Are Dems Alluding To McCain's Age In Code?

Politico: Some Republicans Say Obama Operatives Are Subtly Drawing Attention To It

(The Politico)  This story was written by Carrie Budoff Brown.

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In a campaign year marked by flare-ups surrounding comments that have offended one group or another, John McCain and Barack Obama have moved on to the next sensitive battleground: the question of McCain’s advanced age.

As some Republicans see it, Democrats are deliberately talking in code about the presumptive 71-year-old GOP nominee as part of an attempt to highlight his age.

“It is code; there is no question it is,” Ed Rollins, a Republican strategist who helped lead President Ronald Reagan’s 1984 reelection campaign, said when age surfaced as an issue. “They are trying to raise doubts.”

MSNBC host Joe Scarborough repeatedly argued on his show last week that the Obama campaign was portraying McCain as a “doddering, old, confused fool. He needs to go to Miami Beach and play checkers.”  

To Democrats, however, Republicans are imagining slights and smears where there are none as part of an attempt to silence any discussion of McCain’s vigor. 

“They are definitely trying to just put a lid on the kind of language we use,” said Democratic consultant Jonathan Prince.  

Obama aides deny any strategy to highlight age, and Obama, 46, himself told reporters last month that age should not be a factor. Indeed, he used to compliment McCain’s “half-century of service” to the country as a Vietnam War veteran and a member of Congress, but after McCain campaign manager Rick Davis argued that it was a sly way to inject age into the debate, Obama dropped the reference in February.

But a Democratic strategist not involved in the campaign, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, said he sees footprints of a deliberate Obama campaign strategy.

“They have made allusions to McCain’s age and temperament because, with McCain, both his age and his volatile temper are legitimate issues. There is a line of appropriateness that they cannot cross. And I don’t think they have,” the strategist said.

Certainly there have been times when Democrats have tackled the issue head-on, as Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) has several times in recent months.  

“The older you get, the more difficult it is to have the energy to confront these things,” Murtha, who turns 76 on Tuesday, said in an interview with ThinkProgress, a liberal blog. “I know myself. I have to pace myself. I’m the same age he is. He said I was senile a couple of years ago. Well, that’s beside the point, whether I’m senile. But I just believe that his age is going to be very difficult for him to become a good commander in chief, because the decisions are so difficult.” 

The issue is no small matter for McCain. Polls in recent months found voters more likely to take into consideration his age than Obama’s race, which explains why the McCain campaign has turned into ersatz word police, calling foul on even the slightest hint of a reference to the Republican’s age. 

McCain senior adviser Mark Salter rebuked Obama last month for saying that the Arizonan was “losing his bearings.” Obama, who was defending against charges that Hamas wanted him to win in November, protested that the phrase has nothing to do with age. 

But when Obama foreign policy adviser Susan Rice and Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) each described McCain as “confused” last week, Republicans became convinced that Democrats intend to run a crypto-ageist strategy, using words that create a subtle impression in voters’ minds. 

McCain himself did little to wave reporters off the narrative. 

“I’m obviously disappointed in a comment like that,” McCain said when asked about Kerry’s statement that the Republican “confuses” facts about Iran, Al Qaeda, and Sunni and Shiite Muslis. 

Kerry called the suggestion that his comments had something to do with age “unfair and even ridiculous.”

But the dynamic of Obama’s running against a candidate who’s a quarter of a century older is nonetheless creating an environment where some Democrats see the need to self-censor, proving that the McCain offensive is already working.

“I was going to say, ‘He lost his grip,’” said Democratic consultant Jonathan Prince, recalling a recent appearance on CNN’s “Situation Room.” “Those are normal words you use when you are involved in campaigns. You say, ‘They are nuts, they are off their rocker, they lost it.’ They have become very adept at grabbing every opportunity they can to turn it into a personal slur.”

[Torilin]

Discrimination against McCain''''s age........blah blah blah...yada yada yada..........BORING!! YOU SOUND SO OLD! Oh wait, it was posted by McSsame! No it''s not discrimation against all senior citizen just the ones that are really confused and not sure where they are or what they are doing!!

[johnmcsame]

Discrimination against McCain''s age. Senior citizens are going to be upset with these young irreverent supporters of Obama. What a bunch of ingrates. It was people such as John McCain and other senior citizens who have given so much of themselves to make America the great country that it is today. What do they get in return. A word of thanks. No. They get a bunch of disrespectful Obama supporters alluding to the fact that all senior citizens are senile. Is this your idea of a clean campaign Mr Obama. I certainly hope that senior citizens give you a swift kick up your a** and send you back to the senate.

[johnmcsame]

Discrimination against McCain''s age. Senior citizens are going to be upset with these young irreverent supporters of Obama. What a bunch of ingrates. It was people such as John McCain and other senior citizens who have given so much of themselves to make America the great country that it is today. What do they get in return. A word of thanks. No. They get a bunch of disrespectful Obama supporters alluding to the fact that all senior citizens are senile. Is this your idea of a clean campaign Mr Obama. I certainly hope that senior citizens give you a swift kick up your a** and send you back to the senate.

[johnmcsame]

Discrimination against McCain''s age. Senior citizens are going to be upset with these young irreverent supporters of Obama. What a bunch of ingrates. It was people such as John McCain and other senior citizens who have given so much of themselves to make America the great country that it is today. What do they get in return. A word of thanks. No. They get a bunch of disrespectful Obama supporters alluding to the fact that all senior citizens are senile. Is this your idea of a clean campaign Mr Obama. I certainly hope that senior citizens give you a swift kick up your a** and send you back to the senate.

[johnmcsame]

Discrimination against McCain''s age. Senior citizens are going to be upset with these young irreverent supporters of Obama. What a bunch of ingrates. It was people such as John McCain and other senior citizens who have given so much of themselves to make America the great country that it is today. What do they get in return. A word of thanks. No. They get a bunch of disrespectful Obama supporters alluding to the fact that all senior citizens are senile. Is this your idea of a clean campaign Mr Obama. I certainly hope that senior citizens give you a swift kick up your a** and send you back to the senate.

[johnmcsame]

Discrimination against McCain''s age. Senior citizens are going to be upset with these young irreverent supporters of Obama. What a bunch of ingrates. It was people such as John McCain and other senior citizens who have given so much of themselves to make America the great country that it is today. What do they get in return. A word of thanks. No. They get a bunch of disrespectful Obama supporters alluding to the fact that all senior citizens are senile. Is this your idea of a clean campaign Mr Obama. I certainly hope that senior citizens give you a swift kick up your a** and send you back to the senate.

[kansas1946]

Heres some CODE: OBAMA MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE...look it up...and decifer.
Posted by obama8years at 02:19 PM
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LOOK IT UP WHERE?


TALK IS CHEAP.


POST THE CITATION SUPPORTING YOUR ASININE ACCUSATION


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Posted by makeitso928 at 02:27 PM : Jun 18, 2008
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Isn''t that the dumbest thing you ever heard. I think these are the guys that listen to late night radio about aliens and gray men trying to take over the world. They must see a boogey man behind every tree. Just makes me laugh.

[vincan-2009]

Obama was 8 years old when Ayers did anything illegal. Ayers is now an upstanding member of the community. Obama is not responsible for the people you republicans keep trying to tie him to. While McCain runs a campaign staff of lobbyists who will be the ones running the show if he is elected. That probably means things will not improve for the average American.

[vincan-2009]

McCain does not drive - his wife does the driving. McCain said he is illiterate (his words) about computers - his wife does it for him. Is this president material - his wife would have to do it.

[vincan-2009]

Well, it seems to me that McCain is old. When you are 72 you are up there and on the decline. Heck, at 50 you are on the decline. We need a younger guy with more sense to be our president. Not old senile John McCain. We also don''t need old Phil Gramm who is on McCain staff and is the one who unleashed the housing melt down by slipping in corporate paperwork back in 2000. McCain is surrounded by some of the worst old republican dogs that do not deserve to get back in government.