jreeves
Senior Member
- Feb 12, 2008
- 6,588
- 319
Who's smearing whom? - James Kirchick - Politico.com
Not really. Thus far, no one with any serious affiliation to John McCain's campaign has resorted to the alleged scare tactics in which Republicans and, apparently, only Republicans have been perfecting since Richard Nixon was first elected. On the contrary, if the past few months have showed us anything, its that the Obama campaign is the one dealing in crude smears.
Contrast the absence of smears from the McCain camp with some of the outlandish remarks made by high-ranking Obama supporters. In April, West Virginia Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV said that because McCain was a fighter pilot, who dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet, and was long gone when they hit, the Arizona senator who spent five and a half years in a Vietcong tiger cage having his arms repeatedly broken didnt really understand the carnage of war. What happened when [the missiles] get to the ground? Rockefeller asked a crowd at an Obama rally. He doesnt know. You have to care about the lives of people. McCain never gets into those issues. That the great-grandson of John D. Rockefeller would impugn the wartime experience of John McCain is especially rich, given that the only battle Rockefeller has seen is when he hunts wild game at his 80-acre ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyo.
Over the weekend, retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark said that McCain is untested and untried, and elaborated that, I don't think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president. Clark, you may remember, ran for president in 2004 on his record as a career military officer, so his comment, which he has not retracted, was not just morally offensive but self-discrediting.
The belief that the Republican Party has been successfully scaring voters since 1968 is a comforting salve for Democrats. After all, its much easier for them to demonize conservatives than consider that the reason for their electoral defeats may lie with liberal ideas. Please dont take that as a "smear.
Who's campaign is smearing whom?
Not really. Thus far, no one with any serious affiliation to John McCain's campaign has resorted to the alleged scare tactics in which Republicans and, apparently, only Republicans have been perfecting since Richard Nixon was first elected. On the contrary, if the past few months have showed us anything, its that the Obama campaign is the one dealing in crude smears.
Contrast the absence of smears from the McCain camp with some of the outlandish remarks made by high-ranking Obama supporters. In April, West Virginia Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV said that because McCain was a fighter pilot, who dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet, and was long gone when they hit, the Arizona senator who spent five and a half years in a Vietcong tiger cage having his arms repeatedly broken didnt really understand the carnage of war. What happened when [the missiles] get to the ground? Rockefeller asked a crowd at an Obama rally. He doesnt know. You have to care about the lives of people. McCain never gets into those issues. That the great-grandson of John D. Rockefeller would impugn the wartime experience of John McCain is especially rich, given that the only battle Rockefeller has seen is when he hunts wild game at his 80-acre ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyo.
Over the weekend, retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark said that McCain is untested and untried, and elaborated that, I don't think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president. Clark, you may remember, ran for president in 2004 on his record as a career military officer, so his comment, which he has not retracted, was not just morally offensive but self-discrediting.
The belief that the Republican Party has been successfully scaring voters since 1968 is a comforting salve for Democrats. After all, its much easier for them to demonize conservatives than consider that the reason for their electoral defeats may lie with liberal ideas. Please dont take that as a "smear.
Who's campaign is smearing whom?
