Enough is Enough

“Kill him, kill him! Traitor! Terrorist! Muslim! Off with his head!”
No these words were not shouted about the infamous terrorist Osama Bin Laden, but actually the Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama. In the last two weeks these racial slurs and threats were yelled during McCain/Palin rallies. What did the McCain campaign do about these horrible things being said? Nothing, absolutely nothing.
The Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin, in fact encourages the false rumors of Obama being a terrorist even saying that he’s “palling around with terrorists” and that “he’s not one of us”. Most people are accustomed to “dirty politics” but where is the line drawn?
I believe the line has been crossed. It is one thing to attack your opponent on disagreements over the issues, but the McCain campaign has done something completely different. Accusing someone’s moral character and their patriotism is too much. McCain and Palin have even gone as far as saying Obama hangs around domestic terrorists like Bill Ayers. Ayers founded a radical political group in the turbulent 60’s that was blamed from several bombings when Obama was a young child, but is now a professor at the University of Illinois. Obama served on a charity board in Chicago but other than that there is no other real connection.
It’s obvious to me that instead of focusing on the issues, McCain is realizing he is behind in the polls and are going to stop at nothing to win, which I think really reflects the kind of man John McCain is. It’s ironic because according to most polls the undecided voters are looking through the attacks and feel enough is enough. Even during the last presidential debate McCain tried attacking Obama but smoothly Obama turned everything back around on the issues. Americans are evidently tired of the attacks and are looking for serious approaches to the ails we face everyday with a dwindling economy, a weakened healthcare system, and the fight against global warming.
At the beginning of both campaigns each pledged that they would take the high road and run a clean campaign. I know that the Obama campaign has had their share of attacks saying John McCain is “reckless and unstable”. However when Obama has been called a Muslim, traitor, and terrorist at McCain’s rallies and the campaign did not denounce these lies I think there is something wrong here.
In reality Barack Obama has been a Christian his entire life. Nevertheless, as Colin Powell puts it “the really right answer is what if he is?” Sadly this campaign has brought us to the fact that some Americans are still behind with the strides our country has made. The McCain campaign and some of its supporters have shown that America still has a long way to go.
Instead of using more scare tactics, maybe John McCain should make his approach to fixing the economy clear and get back to the issues because this strategy of portraying his opponent as a “terrorist harboring traitor” is not working for him. He might be convincing Republicans, but they are not the ones who need convincing. Stick to the issues John, you’re just making yourself look worse than you already do!


I wrote this for my school's newspaper, I don't think the average student will even care or understand what's going on, but hopefully i reached out to a few. I think it's important to remember what kind of campaign McCain ran against Obama, it shows how far we still have to go in this country.