I'd like to sound a small note of caution. Between now and November, we are going to be hearing and saying a lot about how old John McCain is. In fact we have already started to see some jokes on dKos drawn from the deep well of old person jokes, some of which have been around even longer than I have. McCain's about six years older than I am, so that means he's REALLY old. And I might even join into the fun at times. Who can help wanting to pile on to a candidate who represents a party of incompetence, corruption, failure, dishonesty..ahhh!! hold my coat someone, I'm ready for a scrap!! Whoa. What was that? Sorry. Well,as I was saying, this is just a small note of caution not to get too carried away with the old stuff. OK?
Isn't there enough to blame him for (so richly deserved!) without having to mock him for being old? I mean, mock him, go ahead, so will I. He has been coasting along on his Vietnam credits for so long that it's time he got his bluff called. Think he is too uninformed to manage foreign affairs because he can't tell the Sunni from the Shia? Mock him for that. Hammer him with it. Think he is a blatant hypocrite because he flip flops on the religious right? Call him on it. Mock him for it mercilessly. He deserves it. Think maybe he has so little understanding of the economy that he still swallows that crap about tax cuts increasing revenues? Maybe we should follow him around with a "truth squad" and ask him to prove it every time he tells that lie. If security would let scruffy looking folks like us into his events.
But here's the thing. Each time in the last few days when I have seen in a diary or in a comment that people are assuming that he's this dishonest, or this uninformed, or this whatever because he's so old, it rankles me just a little. Maybe I just have to toughen up my skin even a bit more (As if having all the heroes in my life shot to death while they were young was not enough). Maybe I just have to suck it up and admit that a few of us just have to get thrown out with the trash to make sure that the trash gets thrown out. But I don't think so. I hope not.
McCain's age has to be discussed during the campaign. Hillary's gender and Barack's "race" do too. There are real,logical reasons to ask about his health. And to ask about his physical and mental fitness. Of course there are. Let's make the criticism fair. If he is lazy, let's call him lazy. If he can be proven to have sold his soul to the devil, lets prove it the way we always do. With evidence. Quotes. Facts. But not with stereotypes about his age. That just isn't good enough for us. It's not good enough for me.