Last Night's Debate: "Beat Biter, Dope Style Taker"(Vibe.com)

MC Lyte: "10% Diss"


Three weeks is an eternity in politics, you never know what unforeseen event could shake up the race until its utterly unrecognizable to even the most seasoned political pundits. Letting poll numbers lull you into a false sense of security is the type of complacency that we can ill afford, especially when a functioning illiterate secessionist creationist may possibly be a 72 year old heartbeat away from the presidency. In short, this race is far from over. That being said, like a seasoned poker player who notices another player's "tell", John McCain's campaign manager Rick Davis exposed a fatal flaw in their campaign's logic a few months ago. Regurgitating Hillary Clinton's playbook. Remember in late July when the McCain Campaign accused Barack Obama of playing the race card from "the bottom of the deck" as campaign manager Rick Davis put it, simply because Obama said this: "What they're going to try to do is make you scared of me. You know, he doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills." Sentiments Obama had said many times before, but the McCain Campaign decided to pounce on that particular instance as him "playing the race card" - a tactic often used by your garden variety knuckle-draggers who themselves want an unobstructed path to use racism. But one thing that really caught my attention around that time were the interviews that Rick Davis was giving, saying with righteous indignation that they wouldn't let the race card be played on them the same way it was played against Hillary Clinton. Not only did I find that to be a rather peculiar thing to say because of the factual inaccuracy of it all, the media were the ones who highlighted the shitload of Clinton Campaign verbal miscues concerning race, but also that the McCain Campaign was using the defeated Clinton Campaign as some sort of campaign cheat-sheet of sorts.

Nothing made me think of the chorus of MC Lyte's "10% Diss" more than John McCain's performance in last nights debate, the words "Beat Biter, Dope Style taker" pounding my temples like a hangover migraine - if wasn't obvious that McCain's presidential run was a cheap knockoff version of Hillary Clinton's failed campaign, it was surely crystal clear last night. The parallels are striking: Both made "Experience" a centerpiece of their campaign only to abandon it and awkwardly co-opt "Change" while trying to maintain a straight face. Both campaigns leaked like a proverbial sieve. Both had supporters who were openly critical of their campaign. Both seemed to let Barack Obama get under their skin. While running relatively negative campaigns, both tried to convince the public that their opponent was truly the negative one. Hillary Clinton's campaign was seriously outclassed in terms of the electoral map, and it looks like the general election is headed in the same direction. Not to mention the unseemly attacks on Barack Obama that John McCain is performing without the proper sample clearance from Hillary Clinton - which brings me to the debate last night.

Barack Obama is now 3 for three in these debates. Last night he exhibited the same sort of intelligent calm that has been expected of the Junior Senator amidst all the petulant sighing, eye-rolling, and interrupting from a person who I feel is the most immature 72 year old known to man. My father always liked to say "You always have to fear someone who doesn't have anything to lose", obviously Barack Obama didn't get that message as his figuratively palmed John McCain's forehead while avoiding wildly thrown punches that hit nothing but air. ACORN? Swing and a miss. Tax and Spend Liberal? Slipped that punch and gave McCain a jab for his trouble. Abortion? Usually a politically dangerous issue for Democrats, Barack made origami out of it while John McCain will forever regret that he put the word "Health" in the phrase "health of the mother" in air quotes. Health care? For the first time ever, a Democrat has successfully defined his opponents plan to the American electorate. John McCain playing the victim via John Lewis? Barack basically told McCain to stop being a bitch, saying "I think the American people are less interested in our hurt feelings during the course of the campaign than addressing the issues that matter to them so deeply." John McCain said "Sen. Obama, I am not President Bush? Obama pretty much said that they were indeed twins with this statement: "If I occasionally mistaken your policies for George Bush's policies it's because on the core major issues that matter ot the American people ... you have been a vigorous supporter of President Bush."

But John McCain's arguing about William Ayers in last nights debate, after it has shown itself to be a failing tactic, brings his plagiarism of Hillary Clinton's campaign full circle. It was silly during the primaries and its even sillier now, and with Obama breaking it down for 10's of millions of Americans to see, lets just hope that John McCain stops embarrassing himself with these regurgitated smears. I just hope that Hillary Clinton gets a phat royalty check from John McCain after his campaign comes to a halt, fucking "Beat Biter, Dope Style Taker"