Oh Brother

From publius:

Cranky John McCain

Jonathan Martin’s Politico piece (like other recent articles) states that McCain and his team have a deep personal contempt for Obama. They think he’s undeserving. If that’s true, then Cranky needs to get over that pretty quickly.

One of the most serious errors a political candidate can make is to underestimate her opponent (Reagan anyone?). Obama didn’t win the Democratic nomination through blind luck. His campaign was impressive at all levels — much more so than McCain’s ragtag operation featuring Excitable Mark Salter.

As Martin correctly notes, disrespecting Obama could easily backfire on McCain. For one, it’s going to lead to the sort of raving, angry personal attacks that we saw during the Webb bill debate. That's probably what led him to deny Obama his day in the sun, opting instead for the Green Speech (sort of like the White Album, only crankier and, well, greener). Second, it’s going to reinforce an image of him as the Cranky Old Man screaming “get off my grass” (phrase borrowed from John Cole).

Here’s some friendly advice for Candidate Cranky — you can start holding candidates in contempt when they stop being 8 points ahead of you in the polls. Otherwise, respect is the wiser course.

Really. And I would just like to add that I think John McCain is about as sexy as a case of Montezuma's Revenge.