MSM Silent About Scurrilous McCain Attack on Obama's Patriotism

McCain  is impugning Obama's patriotism in a way no other nominee  has, in the last 50 years. Not Nixon. Not Bush 43 advised by Karl Rove. Not  Bush 41, helped by Lee Atwater.

When we adopted the surge, we were losing the war in Iraq, and I stood up and said I would rather lose a campaign than lose a war. Apparently Sen. Obama, who does not understand what’s happening in Iraq or fails to acknowledge the success in Iraq, would rather lose a war than lose a campaign.

McCain is charging Obama with treason.

Not even Sen. McCarthy went this far, accusing a political opponent trying to lose  a war to win an election. But we need to look that far back for a fitting response.

Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?..If there is a God in heaven, it will do neither you nor your cause any good.

Only Joe Klein among the MSM journalists taken McCain to task.

There is a reason why politicians who want to be President don't say these sort of things: It isn't presidential. A President exists in the straitjacket of literality. His words mean something. So John McCain has to literally believe that Barack Obama would "rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign." I can't imagine that he does. He popped off, out of frustration.

Among prominent bloggers,  Ben Smith has picked up on it. He looked to see if  there was anything like this in recent American history and could not find anything.

..relatively few [attacks] out of the nominee's mouth, and none suggesting that his rival was deliberately selling America out.

McCain has shown a nasty-even sadistic- streak in his personality. Although he said he would run arespectful campaign, we knew that deep inside McCain is a mean-spirited man. It comes out in the sadistic joke he tells about a woman who got raped by a gorilla and liked it. In his attack on 12 year old Chelsea Clinton. When he called his own wife, who pays for his political ambitions, a cunt.

Now that Obama is  running circles around him, that nastiness had to come out. McCain is burning up with jealousy of Obama. It is making him lose his pretensions, letting the inner McCain out.

Obama is smarter. Younger.  Better looking. More eloquent. The last straw must have been the throngs of adoring soldiers who mobbed Obama on his trip to the war zone. McCain thought that he was their champion. Here is Obama sinking two three pointers in a military gym. There he is, smiling infectiously as he poses for pictures with war fighters.

And McCain is left behind.  As he arrived in  New Hampshire, just one, ONE, reporter was waiting for him. No wonder McCain erupted in a fit of jealous rage. And said the unmentionable.

At least the swift boat attacks on Kerry did not come from Bush's mouth.  Bush  41 and 43 hired other people to do it. And they were not accusing Dukakis or Kerry of  treason. Soft on crime, cowardice, both bad enough. But not treason.

Attacking when Obama is away on a foreign trip is especially egregious. Obama can't respond without drawing attention to McCain's comment, embarrassing the country. He said

My hope is to avoid a colloquy with the McCain campaign over the next four or five days.

A strong and merciless counter-attack on McCain is needed urgently. This nasty mean angry  man should not be allowed to hijack this campaign. He should not be allowed to dim the hopes of millions who have been drawn to our Democratic process. If  McCain  has no sense of shame, the rest of us must make known our revulsion at his desperate tactic.

And what is the substance of his allegation? McCain claims that he risked his political career by supporting the surge of troops to Iraq. Ad that Obama opposed it. Obama risked his political career,  and much more, by pposing the war back in 2002. He opposed the surge because it was part of a dumb strategy to be carried out by Bush. The claim that it is the surge alone that reduced violence in Iraq is an insult to Iraqis. They were the ones that laid their lives on the line to rid Iraq of foreign trouble makers. The Al Queda had by then made enemies even of the Sunni minority, who belong to the same religious denomination as them. For McCain to take credit for sacrifice of our soldiers and these Iraqis is shameful enough. For him to turn into an attack on Obama's patriotism is beyond the pale.

A slap on McCain's wrist, as delivered by David Gergen, is not enough. This is not just desperate. It is not just pathetic. It is criminal. It is worse than anything McCain faced  from Bush. His pose as a war hero maverick oh so wronged by the media should not be allowed to shield him. There is no excuse for this behavior.

How much further can McCain sink? Is there no limit   to the depravity of his soul?  Are we going to hear him call Malia ugly? Is he going to make rape jokes about Michelle Obama?

An accusation of treason by one Presidential candidate on the other is not to be taken lying down. Where is the outrage? Why isn't the entire Democratic  establishment descending on McCain? Pelosi?Dean?Gore?Carter?Kerry? Kerry of people, as a friend of McCain, and the target of swift boating.