The Tone of this Campaign

Bob Herbert in today's NYTIMES properly recognized the point made by Sen. Joe Biden last Friday, about the tone of the ongoing and coming campaign. The tone he refers to is the comment from McCain on Obama, when questioned on why he won't support Sen. Webb's new GI Bill, "I will not accept from Senator Obama, who did not feel it was his responsibility to serve our country in uniform, any lecture on my regard for those who did."

While I am not one to suggest that McCain should be accepting any lectures from anyone on military service, it seems well within the parameters of a presidential campaign for one candidate to ask why another does not support a certain piece of legislation. Having served in the military does not allow a presidential candidate an exemption from explaining his positions on issues regarding the military. Especially when you consider that the Founding Fathers, in their wisdom, made it constitutionally apparent that the presidency was to be a civilian position.

When asked about the above comments, Biden obviously had difficulty answering as Herbert relays, “This is tough for me,” he said, “because John’s been my friend for 35 years, and I’m disappointed. Because, as you all know, there is a difference between an ad hominem argument and a logical response.” Senator McCain had taken the ad hominem route, said Senator Biden, and he was saddened by it. That kind of behavior, he said, should be “beneath us.”

That kind of behavior should be beneath us, and it is most troubling to me in it's similarity to Bush rhetoric. I've been defending McCain saying that he is not, as the Democrats try to portray. Bush's third term. But comments and behavior like this do more to support that assertion than to dissuade.