October Surprise [politics]

This year’s election campaign has taught us a lot about dirty tricks. One thing I need to highlight at the outset of this post is the difference between a political stunt and a political smear. Pretty obvious when you think about it, a political smear is something you say about a candidate (e.g. “pals around with terrorists”) with marginal truth content designed to make them look bad.

Political stunts, however, are things that a candidate tries to DO to advantage themselves or disadvantage their opponent. These stunts are more rare — and usually more laughable and transparent. They are also risky, as the big two McCain stunts have proven this season: 1) Nominating Sarah Palin and 2) “suspending my campaign to fly to Washington” to fix the economy. Of course, a week ago, I would have thought that the nomination of Palin would live on as one of the most outrageous political stunt backfires of all time.

Obama and Family

But when I read the news that Barak Obama had put his own grandmother at death’s door just to rebut McCain by suspending his own campaign to fly to Hawaii, I was honestly outraged. Not only is this a risky move in danger of backfiring when such a transparent ruse is exposed, but it seems like a completely unnecessary and incalculably inhuman move by a man already ahead in the polls. If you thought Edwards cheating on his ailing wife was bad, please consider the lengths to which Obama appears willing to go in order to seize power when you cast your ballot on election day.*

*Frankly, this latest stunt would move me into the McCain/Palin camp if I weren’t so ardently in favor of the right to life for every Moose and Elk and will be voting the Vegan ticket.