Why Taking the High Ground is Important

Barack Obama recently appeared on the CBN program "The Brody File" to express "deep disappointment" at McCain. Now, there's about a squillion reasons to be "deeply disappointed" by... okay, incredibly disgusted by John McCain, but this was really irritating.

In a one-on-one interview with The Brody File, Barack Obama says he is deeply disappointed that John McCain has not spoken out against the attacks leveled against his wife.

Michelle Obama has come under criticism from some conservatives because of comments that they say suggest she's unpatriotic, not proud to be an American and outside the mainstream.

Obama vigorously defends his wife.

And he has every right to do so. Hell, I would expect him to, and I'm glad he is (as will I). I'm assuming that, given that McCain and his advisers spoke about sexism used against Clinton, Obama was expecting or would like a similar statement. But, McCain wasn't doing this because he was some feminist crusader (after all, this is the guy that called his wife a "cunt"); he was doing this to hopefully pull Clinton supporters to his camp. A smart, if disingenuous move, considering Clinton supporters weren't hearing any defenses coming from the Democrats. I'm not exactly sure why McCain would be motivated to say anything now that Obama is officially his opponent and McCain stands to gain nothing from saying something, but wev.

Of course, Obama has every right to demand that McCain issue a statement in support of his wife, after all, he took the high road and made several powerful statements denouncing the sexist attacks against Hillary Clinton, didn't he?

Oh, wait.

I also found this bit rather rich. From the transcript:

"So the fact that people have tried to make her a target, based essentially on a couple of comments in which she was critical of what's happening to our American dream and the enormous difficulties that people are experiencing -- the difficulties that she hears directly as she is traveling across the country, I think is really distressing. And you know I've said publicly before, and I'll say it again - I think families are off limits. I would never consider making Cindy McCain a campaign issue, and if I saw people doing that - I would speak out against it. And the fact that I haven't seen that from John McCain I think is a deep disappointment."

Honestly, I don't think Obama would consider making Cindy McCain a campaign issue. However, families aren't off limits when it's convenient for him.

As Obama tried to defend his recent comments about Republican ideas and Ronald Reagan, Clinton interrupted and said she has never criticized his remarks on Reagan.

"Your husband did," said Obama, who has accused the former president of misrepresenting his record.

"I'm here. He's not," she snapped.

"Well, I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes," Obama said.

Nice to see Obama inviting Billary out to play. I really don't want to hear about how attacking a former President is different than attacking a candidate's daughter. If "families are off limits," they're off limits. Using "your husband" makes it a little more personal.

Throughout the campaign, when instances of sexism used against Clinton were being documented on this blog and elsewhere, many feminists and/or Clinton supporters hoped that Obama would make a statement denouncing these tactics. Not only would this show that Obama was a candidate that would not stand for and refused to benefit from sexist attacks, but:

...it would be a significantly less successful strategy if the Democrats were sweeping into the general on a cresting wave of misogyny-busting awesomeness, instead of having no goddamned leg to stand on.

Sexism, after all, can be used against anyone, and if he were to receive the nomination, it could easily be used against his wife (or him). He didn't, and well, where are we now? Now, he looks like a man that was content to allow sexist attacks when they harmed his opponent, but is outraged now that they're hitting close to home.

For the record, a spokesman for Obama did denounce the Chelsea Clinton "pimping" statement.