Texas Republicans stick to the high road.

According to the Dallas Morning News’ Trail Blazers Blog, this and several other racist or otherwise douchebaggish buttons have popped up at a vendor’s stand at the Texas GOP state convention. The stand was hosted by Republicanmarket, home to such classic buttons as “Send the illegals back and send the liberals with them,” “There are Americans and then there are liberals,” and “Abstinence is best… unless you’re screwing a liberal.”

Stay classy, Republicans.

- Will

Age vs Race and the November election

One of the more peculiar things about the Republican and Democratic nominations this year is that none of the frontrunners were what you’d call a “standard” politician. We had one woman, one black guy, and one man that would be the oldest first term president in history. Heck if you back a little further we even had Mitt the Mormon.

Now that we’ve narrowed it to the black dude and the old fart, we’re going to see a kind of dirty politics that hadn’t really occurred before in that the attacks are going to be about absolutely nothing policy-wise. Sure there will be the stock standard attacks on Obama for being liberal and McCain for being too close to Bush or whatever, but brace yourself because as bad as it was before, we’re going to see a lot of mudslinging on two topics: Obama’s race and McCain’s age.

Like I said, it’s happened already. Obama had to beat back accusations that saying McCain was “losing his bearings” was a knock on his age, and calling McCain “confused” is practically par for the course. On the other side, we’ve had the Wright controversy, the various attacks on Michelle (“whitey”, “baby mama”), the “terrorist” fist jab, etc.

However, that doesn’t mean that, by any stretch, these two qualities can be considered comparable. Legitimate concerns can be made about one, but not the other. Hopefully I don’t have to point out which is which.

When a Pew poll came out recently asking what qualities struck them most about McCain, what was number one? Old. Honest came next, with a distinct lack of any of his “maverick” qualities.

I point that out because you’re not going to see a poll where people say “black” when asked the same question about Obama. It’s not because of a desire to avoid seeming racist, it’s because people know that race has no real bearing on the ability to do a job. That’s why employers can’t discriminate based on ethnicity.

Sure, they can’t do the same based on age either, but in the case of age it isn’t the number itself but rather the qualities that come with it. Think about your own grandparents for a moment. You probably love ‘em to death, but would you put them in charge of the country? I’d be willing to bet many of you wouldn’t even want them driving a car with you in it or holding a small child.

There are a lot of sharp 72 year olds out there. My neighbor can remember every phone number she’s ever had, bought a new computer and surfs regularly, and has a vocal coaching business she runs. It’s not uncommon for people in their 70’s and beyond to be sharp as a tack and on top of everything.

The thing is, McCain isn’t one of ‘em. He’s a guy who has been so prone to gaffs that he’s making Bush seem eloquent. At least Bush would just make fumbles of speech (“Is our children learning?”) versus McCain’s apparent lack of understanding of the world around him (“Iran is training al Qaeda”). He’s started forgetting what he’s said about things so much that Crooks and Liars documented ten flip-flops in two weeks. He’s even admitted he doesn’t know how to use a computer.

We’re dealing with a man who is showing his age. It is affecting him and will be a factor. Even older people are calling McCain’s age a point of concern.

Race doesn’t bring with it this kind of baggage. Cultural conditioning aside, two people raised the same in the same area the same way where the only difference is their race are likely to grow up quite similarly. All else being equal, a difference of race is not likely to yield much difference between two people. Not so with age. An 80 year old man is, simply put, not going to have the mental acuity or clarity of a man half his age.

The point that is going require a fine touch on the side of the Democrats is that they don’t appear to be going after McCain’s age in the abstract, but rather the symptoms thereof. Saying he’s old is neither useful nor fair. It doesn’t tell us anything any more than saying he’s short or his face is bizarrely large. Instead, the key will be to point out reasons that his age could be a factor.

That’s where the race v age comes into play. Simply calling McCain old or accusing Obama of acts of blackness is nothing more than prejudiced ad hominem attacks. The difference is that there is no such thing as a “symptom of blackness”. There’s not anything inherently equated with being born of African descent that makes someone unqualified for a job. Symptoms of age exist, are quite real, and can mean someone is unfit for a job.

In the case of the President of the United States, those symptoms can be pretty dang problematic.