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Friday, January 11

Youth without youth

Republican presidential candidate John McCain just dropped a mailer trotting out his Bangla daughter Bridget. It’s designed to prevent a repeat of his ‘00 South Carolina train wreck, when Karl Rove put out a ‘Bridget is a black bastard child’ smear and saved Dubya’s chances at the nomination. It wasn’t personal, just dirty politics, but the lie was vile. In one sitting, Rove linked McCain to infidelity, miscegenation, illegitimacy and black people, political death among a certain wing of the Republican party.

McCain cannily folded his daughter into a pro-life message:

It’s interesting that McCain chose to show baby Bridget rather than the teen she is today. My first thought was that a cute li’l dark-skinned baby would play better than a teen, so as not to invoke racial prejudice. But since they do show a Bangla nun, it’s probably just that the baby photo works better with the supposed pro-life theme.

Don’t buy it. This mailer is a two-fer, but it’s primary insurance. Its purpose is to inoculate.

Check out the full mailer.

Previously: Junior McCain

manish vij on Friday, January 11th, 2008, 3:53 pm in Issues, Photographs, Politics › Email this Email this › Facebook this › Reddit this › Link › Reader links


8 comments

  1. 1tamasha on January 11th, 2008, 4:50 pm › Link

    I wonder… at what age does a brown child stop seeming cute and start seeming like a threat?

  2. 2Lekhni on January 11th, 2008, 5:30 pm › Link

    Why do they show the Bangla nun? The magic words there are “Mother Teresa”.

  3. 3khoofia on January 11th, 2008, 5:32 pm › Link

    It’s interesting that McCain chose to show baby Bridget rather than the teen she is today. My first thought was that a cute li’l dark-skinned baby would play better than a teen, so as not to invoke racial prejudice.

    i would give the benefit of doubt. it is a logical association to have a baby + adoption + nun - thus invoking an emotional response. a teen just doesnt arouse such a response. the first is supposed to be a gift, the second someone who needs effort to keep out of trouble :-)

  4. 4Nina on January 12th, 2008, 12:43 pm › Link

    I’m pro-Brown Teenager, anti-”rights of the unborn.”

  5. 5brownanondudeinCA on January 12th, 2008, 6:18 pm › Link

    if his daughter was a fair skinned punjabi girl then maybe he’d show her older pics

  6. 6thinker on January 12th, 2008, 7:45 pm › Link

    and maybe he is just being a good father and protecting his tenenager’s privacy by not splashing her picture in the public arena

  7. 7Pagal_Aadmi_for_debauchery on January 14th, 2008, 9:13 am › Link

    Dubya was vicious alright but McCains seen nothing till Huckabee/Ed Rollins get rolling especially if it becomes a two man McCain-Hucakbee race.

  8. 8jonnyB on January 17th, 2008, 4:45 pm › Link

    Karl Rove is an experiment that went wrong,.