He doesn't understand

They toss it out so casually, most observers seem to miss it.

While bloggers and the press ballyhoo about Obama being called arrogant and uppity, I see a more serious slight being tossed around: He doesn't understand. McCain led with this offensive when Barack Obama returned from his week long trip throughout Europe and the Middle East.

"He doesn't understand what's at stake in Iraq," McCain said repeatedly. McCain and now Republican operatives repeatedly tell us what Obama doesn't understand on Iraq, the economy, on energy. On every issue, Barack Obama doesn't understand. Is it me or is this a not-so-subtle belittlement of Obama's intelligence?

Here is a man who went to Columbia and Harvard University, two of the country's best schools. He excels...becoming the first Black editor of the Harvard Law Review. He goes on to practice civil rights law and teach Constitutional law. He rises through the ranks quickly at both the state and federal senate levels. He displays a command of the issues and articulates his positions clearly. And McCain wants to tell us that Obama doesn't understand.

That's insidious.

If McCain disagrees, he should say so. If he has a difference in opinion, so be it. But to say his opponent doesn't understand? This is from a man who has never proven to be an intellectual heavyweight. He graduated third from the bottom of his class at the Naval Academy. This is with the privilege of two generations of four-star Navy Admirals in his lineage. Everyone knows that should get you every benefit of the doubt. And yet he was less than stellar.

This is also from a man who claims he didn't really understand the economy after 26 years in congress. This from a man who mistakes the border of Iraq and Sunni from Shia.

This man has the gall to say that Barack Obama doesn't understand, and no one challenges him. Is it that it seems plausible that the older, more experienced senator should logically be wiser than his younger counterpart? Is it that when people look at them together it seems like a plausible scenario?

How in the world can he continue to get away with that? I don't understand.