NO ONE IS ATTACKING PALIN’S FAMILY…. Two weeks ago, the McCain campaign sent out a letter to supporters, ostensibly written by Sarah Palin, insisting that “the Obama/Biden Democrats have been vicious in their attacks directed toward me, my family and John McCain.”
Asked to identify Democrats who’ve been vicious towards the candidates and Palin’s family, the best the McCain campaign could do was point to an Obama spokesperson who said Palin had supported Pat Buchanan’s presidential campaign. That was it; that was their support.
Today, the McCain campaign sent out a very similar letter to supporters, once again “written” by Palin, charging, “Friends, in the course of a few weeks, the Obama-Biden Democrats have launched attack after attack on me, my family and John McCain. They’re desperate to win and they’ll no doubt launch these attacks against other reformers on our ticket.”
So, Greg Sargent followed up, asking for evidence to support the claim. The McCain campaign responded by pointing to these examples of “Obama-Biden Democrats”:
1) Obama finance committee member Howard Gutman questioning Palin’s parenting and her willingness to take on the Veep candidate role when her family is so consuming — a comment he subsequently apologized for.
2) Andrew Sullivan’s demand that the McCain campaign release medical records putting to rest rumors about the birth of Trig Palin.
3) A user diary on DailyKos, which is of course the site of leading Obama supporter Markos Moulitsas, raising questions about that pregnancy.
So, what do we have here? A Dem I’ve never heard of who said something dumb and apologized; a blog post from a writer who voted for Bush; and a Kos diary. This is evidence of “Obama-Biden Democrats” “attacking” Palin and her family.
Even by McCain campaign standards, this is just cheap and fpolish. If the Obama campaign wanted to play by similar rules, I wonder what Democrats would find if they looked for questionable attacks from prominent conservative blogs and user threads at the Free Republic, attributing all of it to “McCain/Palin Republicans”?
Either way, I’d just add one thing: there’s only one candidate for national office this year who’s been “vicious” in attacking a rival’s family. His name is John McCain.
