What Stood Out This Week - 7/27-8/2

Boy, this man is really uppity. Let's take him down a peg. Hey, he played the race card! Let's see What Stood Out This Week...

The Democrat

Barack Obama has spent the week trying to stay above the nasty politics he gets so annoyed by. During the primary, there were a few times that he was forced to respond to some nasty politicking, and he ended up with a look on his face like he was standing in poo. He's starting to get that look again. And yes, this is nastier than anything the Clinton campaign threw at him.

Oh, and the Wall Street Journal wrote an article about how Obama might be so thin and fit that fat people won't vote for him. That's about as stupid as anything I've ever heard.

The Republican

The McCain campaign responded to Obama's enormously successful trip overseas by becoming about as juvenile as he can be. He's making ads that compare Obama to Britney and Paris. The Paris Hilton parents gave the legal limit to the McCain campaign but, you know, fuck them.

He's also accusing Obama of playing the race card, which makes no sense to me at all. So because you're white and he's black, he's playing the race card? You're the ones implying that he's being uppity.

Nothing of substance was reported this week by the media. Instead it was all about dirty tactics. What's amazing is that McCain once said that he'd run an honorable campaign, and not only does he now not repudiate his own ads, he proudly stands by them.

I can only hope that this shit will backfire, but it rarely does (see "Bush, George W." and "Rove, Karl"). I'd love to think that this sort of thing doesn't affect "independent-minded Americans." But I've overestimated what's important to my fellow countrymen too many times.

Back in 2000, I had hoped for a John McCain vs. Bill Bradley presidential race. They were two guys who liked each other and seemed to want to run respectful campaigns. Instead, they didn't survive the primaries. Dubya ran the dirtiest Republican primary ever, and I don't remember the dynamics of the Gore/Bradley primary, but Gore had the backing of the Clinton machine, which Bradley couldn't overcome.

We've come a long ways from those days. John McCain's a nasty politician. He's just nasty. Let's call a spade a spade. But then we'll be accused of playing the race card again.

And that's What Stood Out This Week: John McCain's a nasty man.