The Top 10 Hypocrisies From the John McCain Campaign

If you asked me to name what it is about the Republican Party that I hate the most, it would undoubtedly be their shameless hypocrisy. So with only two weeks left in the campaign, I figured it would be nice to recap some of the most infuriating double-standards in the 2008 presidential election. Of course, there are only two weeks left, so that gives the Republicans plenty of time to add another dozen or so to this list.

10. "Robocalls are despicable... now listen to my Robocall about Barack Obama!"
In the 2000 Republican primary, John McCain's reputation was attacked from all angles by the Bush campaign - they used Robocalls to put the idea into voters minds that John McCain may have fathered an illegitimate black child. In reality, it was his adopted Bangladeshi daughter, but it worked and McCain lost the bid for president to Bush, and we all know how that worked out. Fast-forward eight years and McCain is using the exact same company that smeared him to smear Obama as someone who "works with" terrorists.

9. "Candidates children are off limits... but have I mentioned how ugly Chelsea Clinton is?"
After some pretty vicious rumors about Sarah Palin's daughter began circulating, the Palin family came out and announced that their 17 year old daughter was pregnant out of wedlock. Palin praised her daughter's "choice" to keep the baby - a "choice" that a McCain administration very well could take away (two for one hypocrisy!) - and then said that families should be off-limits. Of course, I'd like to know where they were in the 90s when John McCain joked "you know why Chelsea Clinton is so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno." Stay classy, Johnny!

8. "Barack Obama is a celebrity... now who wants to watch me in Wedding Crashers?"
Soon after Obama locked up the Democratic nomination, John McCain launched a series of ads equating the Illinois Senator with Paris Hilton and Britney Spears as an empty, Hollywood elite. But wait a minute, which one of these candidates has hosted Saturday Night Live? Had a cameo in Wedding Crashers? Appeared on 24? That would be John McCain. McCain has also appeared on numerous other entertainment shows: 11 appearances on Jay Leno, 8 with Letterman, 3 with Conan O'Brien, 12 visits to The Daily Show, 3 episodes of The View, 6 episodes of Entertainment Tonight, an appearance on Last Comic Standing , and even an appearance on WWE Monday Night RAW. John McCain was a celebrity's politician long before anyone had even heard the name Barack Obama.

7. "How dare you use the phrase 'lipstick on a pig?!' That is a clear insult to my running-mate... but please ignore the fact that I used the same phrase when discussing Hillary Clinton."
Ah, do you remember the good ol' days? You know, like back in August when the only thing we had to worry about was "Lipstickgate?" Yeah, kinda sucks that the economy imploded and everyone conveniently forgot about this little piece of crazy from John McCain. McCain exploded when Obama used the phrase to describe McCain's policies, but nobody had the time to ask the Republican nominee what he meant when he used the exact same phrase to describe Hillary Clinton's healthcare plan.

6. "The attacks on my running-mate have been nothing short of sexism... now who wants to hear a joke about rape?"
John McCain has an uncomfortable history joking about rape, we discussed his association with Clayton Williams in the very first entry here at American Razor, a man who once said "as long as [rape] is inevitable, just relax and enjoy it." McCain's also made jokes about a woman enjoying being raped by a Gorilla and he called his wife a cunt, so I don't know if he's really the foremost authority on sexism. Look, I'm not one to be offended by someone's tasteless jokes, but if you get to joke about rape, then I get to call Sarah Palin "Governor Avon Lady."

5. "Barack Obama is way too sensitive about criticism... but any attack on me is 'beyond the pale.'"
While John McCain supporters are busy shouting "kill him," "off with his head," "terrorist," "traitor," "treason," "socialist," and "Arab" at rallies, John McCain himself is running around with his phony outrage about anyone who calls him out on creating this environment. After Governor Avon Lady stirred the pot and essentially called Obama an America-hating socialist terrorist at her rallies, Civil Rights legend John Lewis attacked the Republican ticket for creating such a hostile environment. He said while they are not directly engaging in any sort of violence, they are encouraging their supporters to become more and more rabid towards the first black presidential nominee; much like the atmosphere that surrounded segregationist George Wallace during the Civil Rights Movement. It's a completely accurate statement to make, but John McCain came unglued over it and instead of condemning what some lunatics in his crowd had been saying about Obama, he tried the "I'm rubber, you're glue" defense and tried to put all the blame on his opponent. Now who's touchy?

4. "Negative campaigning shows you have no vision for the future... now let's watch my slew of negative ads against Obama."
As mentioned earlier, McCain was the victim of a hideously negative campaign in 2000 and he said "sooner or later people are going to figure out that if all you run is negative attack ads you don't have much a vision for the future or you're not ready to articulate it." Now before he rolled out the Robocalls, McCain had already been running the sleaziest campaign in modern history. Whether it's a distortion, half-truth, smear, or flat-out lie, McCain's campaign has thrown it at Barack Obama. After the 2000 primary and after he said this year that voters were tired of negative campaigning, McCain surrounded himself with the same people that smeared him eight years ago and took his campaign down the low road.

3. "You're a socialist... but my plan for the government to spend $300 billion to buy up every bad mortgage in the country is called being a Maverick!"
As I noted yesterday, the latest tactic of the campaign is to revert back to McCarthyism, one of our country's most embarrassing chapters and paint Obama as a socialist. It's working with the Republican base, one woman even began shouting "SOCIALIST" at Obama at a restaurant over the weekend and refused to listen to him or shake her hand when he attempted to better explain his positions. Of course, there's only one candidate in this campaign pledging to use tax dollars to buy up every bad mortgage in the country and it's the crazy Commie John McCain. We've already nationalized the banks, but now John McCain wants to nationalize your property and he has the audacity to call Obama socialist.

2. "You pal around with terrorists... but my relationship with G. Gordon Liddy doesn't count."
If you missed it, you can read this entry about McCain's relationship with G. Gordon Liddy, a man that McCain says he is "proud of." What part is he proud of? Liddy's involvement in the Watergate scandal? His plot to murder two men? His plot to bomb buildings? Or him telling people to shoot ATF agents in the face? Liddy served his time in jail and now works as a radio host, but his connections to John McCain are just as solid (if not more) as Obama's ties to William Ayers. Ayers and Liddy are both rehabilitated domestic terrorists, but only one of them served time in prison (Liddy), yet the media only reports on Obama and Ayers? A stunning and sickening hypocrisy from the McCain campaign and the lazy media.

1. "Barack Obama has no experience... now I'd like to introduce you to my running-mate, Sarah Palin!"
I could probably do a top ten list solely on the hypocrisy of selecting Sarah Palin as a Vice Presidential nominee, but she undoubtedly belongs at the top of this list. The claim that Barack Obama is inexperienced is a valid argument, I won't debate that. It would have been McCain's best line of attack in this campaign had he not selected Governor Avon Lady as his running-mate. You mean to tell me that I shouldn't vote for Obama because he's inexperienced while the Republicans are offering up a 72 year old, four time cancer survivor as their nominee with a potential Vice President who's been governor of a state with a smaller population than Albuquerque, New Mexico and before that, Mayor of a city with a population smaller than the attendance of a high school football game? We've also gotten to know Sarah Palin over the last few weeks and she is the biggest embarrassment in the political history of this nation. Selecting her as a running-mate is a slap in the face to every American and it shows that McCain's judgment is a far greater liability than Barack Obama's lack of experience.