photo credit: Barack Obama

The 2008 Presidential election was never going to be simple. For a time, it seemed that the tide was moving in one specific direction; today, it is turning into a hotly-contested political contest fueled by innuendo and distortions the likes of which the American people have not seen in many years.

On the left, Barack Obama, the presumptive favorite of the American people (based on their feeling about the issues affecting them) has been solid and steady about his promise to bring change and reform to Washington since proclaiming his run for the presidency in February of 2007. There is Senator Joe Biden, one of the lowest-level income earners in both public service and Congress, whose very direct grassroots style and deep connection to the common people of America have earned him immense respect and the Democratic vice-presidential nod.

On the right, the self-proclaimed “mavericks” whose messages represent the policies which we have lived with for the past eight years. The right’s two personalities, John McCain and his running mate Governor Sarah Palin, have proven effective in their quest to transform the campaign messages of the left and make them their own, repackaging the notions of “change” and “progress” by distancing themselves from the current White House and introducing Sarah Palin, a virtual ringer, into the contest for the White House. The process has been effective: the Republicans were able to stop the bleeding using Palin’s limitless charm as a security blanket for a race which seemed lost to them just weeks ago.

Obama has, for his part, handled matters with kid gloves up to this point. It’s not because of his unwillingness to fight but out of a genuine fear of being caught in the “catch-22″ of being mislabeled by undecided voters in the short run to election day. Obama has run a positive campaign and one which has been based on the issues. He has proven himself a remarkable public speaker, a man whose genuine concern for the welfare of our country comes across as honest rather than pious. He is a man of great intelligence and forethought, one who speaks with a no-nonsense ease about what he believes in and never shies away from answering tough questions.

However, in recent days, McCain’s organizers have been circling the wagons, unleashing a smear campaign fueled by half-truths and distortions, both of their own record and that of Senator Obama. In the PR wars, McCain has pulled out all the stops as he sprints for the White House, armed with the fuel of young Governor Sarah Palin, a dynamic mother of five whose far-right conservative views, glamorous appeal and friendly demeanor seem to set people at ease in small town America. Both Senator McCain and Governor Palin have dominated the headlines this week, both for what they are saying and what they are not.

The fear of the Democratic party is being realized as it was in 2000: people see Sarah Palin and they want to get to know her, relate to her motherly instincts and, honestly, they want to be her buddy. This has created a strong appeal by the Republican ticket to the lowest common denominators among voters, an edging factor which gave George Bush a boost in the previous two Presidential election cycles. It’s a similar scenario to what we saw with Barack Obama just a few weeks ago: people beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel, hearing a voice that comforted them and gave them pause.

But people need to wake up and come to realize that Sarah Palin is not running for President, that she is only the vice-presidential candidate and appears, to the untrained eye, to be an only mildly successful parrot for the talking points and ideas of her party, evidenced by her first full-length interview with ABC’s Charles Gibson this week.

While the attacks continue, Obama appears to finally be ready to throw some jabs of his own, that the gloves appear to be ready to come off. No longer willing to take the half-truths and distortions illuminated by the McCain camp, Obama has, in the last 48 hours, taken McCain directly to task, telling the McCain camp that “If you don’t stop telling lies about me, I’m going to have to start telling the truth about you.” Obama has approved his first negative campaign ad, repeating his message from the convention that McCain is “out of touch” because he “doesn’t even know how to use a computer” (a statement which was later disproved and an argument which Obama is likely to take heat from). The Obama camp struck an even more heavy-handed chord, saying that McCain would “rather lose his integrity than lose the race”.

When we look at the course of the mudslinging battle that has gone on, it’s easy to see why the Obama camp is willing to step up their game & take their own set of low-blows. If people from the lowest common denominator are going to respect Obama, they must see him as willing to step in the ring when attacked, no matter who the opponent nor which ring it is. Though by his nature Obama has portrayed himself as a noble statesman with a powerful approach to the issues, he seems to have been forced to move down to the level of the McCain camp in order to dismiss any notion that he is backing down from a fight.

The McCain camp, one which is supposed to be ahead in the polls, has behaved more like a wounded creature with a trick up their sleeve. The McCain/Palin ticket, at its basest level, should be seen as nothing more than an effective PR stunt by the right meant to confuse voters and frustrate opponents.

Once the dust settles, pundits agree, and both sides are able to get voters focused back on the issues of the campaign, Obama stands a much greater chance of delivering the coup d’grace to the Republicans that he has continually sought. The Republicans, while certainly well-meaning when it comes to their agenda, seek to run their campaign on personalities instead of issues. It is what secured them the White House in 2000, and they know that their machine is working with Sarah Palin as the focus. Meanwhile, the Democrats are trying their best to turn the tide of public attention back towards the difficulties we as Americans face while standing their ground and fighting back in the face of bitter and increasingly inaccurate personal attacks.

But if I could reach Senator Obama now, I would ask him not to back down from the fight, to unleash tough language where it is necessary, and to never back down from this fight at any level. If I could reach Senator McCain, I would ask him to quit pandering to the whims of his base, knowing that if he really is the maverick he claims to be, he most certainly should not give in to making personal attacks when he knows that all it will do is bring shame to the Republican party, as his predecessor has done, should he take the election.