our independence from the disasters of the past eight years and the same trickle-down Wall Street economics that produced the Depression under Hoover.

{Robert S. McElvaine of Jackson is a history professor who writes columns for various publications and blogs on The Huffington Post Web site. His latest book is Grand Theft Jesus (Crown).}