Look, John McCain has told us a long time ago before this campaign ever got started, back in May, I think, that from his perspective, he was not going to have his campaign actively involved in using Jeremiah Wright as a wedge in this campaign. Now since then, I must say, when Congressman Lewis calls John McCain and Sarah Palin and his entire group of supporters, fifty million people strong around this country, that we're all racists and we should be compared to George Wallace and the kind of horrible segregation and evil and horrible politics that was played at that time, you know, that you've got to rethink all these things. And so I think we're in the process of looking at how we're going to close this campaign. We've got 19 days, and we're taking serious all these issues.These dudes are worthless. Calling them Nixonian would be a compliment, because they're not even good at running the Nixon game. Please, no BS about how McCain's heart isn't in it. Whatever. I so want them to go there. And throw in the drugs while they're at it. I want these dudes to throw the whole book at Obama, and then I want him to bury them. This isn't about a hatred of McCain, it's about my utter and complete disgust with Northern Virginia not being the "real Virginia," with small-town American snobbery, with neo-red-baiting, with Obama monkeys, and Obama bucks. End this now. Let's close this chapter--not because it will be the end of our problems, but because we have huge actual problems that we should be fighting over.
« Thug-Life Chronicles Cont. | Main | I hope this is in good taste » Do it Rick20 Oct 2008 08:23 pm
Davis argues that John Lewis--who McCain claims to hold in the highest esteem--has forced them into race-baiting:
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A poster on this blog made the case that John McCain does not want to bring up the good Reverand because Jeremiah was a fellow Marine. Makes sense to me. If they were gonna use the Rev Wright crap, they would have done it by now. It's useless..
It's all because Obama didn't agree to those summer townhall debates, really. His own fault--he forced McCain to do every dishonorable thing he's embraced since that time.
And I'm with those who refuse to be astounded at either a) the raising of Wright; b) the raising of Wright just before the election, rather than in July. Big shocker there.
I am astounded that they haven't gotten how the culture war stuff isn't working for them, and saying it over again louder isn't working either. They truly seem not to get the distinction between the charge that their rallies have become reminiscent of the crowds George Wallace--who never threw a bomb or tied a noose--encouraged, and charging them with racism.
How far reduced is the argument "I'm not a racist, and anyone who criticizes our nuttier, yet tolerated, audience members just brought it on themselves because Obama wouldn't do those Town Hall debates"?
My feelings exactly. Do it. Bring it. John McCain has gone back on so many other things he once stood for, so why should this issue be any different? I want to see him and the rest of the Rove wing of the GOP go out like this.
OMFG. Why don't these idiots just start sporting t-shirts that say; "Yes, I'm desperate, and will do anything to win." Reverend Wright? Really? Except for Biden, don't all three candidates now have a connection to a crazy reverend? And most importantly, what in God's name does Rev. Wright have to do with the fact that the government is proposing another stimulus package that will increase our debt to China.
I'm with Coates. If I go on another blog and hear someone wax nostalgic about the "good McCain" I'm going to lose it. There is no "good McCain." He has been a certifiable a**hole, that has been getting by on unnecessary hero worship.
And the justification. My God---Are you serious? I can't even believe this is real. Are these people really saying this stuff out loud? Do they realize that people are writing books about this election as we speak? Who are these people? How can anyone think that they should be involved in government?
Dammit Barack. If only you had done those townhall debates, McCain would have never revealed himself as the pathetic, incompetent, craven hack that he is.
Once again, an enthusiastic "Amen!" for the gentleman from B-More and the truth he brings.
"I am astounded that they haven't gotten how the culture war stuff isn't working for them, and saying it over again louder isn't working either. They truly seem not to get the distinction between the charge that their rallies have become reminiscent of the crowds George Wallace--who never threw a bomb or tied a noose--encouraged, and charging them with racism."
It is kind of amazing, no? The first point more than the second, because that requires thinking. I think they are just frustrated at this point and the Lewis thing put them over the top. They keep repeating it and no one cares. It doesn't feel like a tactic. I think they're just pissed-off that they're losing
Let 'em flame out! I no longer just want an Obama win, I want a huge, undeniable repudiation of McCain and all this his campaign has done and stood for. I WANT MY COUNTRY BACK!!!
Don't forget southeastern Virginia, where much of the state's black population lives. Unreal!
I guess saving Wright for the last 3 weeks of the campaign is what passes for discipline in the McCain campaign.
You KNOW that the Obama campaign has had their response ready for months........
and
the best repudiation of this garbage is a landslide. i'm talking a MAN-FUCKING-DATE
It is called desperation's desperation! Must be a big hole in that barrel McCain calls a campaign because these folks are pulling stuff from cesspools.
Bandit, McCain was Navy, not Marine. Not correcting you just to be a douche, but the branches of service are competitive with one another, and crack on each other all the time, and you can sometimes offend somebody by getting their branch wrong. That said, the point is good. McCain might not want to go after Wright too hard because of his service--not because he feels any obligation to fellow service members, mind you; only that Wright's (exemplary) service could somehow lead to a backlash against McCain were he to use this line of attack.
"Please, no BS about how McCain's heart isn't in it. Whatever. I so want them to go there."
But his heart isn't in it. He doesn't want to go there. If anything, McCain suffers from excess dignity and cowardice.
"I think they're just pissed-off that they're losing"
It is apparent they are upset. Just read Rick Davis's interview with J. Goldberg. The McCain campaign is operating on the same trajectory as the HRC campaign. And like the Clinton campaign, they will ultimately lose.
I believe that if 60 million voters contact the McCain campaign and promise to vote for him if he blows a goat on live national TV we'd see him doing the deed within two days. So let's do it and then vote for Obama anyway.
Sure, it's a terrible thing to do to an old goat, but which one?
Amen. I also did not think McCain's heart was in this at first, but now there is no doubt that ambition has taken control and this guy is going to throw everything he can at Obama. Fortunately, I also think this is going to pretty much seal the deal on this for Obama.
Does anyone find it a bit ironic that McCain's rationale for doing this is John Lewis? That their response to be called out on dangerous racist tactics is to bring up the scary black man who hates (white) America?
I'm more and more convinced this is performance art, but come on John! We get it! You're a brilliant artist! Cut it out before someone gets hurt.
News sources are reporting that Obama will go to Hawaii to visit his gravely ill grandmother. Do hope she is able to see Obama elected and beyond.
Yes, it is not a question of if, the question is how far will McCain and company go? Agree, it does not sound too good but these folks have done worse.
I've lived in NoVA my entire life and was just upset when i saw the "not-real VA" claims. Sentiment like that is just enfuriating, there is no "fake" part of this massive nation. Embrace only a dwindling segment of our country and turn your nose to all the others and watch what happens. Your campaign fucking loses.
Which surrogate gets to say
USS Forrestal
F i r s t ?
Well said, Ta-Nehisi. I keep thinking these guys can't get any more shamelessly desperate, and then they surprise me by descending even further. But they really don't seem to understand how ridiculous they look. For example - Obama hauls in $150 million with a huge influx of small donors, and the McCain campaign starts accusing us of trying to "buy the election". Are they actually trying to get more of us to immediately donate even more to Obama? Seeing them get trounced is going to be a deep, profound pleasure.
I mean, here you have it, reported proof that his heart just isn't in it:
“Wright is off the table,” said one top campaign official. “It’s all McCain. He won’t go there. His advisers would have gone there.”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1008/14587.html
Fifty million supporters? That, my friends, is a way to lose an election.
Be careful what you wish for. An all out shit-storm of negativity isn't going to do the country any good no matter who wins. It won't settle anything, it will just leave hard feelings on both sides that will lead to even crazier behavior. Obama is winning, let's keep McCain conflicted. A 6-8 point lead in the polls with slightly larger margins in the battleground states is perfect for us.
No, Rick Davis and the McCain Gang, are peewees compared to the Nixonian world, the long national nightmare. There is an interesting site you should check out: http://tinyurl.com/6z26lw, the Vanderbilt Television News Archive. Just pick out any CBS Evening News Broadcast, from about 1969 to 1972 and you'll see what chaos and destruction Nixon was creating each and every day.
The Nixon Regime: Mitchell, Haldeman, "Modified limited hangout", Ehrlichman, Colson, CREEP, Colson, Liddy, The Pentagon Papers, the Secret Plan to End the War, Kissinger, Agnew, the "secret" carpet bombing of Cambodia [setting up the Khmer Rouge], and the beginning of the Imperial Presidency, just off the top of my head.
BUT, I am not implying AT ALL, that these guys are not thugs and killers. But they are far more stupid than the Nixon criminals, but just as dangerous in their own way. They will still be eating themselves up to election day. On November 3rd, their jaws will be wrapped around their necks, chomping away, like the rabid dogs they are.
Rick Davis and McCain are Nixon wannabes, if that. They are lightweights compared to Nixon and his chumps.
What began with Nixon is finishing with the sound of a flushing toilet with its attendant turds.
Thank god I'm not the only one. I've been saying for weeks that all this foolishness is utterly exhausting.
Y'all don't get it.
Davis is trying to tell you he's not a punk.
But he doesn't know how.
He, like his boss, and the rest of their mavericky little cult, think that being a punk is about posture and demeanor.
It's not about anything real or meaningful.
It's talking tough -- without actually doing anything.
Davis is crying out for help. He desperately wants you to think he's not just a punk following an even bigger (smaller?) punk.
And he senses it's not working out.
Christ, I was wondering what happened to Moe, Larry, and Jesus. Now I know.
Anyhoo, no McCain won't go there with Rev. Wright, primarily because it won't work and the Propaganda Ministry (that's the Mainstream Media to you Democrats) wouldn't let him get away with it.
McCain's just trying to keep it respectable. He's down to that. He's run one of the most tone deaf campaigns by a Republican since Bush the Elder (Junior actually ran two fairly good campaigns, but he had Rove) since Lehman collapsed. For our part, Republicans credit Steve Schmidt for keeping him this close, but let's face it, McCain's decision to go on about Bill Ayers ran his campaign off the rails.
He'll actually get close because Americans like the guy and respect him, unlike Bush, but Obama will put it away in the end, sort of like 1976 with Carter-Ford. It's amazing to watch all you libs get angry at a guy who is normally your favorite Republican during the off-season. The Campaign that has raised 600 million dollars is whining about what McCain might say about Wright.
Stop it. Just stop it. You guys are beginning to sound like Nixon's reelect people from 1972. You're so ginned up with erzatz anger at McCain and Palin, even though you're going to crush them like bugs, that you forgot that on the day after you're going to have to govern.
Lot of fat good your anger and Bush-hatred will do you then, eh?
As for us? Well, we have to rebuild our own party, thank you very much. We'll be fine. It might take us three or four cycles, but we'll be back. And we'll be a lot better for having taken this loss. Victory is great, but you learn more from defeat than you'll ever learn from winning an easy race.
Ronald Reagan knew that.
Yeah, I would love for them to do it. Like you've already pointed out, the problem with Ayers/Wright and all that is that it doesn't fit in with any type of narrative. In 2004, something like this shit about Ayers would have probably worked because we were talking about Iraq and the war on terrah.
In 2008, not so much. And if they wanted to get into it, Rezko's a better "disturbing association" for this election since dude's a shady businessman who benefited from a push to get private companies heavy into the public housing business....really fucking the projects up bad in the process...even beyond just being projects. They should do it if only so I could delight in seeing Republicans demonize a Democrat for preferring a market based solution to a problem.
I don't know though, the whole Reverend Wright thing. Man, people been knew about that. They were running that "God damn America" clip like 24-7 when that story broke. And it was actual news back then. That wasn't something Hillary came up with it was something that reporters dug up. If McCain dusts it off, it just looks desperate given that:
a.) Obama already left the church
b.) They just got done running they mouth about Ayers and no one cared
c.) It has nothing to do with the economy!
In conclusion, these fools are stupid. And word to them not being on that Nixon tip...or even that Karl Rove tip for that matter. Those dudes knew what they were doing.
section9 writes: "Christ, I was wondering what happened to Moe, Larry, and Jesus. Now I know.
Anyhoo, no McCain won't go there with Rev. Wright, primarily because it won't work and the Propaganda Ministry (that's the Mainstream Media to you Democrats) wouldn't let him get away with it."
Using "anyhoo" is pretty much the ultimate sign of posting uselessness.
Blaming the media for a shitty candidate and his even shittier running mate getting their asses kicked is a close second.
Why is the conservative movement dying? It's dying because it's malignant and because it deserves to die.
No rational, sane adults will miss it.
Now excuse me, I have the McCain campaign on the phone asking me where they can buy a goat.
What I don't get is why they keep telegraphing their punches. The one thing they managed to keep secret was picking Sarah Palin, and that was just because McCain decided it off the top of his head at the last minute.
"Obama better watch out! He leaves us with no choice but to go nuclear! We just might bring up an attack that he already encountered and neutralized with a widely praised speech seven months ago!"
Pat Buchanan, David Duke, Timothy McVeigh among others have all tried to ignite a culture war.
They quickly learned that the majority of Americans were not on their side. Their kind of leadership isn't accepted in our democracy.
It is a sad ending for John McCain but he asked for it.
I wonder, if the Obama camp can close the deal and win this election, will the MSM finally come out and say that this is the most wretched excuse for a campaign ever put forth on a national stage? Will they finally drop the deep respect for McCain's service veil and state that this was even uglier than Bush's two campaigns?
MoeLarryandJesus, McCain has sunk pretty low but he won't go that low ... that's why he has Joe Lieberman on board.
JT (Chicago) tells me: "MoeLarryandJesus, McCain has sunk pretty low but he won't go that low ... that's why he has Joe Lieberman on board. "
That made me break out the evil laugh.
I have some questions about goats and kosher that I'm just not going to ask. It's taking all of my self-control.
Does Sarah Silverman read this blog? If so, I hope she does it for me.
I have been following your thoughts & this one post just reached, unleashed emotions.
Words are everything and that one phrase, "pals around with terrorists" changed the tone of this election and country. Racism and resentment residential in America's underbelly seems to have seen a rebirth ----I thought America had progressed its past in greater ways through lesser times.
As an Asian/Indian-American kid who has lived through white kids throwing stones at her in her early immigrant days in America ----it is sad to see we are not done being divisive, demeaning.
But what if they throw the book at him and he loses?
I would bet most of us strong Obama partisans would feel so good to see him actually lay into McCain and Palin in a big, big way. It's our seven year itch compressed into a primary and general: we wanted him to tear into Hillary and he wouldn't do it and now he's teasing us again with Gramps and Caribou - two dull softballs floating over the center of the plate, begging.
This is why he's winning of course because he won't go there. Because he won't go there, he can't be brought there, either. As it drove Hillary to speak to the heavens in mocking frustration, so it drives Gramps to mutter and stumble across the stage of his campaign. There must be a great school of Aikido in Hawaii.
So, TNC, all of us Obamatrons (still my favorite)ultimately must be satisfied with dreams of vengeance - and the reality of a winning campaign.
So, shorter McCain campaign:
"This reputable guy compared us, but not really, to a racist, so now we're forced to go out there and remind everyone that our black opponent hangs out with black people."
"I am astounded that they haven't gotten how the culture war stuff isn't working for them"
Oh, I think they get it. This stuff is not being deployed to get McCain new voters, but to ensure large Republican turnout: with Senator Obama well ahead in the polls and with time running out, their only hope is for his supporters to get complacent while they race-bait their way to massive GOP turnout on election day to try to turn things. The Reverend Wright/William Ayers/Obama-is-a-muslim/Obama-is-a-socialist lines of attack serve the purpose of mobilizing christianists, the ignorant and the bigoted (i.e., the GOP's base) to go to the polls and save America from the communist-yet-elitist, muslim-yet-black-liberation-church-going terrorist-with-eleven-years-in-elected-office. Wait, make that "black-terrorist-with-eleven-yadda-yadda."
Look, I get that the culture war-based attacks seem desperate. That's because they are. But the fact that they're desperate doesn't mean that this stuff can't work (not by converting new voters, but by increasing GOP turnout as explained above.) And in that respect, the attacks are kind of brilliant: they get the feeble-minded all riled up, while looking to the rest of us like Republicans digging a deeper hole for themselves. They get Republicans to the polls en masse, while the rest of us get complacent.
So, like, don't get complacent, is what I'm trying to say.
I still marvel that claiming McCain is comparable to Wallace okey dokey but bringing up Wright is somehow dishonorable. Why?
The Wright issue has nothing to do with Wright being black and everything to do with Wright being a crazy mofo. It is also perfectly legitimate. I think the only reason McCain has laid off thus far is because he feared that such an attack would be spun as racially motivated, but if he's going to be called a racist anyway then that fear becomes irrelevant.
And TNC, if you are really so tired of the 'race baiting' then I suggest you focus some attention on the ACTUAL McCAIN CAMPAIGN instead of sniffing around for every hint of racism you can find and then ascribing it to McCain with ever more tortured reasoning. The actual McCain campaign has spent the majority of the last few weeks talking about tax policy rather than the urgent need for the return of the john crow laws. This can all be gleaned easily enough from his website but if you've been looking to the newsletters of obscure women's groups for the McCain team's message then I can see why this passed you by.
*jim crow
You do realize that Obama is not going to bury McCain right?
God, what the hell is wrong with you and Booman?
iron pimp hand = Michael Savage
And that isn't a compliment.
We have a saying in the UK, when someone is making threats, and you know you can clean them out, it's a simple one, and it's "Lets fucking 'ave it"
Let McCain do it, really lets have the final salvo, and then Barack can simply clean the GOP/NeoCon clock for a generation.
You do realize that Obama is not going to bury McCain right?
Well no we don't realize that. Obama isn't going to pull a Reagan '84, but he's in a better position than most people realize. That's good. Obama will need the momentum heading into the battles next year, and we need to give him as hard of a push right now so that he comes through.
Obama isn't going to bury conservatism as is practiced today, but he's certainly going to bury McCain.
"And TNC, if you are really so tired of the 'race baiting' then I suggest you focus some attention on the ACTUAL McCAIN CAMPAIGN instead of sniffing around for every hint of racism you can find and then ascribing it to McCain with ever more tortured reasoning"
iron pimp hand,
You are a racist. And you were sent here by John McCain. You're a McCain racist. Also change your handle, please--you racist.
St. Peter is gonna make me answer for it, but it is still worth noting how much visiting his grandmother is going to seal the deal for Obama, following on the you-can't-make-it-up weekend of Sarah Palin going on SNL the night before Colin Powell endorsed Obama, largely because McCain picked a VP who simply isn't ready for the Oval Office.
Like Powell, Obama is a guy who is comfortable with who he is -- famously because of, not despite his unusual identity as the child of a Kenyan father and a girl from Kansas named Stanley. His grandmother raised him -- so the truth is, he's got a LOT more Kansas in him than many people suspect.
An election ought to be about SOMETHING, which is why candidates keep trying to use issues as a vehicle for images. Obama's campaign will be studied for a very long time for the superb way he handled strategy -- starting out sound and building on every break that came his way, and he got a lot of 'em: a sign how good he is, not just how lucky. (It can be hard to handle success, especially when followed by challenge: a lesser guy would have made big mistakes after New Hampshire or the Wall Street crash.)
That it was Obama's opponents who made the mistakes is another sign how good his campaign has been. Let's all hope he handles Putin and Kim Jong Il and Iraq and Iran and Hamas as well.
It was McCain, more than Obama, who made this an election about the future vs. the past, about hope vs fear, about calm and cool vs. erratic excitement.
I'm with TNC -- the more McCain tries to turn out the "50 million" (ye gods!) of his base with this crap, the better off the country is. Let 'em make this election a STARK choice.
McCain is starting to sound like your typical wife-beater: “Baby, I don’t want to hit you and I hate myself when I do it, but you really have to show a guy more respect. You give me no choice, baby. Why do you do these things that force me to hit you?”
I do take solace in the fact that McCain and his toadies are sounding so desperate, despicable and delusional that they are driving otherwise hesitant voters straight into Obama’s arms. Take my father for example; the man is a dyed-in-the-wool, old-school (read: fiscal, not social conservative) Republican. He’s voted for a Republican for president every year since 1964. When I spoke with him last night he was beyond livid at McCain and the Republican Party. He told me that for the longest time, he sincerely believed (or deluded himself into believing, as he now admits) that the racist elements of the party were merely a fringe. He now sees the Republican Party for what it is, so when he cast his early ballot yesterday, he voted for Obama. He’s 65-years old and this was his first vote ever for a Democratic president. He lives in Colorado too, so that really helps!
So yes McCain, do bring on Reverend Wright and continue to alienate the last of your non-kooky supporters. Expose your true self.
On a side note: I may not agree with what Reverend Wright has to say, but god damn it; he’s served his country honorably as a Marine in Vietnam. Methinks he’s done more to earn the right to say whatever he damn well pleases than 99% of the assholes calling him anti-American for doing so.
You guys are missing the point on the Lewis pushback.
The problem with that, and the reason McCain keeps repeating it, isn't that Lewis is saying that McCain is Wallace: it's that, by extension, Lewis is saying that these crowds of Good Honest Republicans are lynch mobs. They're terrorists waiting to happen. They're bomb-builders, murderers, racists.
Now, none of that is necessarily incorrect, but it is inflammatory.
This isn't a point of personal honor for McCain, it's a point of political advantage. Or at least he thinks it is.
IPH, and anyone else who continues to delude themselves that the McCain campaign's hands are clean when it comes to the Obama smears, should check out Ken Silverstein's article in the current Harper's. Maybe someone can find a link to the whole thing, it's in the subscriber area. Long story short, there is a lot of Republican money being funneled to some very scary people, and to fund some truly disgusting shit. Most of these folks want to keep their names out of the public eye, and cosidering the rumors they are spreading, I don't blame them.
The fact is, the Obama campaign has broken new ground in usiong the internet to raise funds and bring new people into the political process. The McCain campaign has used it to spread vile hatred and suspicion. The difference between "conservatives" and liberals in a nutshell, folks.
I agree completely. But let's hope McCain says this crap directly instead of leaving it to his surrogates.Let's get the race thing out in the sunlight and kill it off there, where everyone can see it.
And I never thought that I would see a black candidate dealing with these issues from a position of actual electoral strength....I'm glad that I lived to witness it.
McCain has already neutralized his own attack. During the primary he already said, "I know Obama. I know he does not share Wright's views." Just last week he said, "I admire Obama and his accomplishments." Bringing up Wright is just going to be one more poorly executed tactic in a poorly managed campaign. He's going to contradict himself when he brings this up.
As we witness one misstep after another in McCain's strategy what's becoming clear is Davis has never run a winning campaign ever. McCain may have lost this back in July 2007 when he picked Davis to "manage" his campaign. If you look at Obama's team, you realize that his guys have been with him almost from the beginning and helped him win his Senate race.
Iron Pimp Hand,
John McCain's sissified attempt to make Sen. Obama "repudiate" John Lewis is John (lol)... JIM Crow personified.
John Lewis has a phone number and, given how close McCain pretended to be to Lewis at the Saddleback Forum when he claimed Lewis would be one of the "wise" men he would count on for advice during his presidency, surely McCain can either heed the wise counsel given or STFU.
John McCain -- the man who denies the Black side of his family (slave heritage) -- show us all how that wasn't stuff you said at the Saddleback wasn't just bs.
I don't know if any of you are fans of cartoonist Ted Rall, but here's his cartoon for Thursday, guaranteed to cause controversy. It's on topic.
http://www.rall.com/uploaded_images/10-23-08-733451.jpg
Further....
"I still marvel that claiming McCain is comparable to Wallace okey dokey but bringing up Wright is somehow dishonorable. Why?"
You're marveling because you're making sh*t up. Rick Davis is too, in the typical White "you called me racist" sort of way. Simple reading comprehension would you dropping that campaign spin because the only person to person comparison between McCain and Wallace was the idea that Wallace, at one point in his career, decided to employ race-baiting tactics in his campaign(s) to advance his political career.
From Lewis' account, Wallace, himself, wasn't racist at the time but appealed to the racist/racial lowest common denominator which eventually produced the tragic results and infamy Wallace is now known for. Lewis' remarks came right after a weeks worth of McCain/Palin rallies that drew those words of cautioned that never suggested that neither McCain was racist, just that he was playing with racist fire which McCain himself found himself trying to sprinkle out at the townhall event when he was compelled to state that Obama is not an Arab=Muslim=terrorist and is a "decent, family man."
So Rick Davis and you, IPH, can STFU. The record speaks for itself. That's why you're trying to pretend like the McCain campaign has been so focused on tax policy because, you too, inherently admit that McCain went there, just like he did.
I find it humorous, and somewhat poetic, that Davis chose to make the campaign about "character" because he thought that would give McCain an advantage. All it has done is prove that Obama has the better temperament.
And the highly negative attacks are certainly riling up the base; but what McCain's campaign people are assuming is that the same attacks *won't* rile up the center against McCain. In general, that's a sound bet. This year? It's suicidal ignorance.
Yeah... Good luck with that, brother. I remember a long exhale the night of the 1992 election where I thought nearly the exact same thoughts about Clinton: "Go there," I thought. "Let's find all about McDougal and Whitewater and..." yadda yadda yadda. "There's no there there." And there wasn't. Did that help? Um.. no.
So, you remember 'Blazing Saddles' doncha??
"That's Mungo. Don't shoot him. It only makes him mad."
Farmers don't put lipstick on their pigs and psychiatrists don't argue with their patients neuroses and/or psychoses... pigs, you see, are immune to lipstick and mental patients are immune to logic. Mungo is immune to bullets. The modern day GOP is immune to rationality.
although, I must say, your belief in an emergent rationality is touching.... I do so wish you were right and I was wrong. Sigh.
Check out this essay on Reasonable Doubt, President Obama, White Anger and Us. Directly tied to what you're saying about forced race-baiting.
http://kieselaymon.com/?cat=8
It's going to get worse, above and below ground. McCain's campaign believes (especially after the last few days of widening polls) that their only route to the White House lies through Appalachia and perhaps Florida. Get ready for Rev. Wright, terrorism, communism, mesegenation, drug use, drug dealing, adultery, thuggery, soft on crime, baby killing, anti-americanism, treason, welfare give-aways, anything that they think will help them win. Their credo is win now, "apologize" later (remember "compassionate conservativism.") Trust me, I know and have worked with several of McCain's campaign aides. It won't work, of course, but they either don't know that or don't care. Probably both. They certainly don't care what it may do to the body politic because of course their cause is just.