Newsweek nails it

An awesome editorial from Newsweek... Andrew Romano comments on the latest contrived controversies from the McCain campaign:

I understand that this is how politics works. As Jonathan Martin astutely notes, "thanks to the anchor of Bush, a devalued brand, the compelling stories of McCain and Palin and the cultural vulnerabilities of Obama, Republicans plainly have more to gain by making the race about character and identity" than issues, "so they've begun to engage in what is effectively a campaign of baiting and exploiting." But yesterday the whole charade got a little too moronic for my tastes. I'm sure that partisans will flood the comments to claim I'm "biased." They'll ask why I'm not discussing some doltish thing that Obama said a few months ago. Of course, they'll conveniently ignore the fact that I've taken Democrats to task for falsely claiming that McCain wants to wage a "100-year war" in Iraq; for repeating, ad nauseam, that he is Bush III; for arguing that his lack of computer skills mean he can't be a good president, and for playing the "age card" by insinuating that he's "confused" and "out of touch." Still, the fact remains that as a journalist it's my job to say when a politician is wrong--and right now, John McCain is wrong.

Earlier this summer, McCain called for a campaign based on the "politics of civility." Try the politics of stupidity instead. Yesterday represented presidential campaigning at its condescending worst. And the worst part isn't that McCain was acting stupid. It's that he seems to think we're all stupid, too.