Rhetorical Sophism From Both Candidates and Both Parties

If there is one thing that has become predictable in the race to the election finish line, it is this: that you can't trust the reliability of the information in the negative ads -- or the negative speeches -- coming from either party. Politics has not changed; it's still a mud fight.

Once one party starts throwing mud, they both do. Personally, I think most of it started at The American Republican Convention -- or at least this is where the real escalation of 'negative campaigning' started. Plus the 'idealistic stereotyping of Sarah Palin with rhetorical information from Alaska that has turned out to be significantly less than 'true' or 'factual'. We don't hear too many Republicans talking about the 'Alaskan Bridge to Nowhere' anymore.

The fight for the 'anti-lobbyist' vote has deteriorated. Let's face it: Both parties and both candidates interact and make deals with lobbyists. I still think that Obama is the most likely candidate of the two to change the face of lobbying in Washington. He started his campaign asserting that he would change the face of lobbyism in Washington. The Republicans only jumped on this 'Democratic, Anti-Lobbyism Horse' at their Convention. Palin was supposed to be the 'new Republican face of change and anti-lobbyism' in Washington. However, many of her claims about how she handled lobbyists and Washington as Governor of Alaska -- in particular her 'thanks but no thanks' story about 'turning her back on Washinton money' has collaped -- it would seem that from what I can gather from CNN and other intenet reports, that Palin received Federal money from Washington for both a 'bridge to nowhere' and a 'road to nowhere' which is a far cry from the self-idealistic claims she made at the Republican Convention...

So what conclusions can we draw from what has been stated here?

Firstly, at least a significant part of 'the bloom seems to have come off of the rose' of Obama's 'new brand of idealistic politics' in the wake of Republican negative advertisement and speech attacks on Obama that have significantly distorted and 'negatively stereotyped' Obama's character and campaign promises (such as the Republican claim that Obama will raise taxes for the middle and lower classes which is not true) -- and Obama returning this same kind of 'negative rhetorical sophism' against the Republicans such as some of his 'lobbyism claims' against McCain...

At the same time, 'the bloom seems to have come off the rose of Sarah Palin' even faster than it has with Obama...

Several of the articles that I have copied off the internet address some of the 'factual vs. sophist' claims that have 'clouded the American campaign race'....

-- dgb, 26th, 2008.