"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!"
--President Merkin Muffley in Dr. Strangelove
Generations of scholars have studied the famous TV commercial that Lyndon Johnson ran once and once only against Barry Goldwater, and often the conclusion has been that it was unfair at the time to imply that Goldwater might have brought a happy trigger finger to the nuclear arms race. Many observers put this ad in the same category as Richard Drew's "Falling Man" photograph from 9/11--too disturbing to present to the general pyublic.
If you've never seen the LBJ ad, here's your YouTube chance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyVn9k6d1og
"These are the stakes: to make a world in which all of God's children can live or to go into the dark. We must either love each other or we must die." [--Voice-over quote from Johnson himself]
We can spend a long time agonizing over how Johnson went wrong in Vietnam, but he has to share credit with every president since Truman in keeping the H-Bomb an unused nightmare. And isn't that something we should expect, should demand from our next president as well? (Did you hear Palin discuss attacks on Iran? Have you heard McCain threaten Iran?)
Am I the only one disturbed by echoes of "Armageddon Days are Here (Again)" in this campaign? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6wa-qOb8eI&feature=related
Am I the only person who fears McCain and Palin will be true believers in the White House, too quick to use force, too quick to accept that nothing's wrong with living in Tim LeHaye's last days?
Find a copy of Dr. Strangelove. http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Dr._Strangelove/60020009
Now ask yourself: does John McCain have "the judgment and the temperament" to be entrusted with our nuclear weaponry? Does Sarah Palin?
Johnson was right on target when he said "all of God's children." It's like that bumper sticker you've probably seen: "God bless everyone...no exceptions." Now which ticket is more likely to bring us that sort of mentality: Biden-Obama? Or McCain-Palin? I don't think it's a contest.
THESE are issues that underlie our economy, our worries about the Supreme Court, and our ennui in Iraq. So, so much is at stake this time. It's been at stake since 1945, of course, and no, it won't be going away--the atomic genie won't be put back in the bottle ever. And yet, we must keep it part of the calculus made by voters on November 4.
Obama-Biden is our best hope. Let's get the vote out!
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