The McCain/Palin Closing Pitch: You Are All Dumb

I've been following politics long enough not to be shocked by how stupid it can be at times.  But the last few weeks of this campaign have tested even my tolerance.  I actually made myself sit through both McCain and Palin's stump speeches on CNN this weekend.  Their core "substantive" message--here in the home stretch of a monumental presidential election--is so profoundly unserious that it borders on parody.  

Here's what John McCain's been saying on the stump:

We've learned more about Senator Obama's real goals for our country over the last two weeks than we learned over the past two years, and that is only because Joe the plumber asked him a question right here in Ohio. That's when Senator Obama revealed he wants to quote "spread the wealth around." . . .

Senator Obama is running to be Redistributionist in Chief. I'm running to be Commander in Chief. Senator Obama is running to spread the wealth. I'm running to create more wealth. Senator Obama is running to punish the successful. I'm running to make everyone successful.

Senator Obama has made a lot of promises. First he said people making less than 250,000 dollars would benefit from his plan, then this weekend he announced in an ad that if you're a family making less than 200,000 dollars you'll benefit -- but this week, Senator Biden said tax relief should only go to "middle class people -- people making under 150,000 dollars a year." Just today, Bill Richardson said it applied to families making 120,000 dollars a year. It's interesting how their definition of rich has a way of creeping down. Senator Obama voted 94 times for tax increases or against tax cuts. At this rate, it won't be long before Senator Obama is right back to his vote that Americans making just 42,000 dollars a year should get a tax increase. I'm not going to let that happen.

That's it. That's the message. In short, his argument is that Barack Obama may say he's not going to raise your taxes, but he really is. And the proof is that he used the phrase "spread the wealth" during an encounter with a plumber (who's not really a plumber).

Indeed it's difficult to overstate the role that Joe the Plumber plays in the "closing argument" that both McCain and Palin are making. Palin's stump speech is almost entirely Joe-centric:. Here's a taste:

[E]arlier today we were with a friend whom John McCain had seen at a rally. His name is Tito Munoz. And Tito owns a small construction business right here in Virginia. We call him Tito the Builder. And Tito is not pleased with how the Obama campaign and its media friends have been roughing up Joe the Plumber because Joe just asked a question, and ever since then, he has been investigated and attacked for asking a question. So Tito has a question of his own. And Barack Obama won't like this one either, but Tito wants to know, and I quote, he said, Why the heck are you going after Joe the Plumber? Joe the Plumber has an idea. He has a future. He wants to be something greater. Why is that so wrong?

This is really absurd stuff. It's like the target audience here is a kindergarten class. There's not even an attempt to make an actual policy argument anywhere in the speech. Honestly, I've never seen political discourse this dumbed down. It's beyond pathetic.