The million dollar political moments liberals have been waiting for

Every week John McCain creates a new tabloid exposé on Barack Obama. The negative politics practiced by the Country First camp could be a sign that McCain’s rickety Straight Talk Express is now clunking down a dark dumpster alley, scavenging for garbage designed to scare the American people away from Obama.

I think it’s an interesting but fallacious story they’re creating. Last week they set the foundation for the ridiculous suspicion that Obama might be a terrorist – or at least a conduit for terrorists – and this week they tried to build real conflict by using the terms “extreme leftist,” “socialist,” and “spread the wealth around.”

Too bad Colin Powell spoiled their Obama Bash Sunday morning on “Meet the Press” when he thoughtfully and contemplatively endorsed Barack Obama for President. It was a million dollar moment for the Obama campaign.

No, the Sunday endorsement did not necessarily register in terms of financial contributions, but it did register with the American public’s conscience and the polls early this week reflected this with a resolute “POW!”

The public’s confidence in Barack Obama’s ability to lead as commander-in-chief broke away in a 52 to 42 percent lead on John McCain in an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll Tuesday. For the first time, Obama has pulled away from McCain in double digits – exactly 10 percent – in terms of confidence in his abilities. With only 12 more days to go in this election, public opinion is invaluable.

Meanwhile, the media is still entertained by Sarah Palin’s suggestion that Obama believes America is so “imperfect” that he pals around with terrorists; Palin also more recently revealed that she most enjoys being in the pro-American parts of the country. Does she enjoy them in the same way she enjoys Moose Track ice cream?

I want to know if, in the mouse maze of Sarah Palin’s mind, there are in fact anti-American pockets of America, and if so, how does Palin define “anti-America”? How does Palin define “pro-America,” for that matter? Who knows what furry little rodents are running amuck behind those designer glasses?

Who knew that Palin’s statements on pro-Americanism would lead to a million dollar moment?

Allow me to explain. Friday evening Michele Bachmann, a Republican Representative from Minnesota, found herself on “Hardball,” and suddenly Chris Matthews followed up on a statement Bachmann had made that being liberal in this country correlates in some way with anti-American beliefs, in elected officials and more specifically in Barack Obama. He asked her to explain what this correlation means to her.

His question became a tiny silver marble which haphazardly began bouncing off the pinball board that is Michele Bachmann’s mind. She not only said she was “very concerned” that Barack Obama holds anti-American views, but she also suspected anti-American beliefs were held by many elected officials who happen to be liberal.

“What I would say is that the news media should do a penetrating expose and take a look,” she said. “I wish they would; I wish the news media would take a great look at the views of people in Congress and find out, are they pro-America or anti-America?”

Bachmann’s cell phone rang during the Matthews interview; could it have been her campaign manager on the other end shouting, “Aaah! Just shut up! Shut up now!”?

Because every minute that silver ball bounced off the pins in her mind was worth $100,000 to her Democratic foe Elwyn Tinklenberg in Minnesota. After all was said, Tinklenberg, previously a nobody and a long shot to win in the Minnesotan Congressional race, was catapulted to the top of the polls and given nearly a million dollars to win the battle between them.

The urgency Minnesotans and Americans expressed through their campaign contributions to Tinklenberg revealed a lot of insight into Americans’ thoughts on “McPalin’s” allegations against Obama, and thus on the past few weeks of the election. Bachmann communicated the fear of Obama that McCain is attempting to instill in the public, and the repulsion felt in Americans for her nearly superstitious commentary is the noteworthiness of her statements.

Apparently, all we Democrats have to do to win the election is let the Republicans sink their own boat and offer a reasonable platform for the smart ones who jump ship.

Stephanie England is an English junior and a Mustang Daily politcal columnist.