Christian Leftist

Well, you knew the gloves were going to come off when the McCain campaign became desperate to stop its ticket from bleeding voters. Now we know the depths of utter depravity that they will sink to in order to win.

They can’t win on the economy, as McCain’s own advisor has pointed out:

McCain and his agents are “gambling that he can distract you with smears rather than talk to you about substance,” Obama added. “They’d rather try to tear our campaign down than lift this country up. It’s what you do when you’re out of touch, out of ideas and running out of time.”

McCain’s course correction reflects a growing case of nerves within his high command as the electoral map has shifted significantly in Obama’s favor in the past two weeks.

“It’s a dangerous road, but we have no choice,” a top McCain strategist told the Daily News. “If we keep talking about the economic crisis, we’re going to lose.”

What they’re doing instead is trying to create an air of ‘dangerous mystery’ about Obama, as if no one’s been scrutinizing his entire life under a miscroscope for the past four years and he’s too risky a bet to make in the face of our current problems. They have used William Ayers, a former Weathermen radical who is unrepentant about his role in bombings during the turbulent sixties and who now teaches as a professor in Chicago, as proof of Obama’s hatred of this country. Apparently, because Ayers and Obama served on the boards of two charaities together and Obama once let Ayers hold a coffee event at Ayers’ house for him before he knew who Ayers was, Obama is frolicking through the meadows of democracy in a skip holding hands with terrorists.

Oh, please. McPalin, tell me you have a few useful cards tucked up your sleeve. Tell me you haven’t staked your presidential bid on the hope that we’re all going to ignore our livelihoods falling apart all around us and the world economy crumbling into dust and instead listen to you spout off veiled hate speech. Tell me you aren’t betting your presidency on the Islamophobia and bigotry of the American people. TELL ME you have a better plan hidden away that THAT.

Here are a bunch of links, starting with one to the video above:
Olbermann 2008.10.07 - McCain Campaign Incites Mob Mentality
Obama Hatred At McCain-Palin Rallies: “Terrorist! Kill Him!” (a shorter excerpt from the clip above)
McCain Rally Speaker Refers to Obama’s Middle Name
McCain renewing harsh criticism of Obama (Associated Press)
Call Off the Pit Bull (by Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post)

… Damn.

So why didn’t McCain bring this up during the second debate last night? Well, the questions Tom Brokaw chose didn’t address the personalities of either candidate, and when Obama simply tried to answer McCain’s blatant lies about his tax policies, Brokaw told him to abide by the rules, so Obama talked about them in the next answer in a clever tie-in and McCain ridiculed him for it. It just highlights how the format of debates, even town hall meetings are too restrictive to free conversation. On the other hand, McCain might have done himself even more harm, as independents, especially women, saw McCain’s attacks last night as irrelevant, distracting, and annoying.

McCain’s really in a lose-lose situation: if he doesn’t address these issues, he looks two-faced, and if he does, he looks petty. So why say them at all? Because he has to shore up his base of racists, sexists, and ignorant jerks, naturally, and the best way to do that is to shout “Taxes! Taxes! Taxes!” and scare people away from his opponent.

It’s not sad that McCain is probably going to lose this fight. What’s sad is that there are enough petty-minded, hypocritical, shallow, evil people to make such a strategy effective.