Email: Prerequisite for President?
“Didya see that ‘Bama ad?”, he asked me (he, a cafe regular, is a Viet-vet about Mcain’s age), ”They’re trying to smear McCain: too old and so out of it he doesn’t even use computers or email!”
“I did!” I said. “I gotta admit, the ad does make you wonder if McCain is up to speed or enough in touch with the world today.”
“That’s exactly it!” he answered. “After all ‘Bama’s complaining about racism being used against him, and all his constant ‘Oh I respect and honor McCain’s service and sacrifice’ BS, he pulls that!”
My Viet-vet friend was really peeved, to say the least. Being about 70 himself, I figured he just resented the “ageism”, the constant attempt to let everyone know McCain’s just too old to have any energy or new ideas, and all too likely to drop dead before inaugeration (leaving Palin, whose resume is not much bigger than Obama’s, as the President). I find it rather hypocritical, but pretty much normal politics. I generally brush it off. No one ever raised that issue even with Cheney, whose heart attacks, etc., made him a lot riskier than McCain. So I suggested our Viet-vet just let it go too. That just fanned the flames a bit higher.
“It ain’t that that gets me so damned pissed! They can call him old as much as they want. Just points out he’s got experience neither Dem has. It’s their disrespect, and lies about the whole thing! They know damn well McCain isn’t that dumb or old style. ’Bama damn well knows, if he’s really a Senator, McCain has a rep for being one of the most tech-savvy in the Senate. And if ‘Bama’s really as smart as he claims, he’s had to have read in at least one newspaper the fact that McCain doesn’t usually use email or computers much is because of the torture he suffered as a POW in Vietnam! They broke his arms and hands up so bad he can’t type! Can’t even hardly run a mouse!”
He sat quietly, at least a minute or two. As I watched, trying to come up with something to say, the fire in his countenance flickered and faded out. In its place came a tired sadness, a sort of resignation. When he looked up at me, his shoulders drooped and his eyes got wet. He ended the conversation complaining, “They get away with that sort of slander because McCain won’t even reply. Won’t even begin to explain. Maybe he’s embarrassed. A lot of vets are. But in his case, I think its just because he’s too humble. He never really likes to talk about his experience. When he does, like at the convention, or in an interview, he always chokes up, just shrugs it off, like saying he’s sorry to go there. They know it and they don’t give a damn. Praise the military. Yeah, right.”
Politics is an ugly game. A dirty business. Everybody knows it. Yet everybody does it.
