BallotVox

Obama and Negative Campaigning

Gary R. Welsh, an Indianapolis lawyer, doesn’t buy the standard line that Barack Obama floats largely free of the fray of negative campaigning. He recognizes that dirt is part of politics, but he’s annoyed that “Obama has been presented with this aura of being above the politics of personal destruction when he in fact has a track record of hitting his opponents below the belt as much as the next politician.” He cites examples of what he considers ageist langugage aimed at McCain and sexist references aimed at Clinton. Things like “Senator Clinton periodically when she is feeling down launches attacks” or “She’s got the kitchen sink flying, and the china flying, and the, you know, the buffet is coming at me.” Then Welsh argues that the media lets Obama get away with it (thanks, Ann Raber):

You can bet if a Republican opponent used those words to describe a female candidate like Clinton, the media would be all over them demanding an apology. Democrats and womens’ groups blasted Former Gov. Mitt Romney, for example, when he criticized his female opponent for behaving in a way that he said was “unbecoming.”

Kirk M is similarly annoyed at language he’s heard from the Obama camp. He’s an ex-Cold War submariner who didn’t go to college, has sometimes worked minimum-wage jobs, and revels in intelligent conversation. Kirk M tells the Obama campaign what he thinks of its attributing the West Virginia loss to “demographically unfriendly territory” — implying less-educated white people (thanks again to Ann Raber):

Well, listen up Mr. Obama’s advisors, I have a light to shine upon this subject.

After fifty years of life, serving in the US Naval Submarine Force during the Cold War and working and dealing with people from all over this world and from all walks of life, the simple fact is that college educated doesn’t mean squat when it comes to a person’s intelligence or whether said person is informed/educated or not.

I would hate to think that Obama’s loss in W. Virginia was strictly due to prejudice and although that might have been a minor factor I believe that a lot of folks, not just the those in W. Virginia, are finally starting to see Barack Obama for what he really is; A slick talking, consummate phoney. Of course this is strictly my non-college-educated opinion here. Obviously I’m too ignorant, inexperienced and naive to realize what having this man as President would do for this country. On the other hand I might see exactly what having this man as President would do for this country hence my aversion to the idea of him of winning the Presidential election.

Kirk M’s closer: “But then again, what do I know? I’m white and never attended college.”