“Just the facts, Ma’am”-A line delivered by one Sgt. Joe Friday of Dragnet fame. Something before your time (even the remake starring Tom Hanks and Dan Aykroyd is before your time) but the phrase still rings true. Two of the presidential debates have come and gone introducing the candidate’s platforms to America. Tough questions were asked, many heated exchanges between candidates and a lot of facts were thrown around.
First, I learned that Sen. John McCain has never been voted Miss Congeniality in the Senate. Not to be confused with an entertaining Sandra Bullock FBI comedy of the same name, McCain seems to revel that he is not congenial.
This befits his “maverick” ways in the Senate, but as a Congressman he has voted with President George W. Bush over 90 percent of the time. This seems less Maverick and more Goose from Top Gun to me, always agreeable and toeing the party line he has been the last eight years.
In keeping with his maverick, not-Miss Congeniality attitude is his “sheriff” persona on earmarks, ethics and spending. The “sheriff” intends to clean-up spending and pork barrel projects while he is in office. Apparently, the sheriff has no qualms about brokering a deal for $700 billion in the form of a blank check to go to financial institutions in need. Just the facts and some oversight with my money, please, Mr. Maverick Sheriff.
Secondly, I learned that Sen. Barack Obama has fundamental differences with McCain, just as the sky is blue, water is wet and dogs and cats are not the same.
When Obama was not clarifying his record, he was planning his agenda as president. Programs and promises for children and the elderly, bringing the military home, tax breaks for middle-class families and a chicken in every pot were declared. Maybe not the chicken (darn media trying to trick you) but the programs were promised. He does have plans; just how to exactly pay for these plans while cutting taxes for the public will be his newest magic trick.
Just the facts and a tax cut, please.
The more things change the more they stay the same; mud-slinging and second-guessing never go out of style in politics. Thomas Jefferson hired someone to publish that President John Adams was, “a hideous hermaphroditical character which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.” The media would have a field day with that kind of remark if made today. Congressman Davy Crockett-yes, the one of coonskin cap-once stated about Martin Van Buren, “He is laced up in corsets.” I wonder what he would have said about Rudy Giuliani in drag.
I wonder what Christian conservative leaders thought about seeing a Republican nominee in drag? Double standards are always the norm for any election. A Fox stalwart has been on record as stating it is disgusting that the liberal media has questioned Gov. Sarah Palin on her unwed, 17-year-old daughter being pregnant, and said if the family can financially take care of her, who are we to judge?
Not only a few months earlier, he railed on Jamie Lynn Spears for being an unwed, 17-year-old, pregnant girl, and blamed her parents for such disgracefulness.
The media twists the information and situation to fit what they need to put out to the public. Apparently, it is not just the facts that count when you need to run your opponent down.
Missouri’s own Harry Truman said, “If you vote for Nixon, you ought to go to hell.” I figure that is where you are doomed if you do not go out and do some research on the candidates and vote.
The candidates have websites explaining their platforms, and the Internet has information for you to glean. It is up to you to find the facts this political season. Voter registration is over and the political bull is piling up quick, dig out from underneath the crap and vote this fall.
Lew Griffith is a student in the Saint Louis University Graduate School.
