WHAT HEELS: Dems Resort To Mean-Spirited Campaign Rhetoric
After hard left bloggers and pundits ridiculed Trig Palin and ranted that babies with Down syndrome had no right to live – imagine the pain that caused Sarah and Todd Palin – and President Barack Hussein Obama ridiculed disabled Americans by likening his unimpressive bowling skills to Special Olympics athletes, it is becoming routine for Dems to ridicule disabilities and physical traits of political opponents.
The New York Times reports that Gov. Jon Corzine (D-NJ) has taken to running campaign spots on TV and the Internet that “feature unattractive images” of Republican opponent Christopher J. Christie, “sometimes shot from the side or backside, highlighting his heft, jowls and double chin”:
It is about as subtle as a playground taunt: a television ad for shows his challenger, Christopher J. Christie, stepping out of an S.U.V. in extreme slow motion, his extra girth moving, just as slowly, in several different directions at once. [Video link added by The Stiletto.]
In case viewers missed the point, a narrator snidely intones that Mr. Christie “threw his weight around” to avoid getting traffic tickets. …
“There’s no subtlety there,” said Bill Baroni, a Republican state senator from Hamilton who lost 130 pounds starting 15 years ago. “That’s not a randomly chosen phrase. It’s purposeful. And it’s offensive.”
Mr. Baroni said that Mr. Corzine risked a backlash from the “tens of thousands” of New Jerseyans who struggle with their weight. “It is a lifetime battle,” he said. “And it’s made harder when people that you expect better from make fun of you.”
And in VA, “lifelong Democrat” BET co-founder Sheila Johnson explained why she is endorsing Republican Bob McDonnell for governor instead of his Democrat challenger Creigh Deeds by mimicking the way Deeds “hesitates and stumbles over words in ordinary conversation, speeches and media interviews,” reports The Associated Press:
In a YouTube video posted by Democratic blogger Ben Tribbett from a Sept. 25 McDonnell reception, Johnson tells a small crowd that Virginia needs a governor "who can really communicate, and Bob McDonnell can communicate."
"The other people I talk to, especially his op-op-op-o-opponent, di-di-did this all through my interview with him," she said to muted laughter. Then she added, "He could not articulate what needed to be done."
In a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press, Johnson said she sought to highlight Creigh Deeds' inability to "clearly communicate effective solutions" on important issues.
"I shouldn't have done it in the manner in which I did and for that I apologize for any offense he, or others, may have taken," Johnson said. …
"It's never acceptable to mock stuttering any more than it would be to laugh at someone in a wheelchair," said Jane Fraser, president of the Memphis, Tenn.-based Stuttering Foundation of America. …
[T]urning a speech impediment into a punch line appears cruel and risks the wrath of voters, said Mark Rozell, a George Mason University political science professor.
In the 2002 GA Senate race, when challenger Saxby Chambliss ran a TV ad (video) featuring Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein that took issue with incumbent Sen. Max Cleland's votes against homeland security measures, Dems went ballistic and accused the Republican of questioning the patriotism of a veteran who had lost both legs above the knee and his right forearm in an accident involving a live grenade while serving in Viet Nam. Whether Chambliss was questioning Cleland’s patriotism or his judgment is in the eye of the beholder, but he did not stoop to ridiculing his disabilities or suggesting that he was unable to represent his constituents because of them.
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