All They Can Do is Foul

John McCain's promises in the spring of a clean, honorable campaign of ideas seems very long ago and quaint. At the time, he probably figured he'd coast to victory on the wings of his compelling personal story and buddy-buddy relationship with a sycophantic national press. He didn't count on two things: the depth of enthusiasm for Barack Obama amongst Democrats, and the very real disgust Americans have for the mismanagement and deceptive politics of the last eight years.

Wrong on the economy, wrong on Iraq, wrong on health care, wrong on most of the issues voters care about, McCain pulled a rabbit out of the hat with his Sarah Palin VP choice - a rabbit that has proven rabid and more likely to damage him than his opponent. Now, with the polls showing the AZ Senator slipping still further behind both nationally and in key battleground state polling, we see the true Rovian nature of his campaign. Time to bring out the swift boats! Ayers! Wright! Voldemort!

I have to ask - does he really want to begin a war of association guilt? This from a guy with ties to Jack Abramoff, Charles Keating, George Bush? A woman (Palin) with ties to a secessionist group in Alaska really wants to play patriot games with Obama? Sigh. This is like the end of a basketball game, when one team is behind and out of timeouts, and all they can do is foul. As long as Barack and Joe hit their free throws, this will be a Democratic win. The risk McCain/Palin runs is the same as those desperate hoop squads - often all this strategy does is run up the score for your opponent.