Letters to the Editor
FredrickBernanke
Published Letters: 170 Editor's Choice: 8
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I'm "Old as Dirt and Have More Scars Than Frankenstein.": McCain vs. Ageism
[Read the article: The dreaded septuagenarian issue]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Interestingly, the one candidate (or surrogate, pre-Dean) who most often raises the age issue is none other than its supposed victim: John McCain himself.
"Older than dirt, more scars than Frankenstein," is a favorite line of his. (though he did botch it at least once.)
So, obviously, McCain is well aware that his age, and the concomitant off-spring issues spawned by it--his death in office, his forgetfulness or seeming befuddlement, the unusual importance of his VP running mate and so on--are issues that will always already be there in voters minds.
His age, like Hillary's gender and Barack's color, are facts, period, facts visible to the naked eyes of voters. They can't be spun or otherwise hidden from public view. And to some, they would be considered "negatives."
Maybe McCain's strategy of raising the age issue himself at almost every opportunity is his way of disarming or charming his adversaries by reducing the issue to the category of joke.
After all, jokes aren't made about Iraq, nor about the financial/housing crises---they're serious issues. But "age?"
It's the stuff Letterman, Leno & Co. can mine night after night, without concern for any negative sympathy-based responses from their audiences. The late-night comics would never ridicule someone whose has lost an arm or leg, or suffers from any physical malady.
The dems can beat McCain on the real, non-laughable issues; they run the risk of a sympathy backlash if they hit him too hard on his age. He can joke about it himself; Letterman can do the "10 Ways You Know John McCain is Awake" monologue every night---but gratuitous, duplicitous remarks such as Dean's only feed the public's perception that politicians are slime.
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Speaking the Unspeakable: Barack Learns a Lesson in Modern Politics
[Read the article: Obama and the white working class]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Obama's remarks are reminiscent of John Kerry's to some student assembly (as I recall) during his campaign. He urged his audience members to stay and do well in school or "you'll wind up in Iraq," or words the that effect.
His opponents accused him of showing disrespect for those in uniform; of being an elitist; and all the other usual accusations that follow a remark as un-politic as Kerry's.
This time around, the un-politic remarks have come during the primary season. So it's fellow-democrat Hillary who is leading the charge to paint Obama as a man out of touch with the common people, the working folk.
There are several points of interest in this (and the Kerry) brouhaha:
1. The underlying veracity of the statements are not an issue. In fact, Obama now and Kerry then are being castigated for truth-telling, perhaps the greatest vice any politician can have.
2. Over and over and over again, candidates have--usually unwittingly--displayed the fact that they are as far removed from the bus driver, cashier, assembly-line worker, as are Madonna or A-Rod. Yet politicians are required to perpetuate a mythology that even the common wo/man doesn't himself take seriously.
3. The real insult to all the Average Joe's and Joan's is that true, dyed-in-the-wool pols, like HRC, interact with the as if they were children in need of being told fairy tales only, lest the truth, the reality, of situations scare like the bogeyman scares a 5-year-old. In short, these average people are there only to be manipulated, cajoled, pacified; the goal is getting their vote every few years, period.
Kerry speaks the Truth. He's crucified by his political enemies.
Obama allows Truth to spew from his mouth; HRC is right there to make him pay for it.
[Note: There is an argument that can be made that Barack and John, by speaking the unspeakable, have thereby shown themselves to be inferior politicians, politicians who are unlikely to win elections, especially presidential ones. This may, indeed, be a valid argument. If so, it makes me shudder.]
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@teresa
[Read the article: Obama and the white working class]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Read my post a couple down from yours. Title: Speaking the Unspeakable....
I would be interested in your response to it...if you have any, that is.
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@T. Suarez
[Read the article: Obama and the white working class]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]First, Kerry's remarks were made during the presidential campaign.
Second, I, like Kerry, did not intend to disparage in any way those serving in the military. Quite the contrary.
Third, the fact that a minuscule percentage of enlisted people may have college degrees or J.D. degrees does not refute the fact that most enlisted people fit a certain demographic, a demographic not skewed toward college graduates, let alone lawyers.
Your assumption that I am isolated from contact with actual servicemen and women is false: Living in San Diego, I am in frequent contact and discussion with active Navy and Marines, the latter of whom often have seen duty in Iraq.
They, though never ever disparaging their civilian or military commanders, almost always cite the confusion associated with their Iraq tours. Their reasons for being in uniform vary; but none that I have met are Harvard grads; neither have I met any that are "dumb."
Pretending that the burden of service falls equally upon all Americans is just plain, flat-out, obviously false.
If there were a draft system in place, the Iraq invasion most likely would not have taken place, or, at worst, would have ended many years ago.
My personal opinion, for what it's worth (not much) is that it will, in the end, be the military itself that forces the civilian leadership to terminate this disaster.