{"id":229,"date":"2008-06-18T16:51:09","date_gmt":"2008-06-18T20:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madkane.com\/madness\/2008\/06\/18\/229\/"},"modified":"2008-06-18T16:55:39","modified_gmt":"2008-06-18T20:55:39","slug":"229","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.madkane.com\/madness\/2008\/06\/18\/229\/","title":{"rendered":"So, Is This Ageist Too? (Limerick & Commentary)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I hope I’m wrong.\u00a0 But I’m concerned that cowed (and confused) Dems may be backing off valid John McCain criticism out of\u00a0fear of being called ageist.<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

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\u00a0used to compliment McCain\u2019s \u201chalf-century of service\u201d 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.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

But when Obama foreign policy adviser Susan Rice and Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) each described McCain as \u201cconfused\u201d last week, Republicans became convinced that Democrats intend to run a crypto-ageist strategy, using words that create a subtle impression in voters\u2019 minds.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

But the dynamic of Obama\u2019s running against a candidate who\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was going to say, \u2018He lost his grip,\u2019\u201d said Democratic consultant Jonathan Prince, recalling a recent appearance on CNN\u2019s \u201cSituation Room.\u201d \u201cThose are normal words you use when you are involved in campaigns. You say, \u2018They are nuts, they are off their rocker, they lost it.\u2019 They have become very adept at grabbing every opportunity they can to turn it into a personal slur.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The problem with John McCain isn’t his age per se.\u00a0\u00a0 McCain’s problem is he lacks the wisdom and maturity that ought to come with age.<\/p>\n

And that brings me to my latest limerick:<\/p>\n

So, Is This Ageist Too?
\nBy Madeleine Begun Kane
\n\u00a0
\nWah, wah, wah! Don’t critique John McCain.
\nIf you do so you’re ageist — Insane!
\nI think that just maybe
\nMcCain’s a big baby,
\nToo puerile to win this campaign.[tags]McCain Criticism, Democrats Humor, Campaign Satire, Election Humor[\/tags]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I hope I’m wrong.\u00a0 But I’m concerned that cowed (and confused) Dems may be backing off valid John McCain criticism out of\u00a0fear of being called ageist. 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. … Obama aides […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[165,72,21,20,40,154,6,7,3,9,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ageism-humor","category-campaign-humor","category-election-satire","category-gop-humor","category-john-mccain","category-political-commentary","category-political-limericks","category-political-verse","category-politics","category-republicans","category-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.madkane.com\/madness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.madkane.com\/madness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.madkane.com\/madness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.madkane.com\/madness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.madkane.com\/madness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.madkane.com\/madness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.madkane.com\/madness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.madkane.com\/madness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.madkane.com\/madness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}