Which McCain Shows Up Tonight?

Tonight's final presidential debate presents something of a dilemma for John McCain. Trailing badly in the polls and perceived as the weaker candidate when it comes to matters economic, he is hearing a lot of urging from his supporters to "take the gloves off." Hidden beneath said gloves, of course, are the horseshoes known as William Ayers, ACORN, and Jeremiah Wright. Indeed, may prognosticators openly say that McCain's only remaining chance at winning is to bloody his opponent with harsh character attacks.

While this sentiment has been in full display by GOP stalwarts who vent their frustration at McCain/Palin rallies, it is not shared by most Americans. In fact, as recent polling data indicates, the mere hint of negative attack from McCain will spell an even swifter defeat for the Arizona Senator. Here's the San Jose Mercury News:

After several weeks in which the McCain campaign unleashed a series of strong political attacks on Obama, trying to tie him to a former 1960's radical, among other things, the poll found that more voters see McCain as waging a negative campaign than Obama. Six in 10 voters surveyed said that McCain had spent more time attacking than explaining what he would do as president; by about the same number, voters said Obama was spending more of his time explaining than attacking.

So, as tonight's debate is to focus on the economy, a majority of voters will be asking themselves what a former pastor, a former 60's radical, and a voter registration operation really have to do with solving our financial predicament. True, in another election cycle, with a weaker candidate (John Kerry, anyone?) these attacks might actually matter to all but the die-hard Republican crew. But not this year.


The focus on tonight's debate is squarely on McCain, and how forcefully he will raise Ayers and the rest. There are many reasons why McCain's predicament won't really be helped by highlighting what some consider to be Obama's dirty laundry. To my mind, the biggest problem with McCain's lines of attack is that, even if each and every one of them had merit (and they don't), none would impede Obama from actually working to fix the economy. In other words, none of them has a whit to do with whether or not Obama will be the right man to get our country's fiscal health back in order.

You may still be outraged that before he quit Trinity, Obama sat in Jeremiah Wright's church for all those years. Fine. You may think that Obama, who was 8 years old when William Ayers committed his crimes, should never have agreed to let the terrorist-turned-school-reformer host a campaign tea at his Chicago home thirteen years ago. Again, fine. You may question why Obama represented ACORN in a lawsuit back in the mid-nineties because he wanted more poor people to actually get involved in the electoral process. Knock yourself out.

But none of these complaints diminishes the fact that, as most Americans agree, Obama is more likely to do a better job with the economy if elected president than John McCain. It's the economy we're talking about now, stupid! McCain can do his level best to distract us from that conversation with talk of skeletons in closets, but anything short of laser-like focus on the subject of tonight's debate will be seen as politics as usual.

Then again, what other options does McCain have at this point? The "Respectful" McCain hasn't worked. "Nasty" McCain has tanked. Really, the only suspense that remains, given that most Americans think Obama handily won the first two debates, is which McCain we'll see tonight.