The Obama Campaign’s Unspeakably Mean (and Wrong) ‘McCain Can’t E-mail’ Ad
Given the truth, it may be the most offensive campaign ad — ever.
From the guys who supposedly want to concentrate on the issues, we get this, enthusiastically conveyed by Nedra Pickler of the Associated Press:
John McCain is mocked as an out-of-touch, out-of-date computer illiterate in a television commercial out Friday from Barack Obama as the Democrat begins his sharpest barrage yet on McCain’s long Washington career.
The new fighting spirit comes as McCain has been gaining in the polls and some Democrats have been expressing concern the Obama campaign has not been aggressive enough.
Well, it is aggressive. The trouble is, it’s also deeply offensive, and goes to a place I don’t believe any presidential campaign ad has ever gone:
1982, John McCain goes to Washington,” an announcer says over chirpy elevator music. “Things have changed in the last 26 years, but McCain hasn’t.”
“He admits he still doesn’t know how to use a computer, can’t send an e-mail, still doesn’t understand the economy, and favors two hundred billion in new tax cuts for corporations, but almost nothing for the middle class,” it says. It shows video of McCain getting out of a golf cart with former President George H.W. Bush and closes with a photo of him standing with the current President Bush at the White House. “After one president who was out of touch, we just can’t afford more of the same.”
Here’s the truth (bolds are mine):
(the Boston Globe; March 4, 2000; via Ace and Sweetness & Light)
McCain gets emotional at the mention of military families needing food stamps or veterans lacking health care. The outrage comes from inside: McCain’s severe war injuries prevent him from combing his hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes.
(Forbes; May 29, 2000; via Ace and Jonah Goldberg at the Corner)
In certain ways, McCain was a natural Web candidate. Chairman of the Senate Telecommunications Subcommittee and regarded as the U.S. Senate’s savviest technologist, McCain is an inveterate devotee of email. His nightly ritual is to read his email together with his wife, Cindy. The injuries he incurred as a Vietnam POW make it painful for McCain to type. Instead, he dictates responses that his wife types on a laptop. “She’s a whiz on the keyboard, and I’m so laborious,” McCain admits.
(New York Times; July 13, 2008; via Ed Morrissey at Hot Air)
Q: But do you go on line for yourself?
Mr. McCain: They go on for me. I am learning to get online myself, and I will have that down fairly soon, getting on myself. I don’t expect to be a great communicator, I don’t expect to set up my own blog, but I am becoming computer literate to the point where I can get the information that I need – including going to my daughter’s blog first, before anything else.
Jonah Goldberg at the Corner credibly contends that the combination of the points made above show that McCain “actually has more cyber-cred than Obama.”
Barack Obama is mocking the physical challenges of his opponent, caused by his opponent’s 5-1/2 years as a POW, to falsely accuse him of not being capable of things he is, with assistance in some cases, actually doing.
For this, an AP reporter cheers Obama on for “showing a newly aggressive tone.”
The sentiments stated in the ad come from the standard-bearer of the supposed party of compassion, conveyed with fanfare by the supposedly objective Essential Global News Network.
If there is a lower point to which Obama, his campaign, and its media elite water carriers can go, I’m not sure I want to see it.
They should be totally ashamed of themselves, and embarrassed at how wrong they are. I doubt they are either.
John Stephenson put a post up ahead of me over at NewsBusters, and asked, “Will Media Report Obama’s Mocking of McCain’s Disability?” Does anyone doubt that an ad campaign such as this would finish off a GOP candidate?
_____________________________________________
UPDATE: There was a point briefly raised here about Bush Admin e-mails that was incorrect; it has been removed. I thought the President had abandoned using e-mail upon entering office; what he abandoned was sending e-mail to family and friends, because he couldn’t guarantee their privacy.
UPDATE 2: Wait a minute; I was right, but I don’t know whether it started on Day One of his administration or came later. The WSJ link is from October 2006 –
He (Bush) added: “I tend not to email or — not only tend not to email, I don’t email, because of the different record requests that can happen to a president. I don’t want to receive emails because, you know, there’s no telling what somebody’s email may — it would show up as, you know, a part of some kind of a story, and I wouldn’t be able to say, ‘Well, I didn’t read the email.’ ‘But I sent it to your address, how can you say you didn’t?’ So, in other words, I’m very cautious about emailing.”
So it really is the case that:
- The Obama campaign mocked its opponent’s war-caused physical handicaps.
- Claimed they prevent him from doing things he actually does (in some cases with help from a loving spouse).
- Used as its central claim his supposed inability to do something that the next president will probably continue not doing, or will at most do very rarely, for the reasons President Bush cited.
In the process, the campaign and its candidate exposed its guttural instincts and thought processes for all the world to see.
Great show, guys and gals.
UPDATE 3: Mark Steyn weighs in at the Corner (HT Instapundit) — “It’s extraordinary that someone who wants to be our president and our commander in chief knows how to send an e-mail …but not how to do a five-minute Google search.”
UPDATE 4: John at Powerline — “I guess now we’ll find out whether Barack Obama is capable of shame.” Don’t hold your breath waiting for it.
The point of the ad is that McCain chooses not to join the 21st century, not that he can’t because of his injuries. If he wanted to, he could use e-mail and computers like every other disabled American who use them in their daily lives. He relishes and laughs off the fact that he’s computer illiterate. How can the USA compete with the global economy if a President doesn’t recognize and use the tools of today. If Stephen Hawking can theorize on the foundations of the universe, McCain can send a friggin’ e-mail. This is such B.S. right wing swift boat smear crap.
Comment by Ben — September 13, 2008 @ 2:39 am
#1, you obviously didn’t read the post, or didn’t care to comprehend its points.
What about …..
(Obama’s ad) claimed they prevent him from doing things he actually does (in some cases with help from a loving spouse)
….. don’t you understand?
Thus there’s no further point in responding.
You too should be embarrassed and ashamed.
Comment by TBlumer — September 13, 2008 @ 3:40 am
Hey, get used to it! Politics is a sport for big boys and grownups, not crybabies. After all the lies McCain has told about Obama, don’t expect any sympathy. I saw the “newly found” video of McCain when he first got home from Namm, and he was saluting with his arm held high! Look it up Yourself, so he must have hurt his hand and arms some other way, like maybe giving circle jerks to the lobbyists who run his campaign and are his best friends next to the Keating five.
Comment by Mooseburger — September 13, 2008 @ 4:21 am
I think it’s funny how Obama admits that changed has happened over the past 26 years in Congress, but McCain hasn’t. I thought Obama was different from the other candidates because he is going to bring change to Washington. So there is no change or not enough change?
Comment by Rybiep — September 13, 2008 @ 6:59 am
#3, McCain doesn’t deserve our want your sympathy, or mine.
The crybaby is “Mr. enough” Obama, Mr. “Sensitive about my ears,” who can dish it out but can’t take it.
And please tell me the lies McCain himself has told about Obama.
I think this reaction to the vid is more on point. You too should be ashamed.
Comment by TBlumer — September 13, 2008 @ 9:15 am
#1, the point is Obama and his supporters are condescending elitists. They denigrate seniors, denigrate women and they denigrate people with disabilities. Once is an incident, twice is a coincidence and three times is a pattern. Here is a guy who has literally accomplished zero over his years of legislative experience and failed as a community organizer and yet he and his supporters denigrate anyone who disagrees with him and his agenda.
You Obama supporters don’t get it, you dissed Hillary because she was a woman and proved it by not taking her as the logical VP candidate. Hillary has more experience and results than Obama, now that’s sexist. Then Obama claims Palin doesn’t have experience to be POTUS even though Palin has way more experience running a bureaucracy as mayor and governor than both he and Biden combined, that is just plain sexist. How much experience does a woman have to have in order to be more experienced than a male who has NONE????
Talk about elitist condescending behavior, implying Trig should have been aborted due to his Downs syndrome. Telling Palin she is a bad mother because she is running for VP because she is a MOTHER. That’s sexist! Never mind that her husband Todd is staying home to take care of the kids, a situation btw advocated by feminists as showing support for a woman making equal opportunity choices. Not only did you Obama supporters denigrate Sarah as a mother, you denigrated Todd as a father saying fathers can’t be good parents as in 2nd class parenthood.
Claiming John McCain could drop dead at any moment is condescending to seniors, you totally discount their continuing contribution to society. Basically Obama and his supporters have green lighted discriminating against seniors on the basis of age because you can’t know when they will drop dead.
Of course, the outrageous implied assertion by Obama and his supporters is the utility of human beings if they are limited by a disability. This elitist and condescending attitude is most ugly and harkens back to the 1920’s disgusting eugenics laws. We can’t know what contribution to society a person with disabilities will do at birth. We can’t know what future contribution to society a person who became disabled. Saying McCain can’t contribute because he can’t or won’t send emails implies his age and disabilities can not be compensated by some other means and thus says anyone with disabilities or age is a burden upon society at worst or a useless eater at best. Obama and his supporters are completely out of step with America. Hope and Change are best demonstrated by people overcoming their disabilities NOT marginalizing them as victims or dead wood.
Comment by dscott — September 13, 2008 @ 11:05 am
[...] BizzyBlog » The Obama Campaign’s Unspeakably Mean ‘McCain Can’t E-mail’ Ad [...]
Pingback by Obama Ad Makes Fun That McCain Can’t E-mail..Will He Follow Up With McCain’s severe war injuries prevent him from combing his hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes? | Right Voices — September 13, 2008 @ 2:20 pm
#5, I’m wondering if there’s a post on this blog about how sensitive McCain is about going bald. I mean, he did get angry enough to call his wife a “c***” for teasing him about going bald.
#6, the point is that you don’t know what you’re talking. How is Obama, someone who spent many years as a community organizer working hands on with working class people, an elitist? McCain, on the other hand, made it through college more than likely through his father’s connections, and can’t count how many houses he has. He doesn’t know the price of a gallon of milk, he can’t remember the last time he pumped his own gas. He sees the cut off point for middle class as $5 million. And he has 7 lobbyists as top advisers on his campaign. Advisers that are telling him to give 58% of his tax cuts to the top 1% of the population.
Obama’s supporters talking about how McCain could die at any time doesn’t reflect anything on Obama. And it is, in fact, a good point. POWs from the Vietnam War have a life expectancy of about 75. Factor in his cancer, which he has fought off 4 times now, and he looks much less stable.
How does he denigrate women? Surely not like McCain, who has voted against bills that would ensure equal pay for men and women in the workforce. Surely not like McCain who, as previously stated, called his wife a c*** over a statement of obvious fact. Surely not like McCain, who told the imfamous “woman raped by a gorilla” joke. Surely not like McCain, who called Chelsea Clinton, at that time still a teenager, ugly, just to get a laugh out of a crowd. And how does he denigrate people with disibilities? Surely not like McCain, who shoved away a woman in a wheel chair because he was angry and didn’t want to talk to her.
Please explain how he failed as a community organizer. He was actually listed as one of the 75 people who would change Chicago, back during his days as a community organizer. Doesn’t sound like someone who’s failing.
And it’s not sexist to call someone inexperienced. It’s also by no means in the hands of Obama that the Democrats chose him over Hillary. He was chosen by process of election. And the only bureaucratic experience that Palin has at running a town and a state is running them into the ground. She put a town of 5,000 people $22 million dollars in debt. She hired a lobbyist to try to get the more than $27 million in earmarks she requested. And by your logic, Palin is more experienced than McCain. So maybe he’s not fit to be president either. Now, if you look at actual experience, Biden is by far the most experienced. He has been in the Senate over 10 years longer than McCain, and has been heavily involved in both the Board of Domestic Policy and the Board of Forgeign Policy.
Paragraph 4 makes me feel that you might be a little confused. You seem to think that Obama’s supporters are running for president, not Obama himself.
As for your last paragraph:
McCain can’t operate a mouse and peck on a keyboard, but regained his flight status in 1974 after going through rehab? Now, I’m no pilot, but I’d expect that flying a fighter jet at high speeds and with high forces being exerted on you requires a good bit of fine motor skill. As much as searching and pecking on a keyboard anyways. So should he not have been allowed to fly, or is a lack of motor skills an excuse for rejecting simple technology?
At a convention for children with Cerebral Palsy, I met a man with Cerebral Palsy effecting his arms, yet he was a computer programmer by profession. I should think that his motor skills are much more lacking than those of Senator McCain’s.
McCain is not someone overcoming his disibility, he’s someone using it to his political advantage. And Obama and his supporters are indeed out of step with America. They’re a step ahead, actually. They see where the country is going, and they see what needs to be done for it to be successful when it gets there. McCain’s supporters, on the other hand, just don’t want to lose their guns. They don’t see a problem in seeing Bush’s 3rd term just so they can continue to support things pro-life and anti-homosexual agendas, things that the president has little effect on. They don’t mind their goverment giving their money to the companies that send their jobs overseas, that bend them over and screw them from behind.
And, being someone who works in the IT field, I feel that technology is an important subject that has largely been untouched since DMCA. How can he understand the concept of net neutrality if he never uses or understands computers? The answer to that is pretty simple, actually. He won’t. He’ll let some lobbyist for the MPAA or the RIAA decide for him.
Comment by Bob Dylan — September 13, 2008 @ 6:47 pm
#8, what about …..
Chairman of the Senate Telecommunications Subcommittee and regarded as the U.S. Senate’s savviest technologist, McCain is an inveterate devotee of email.
….. don’t you understand?
McCain is not someone overcoming his disibility, he’s someone using it to his political advantage.
That is such BS.
The fact is that people have been begging McCain to talk more about his war experience, yet he didn’t really do it in earnest during the campaign until the convention. He almost never talks about his physical challenges. He should be telling people he has a son in Iraq more often, but he considers it opportunistic, and doesn’t unless asked.
Please explain how he failed as a community organizer. He was actually listed as one of the 75 people who would change Chicago, back during his days as a community organizer. Doesn’t sound like someone who’s failing.
And the South Side of Chicago is in suuuuuuuuuch good shape as a result of his impact. Exactly what did he accomplish?
Oh, here’s something — the Obamazebo.
BTW, use the word I had to clean up in two instances or any more profanity and your comments won’t be allowed through. That’s a change you can count on.
Comment by TBlumer — September 14, 2008 @ 12:31 am
#8, A community organizer is not accountable for anything to anyone. A mayor and governor is. Barack Obama has by all accounts never been accountable for anything, hence the numerous instances of flip-flopping and tossing supporters under the bus. But I am glad you think Obama doesn’t have any accountability for his supporters, while at the same time accepting their money and support. I am glad you don’t get it, and make excuses for what NORMAL people find unacceptable behavior as this makes our job winning the election so much easier. In the public’s mind your undisciplined unrestrained behavior represents anarchy, insensitivity and irresponsibility. You don’t get it, I certainly have no intention of convincing you otherwise from your narrow self reinforcing view of the world and that’s very good as far as I am concerned.
Comment by dscott — September 14, 2008 @ 9:31 am
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/barackobama/2909844/Barack-Obama-under-fire-for-ignoring-advice-on-how-to-beat-John-McCain.html I think this sums it up quite nicely Obama’s elitist and out of touch views.
Comment by dscott — September 14, 2008 @ 11:52 am
it’s a republican lie.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/12/yes-mccain-can-use-electr_n_126130.html
If he can use a blackberry, he can type an email. In fact, he can type an email on his blackberry.
Comment by Insatiable — September 15, 2008 @ 8:42 am
#12, the LIE is that he can’t (i.e. doesn’t) e-mail.
He does, with the help of his wife.
This angle of attack is sick, but I am happy to report that it’s also very counterproductive.
Comment by TBlumer — September 15, 2008 @ 9:05 am