True Left

You read and hear all the time about how far to the left Barack Obama is. This is a standard canard of the Republicans during presidential campaigns, (never true) designed to convince stupid voters who cannot think for themselves that the Democratic nominee is some sort of flaming commie stooge. Of course it is a naked lie, no matter how many time they repeat it.

This year's version goes thusly:

"Senator Orrin Hatch appeared and took this recurring shot used by the Republican attack dogs: "In all honesty the two Democrats are very fine people but they both are extremely left. They are both to the left of Bernie Sanders, who is the socialist from Vermont, if that doesn't tell you something I don't know what does. If you use the term liberal it really means something here."

Of course, neither the candidate's voting records nor their stated and practiced political philosophy proves this point - to the contrary they explicitly debunk it.

And Bernie Sanders has something to say about this:

Q: As far as this redbating goes, what do you think Republicans are trying to scare people about – about you?

A: First of all, is they assume that when people hear the word socialist what they are talking about is the Soviet Union and communism. Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders wants to renegotiate permanent normal trade relations with China – and George Bush just loves it by the way, and corporate America loves and is very proud of investing tens of billions of dollars in China, rather than in the United States, which is an interesting irony. And the Chamber of Commerce is very upset that the Chinese government wants to liberalize labor law in China, interestingly enough. You know, clearly what they are trying to do is what they always do, is confuse the social democratic policies which have been very successful in countries like Finland, Denmark, Sweden, other European countries – which guarantee healthcare to all people through a national healthcare program; which make sure that preschool education is available to all working families regardless of income; where in most cases college education is free or very inexpensive; where workers have more vacation time than they do in the United States; where unions are stronger… So, instead of looking at what goes on in some of the social democratic countries, which have virtually eliminated childhood poverty, while we have the highest rate of childhood poverty in the industrialized world – instead of looking at those policies, what they do is say, "This is socialism." Socialism we equate with communism, or authoritarianism, and lack of democracy. So, it's not a new tactic, it's been going on for about 40 or 50 years.

Now that's true left!

Link

Open mic night

I admit I am taking no small amount of glee in Republicans recent misfortunes, so many of which center around the selection of Sarah Palin as McCain's VP pick. Teen pregnancy aside (yes, abstain from ragging on the youngsters) she is the gift that keeps on giving, with an abuse of power investigation only the tip of the rotten ice berg.

Mike Murphy, a former McCain adviser, and Peggy Noonan, formerly a speech writer for Ronald Reagan and indubitably still in puppy love with him, are caught on an open microphone during a stint on MSNBC giving their assessments of the Republican National Convention.

The video with all of the unintended truthy goodness.

And for the video impaired, the transcript:

Chuck Todd: Mike Murphy, lots of free advice, we'll see if Steve Schmidt and the boys were watching. We'll find out on your blackberry. Tonight voters will get their chance to hear from Sarah Palin and she will get the chance to show voters she's the right woman for the job Up next, one man who's already convinced and he'll us why Gov. Jon Huntsman.

(cut away)

Peggy Noonan: Yeah.

Mike Murphy: You know, because I come out of the blue swing state governor world: Engler, Whitman, Tommy Thompson, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush. I mean, these guys -- this is how you win a Texas race, just run it up. And it's not gonna work. And --

PN: It's over.

MM: Still McCain can give a version of the Lieberman speech to do himself some good.

CT: I also think the Palin pick is insulting to Kay Bailey Hutchinson, too.

PN: Saw Kay this morning.

CT: Yeah, she's never looked comfortable about this --

MM: They're all bummed out.

CT: Yeah, I mean is she really the most qualified woman they could have turned to?

PN: The most qualified? No! I think they went for this -- excuse me-- political bullshit about narratives --

CT: Yeah they went to a narrative.

MM: I totally agree.

PN: Every time the Republicans do that, because that's not where they live and it's not what they're good at, they blow it.

MM: You know what's really the worst thing about it? The greatness of McCain is no cynicism, and this is cynical.

CT: This is cynical, and as you called it, gimmicky.

MM: Yeah.