Without knowing the background behind it, just hearing about the Obama campaign’s cheap shot at John McCain – that McCain doesn’t know how to use a computer – was enough to raise my hackles.
It brought back years of ugly memories of the ageist/sexist discrimination in IT departments, that hardest and meanest of glass ceilings.
It ignores the fact that McCain, who is Chairman of the Senate Telecommunications Subcommittee, is regarded as the Senate’s “savviest technologist”, according to Forbes.
In other words, as in so many IT departments, it rationalizes its prejudices and confuses gimmicks and keyboard tricks with actual technical competence.
As offensive as this latest bit of adolescent drivel from the smug, spoiled, $400 million Obama camp is, I didn’t realize how truly low his campaign could go until this morning.
Namely, that their mocking John McCain is really is a slap at all handicapped people who physically cannot use a keyboard: the reason McCain cannot type is because his fingers were so badly broken by his torturers in VietNam.
It would be equivalent to denegrating New York Governor David Patterson’s ability to tackle transportation problems because he can’t drive a car: Governor Patterson is blind.
This, in the same week that Joe Biden asked wheelchair-bound Missouri State Senator Chuck Graham to stand up at a campaign rally.
If you doubt that any national political campaign, or their apologists, could actually do anything this stupid, check out both the ad itself and the following unbelievable rationale from one of the Obama spokespersons:
The ad goes directly at the fundamental issue in this race: John McCain is out of touch with the American people and unable to address the challenges facing the country in the 21st century. It delivers the message in a light-hearted, humorous way that Americans can relate to.
Yeah, making fun of a man crippled in wartime is a real knee-slapper, most people’s idea of light-hearted and humorous.
Lest you mistakenly believe that Obama’s surrogates are distancing themselves from his campaign’s unbelievable crassness and bigotry, also check out this playback from the smirking Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann’s protege on MSNBC.
I hope this latest bit of smart-aleck, adolescent stupidity from the Obama camp blows up in their faces.
I hope this convinces the majority of undecided voters how disastrous an Obama presidency would be – an administration in which arrogance and conceit mean never having to say you’re sorry.
In true Democrat fashion, the Obama campaign is snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
He could have focused his arguments on economics rather than vague “Bush 2” accusations.
He could have picked out specific, key policy issues instead of allowing the vague notion of “change” to be turned into a pun and, ultimately, co-opted by McCain/Palin.
He could have selected Hillary as his running mate, thus solidifying the Democratic base.
Instead, his campaign has degenerated into the worst kind of adolescent name-calling, lacking cohesiveness and message at best, and becoming a snarky, mean-spirited attack on a distinguished war veteran at worst.
It’s a disgraceful display, and at age 47, Barack Obama is old enough to know better. Or he should be.