McCain: Release the Hounds!

What else is John McCain supposed to do? He can't win on the issues. He can't win using gimmicks. His only choice is to try to slash and burn. To strike fear in the hearts of the American electorate. Hey, when even Karl Rove declares that the Republican is about to lose the race, you know that said Republican will be getting busy with some Karl Rove tactics to try to cook up some panic.

And so, this is how the final month of the campaign will play out. Like a faint, fading echo, McCain's promises to rise above politics as usual will be drowned out by the increasingly absurd, desperate howls from the crew on his sinking ship. Without learning a thing that we don't already know, we'll hear of Obama's secret associations. We'll listen to the impassioned assertions of terrorist ties, and foreign allegiances. We'll hear all the things we've heard a thousand times before, but that have failed to sway the bulk of the electorate. Be afraid, America! Communism, socialism, terrorism, Islamic fundamentalism, black nationalism, and whatever other terrifying ism (except for racism, of course) you can concoct threatens to sweep over your beloved country. Elect Barack Obama and you'll be doomed!

Since it turns out (surprise!) that the fundamentals of our economy are far from strong, McCain has wisely decided that his only way to win is to "turn the page" on that subject. In fact, he'd like to ditch the whole damn book. Perhaps Sarah Palin can inquire as to the logistics for having it removed from the library altogether.

So, time for one last new beginning. The leaner and meaner McCain campaign's advertising department will no longer be burdened with such trivial questions as how we fix the country's economy, or how we should best handle the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead, it will settle its spotlight on one crucial refrain: Who is more patriotic? And to prove that it isn't the guy with the funny-sounding name, McCain will hit the airwaves with a shock-and-awe barrage of negative ads that will make Hillary's "3 a.m." feel like children's bedtime viewing.

Palin, chief pit bull among the many hounds who will be barking out this nonsense, showed us what she's made of over the weekend. Though still not ready to answer follow-up questions at an honest-to-God press conference, she sure can talk tough from the "unfiltered" safety of a campaign stop podium:

"Our opponent... is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country," Palin told a group of donors in Englewood, Colo. A deliberate attempt to smear Obama, McCain's ticket-mate echoed the line at three separate events Saturday.

"This is not a man who sees America like you and I see America," she said. "We see America as a force for good in this world."

But even the most hardened supporters of Palin/McCain (and that is the order on the bill, these days) realize what's going on. The guilt-by-association charge is yet another way to make the us against them argument. Here's the AP's assessment:

Her reference [to William Ayers] was exaggerated at best if not outright false. No evidence shows they were "pals" or even close when they worked on community boards years ago and Ayers hosted a political even for Obama early in his career.

Obama, who was a child when the Weathermen were planting bombs, has denounced Ayers' radical views and actions.

Its summary judgment, however, that really cuts to the quick:

John McCain occasionally says he looks back on decisions with regret. He has apologized for opposing a holiday to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. He has apologized for refusing to call for the removal of a Confederate flag from South Carolina's Capitol.

When the 2008 campaign is over will McCain say he regrets such appeals as Palin's?

Stoking racism to distract voters from McCain's ignorance on the economy? You betcha! It's really too bad that Ayers (the author of more than a dozen books on education reform) and Obama served together on the board of an organization that was attempting to make Chicago schools better. Why couldn't it have been something more unseemly? Getting sweetheart deals for friends in the Savings and Loan industry, for example. Now that would have been good.

You see, two can play at this game, and if we know anything at this point in the game, it's that Obama is no John Kerry. If the election boils down to a guilt-by-association contest, he will not hesitate to remind people of McCain's checkered past. And we've seen Obama's counter-punch before. What makes it so deft, is that he can score old-time political points while still decrying the politics of old. Why? Because Hillary McCain was the one to start that dirty fight.

We're now down to two news cycles in this election. Time for the nasty stuff that is iffy when fact-checked, but not quite libelous. Two weeks from now, we'll be hearing the worst of it. The accusations that McCain may indeed find himself apologizing for later. Will it work? If the economy weren't so dire, perhaps. If his opponent were John Kerry, perhaps. If John McCain wasn't John McCain. . . Well, you get the point.