All Posts Tagged With: "mean-spiritedness"

As Andrew Sullivan pointed out, if Karl Rove was a Democrat, you would surely see an ad like this.

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It certainly would seem to be fair (and balanced) to apply the same standards of negative campaigning to McCain that he has employed against Obama. I’m truly sick and tired of mean-spirited attack ads, no matter which candidate or party it is — on the national and local levels. But, this parodying attack ad seemed appropriate for the man who has set the new standard for ridiculousness and mean-spiritedness in presidential candidate attack ads.

Does John McCain not have anything that would make a positive campaign commercial? Is he really so desperate that he’ll do anything to be president, even violating his own professed standards? Is the only way he can win is to tear down his opponent with smears, distortions and outright lies rather than sell the American people on himself?

Each day, he’s looking more and more like the current occupant of the White House. I just can’t stomach four more years of the same.

A reader named Oliver left a comment over the weekend about one of my older posts about McDonald’s iced coffee. Rather than just describing how his experience was different than the one described in the post — which, incidentally, was actually the testimony of fellow Okie blogger and friend BritGal Sarah — Oliver, in the midst of an otherwise reasonable comment, chooses to interject a disparaging remark:

Brad probably just has bad digestion and a bad metabolism from years of poor eating choices which has left him quite obviously obese.

Now, being a large man for nearly all of my life, I’m certainly not unaccustomed to insults and prejudice about being “fat” or “obese.” Certainly during my school years, other kids could be pretty cruel. But I’ve been amazed that some kids never outgrow their mean-spiritedness. Some go out of their way to insert an insult or disparaging remark into a conversation, especially when they are strangers hiding behind relative anonymity — i.e. most people don’t say it to my face; it’s been typically by email or online comments from a safe distance.

Oliver’s comment reminded me of an email I got a few years ago from a reader of a magazine that I formerly published. Continued