Steve Rosenthal would like you to know he's a pretty big deal

Video below has been making the rounds for a few days now and takes some light-hearted but insipid shots at John McCain and specifically John McCain’s age. It’s a curious ad as it doesn’t raise any serious misgivings about the Senator’s age or suggest why his relative old age might pose a problem…. so, what is the point?



Commentors are of basically two themes: one in which we agree and the other in which we disagree. Agree that this ad is counterproductive as there is nothing like potentially offending the voting block that turns out the best. Disagree that this ad should be viewed as offensive as no one questions Hillary being a female or Obama being black (or half-white, if one wants to get genetically technical) so why should people question McCain's age?

Age is different from gender and race. We can’t quite place our finger on it but it just is.

No one gets birthday cards from friends ribbing them about being a woman or being a black male. Perhaps joking around about age is some sort of subconscious gallows humor…. as if, we’re all going to get there (old) eventually, so we might as well yuck it up at someone else’s expense while we can.

Video directs you to YoungerthanMcCain.com which is supposedly run by some guy named Steve Rosenthal, a Democratic operative who humbly refers to himself in the 3rd person on his blogger profile page and quotes the New York Times about himself: one of the Democratic Party’s “smartest and most influential strategists”.

After viewing this “ad”, Beers with Demo fully believes that is precisely what the New York Times would say about Steve Rosenthal. “Nice work, Steve”, says Beers with Demo and “keep it up”.