Fellow Travelers

At the very end of this historically long, passionate and important election the Republicans pulled out the last of a long arsenal of wedge issues - (gay marriage, taxes, etc,) and crazy accusations -(Obama is a terrorist, & wants to teach sex education to five year old's etc.,) and wildly fired it off into the media and beyond, hoping it would scare people into voting for McCain - Senator Barack Hussein Obama is a Socialist. This kind of "Swift Boat," low blow tactics worked quite well in 2004 and got people talking this year but by in large the American people and media obviously disregarded it by their vote and writings.

By using this long ago and spider- webbed, dusty tactic, some in the media saw this as the final, sad end of the year- 2000 John McCain and by the people rejecting the opprobrium - a change in America. Hendrick Hertzburg's November 3rd piece for The New Yorker's "Comment," section succinctly writes on socialism and it's use by past Republican candidates such as Goldwater & Reagan accusing JFK & Johnson of Socialism. He writes "Sometimes, when a political campaign has run out of ideas and senses that the prize is slipping through its fingers, it rolls up a sleeve and plunges an arm, shoulder deep, right down to the bottom of the barrel."

Micheal Cooper writes for the Times about socialism that "But some political scientists and economists said the old labels and buzzwords might no longer pack the same punch." So, the election is finally over after two long years and the country waits to see what Obama will do to enact the "change," he's touted. But it's clear, the same old tactics and Karl Rove-ish way of campaigning is in need of a change itself.