A Month of Mud

From now until November 4th, the spatter of little feet running in all directions to throw muck at Barack Obama will be the end game of McCain '08 with a reprise of the golden oldies of guilt-by-association--William Ayers, Jeremiah Wright and Tony Rezko.

Desperate to deflect attention from the economic abyss at the feet of voters, Republicans from Sarah Palin down (if that's the right word) will be out swiftboating away but, unlike John Kerry in 2004, Obama is taking them on openly.

"Sen. McCain and his operatives," he told a North Carolina rally today, "are gambling that they can distract you with smears rather than talk to you about substance. They'd rather try to tear our campaign down than lift this country up.

"That's what you do when you're out of touch, out of ideas, and running out of time."

Palin is racing down the low road in high heels and Fargo twang, accusing Obama of "palling around with terrorists" on the basis of a passing association with William Ayers, whose Vietnam protests took place when the candidate was in grade school.

An analyst for AP, hardly a liberal bastion, notes: "Palin's words avoid repulsing voters with overt racism. But is there another subtext for creating the false image of a black presidential nominee 'palling around' with terrorists while assuring a predominantly white audience that he doesn't see their America?

"In a post-Sept. 11 America, terrorists are envisioned as dark-skinned radical Muslims, not the homegrown anarchists of Ayers' day 40 years ago...(P)ortraying Obama as 'not like us' is another potential appeal to racism. It suggests that the Hawaiian-born Christian is, at heart, un-American."

McCain himself is not doing the dirty work, although this week's debate will surely put him in the position of having to approve or disown these despicable tactics. He won't be able to hide behind the skirts of his transgendered Dick Cheney.

Someone must have put up a sign in every McCain campaign office, "It's the economy, stupid, but don't tell Palin."