Dishonesty And Fearmongering

First read this quote from Barack Obama from a speech last May in which he explains his perspective on global diplomacy:

"Strong countries and strong Presidents talk to their adversaries. That's what Kennedy did with Khrushchev. That's what Reagan did with Gorbachev. That's what Nixon did with Mao. I mean, think about it: Iran, Cuba, Venezuela -- these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don't pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us. And yet we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union at the time when they were saying, 'We're going to wipe you off the planet.' And ultimately, that direct engagement led to a series of measures that helped prevent nuclear war and over time allowed the kind of opening that brought down the Berlin Wall."

Now watch John McCain's newest political ad trying to play on the fears and insecurities of the American electorate; see if you can't spot the quotes from above obviously and deliberately taken out of context:
Obama only said that Iran was "tiny" and that they "don't pose a threat to us" in comparison to the former Soviet Union, a point that the McCain campaign staff surely knew when they mined this quote for the ad. This has become a disturbing and frankly insulting pattern with his campaign of late but hey, it worked for Rove and Bush so why not try it and see what happens; right now all McCain has to run on is trying to make Obama look like the Devil.

While I'm still looking forward to the coming debates I'm completely bored with the Democratic Convention (and I have no reason to think that I won't feel the same about the Republicans') and I'm starting to get really tired of the fearmongering and character assassinations. Truthfully, I'm already ready for this thing to be over so that this country can move on to more important and pressing matters.