Obama started with mysogyny, now attacks McCain’s age

Barack Obama is no stranger to gutter politics. He will tell you for the next 6 months that he is the victim of it. I call BS. Barack Obama plays gutter politics.

Yesterday he said that John McCain was "losing his bearings", an unsubtle attack on McCain's age. I'll get to the McCain campaign's response. But first, I want to point remind you of one of the great un(der)reported stories of the Democratic Primary, Barack Obama's sexist attacks on Hillary Clinton.

Jake Tapper first noted this when Obama said that Hillary was "taking out the claws." At the same time he noted that Obama would use "[l]anguage such as 'when she's feeling down' 'periodically' she 'launches attacks.'" Tapper noted that a number of female reporters and bloggers picked up on this. Later Obama complained that Hillary was "throwing the China" at him. Again, Tapper heard the dog whistle. Tapper noted that this "feeds into the 'harridan' caricature of Clinton."

So when Obama attacks McCain with an age-based smear, it shouldn't be surprising. Mark Salter, one of McCain's senior advisors, nailed it:

First, let us be clear about the nature of Senator Obama's attack today: He used the words 'losing his bearings' intentionally, a not particularly clever way of raising John McCain's age as an issue. This is typical of the Obama style of campaigning.

We have all become familiar with Senator Obama's new brand of politics. First, you demand civility from your opponent, then you attack him, distort his record and send out surrogates to question his integrity. It is called hypocrisy, and it is the oldest kind of politics there is.