WE'RE SO CONFUSED...:

I'm Sigmund Freud and I Approve This Message: Sometimes, a tire gauge is just a tire gauge. But not this time. (Paul Waldman, August 12, 2008, American Prospect)

Though there was no particular evidence that the tire gauge attack was having an effect, the McCain campaign's glee was evident. Just days before, they had alleged that Obama's criticisms of their tactics constituted "fussiness and hysteria," and now here they were brandishing small, phallic objects bearing their opponent's name.

Meanwhile, McCain himself was sent out to pose in front of working oil rigs, to testify to his thirst for pulling more black gold from the earth. The message couldn't be plainer: See that itty bitty little tire gauge? If you vote for Obama, that's how big your penis is. If you vote for McCain, on the other hand, your penis is as big as this rig, thrusting its gigantic shaft in and out of the ground! Real men think keeping your tires inflated is for weenies.

So, on the one hand, any time we criticize the Unicorn Rider we're subliminally portraying him as Mandingo and a threat to white women everywhere--note the horn of the unicorn?--but, on the other, when we criticize him we're calling him a sissy? Aren't the two contradictory?

[Mind you, we'd aver that it is certainly the case that the leader of the female party invites sissyfication. That's why even Al Gore and John Kerry--who served in Vietnam--ended up coming across as wusses. We're just not sure how you square that with the charge that Senator Obama is being hyper-sexualized for racist reasons.]

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 12, 2008 10:25 AM