America Is Purple

Today, America lost a great voice for truth. Tim Russert has died of an apparent heart attack. While I am not often a fan of pundits and the media in general, I must admit I teared up at the news. Tim Russert was one of only a few in the media who are able to seemingly transcend bias. His fact checking and commitment to the truth are legendary. He was able to get to the questions that truly mattered and cut through the political buzz and static like no-one else in the business. Watching him during this current election cycle, he has always had something truly insightful to say whenever he was on screen. He was truly among the best in the media for holding politicians on all sides to account and while no one could ever truly fill his shoes I sincerely hope that others in the media will follow his example in reporting the truth, doing the research necessary to get the truth, and holding politicians to answer to the truth. He will be truly and deeply missed. America is the less for his passing. My prayers are with his family and friends.

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Professor Elwell, you’re a little man. It’s not that you’re short. You’re…little, in the mind and in the heart. Tonight, you tried to make a man little whose boots you couldn’t touch if you stood on tiptoe on top of the highest mountain in the world. And as it turned out…you’re even littler than you were before. – Mr. Shunderson, People will Talk (1951)

Eight years ago, as I have written about before, I supported John McCain for President. At the time he seemed larger than life, a straight shooter, and even if you didn’t always agree with him, you knew where he stood and could respect that. The intervening 8 years have managed to shrink Senator McCain to fit the standard Republican mold. Gone is the maverick, the centrist, the common sense senator from Arizona. Today he has a record of voting with President Bush 95% of the time at the same time he attempts to distance himself from the beleaguered president.

On Tuesday evening, before Clinton and Obama gave their speeches and before a hideous green screen, Senator McCain began an assault on the Democratic nominee. The speech was ungracious to say the least. Clinton’s speech next was also lacking in grace to the extreme, but while Clinton’s speech made me angry at Clinton for her complete denial of objective reality, McCain’s speech creeped me the hell out. I’ve seen John McCain on the Daily Show in better years and I know he has a sense of humor and have seen him genuinely laugh. Whenever he laughed or smiled during this speech, he looked like a rigid corpse. And while I do not approve of basing a voting decision on who looks better, I noticed that one of Senator McCain’s eyes is smaller than the other and I couldn’t stop staring at it, adding as it did to the creepiness factor. “Who is this man?” I shouted. Who is this doppelganger? What have you done to Senator McCain? Has he been body-snatched? Is there a thing living inside him poking through as the skin rots? See what I mean?

Obama’s speech on the other hand was gracious to both candidates and looked, dare I say, Presidential. See it here:

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