I’m starting to lose track here, but I think that the Democratic/Left/mainstream media attacks on McCain and Palin are coming close to running the full gamut of classes protected by US civil rights laws (see also here). Let’s see:

Race/color

Obama’s campaign (and Obama himself) has continually raised race as an issue in this campaign, mostly by frequent — but never substantiated — claims that the Republicans are going to use race (“You know, [the Republicans are going to say] he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.”, “They’re going to try to make you afraid of me. He’s young and inexperienced and he’s got a funny name. And did I mention he’s black?”, and so on). The Left has gone so far as to claim that if Obama loses, it can only be because of racism on the part of Americans.

Religion or creed

The attacks on McCain have come and gone and did not even involve McCain’s actual church. However, the attacks on Sarah Palin’s faith have been continuous and distorted (cf. here) — and I speak as someone who has no particular love for the Religious Right.

Sex or gender

Again, the attacks on Sarah Palin about her gender have been so over-the-top, vile, and profoundly hypocritical from the part of the political spectrum that claims to champion women as to leave one astonished. In my case, they led me to leave the Democratic party after 37 years.

National origin

Well, we’re all Americans (in spite of some pointless claims against both McCain and Obama), but given the overwhelming disdain expressed by the D/L/MSM for Palin’s origins in Idaho and Alaska, you’d think they were a foreign (and third-world) country.

Disability

Well, we not only have the Obama-approved ad that mocks McCain’s alleged (and false) lack of e-mail use — which actually ties into McCain’s disabilities due to his torture as a POW — we have the literal anger over Palin choosing to give birth to Trig, knowing that Trig had Down’s Syndrome.

Age

The same Obama-approved ad also mocks McCain’s age and length of service in the Senate (ignoring the fact that Joe Biden has been in the Senate even longer than McCain).

Familial status (including children under the age of 18 living with parents of legal custodians, pregnant women, and people securing custody of children under the age of 18)

We’re back to the deluge of attacks on Sarah Palin as unable to serve as Vice-President because she has (a) five kids, (b) including a pregnant (but engaged) teenage daughter, as well as (c) a young baby (with Down’s Syndrome).

Yep, the Democrats/Left/MSM have pretty much covered all the bases. They’ve injected racism, religious bigotry, sexism, class warfare, discrimination against the handicapped, agism, discrimination against unwed pregnancy, and discrimination against family size into the campaign.

In other words, the collective Left has adopted the reactionary, bigoted groupthink that it always (and still) accuses those who oppose it of possessing. And it’s all documented out there on the net, in videos, web sites, transcripts, and articles.  ..bruce w..