Desperation 101

Evidence that the McCain campaign is in full-on desperation meltdown to the point that they are behaving in a truly unpatriotic--and actually rather scary--way:

Item 1: A public statement that the campaign will run 100% attack ads from here till November.

Item 2: Bringing up the Bill Ayers thing months after it's been out there and investigated ad nauseam. Forgetting to mention that the board both Obama and Ayers served on contained several Republicans--and it was for the Annenberg Challenge. You know Annenberg. A major donor to John McCain. So is he saying his major donor also "pals around with terrorists?"

Item 3: Sarah Palin stoking the fury at rallies where the mention of Obama's name provokes cries of "Treason!" and "Kill him!" This scary little video shows what we're dealing with here, with people who truly, genuinely buy the notion that Obama might be a terrorist. Based, you know, on his name and "bloodlines." Jewish supporters of McCain: these are your bedfellows. If it doesn't scare you, it damn sure ought to. Much was made of Obama's rallies, being called hitlerian because so many people came out and we are all supposedly under the sway of the Obamessiah. Major difference between the rallies? One side's rallies foment anger, prejudice and accusations of "treason" against a fellow American. And it's ugly. As Joe Biden said of Sarah Palin's "treason" and "kill him!" rallies, "The idea that a leading American politician who might be vice president of the United States would not just stop mid-sentence and turn and condemn that -- it's just a slippery slope, it's a place that we shouldn't be going."


Item 4: The potential FIRST LADY is now attacking the Democratic candidate! When in the history of modern American politics has the woman hoping to become First Lady EVER attacked the opposition candidate? Cindy McCain taking Obama to task for cutting funding for "my son" who serves "in harm's way." How it "sent a cold shiver through her body." I wonder if she got the same cold shiver on those occasions when her husband voted against similar bills? When is this appropriate, for the person who will have a 100% ceremonial position in the next administration, to be throwing red meat at the rallies? This is so sad--and angering--I can't even discuss it. It's a breach of tradition--and a poorly-conceived one at that.

But there is hope, folks, on October 15th. That's the next debate. Obama said to Charlie Gibson, and Biden repeated it again today at a rally: If McCain has something to say about me he needs to say it to my face. This is first-rate politics (in the classic and best sense of the word), folks. It's forcing McCain's hand. You want to run ads on TV and speak at rallies where you call me a terrorist's pal, you want to say I'm a traitor? Well, don't hide behind those surrogates, don't hide behind YOUR WIFE. Say it on national TV: "I, John McCain, think you are a terrorist sympathizer." Because you either have the courage of your convictions or you are a old, has-been hack throwing spaghetti against a wall and hoping it sticks so you can complete your presidential power grab. You either have the courage to call Obama out on national TV and lose your already-crumbling reputation for being a man of honesty and fair play, or you don't, and you lose your already-crumbling reputation for being a man of courage. Either way, McCain loses. All he can do is keep running ads that don't mention his donor's role in the Ayers thing, and hope his base is too ignorant to care. Which, based on the video above, is unfortunately a rather likely outcome.

And a final note, my personal rant, on the McCain charge that Obama is "the most liberal senator" as if that's a bad thing. Folks, if the past eight years is what Conservatism has to offer, I'm pretty damn psyched and proud to be a fat headed liberal. I'll put 8 years of Clinton up against 8 years of GW Bush any day of the week--on foreign policy AND economics. I'm liberal and I'm proud of it, and even McCain, with his obsession for finding nasty things to say about people, can't change that. After the past two terms, "conservative," not "liberal," ought to be the dirty word.

UPDATE: Here's another, worse video of more McCain-Palin supporters (in PA) yelling that Obama is a "communist, socialist, terrorist" and calling his supporters "commie faggots." Niiice. What a Grand Old Party!


Hullabaloo states it perfectly: We are entering a turbulent period in our country. Validating a bogus accusation that your political rival is a terrorist in our current environment is the most irresponsible thing I've seen a campaign do in many a year. They know they are very likely going to lose this election. And McCain certainly knows that the main reason he is losing is because of the dramatic failures of fellow failed Republican George W. Bush. But even knowing that his candidacy was always very likely doomed is not stopping him from releasing this poison into the bloodstream of the body politic, a poison which will be with us for a long time to come. I guess that's what McCain means when he says that Americans should fight for a cause greater than themselves. That cause, evidently, is him.