Sen. Obama: "Hey, Old People, You Suck! And You, Too, Sweetie" [UPDATED: "And Veterans With Disabilities, You're a Bunch of Losers, Too!"]

Details. And here.

Anecdotal evidence. Today, Sarah's 80+ year old grandmother was over at the house along with Sarah's aunt. Their visit just so happened to coincide with Sen. McCain's appearance on "The View", so the topic of the election came up.

Sarah's grandmother is a life-long blue-collar Northern Ohio Democrat who has NEVER voted for a Republican in her life. Just the sort of voter Sen. Obama should have in his corner. Except she's not. Knowing what I know about Elaine's politics, I was rather surprised to hear what she had to say today:

She's upset at the way the Democrats and the media have treated Sarah Palin and the way her family has been attacked. Key: she brought up the "lipstick on a pig" remark, which was something she found offensive. So that one does seem to be sticking.

She was impressed by the fact that Track Palin is headed for Iraq and that Sen. McCain's sons are currently serving, contrasting that with Sen. Obama's statement that he had "wanted to join" the military. And she was singularly unimpressed with Obama's "world tour" to Iraq earlier this summer (something Dave Hartline had presciently observed would not play well with voters like Elaine).

She mentioned Sen. McCain's POW status and the recently released video of him and his fellow POWs when they were turned over to the United States. She raved about what a "good-looking man" he had been, especially for all that he just been through. The POW thing plays BIG around here - practically every flag pole in this part of Ohio has a U.S. flag, an Ohio flag, and a POW/MIA flag.

And then Elaine concluded with something I'm hearing a lot from people in this corner of the Midwest: "I just can't get it out of my head how his wife said that this was the first time she'd ever been proud of her country." That one has stuck BIG TIME around these parts. The Obama camp won't be able to shake that one ... ever.

In fact, it's people like Elaine - who was probably a Hillary voter in the Ohio primary (but I don't know that for sure) - that make me think McCain is likely to win Ohio and perhaps in Michigan and Pennsylvania.

And Sen. Obama, who already had an uphill climb with blue-collar voters like Elaine, is engaging in a campaign strategy against McCain-Palin that is definitely not helping to ingratiate himself with this group.


UPDATED
The REAL reason Sen. McCain doesn't use email. See also Obama Ad Ridicules McCain over War Injuries.

Wow, Sen. Obama. You're just racking up the brownie points with certain constituencies, aren't you? DEFINITELY NOT ready to lead.