I'm rubber, you're glue . . .

Mark Kleiman ably summarizes the tedium of ginned-up campaign "gotcha!" moments:

In putting out that message, Obama's campaign broke a law. The violation was about as egregious as they come: the law requires that a phone call's sponsor be identified within thirty seconds, and in the calls in question that announcement didn't come for a full thirty-eight seconds. Has he no sense of decency? At long last, has he left no sense of decency?

Well, yes, technically the law being cited didn't actually apply to this case: it specifically exempts Presidential preference primaries. But that just shows how utterly untrustworthy B. Hussein Obama is: he's capable of breaking laws that don't even exist! Anyway, it's the principle of the thing.

Or something.

God damn, I'll be glad when this is over!

Comments

Has he no sense of decency? At long last, has he left no sense of decency?

Is the irony intended? 'Cause Joseph Welch undoubtedly practiced his line in front of the mirror many times.

For the uninitiated, M. Stanton Evans recent Blacklisted by History does a nice job of detailing Welch's incredibly cynical performance at the Army-McCarthy hearings. See Chapter 42; On Not Having Any Decency.

Posted by Patrick R. Sullivan | January 7, 2008 4:09 PM

One wonders which way Kleiman's outrage would point if it were Republicans getting nailed on "gotcha" moments.

Perhaps if the Democrats' candidates weren't just a woman, a black man, a hispanic man, and a white southerner who all believe in the same things, there might be substantive debate rather than a bunch of tedious gotcha moments.

(Though Kleiman may have something to complain about if the media doesn't pick up on the story that the Thompson endorsing McCain rumors were started in the Romney campaign.)

Posted by Anthony | January 8, 2008 2:27 PM