Tuesday’s campaign round-up

July 8, 2008

Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:

* Yesterday, the RNC unveiled a new ad attacking Barack Obama on energy policy. This morning, the Obama campaign unveiled a very strong response ad that will air in the same four states as the RNC’s ad — Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

* John McCain appeared on Fox News this morning, and continued to blatantly mischaracterize Obama’s Iraq position. “Oh I think there’s been definitely shifts in position,” McCain said, pointing to nothing in particular.

* The McCain campaign unveiled a new TV ad this morning, called “Love.” It’s pretty ridiculous.

* Howard Wolfson, best known for his work as Hillary Clinton’s communications director, announced last night that he will join Fox News as a contributor. Apparently, the plan is to pit him, head to head, against Karl Rove.

* The scare aboard Obama’s campaign plane may have been a little more serious than we’d been led to believe.

* There are rumors that Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) might hit the campaign trail over the summer with Obama. That would be interesting.

* Just how bad is the Republican brand right now? The RNC is running ads bragging when Republican candidates stand up to the Republican Party. Wow.

* So, why did Jim Webb withdraw from VP consideration?

* In party-unity news: “Terry McAuliffe was obviously one of Hillary’s most aggressive and high-profile advocates during the primary, but now McAuliffe is really doing his part to help Obama get elected. We hear McAuliffe will be the main attraction at a unity event for Obama this Thursday, along with Rep. Artur Davis, a top Obama supporter.”

* The Obama campaign unveiled its congressional liaison team yesterday. “The four-member team includes Phil Schiliro, Rep. Henry Waxman’s long-time chief of staff and the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee’s top Democratic staff person who will become a senior adviser to the campaign.”

* If you can’t beat ’em, copy ’em: “First you had the McCain campaign ripping off design elements from the Obama website. Now, a reader sends me proof that the RNC is ripping off the design of the DNC’s email blasts…. Republicans can pretend that adding a border around their text makes it totally different, but in reality, this is just more evidence that the GOP is a party devoid of any fresh or original ideas. Or creativity.”

* And as a Miami native, I found this news delightful: “A new poll suggests that two Republican members of Congress from Miami are facing a tight race from their Democratic challengers — the first significant challenge to the incumbents in years. The poll, by Bendixen & Associates, shows Reps. Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart, Cuban-American brothers with a long Miami political pedigree, are leading their Democratic challengers by only single digits with four months to go to the election. Potentially more troubling for the GOP incumbents, the poll shows neither cracked 50 percent of the vote. That’s a far cry from their dominance in previous campaigns.”

Republicans can pretend that adding a border around their text makes it totally different, but in reality, this is just more evidence that the GOP is a party devoid of any fresh or original ideas. Or creativity.

Or a political party that knows it stinks so badly that it’s only hope of survival lies in pretending to be the other party. See for example the Erlich/Steele sample ballots during the last election.

The GOP should change its logo from the elephant to the sabre-toothed blenny.

  • Howard Wolfson, best known for his work as Hillary Clinton’s communications director, announced last night that he will join Fox News as a contributor. Apparently, the plan is to pit him, head to head, against Karl Rove.

    So they can both laud McCain and trash Obama? Some pit.

  • 1. Webb’s other problem is his support for open carry firearm laws. That would also make him a liability for Obama.

    2. McCain’s people aren’t ripping off Obama’s design elements because they lack creativity or imagination. It is because confusing voters about which candidate an email or flyer is coming from is part of campaigning. This happens all the time in local elections where materials are crafted to mimic something voters already recognize or trust. Also, by making Obama resemble McCain in terms of graphics, the feelings evoked by those elements will also transfer. Perhaps McCain hopes warm feelings towards Obama will migrate toward him or negative feelings about Republicans will migrate toward Obama, or maybe both.

    3. McAuliffe is trying to ensure his future as a player in the party. His enthusiasm means little more than that he wants to continue to have influence by joining the presumptive winner. It says next to nothing about unity since people are not going to vote for Obama because of McAuliffe.

    4. How will adding Hagel to his team promote greater party unity? The more Republicans want to join Obama’s campaign, the less I see him as a real Democrat. It just reinforces the fact that his support during the primaries came from cross-over voters and independents. Why doesn’t Obama care about losing mainstream Democratic voters? With each passing day it seems more like we have two Republicans running this year, one moderate and the other conservative. You decide which is which.

  • Howard Wolfson, best known for his work as Hillary Clinton’s communications director, announced last night that he will join Fox News as a contributor.

    Well, we were all correct in our prediction that old Howard will forever be unable to secure respectable employment after his thoroughly disastrous performance in the Clinton campaign. What further ignominies await Penn and Ickes?

    “The four-member team includes Phil Schiliro, Rep. Henry Waxman’s long-time chief of staff and the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee’s top Democratic staff person who will become a senior adviser to the campaign.”

    That’s good news. Let’s hope Obama starts taking a few cues from Waxman on issues including presidential overreach and Congressional oversight.

  • Man, even in emails, Republicans are overly concerned with border issues.

    Blowing kisses at slappy for that fine piece of work.

    Why doesn’t Obama care about losing mainstream Democratic voters?

    Because except for a) real progressives who are rightfully upset about FISA (which group emphatically doesn’t include you; said group, with few exceptions, is made up of people who understand what’s at stake in this election and care about what happens as a result of it) and b) people like you who were always going to vote for McCain despite all your impotent sputtering, he’s only losing them in your head.

    Turn down the voices in there, will you? They’re waking the neighbors.

  • I hate to say it, but I think the Love ad is pretty effective.

    Btw, who else here thinks the reference to the sixties, with it’s civil rights and interracial marriage contrasted against McCain’s life story a small racial push back?

  • On another tack: I’ve been doing some traveling lately. Yesterday took a rest break from driving and talked to a couple who were doing the same. They mentioned that China was drilling for oil off the coast of Florida, but hadn’t heard that the story was false and were surprised when I told them. Wonder how many others haven’t heard the truth?

  • Btw, who else here thinks the reference to the sixties, with it’s civil rights and interracial marriage contrasted against McCain’s life story a small racial push back?

    Not that McCain’s above racial messages, and we’ll see plenty of them from his 527s and some state GOP organizations, but I think that interpretation’s a bit of a stretch here.

    On the other hand, does he have anything at all to run on other than his POW status? It’s only July and his incessant use of this is already wearing out the most easy-to-play voters. He’s also taking a risk referring to the “economy in shambles,” given that most voters clearly recognize who put it into that condition.

  • 4. On July 8th, 2008 at 12:14 pm, Stupid said:
    With each passing day it seems more like we have two Republicans running this year, one moderate and the other conservative.
    _________________________

    yeah! Give me someone like Hillary “After giving Bish the authority to wage war in iraq, I gave him the authority to wage war in IRAN, THAT’S how much of a Democrat *I* am” Clinton to be the Democratic candidate. Now THERE’S someone for change…

    If you mean thinking about how quickly she acquiesced to Bush made me to change my underwear.

    Oh, and Mary? What does Obama need to do…FOR YOU…to prove he’s patriotic? You know, aside from being a white woman named Hillary Clinton or a white guy named John McCain?

  • One more and I’ll quit hogging the thread: It’s unbelievable that the McCain people came up with this “free love between the dirty hippies” business in 2008. It’s like they’re using Nixon’s playbook. Their target audience appears to be the tightly circumscribed subset of superannuated folks who still believe we could’ve won in Vietnam. It’s hilarious.

  • 4. On July 8th, 2008 at 12:14 pm, Stupid said:
    With each passing day it seems more like we have two Republicans running this year, one moderate and the other conservative.

    My name is not “Stupid,” and your swap of my handle with an adjective designed to denigrate all females is a violation of netiquette, which I know because I am aware of all internet traditions.

    Do it again and I’ll pester the hapless Steve Benen to censure you, or I’ll at least spit my favorite beverage, Schweppes Bitter Lemon, in your direction.

  • Webb is also a staunch defender of Virginia’s participation in the Civil war—not from a slavery standpoint, but from the POV that the slave-holders pretty much stayed at home on their plantations, while the average “Joe Virginian” who was too freaking poor to afford feeding a slave, let alone owning one—did all the marching, and fighting , and dying. Tying Webb to Obama’s campaign as VP would be like hunting Bambi with a nuclear weapon—you get nothing but deadly radioactive dust. Webb knew this going in, and he still knows it now, hence the decision.

    Oddly enough, no one seems to have noticed that Obama’s “plane mishap” didn’t even occur with his own plane, which was in for its scheduled overhaul. The “loaner” was apparently Hillary’s ex-plane, and the emergency evac-chute deployed in the tail-cone when the compressed gas cylinder triggered—and “compressed gas” just leads us back to “Scary McMary….”

  • Insane Fake Professor, my most sincere apologies. I bow in awe before your gender-neutral wisdom…

    and your sweet, sweet ass…

    oh…crap…

  • And while we’re on “THAT” topic, am I the only sentient being on the planet to recognize just how lethargically FUCKED-IN-THE-HEAD, CRACK-INDUCED, SHALLOW-WITTED DUMB” this sounds?

    The more Republicans want to join Obama’s campaign, the less I see him as a real Democrat. It just reinforces the fact that his support during the primaries came from cross-over voters and independents. Why doesn’t Obama care about losing mainstream Democratic voters? With each passing day it seems more like we have two Republicans running this year, one moderate and the other conservative. You decide which is which.

    By Mary’s standards, the only “good” Dem is someone who won’t deal with a Republican. So if a “Dem candidate” were to appear ad-nauseum on FOXnoise, or continuously boast about J-Lie’s “exceptional qualifications to be C-in-C, or do a one-on-one interview with Richard “Melanoma” Scaife—then that candidate shouldn’t be a “good Dem.”

    But Mary lacks the intestinal fortitude to say that—now doesn’t she?!?

  • BTW, IFP, if you are Mary, and Mary is you, doesn’t that mean you’re posting on one site using two names? Surely that’s a breach of netiquette as well, no? You got some ‘splainin’ to do.

  • Regarding McCain’s ‘love’ commercial…

    Did anyone else catch the clip in there (37 seconds into the commercial) where he is shown walking next to someone in uniform?

    I don’t know who that Soldier is, but it’s very clear that members of the military cannot be in uniform acting for partisan political reasons. No reason to believe that this Soldier is doing that– it looks like snagged news footage– but isn’t that at least innappropriate usage of our folks in uniform?

  • By Mary’s standards, the only “good” Dem is someone who won’t deal with a Republican. So if a “Dem candidate” were to appear ad-nauseum on FOXnoise, or continuously boast about J-Lie’s “exceptional qualifications to be C-in-C, or do a one-on-one interview with Richard “Melanoma” Scaife—then that candidate shouldn’t be a “good Dem.”

    I think you’re missing an important point. The person who did all those things is not black.

  • Steve, it goes beyond that. Supposedly, Mary believes that Clinton supporters should be allowed to endorse and vote for McCain, out of bitterness towards her supposedly preferred canddiate losing the nomination. But if Republicans decide that, party be damned, Obama’s the better candidate, that speaks poorly on Obama.

    Bipartisanship for McCain – good
    Bipartisanship for Obama – bad.

    Mary – dumber than pouring bleach in a baby’s eyes, and about as pleasant.

    AND she believes Obama hasn’t proved his patriotism, yet she refuses to answer the question as to how he could prove his patriotism to someone as learned as her.

    It’s like watching an angry bird peck at itself in the mirror.

  • I agree with Scu @ #7 in that it’s a very well-produced ad that plays to the one issue that we knew all along that McCain would try to milk for all it’s worth.

    Unfortunately, that one issue boils down to simply this: “I was shot down in Viet Nam and I suffered a lot.” Very noble, but nothing in that qualifies somebody to be the President of the United States all by itself. Especially when every word that comes out of his mouth today shows how monumentally ineffective and irrational his administration would be.

    And we’ve already had way too much of ineffective and irrational administrations, thanks ever so much.

  • “Why doesn’t Obama care about losing mainstream Democratic voters?”

    Because we are “supposed” to vote for him because he is, at least, better than McCain. The problem is that this has been going on for a while now and ignoring the base is going to stop working. Many, many people are tired of having principles and positions hung over their heads (Roe v Wade anyone?) and, for that reason, having to vote for the slightly better candidate.

    No candidate is perfect, but having to swallow principles in order to vote gets tiresome.

    What does that mean for me this November? I honestly am not sure. Luckily I live in NYC and Obama will win New York so I have more freedom in my vote than, say, someone living in Missouri.

    Sure, Obama is 100% the better choice, but when do we get an actual progressive candidate?

  • Sure, Obama is 100% the better choice, but when do we get an actual progressive candidate?

    Welcome to the United States. New here, are you? Have a cookie.

  • “Sure, Obama is 100% the better choice, but when do we get an actual progressive candidate?”

    When you demonstrate that there are enough people in the country out there who will vote for one.

    Democrats tack to the “centre” because that’s where the votes are. If they have to choose between an unreliable voting bloc and a reliable one, they will always pick the reliable one. Nothing encourages Democrats to ignore the “base” as much as sitting in the corner sucking your thumb because your favourite candidate didn’t win.

    At the moment, the only way that progressives outnumber conservatives in the U.S. is if you count the people staying home every election. That won’t get you 270 electoral votes. Obama has been mounting a large “get out the vote effort” to try to change that. He’s limited in the policy initiatives he can mount until he’s succeeded.

  • Yeah, I see that Splitting.

    I’m merely stating that the reason Democrats (not just Obama) ignore their base is because they can. I don’t agree though that he’s targeting progressives with his “get out and vote” push. He’s targeting undecideds and independents and perhaps Republicans who are tired of how the country’s been run the last 8 years.

  • By the “Maria” (whichever one you are), that “have a cookie” thing went out with the heydey of Craig’s List. Let’s try and keep up, shall we?

  • I don’t agree though that he’s targeting progressives with his “get out and vote” push. He’s targeting undecideds and independents and perhaps Republicans who are tired of how the country’s been run the last 8 years.

    He’s quite demonstrably targeting all of them. Undecideds, independents, a few moderate Republicans, young people who grew up under Bush (and perhaps Clinton) and haven’t been excited by a candidate until now, disengaged progressives who correctly assess that Obama’s center-left but recognize that he’s the best we’re going to be able to elect, African Americans who understandably haven’t felt part of the political process. Georgia alone has more than half a million unregistered blacks, more than enough to turn that state blue in the presidential election. They weren’t “undecided” and they weren’t going to vote Republican. They weren’t going to vote–until now.

    That’s how you elect a president, not by restricting your base to progressives. It doesn’t make me particularly happy that we can’t elect a real liberal in the U.S., but I recognize how America votes and how the political process works. Your posts seem to consist mostly of vague accusations against Obama (“he doesn’t give a shit about [unidentified] ‘women’s issues,'” for example) unbacked up by specifics. It comes off as a naive and rather churlish grousing that Clinton didn’t win, rather than a cohesive critique of our nominee.

  • I would add that, having identified yourself as a Clinton supporter, your suggestion that you want to elect a real progressive lacks all credibility. Sorry your girl didn’t win, but try to come up with a reason to dislike Obama that holds water given your primary vote. Had you been backing Kucinich, you’d have a leg to stand on.

  • Well, I’ve never mentioned who I voted for in the primaries, so I am unsure how you could assume my candidate didn’t win.

    I definitely hear what you’re saying about his getting people excited – I’m not arguing that. Nor am I saying he, or anyone else, should “restrict” themselves to progressives. I am saying, however, that ignoring a base or a segment of the voting public because they are expected to vote for you is eventually not going to work.

    As far as issues I have with him: FISA, the continuation of/increase in gov’t FBO funding, his third-term abortion comments (both the original and the “clarification”. To name three recent issues.

  • Um, Maria? Please show me where I “identified myself as a Clinton supporter”

  • Oh, and one more thing, if Chuck Hagel does jump ship, it’s all over for McCain. Not only does it prove that Obama can attract Republicans to his banner, but it turns the election into a referendum on the war, which McCain cannot win.

    Hagel has already helped Obama immeasurably by downplaying the (admittedly large) differences between them as less important than holding a common purpose on the Iraq war. Since the only way the Noise Machine can work is to stress trivial differences between the candidates and downplay the important ones, Hagel may have already decided the election.

    If he holds steady, McCain is in deep trouble.

  • Sure glad that “Love” commercial clearly shows John McCain isn’t running on his service record like John Kerry did in 2004.

  • Nancy, you have a vagina. That’s how Maria knwos you voted for CLinton. Duh.

  • On July 7th, 2008 at 1:14 pm, Nancy said:
    Well, I’m not Mary, but many former Clinton supporters would like Obama to prove that he gives a shit about women’s issues.

    I suppose you could argue that this doesn’t mean you voted for Clinton. It might make us smile, but you could make that argument.

  • All that proves is that I pay attention to what other people say. That I neither only read nor only surround myself with people who think the exact same thing as me.

    I actually think that most people here do the same. But not you, clearly.

    You want to paint me as a caricature, that’s fine. If it makes you feel better, run with that.

  • “I don’t agree though that he’s targeting progressives with his “get out and vote” push. He’s targeting undecideds and independents and perhaps Republicans who are tired of how the country’s been run the last 8 years.”

    I don’t agree. He won Iowa by signing up a lot of people who had never voted before and certainly never campaigned for anyone. He’s making the same sort of push in Georgia and Mississippi right now and in other places throughout the country.

    There is no way I can prove it, but my personal feeling is that the average non-voter is more progressive than the average voter, which is one of the reasons voter suppression is such a major feature of the Rove playbook.

    What Obama is doing is definitely a step in the right direction. If he can achieve a 70% turnout (heh, we can dream) in this or any election, the playing field will automatically tilt to the left regardless of Obama’s actual performance.

    My impression is that Obama’s strategy is to steal a win while the playing field is still tilted somewhat to the right and then give the party some breathing room to move it to the left. The goal is not simply to elect a progressive now, but to make it possible to elect someone more progressive than Obama in 2016. At the moment, that seems utterly impossible, but George W. Bush could never have carried a single state in 1980. The Republicans spent years laying the groundwork for 2000 and 2004. The Democrats need to do the same.

  • Unfortunately, that one issue boils down to simply this: “I was shot down in Viet Nam and I suffered a lot.” Very noble, but nothing in that qualifies somebody to be the President of the United States all by itself.

    geez, Curmudgeon, now the press will have to get up in arms and Obama will have to distance himself from your remarks! And you can forget about making the Veep list.

  • “…but my personal feeling is that the average non-voter is more progressive than the average voter…”

    Aha! That’s where we’re differing I think. It’s an interesting point though, and not one I’d considered, I’ll admit. I actually hope you’re right and that I’m holding too rigidly to everything I’d love to have in a candidate.

  • All that proves is that I pay attention to what other people say

    You apparently pay a great deal of attention to the small minority of disgruntled Clinton supporters who mumble ominously about Obama while strenuously avoiding providing evidence or examples to back themselves up. Would that you paid a little more attention to the rest of the electorate; you’d be far better informed.

    So we’ll agree that your primary vote is a big old (wink) enigma. On to more complex individuals: Yes, Splitting Image, Hagel’s ID of the war as an overriding issue that trumps most others is helpful to Obama, and this is dead on: the only way the Noise Machine can work is to stress trivial differences between the candidates and downplay the important ones

    I’m as repelled as usual by the corporate media treatment of this election, but somewhat fascinated by the idea that it’s just not going to be enough this year. Polls are holding steady for Obama so far in spite of the well-oiled McCain lovefest. We’ll see if that holds; my sense is that it’ll be a much closer race before November, but I’d be happy to be wrong.

  • The Love ad is stupid Obama was a kid then.. He has no identification with the hippies only older people that are fighting the culture wars during that era do. It just proves to me that John McCain is still fighting the Cold and Vietnam wars. I am young. I have no connection with that time except what I see in the history books. What does John McCain’s service in the military or the culture wars of the 1960’s have to do with solving our problems today? Btw I am a vet.

  • The Love ad is stupid Obama was a kid then.. He has no identification with the hippies only older people that are fighting the culture wars during that era do.

    Ah, there’s where you’re wrong. Obama was such a precocious sneak that he was actually getting high and burning draft cards in second grade. While his classmates were singing “30 Days Hath September” and “Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” he was melodically demanding to know how many youngsters Johnson had offed within the last 24 hours. It takes a special kind of unpatriotic to pull that off at such a tender age. Can we really trust him with our country?

  • — “The RNC is running ads bragging when Republican candidates stand up to the Republican Party.”

    This oddity — first Gordon Smith, then (sometimes) McCain, now the entire Republican party — running against the, um, Republican party, deserves more comment. Even when an individual Senate candidate does it, it’s a sign of deep weakness for the party. When their presidential candidate regularly criticizes what has happened “in the last eight years” (as I heard him do just the other day), it’s a tragedy for the party. When the RNC does it, it’s farce!

    I really can’t see how McCain can campaign successfully against “the last eight years” on ANY issue, when his party held all branches of government for four of them, and the presidency the whole time. And since he sometimes campaigns against Bush (deficits, immigration, even climate change), but then runs with the party/machine on other issues (Iraq, taxes), he’s just going to come out looking muddled to anyone who’s paying the slightest attention. (I know that leaves out substantial parts of the US population, but that segment does vote at a terribly high rate, either).

  • McCain would have been 31 in 1967 (Summer of Love). That makes him too old to be trusted. Only a very small percentage of the 20-somethings or teens were actually hippies or political activists (a different, non-overlapping group). Can’t any of you do math?

    If Obama’s policies are so compatible with Republicans that a number of them would feel comfortable joining his campaign or his cabinet, that definitely says something about the candidate — in my opinion. It isn’t just his kumbaya attitude but his nuanced and complex viewpoints that appeal to Republicans, that makes them feel so at home. When Obama seems like a fellow-traveler to those who were blind followers of Rove and Bush, something is clearly wrong with our Democratic nomination process.

    The ad is McCain’s way of fighting back against the age issue by portraying youth as a bad thing. In this campaign, the young have been the ones without a memory of Bill Clinton’s successes, without a bullshit detector (which comes with experience being bamboozled by past charlatans), and without the perspective to understand that it takes more than enthusiasm and good intentions to solve serious problems — it takes expertise, wisdom, and guts (the latter especially lacking in our current nominee). Older voters avoided Obama like the plague because they know things Obama supporters do not appreciate. Now, Obama is showing his truer colors and the young enthusiasts about disappointed, but committed. They shouldn’t be. They should be sorry, admit their mistake and call for change at the convention. But they won’t because they still think Obama is going to do the right thing once he’s elected. Ain’t going to happen.

    Look forward to 4 years of betrayal of trust. Then a bunch of “new” voters will sweep away the next nomination, played by the next guy who will promise to do what’s right and then explain that his nuanced complexities won’t let him bring the troops home. And those of us who have seen this all happen before will be ignored or called names. I hate being right about this kind of prediction, but it keeps happening.

    Our saving grace has always been that the Republicans who get elected are never as awful as they could be. Now that the Republicans are more organized and their party has been taken over by conservative ideologues (the kind of people who get organized), that is no longer true and the elections matter. Why are we throwing away our chance to really change things on someone like Obama? We could have nominated an effective politician, someone with the guts to fight back, the experience to know what needs to be done, and the friends to make it happen. Instead we have this puke and thye enthusiastic children who support him.

  • Instead we have this puke and thye enthusiastic children who support him.

    Well, he’s solid in virtually every age, gender, race and ethnic demographic and subdemographic, but your constant bashing of the youth vote is telling. You quite obviously have no respect for the students you teach. Do they know that?

    I have to say my ears pricked up at this, though: They should be sorry, admit their mistake and call for change at the convention. On the surface, it’s funny because it reflects a fresh desperate hope from someone who won’t let go of her cherished delusions. On a closer look, it’s fairly disturbing. Are you aware of how closely these words mirror those of domestic abusers and others with severe control issues who demand that others show contrition for “disobeying” them?

    It’s been obvious for months that you’re less in love with Hillary than you are perfectly enraged that your personal will is being thwarted; you show a very severe control freak’s continual fury at your “superior” judgment being ignored by others who don’t recognize your supposed authority. Seriously, you need help, and badly, Mare. Get it, please, won’t you?

  • Regarding Obama’s airplane incident yesterday, I followed the link from here to the article. Pretty scary stuff, but some of the comments that follow the article really took my breath away with some malicious folks saying this is a message from God to Obama who thinks he is the Messiah. And he is so “conceded”(sic). Really? Where did this meme come from? I hadn’t heard that before, The Wingnuts are really desparate to make Obama out to be anything but good for this country.

  • “The ad is McCain’s way of fighting back against the age issue by portraying youth as a bad thing. ”

    I suppose the reason it resonates with you is because you also seem to feel youth is a bad thing.

    That’s sad.

  • Claiming that Obama has the support of all demographic groups now that he is the only candidate running, ignoring the actual primary votes of those who favored other candidates, says nothing whatsoever about Obama’s actual appeal or his ability to attract support. He is the default candidate now.

    The older the voter, the less likely they were to vote for Obama. Our youth culture considered that a good thing. Those with experience looked at Obama and saw an empty suit.

    When Obama became the nominee, the idiots who comment regularly here began an onslaught of ageist remarks aimed at McCain. It is no crime to be old, nor does it automatically imply disability. When you insult McCain’s age, you insult the age of every older voter. Further, those who decry racism then eagerly embrace other isms (ageism, sexism), engage in an ugly hypocrisy.

    Why is McCain’s ad about age? Because it starts with the summer of love and portrays youth as self-indulgent and unpatriotic, much the same way McCain portrays Obama himself. It contrasts that with McCain’s very real service and reminds voters that McCain has not always sided with the Republican establishment, something that was more true before he decided to run for president. Then it flash forwards through decades of service in Congress, emphasizing that this is something Obama does not have. Obama needs to counter that by portraying his own strengths, not by denigrating age and experience because those are qualities that many voters value and embody.

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