John McCain said several times during last night’s debate that Barack Obama simply doesn’t understand many of the subjects at the heart of the presidential race. It was quite clear that McCain was trying to paint Obama as naive and risky and he hammered that theme — Obama “doesn’t understand” — again and again through the 90-minute affair. After the debate, Linda Douglass took great offense on Obama’s behalf, calling the language “insulting.” Then she used it to describe McCain. Here is the exchange with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.
Got that? The Obama campaign can say that John McCain “doesn’t get it” but McCain’s language is “insulting” when he says that Obama doesn’t understand. Douglass will not find herself in any trouble with her boss on these kinds of attacks because he said the same thing in his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. “It’s not because John McCain doesn’t care. It’s because John McCain doesn’t get it.” Perhaps the Obama-Biden campaign would be better off accusing McCain of plagiarizing their rhetoric. Then again, maybe not.
