The politics of side-show freakery

Closely related to the politics of shiny-object distract-o-rama:

Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com

The only actual story here is how brazenly deceitful and cynical the McCain campaign is, and what helpful and easily manipulated allies the establishment media is in all of that. The efforts of a few isolated reporters to debunk the story won't end up mattering much because, once injected into the Freak Show stew with the help of Jake Tapper, AP and MSNBC, it festers. Even if debunked, it helpfully distracts the country -- for another day or two, until the next insipid controversy emerges -- from the crises which have been created over the last eight years by the very same people who endlessly foist this idiocy into our elections. All of this makes Nero's fiddling look sober and responsible by comparison.

By alternately tossing out shiny objects (Sarah Palin!) and sideshow tickets (see the lipsticked pig!), the Repukes hope to divert the media, and with them the nation, from the truth about John McCain's policies and their obvious impact on Americans. I hope and pray that enough of us have learned from the past eight years of disaster and the GOP strategy ultimately fails at the ballot box, but I ain't holding my breath.

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