Free Association

The farce that masquerades as the 2008 Presidential Campaign keeps astonishing me as to the depths to which some will sink, and the shallowness of character of some individuals! This campaign has broken new ground in bar lowering!
So now “associations” are the big issue. Barak Obama is so deeply involved with so many unsavory characters that his Teflon candidacy seems to have developed some scratches to which things are actually starting to stick. Common folk on the street are actually starting to ASSOCIATE him with his associates! I needn’t mention names – his associations are becoming common knowledge.
GASP! He must respond!
The first line of defense is to deny that one’s associations don’t matter! But if that’s true, then why has the Left spent 8 years seeking to damage Bush by attacking Rove, Chaney (and Halliburton), Libby, etc – and seeking to find any possible dirt on any of Bush’s “cronies”?
So next they attack McCain for accepting the endorsement of a Pastor who has made controversial statements about the Catholic Faith. Pastor Hagee has made statements based on his understanding of biblical doctrine and theology, and has highlighted differences between his faith and the teachings and doctrines of Roman Catholicism – in sometimes insensitive and politically incorrect ways. The Obama camp seeks to draw some equivalence between Hagee’s endorsement of McCain, and Obama’s long term relationship with another controversial pastor!
But one must draw a distinction between an “acquaintance” and an “associate”! McCain was not a member of Hagee’s church, did not have a long-term close personal relationship, did not receive “spiritual counsel”, or consider him like family. Hagee didn’t unite McCain and his wife in matrimony. Hagee didn’t baptize his kids. McCain did not place his children under Hagee’s tutelage. He did not contribute to Hagee’s church. And when Hagee made subsequent controversial statements, McCain denounced Hagee and renounced his endorsement. He didn’t defend Hagee as his “crazy uncle”. The attempt to soil McCain with Hagee failed.
So now, an advisor to McCain who, as an attorney doing his job working for a law firm, had represented lobbyists, and the Left now claims this makes him somehow tainted. This is somehow supposed to befoul McCain.
Is that the best the Obama camp can come up with? Seems to me, on the “Associations” issue, Obama is clearly the loser! His close friends, mentors, and 20 year associates are dubious at best, and odious in the minds of many. One naturally questions Obama’s character, or at least his judgment, when presented with the preponderance of unsavory characters in Obama’s inner circle of close personal relationships. You ARE known by the company you keep!
Obama’s response by attacking second-order associations – an associate of an associate – is not only specious and disingenuous, but is laughably irrelevant! McCain is somehow tainted by an associate of an associate? If memory serves, the entire population of the planet is supposed to be associated within 6 degrees of separation! Is ANYONE untainted by second and third orders of relationship? Such attacks only serve to make Obama seem desperate to counter his own relationship problems!
If associates of associates (and THEIR associates) is to become a criterion by which we judge the participants in our political system… then I can hardly wait for Kevin Bacon to do something unsavory – as this will instantly disqualify the entire Hollywood population from involving themselves in political life!
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