What an interesting week…

While traveling in Asia, President Bush criticized China over its abysmal record on human rights. While traveling across the United States, would-be President John McCain criticized the Bush Administration over its abysmal record on fiscal policy, and his political opponent, for being a pop culture icon. And while traveling on his own campaign trail, Barack Obama criticized his own public enemy of choice: American oil corporations.

Admittedly, the week was a rough one for Obama. It began with the McCain campaign having released a video commercial that portrayed Obama as a pop culture icon, and likened him to such notable celebrities as Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.

Obama reacted to this advertisement by insisting that he and McCain should both be talking about “the substantive issues,” and not about Britney Spears (this from the same Barack Obama who has ignored McCain’s invitations for a joint town hall meeting for nearly three months). Shortly thereafter, the Obama campaign released its own video commercial, claiming that McCain is “just like” President Bush and Vice President Cheney on energy policy, and that McCain is “in the pockets” of “big oil.”

Now think about this for a moment. Senator McCain compared Senator Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. An insult? You bet it was, and an intentional one at that.

Yet, Obama’s response was to compare Senator McCain to an actual President, and to an actual Vice President, and to claim that McCain is - - what? - - too supportive of American business?

If Obama was intending to equalize the presidential campaign terrain this week, it’s difficult to imagine that being called a “friend to the oil companies” compares at all with being called a “pop star.” Similarly, its tough to fathom that for a man to be compared to the President of the United States is somehow worse than being compared to Spears or Hilton.

But this attempt to malign McCain by pointing out his alleged association with “big oil” is consistent with Obama’s entire campaign. Indeed, throughout his nineteen month pursuit of the presidency, Obama has seemingly taken every opportunity to malign American free enterprise - - be it the oil industry, the insurance industry, the banking industry, or the medical profession - - as though it were the source of all the world’s evils. Obama’s radical, anti-business streak showed itself again this week, in an outburst aimed specifically at the Exxon-Mobil corporation. Continued...