Beltway Snark

I called Obama’s “losing his bearings” comment about McCain a veiled swipe at McCain’s age. Apparently I’m not the only one who read it that way, since the McCain camp has come out and accused Obama of that very same thing. They also accuse Obama of being a nasty, disingenuous Chicago Democrat. OK, that really is me reading into the McCain camp’s comment.

“First, let us be clear about the nature of Senator Obama’s attack today: He used the words ‘losing his bearings’ intentionally, a not particularly clever way of raising John McCain’s age as an issue,” said McCain adviser Mark Salter. “This is typical of the Obama style of campaigning.

“We have all become familiar with Senator Obama’s new brand of politics. First, you demand civility from your opponent, then you attack him, distort his record and send out surrogates to question his integrity. It is called hypocrisy, and it is the oldest kind of politics there is.”

Here’s the Obama’s camp’s response. Funny how people keep “misinterpreting” Obama’s words.

“Clearly losing one’s bearings has no relation to age, given this bizarre rant that Mark Salter just sent out,” said Burton. “It’s clear why a candidate offering a third term of George Bush’s disastrous economic policies and failed strategy in Iraq would want to distract and attack, but it’s not the kind of campaign John McCain has promised the American people that he would run.”

Bizarre rant, eh? I though the Obama campaign was supposed to rise above name calling and mud slinging. I think it’s really cute that Bill Burton doesn’t see the hypocisty in what he wrote there.