What Really Stinks

clipped from www.sfgate.com Now a trailing Obama wants to get tougher and go more negative - in part by raising doubts about McCain's age. Obama's clumsy reference to putting "lipstick on a pig" raised, rightly or wrongly, charges of sexism, and in the same manner his reference to a stinky "old fish" was connected with John McCain - who, Obama earlier scoffed, was "losing his bearings." Obama ran ads claiming - with careful wording - that McCain "lost track" and "couldn't remember" how many houses he has and that he's out of touch because he has never learned to use e-mail and the Internet (forget that injuries as a prisoner of war make keyboard use difficult for him). Like it or not, the perception is growing that Team Obama is focusing on Palin as a clueless hockey mom from way up north and on McCain as an old fogy. But that emphasis on sex and age doesn't become a moralist, especially given Obama's own siren warnings that his opponents might resort to racial attacks against him.