Home > Jay Bookman > Archives > 2008 > August > 22
Friday, August 22, 2008
It all goes back to the playground
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Watching the back and forth on the McCain house question, I’m coming to the realization that every presidential race since Carter vs. Ford has been decided on the same basis:
The guy who gets ridiculed and picked on the most, the one who offers the most fodder to late-night comics — he’s the one who always loses. Take a look.
Ford in 76, for being clumsy and stupid (which he wasn’t … stupid, that is).
Carter in 80, for killer rabbits, being from Georgia, Billy Beer, etc., etc, etc.
Mondale in 84, … well, he just got slaughtered by Reagan, period.
Dukakis in 88, two words: The tank.
Bush in 92, Dana Carvey, “wouldn’t be prudent,” being agog at a supermarket scanner, general rich-guy dorkiness.
Dole in 96, old and, like Mondale, just blown out of the water anyway.
Gore in 2000, Ozone man, invented the internet, etc.
Kerry in 2004, windsurfing, Band-Aid Purple Hearts, married for money, Swift Boated….
And in 2008?
Permalink | Comments (103) | Post your comment |
What goes around comes around
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Obama campaign is making a big deal about John McCain’s inability to remember how many homes he and his wife own — four? seven? ten? — and the fact that they spend a quarter of a million a year on household servants. The Republicans are complaining that the attack is unfair.
“Americans don’t like this class warfare stuff,” one McCain campaign official said.
They also pulled out the Vietnam card once again.
“This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years — in prison,” McCain spokesman Brian Rogers explained to the Washington Post.
All of this is vaguely familiar to me …. I’m trying to remember …. Something about making fun of a candidate because he had married an extremely rich woman who kept him in the lap of luxury he had never earned?
And mocking that same candidate because he allegedly relied way too much on his Vietnam service to deflect criticism?
Is this ringing a bell? Can anybody out there refresh my memory on that? Is that familiar to anybody else? Because damn if it doesn’t sound familiar. Or maybe it’s just that deja vu thing.
