Obligatory 'Wendy Davis Staffer Handles Handicapped Man Awkwardly' Post

At any other moment in the vast history of time, this video probably wouldn’t matter at all. Not a bit.

But since it comes on the heels of Wendy Davis and her slimy wheelchair ad, everyone is going to talk about it. So here’s the clip.

There is one good point to be made about this, and a whole lot of bad points. The one good point is that Davis’ ad has put her so far on the defensive that she may as well suit up for the New York Giants (who got whooped last night in Philly, in case you don’t follow football). Davis’ choice to produce and run that ad has made it so that everyone is watching her and everyone on her campaign for signs of insensitivity, which is a no good, terrible place to be. And it’s a place that she deserves to occupy after running that ad. You don’t really recover from that even if you’re in a favorable place and have lots of time. Davis is running as an Obama Democrat in Texas, with about three weeks to go. You can do the math.

There’s a secondary point that could be made, about disabilities and the late-term, unregulated abortion that Wendy Davis enthusiastically supports.

At any rate, here we have the defensive Davis campaign now having their candidate share the stage with some disabled Texans, and one who is not in a wheelchair gets moved off to the side in an awkward way. At any other moment, that would be fine. But in this moment, Wendy Davis appears to be using them clumsily as props to try to deflect everyone from the wheelchair ad. And that’s not fine. Not fine at all.

The “Look, I can find people who should be mad at me to pose with me!” trick never works. It just reminds everyone of the wheelchair ad again. Lots of writers will put this video in the same space with that ad, and bring the whole thing up for another round of criticism — justified, in the case of the ad, which is terrible.

Which is all very bad for Wendy Davis.