The pissing match

My friend Ben suggests the Obama campaign is mocking McCain's POW status by pointing out that he doesn't use e-mail. Proof, Ben says, that the Obama campaign is as nasty as McCain's. My response in the comments, which I share with you:

I guess I'd like to hear from John McCain or his campaign that his war injuries are the reason for his non-use of e-mail, rather than take it on the word of Jonah Goldberg's speculation that it's the case. As hilzoy points out, John McCain has already told us he uses a BlackBerry; McCain's own answer to the e-mail question -- given two months ago -- is that he "never really felt a need to do it." And let's face it: If John McCain didn't use e-mail because of POW injuries, I'm sure we would've heard that from him by now. (And as hilzoy also points out: There are lots of products that allow the disabled to use e-mail.)

In any case, McCain has already said he stands by the sex-ed ad, which is clearly a -- oh let's not soft-peddle this -- lie about Obama's record. Look it up. And I know that you're predisposed to believe bad things about Democrats, and I'm predisposed to believe bad things about the GOP -- but really, do you think the Obama campaign suddenly got so stupid it decided to create certain political backlash by mocking McCain's POW injuries? Do you think it just wanted to throw the election away?

Really?

With respect, you're trying to create an equivalence where there's not one. I'm not naive, and -- to anticipate the argument -- I don't think Barack Obama's the Messiah. Campaigns on both sides stretch the truth all the time. The McCain campaign, however, is lying more often, and more egregiously.

But you know what?

I hate that we're getting into a pissing match about whose lies are bigger, whose campaigning is nastier. I hate, in fact, that we're talking about e-mail -- even if it's my guy who brought it up. Because these things tell us nothing -- except indirectly -- about how each candidate would try to govern, about how they would try to lead America, about what we can hope for from a president. And as smarter people than I have pointed out, winning an election by creating an ugly narrative about the other guy does nothing to help you govern once you get in office. Ask George W. Bush how his Social Security privatization efforts worked out.

I know you're a cynic about the progress of freedom in America, Ben, so maybe you don't care that this is the case. Maybe you're in such an anybody-but-Obama mood that you don't care, really, what John McCain does as president so long as Barack Obama isn't. But there's an element to all of this that seems to play the undecided voters -- the "mushy middle" who will decide this campaign -- as suckers. Maybe they are. I wish, however, that we were better than that.