God These People Are Unbelievable

The most recent dust-up on the campaign trail is this back and forth between Romney and Obama that I commented on last night. Now McCain’s weighing in and I’m starting to wonder if the cartoons about babies crying and shaking rattles shouldn’t feature him instead. Obama, yesterday on the Situation Room, said this:

This is offensive and I think it’s disappointing because John McCain always says I’m not going to run that politics and then to engage in that kind of smear I think is unfortunate particularly since my policy towards Hamas has been no different than his. I’ve said that they’re a terrorist organization. That we should not negotiate with them unless they recognize Israel and renounce violence. And unless they’re willing to abide by previous accords between the Palestinians and the Israelis. And so for him to toss out comments like that I think is an example of him losing his bearings as he pursues this nomination.

And, as you may remember, this is all in response to McCain’s saying that Obama was the candidate of choice for terrorist organization Hamas and that we should draw our own conclusions from that fact. Now McCain’s whining that using the phrase ‘losing his bearings’ was a cheap shot about his age.

Let’s get something out in the open here.

John: You’re old. You’re really frackin’ old, John.

If McCain got into this as the oldest presidential candidate in the history of America thinking that his age wasn’t going to be a legitimate issue, then he really is senile. But that’s not what Barack was saying, and McCain knows it. Obama was saying what a lot of us on the left (and I think more than a few in the middle) have been feeling for months now.

Remember when McCain was the Republican everybody liked? Remember when he was the maverick who didn’t just follow lockstep with the rest of them? Remember when he was the guy you could always count on to be the most reasonable of that bunch? Remember when he was the one who wasn’t going to be just like George Bush? What the hell happened to that guy? Since beginning this campaign McCain has moved way out to the right on everything from the war to economics to judicial appointments. I keep expecting him to respond to someone calling out “Hey, Senator McCain” by saying, “That name no longer has any meaning for me.” John McCain is dead and whoever this guy is betrayed and murdered him. That’s what Obama was talking about. He’s lost his bearings, his footing, his way, and himself.

But let’s get past that. Let’s pretend that McCain’s right and that this was a way of bringing his age up. What exactly is it that makes it a cheap shot? Is McCain trying to tell us that he’s not really frackin’ old? Are we not allowed to talk about it? Because, seriously folks, it’s not like this isn’t an issue. Age is the one immutable* characteristic that is actually relevant. McCain’s what, 71 now, right? He’ll be 72 before he takes office and that means that if he gets elected and reelected he’ll be 80 when he leaves office. He can’t tell us his mind’s going to be all there in eight years. He can’t tell us it’ll be all there in four years. He just can’t. He can’t know that. He’s really old. Old people start to deteriorate. They get Alzheimer’s. They get Parkinson’s. They get dementia. They get just generally more forgetful and less capable. It doesn’t happen to everybody. I’m sure he takes care of himself, and he’s probably starting off a little sharper than most people and he can afford to be blunted a bit by age, but folks, that doesn’t mean anything. My grandfather started out sharp as a tack and stayed that way till his early seventies and then went into a decline that made falling stars look lethargic. But that might not happen to McCain. I'm not saying it will or it won't because I don’t know. And neither does he. And neither does America.

The amazing thing here is, I’m also not saying don’t vote for the guy because he’s old.** I’m just saying that he shouldn’t be whining that it came up. And speaking of losing his bearings, remember when he wasn’t doing that? I don’t have any quotes for this but I distinctly remember a John McCain of just a few months ago who took on this issue straight on, talking about it, allaying fears, joking around. What happened that guy? The Darth McCain we’ve got now gives us this (through an aide):

We have all become familiar with Sen. Obama’s new brand of politics. First you demand civility and then you attack him. You distort his record and send out surrogates to question his integrity. It is called hypocrisy.

Uh… Hello? I hate to go all schoolyard on ya, but he started it!

McCain directly questions Obama’s integrity with a seriously cheap shot about Hamas and Obama makes a justified response saying he’s disappointed that the debate has gone down to that level when he expected more from McCain and it’s Obama’s fault? Did I miss something? Is this Bizarro world? Only in an alternate universe could anything Obama said in response to McCain’s comments be called an attack. When you’re responding to an attack, it’s called a defense, dude. Look it up. And let’s all flog Obama for wanting a civilized debate. Who does he think he is asking for that? And I’d like to see one example of where Obama has distorted anything about McCain’s record. And this is the part I like best. McCain sends out a surrogate to question Obama’s integrity and complain about Obama sending out surrogates to question McCain’s. There's some seriously funny symmetry in there someplace. Or there would be if these guys weren't deadly serious with this nonsense.

I just can’t believe these people.

* Okay, not actually immutable, but it only changes one way. It’s something he can’t do anything about.

** Don’t vote for him because he’s wrong on almost every issue.