Did McCain Jump The Shark? -- Tony

For those of you who don't know what jumping the shark means, click here.

It's been a while since I've posted, I'd tell you why but that would sound like an excuse and I hate excuses.

Anyway, I didn't say anything out loud, but in my smug little brain I really thought that when Obama selected Biden as his VP, he jumped the shark. Seriously, I think that was such a huge mistake and I still believe that now. What I am doing now is banging my head against the wall of my hotel room, because I think in the last week or so, McCain has also jumped the shark. Now I don't know proper "Jump The Shark" protocol, so I don't know if it goes in order of who did it first or who did it worse?

I think you are probably very confused right now, and I think I just confused myself, but let me explain.

What I liked about McCain was his integrity. I think he got to where he is because of this. The GOP hated him, yet he still voted against them when he believed in something different. Americans were calling the war in Iraq the second Vietnam and wanted our troops home, yet he said "send more" which was not popular. If Bush (or Rumsfeld) had listened to him in the beginning, Iraq would have been stable much earlier. What I'm trying to get at here is that McCain did not play the typical politician role to get where he is. Unlike Obama, who told the Jews he loves Bar-Mitzvahs (sp?)one day, then turns around and tells the Palestinians that Jerusalem should be divided. This is a main reason why I initially backed McCain. Up until about a month ago, I thought he was running his campaign beautifully, keeping quiet, resting on his experience. Now it seems in the last few weeks he has done a complete 180.

Selecting Sarah Palin, was a brilliant move (so far :-). But everything he's done since that point with his negative ads deserves a huge "FAIL" tag. Don't get me wrong, I know negative ads are part of the game, but unlike Bush, I don't think McCain needed to dirty up Obama the way Bush needed to dirty up Kerry. I think as time has gone by and will go on, people will see Obama for what he is, what he stands for, and what he would do as President (like it or not). Between him and Joe Biden, I think they are doing a great job of digging their own holes.

I'm not going to get into the facts about the ads themselves, but both candidates are throwing out these ads based on half truths. The ad that McCain put out when Biden was selected as VP that showed Biden saying McCain would make a better President...BRILLIANT, pure genius in my opinion. The ad about Obama wanting Sex Ed for Kindergartners is juvinile politics. I went to factcheck.org (thanks Mom!) and read the bill, and I don't know if "sex ed" is the best way to describe it, but teaching little kids how to recognize sexual abuse and ways to protect themselves from pedophiles is not really a bad thing to me. Does it need to fall under a sex education bill, I don't think so, but the McCain ad is very misleading.

I'm not switching sides here, I'm just saying McCain didn't need to throw this "insult to our intelligence" out there. It's like he's trying to trick us into hating Obama. It's not about hating Obama, it's about knowing John McCain is the best choice for President.

Obama has the same misleading ads; one stating that "McCain voted to cut education funding". It's almost completely untrue. He voted FOR the bill just not for the amount the democrats wanted.

The list goes on and on....I understand both candidates are doing this, but the difference is, McCain doesn't have to, he has experience and a long resume to run on. Obama doesn't have anything to run on, other than his pledge to help the poor and middle class with tax money from the "rich". So he has to go after Palin and McCain.

I thought for sure McCain had this thing locked up, but now I think if he keeps going negative, it will hurt his cause. If you are running on a platform of integrity and values, you better be putting ads out that show YOUR integrity and values and not half truth smear ads against your opponent.

Everyone I talk to tells me Obama has this thing already won and it won't even be close. I guess I'm the only one that thinks the opposite, but only if McCain and Rick Davis, his campaign manager, read this blog and stop with the misleading ads :-)