The McCain campaign continues in the attack mode, launching wave after wave of attacks. Want to talk education? No lets talk about sex education. Want to talk about economic policy? Lets talk about pigs wearing lipstick. The onslaught continued with female Republican Reps decrying the sexism of the Obama campaign over the lipstick remark as well as scolding him for not selecting Hillary or Governor Sebelius as his running mate. Ironic, because had he done so these same reps would be leading the charge to discredit them.
McCain’s complaint about opposition research has to be the single biggest piece of hypocrisy put out yet by his campaign. How about McCain’s full support for the army of Republican researchers sent to Little Rock to dig up dirt on Hillary Clinton and their attempts to destroy her. The Republicans wrote the book on opposition research, and now they complain?
Bill Manzi.com 
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain, the race isn’t about issues anyway.
Less than two weeks ago:
“Last week McCain campaign manager Rick Davis was taken to task by the Obama campaign for stating the obvious. “This election is not about issues,” Davis told the Washington Post. “This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates.”
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I agree. We have the worst economy in decades, a war that is never ending and a real estate crisis that’s putting thousands out of thier homes everyday, and all the Repubs what to talk about are farm animals. It’s high time for the Repubs to go back to school yard to play thier silly games. We have real issues to deal with and problems to solve.
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Your Honor,
I copy your last sentence, “The Republicans wrote the book on opposition research, and now they complain?”
Wrong Again. I have been voting for 50 years. Let me describe the Lydon Johnson political hit ad against Goldwater about 1963.
The picture opens with a little girl in a field of flowers. she is pulling petals as I remember and in the back ground you hear a count down. At zero the screen is filled with an explosion and a mushroom cloud.
Johnson defeated Barry Goldwater and in the next 8 years we lost 58,000 American youth to war.
Eventually Johnson left the office in disgrace by not running again.
Several years I saw an interview with the producer who showed no remorse for the outcome.
No Republican ads come close to that. Democrats want power and will do anything to achieve it.
Jules
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You Honor,
In general, candidates from the two political parties avoid direct issues since the opponents will ridicule and attack the proposed solutions.
Nobody wants to be first so they talk in platitudes and obfuscate. You know “hope and change”.
Got to get away from the dominance of staged TV appearances. It would be better if the two opponents faced each other like Obama and O’Reily on FOX news, if you saw it. No journalists or pundits. Sit across from each other in comfortable chairs asking and responding.
What do you think?
Jules.
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Jules,
With regards to the Goldwater ad you confuse negative campaigning with opposition research. The Republican campaign complained that the Democratic Party had dropped a whole bunch of lawyers in to dig up dirt on Gov. Palin. LBJ simply took Goldwaters own words (“extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice”)and converted them to an ad. No opposition reserch needed there.
But just about everyone considers Lee Atwater the father of opposition research and destructive campaigning. How did the Republicans come up with the Massachusetts prison furlough system information that led to the Willie Horton ad. They sent an army of researchers to Boston to dig dirt on Gov. Michael Dukakis. Republicans do not like it when tactics they mastered are used upon them. Guess what? Her record is fair game, just like Obama and Biden. The McCain-Palin campaign seems to be a group of whiners.
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Your Honor,
The 30 lawyer drop off is one more issue to add to the “pile on the girl” thing. Bad tactic. Should have snuck them in.
You are right about my take on research. The Willie Horton thing was quite a surprise. The Dukakis administration was sending a murderer freely among the people related to the person he murdered. The people were furious. How did you feel being that it took place in Methuen?
I approve the research although I believe it was done by journalists (now an extinct species).
Let me inform you that Atwater was proceeded by John Adams and Thomas Jefferson (Democrat) who’s “dirty tricks” was so bad that the former best friends did not speak to each other for decades.
Forgive me your honor, but I must correct your spelling. Your last sentence should have read, “The McCain-Palin campaign seems to be a group of winners”.
All this stuff is hurting the Democratic party.
Jules
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Jules, the Willie Horton affair took place at a Marston St. Lawrence filling station. The brother of former state rep Louise Fournier was the victim.
As far as journalists becoming an extinct species, I recommend an average VP nominee with a B.A. in journalism to fill that empty space.
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Jim,
Dream on.
Jules
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