Morons for McCain: Home Stretch Edition

Via the NYT:

“John McCain! Not Hussein!”

So goes the latest popular chant on the campaign trail with Gov. Sarah Palin, demonstrated at a morning rally in central Florida.

After the rally in Florida ended, two of the people leading the chant explained why they did so.

“Because it rhymes,” said Shirley Mitten, 64, a volunteer at a pregnancy center and a resident of Brooksville, Fla.

She said she does not know if Mr. Obama is a Muslim. “He says he’s not, but we have no way of knowing,” Ms. Mitten said.

Her husband, John A. Mitten, 64, took credit for starting the chant. “I was trying to get it going!” he said. “I just do not want Obama to be elected.”

Mr. Mitten said he could not trust Mr. Obama because of his past association with William Ayers, the 1960’s radical, and because of his relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. He also pointed out that Mr. Obama’s father was a Muslim.

The middle name Hussein, he said, added to the suspicion. “I guess Obama was named after Saddam Hussein,” he said.

The anti-Muslim subtext to this sort of crap stopped being subtextual a long time ago. Doesn't seem to bother Palin a bit, though. Her next word of admonishment to her raving fan base will be her first. Even principle-challenged Johnnie Mac seemed to hit a personal breaking point as far as this particular smear goes. Guess Moose-olini, here, is still looking for hers.

As ashamed as I am that there are still ignorant bigots like this wandering around the United States in 2008, in the event Tuesday's election goes as I hope it will, knowing they are will make it just that much sweeter.

Trans-Alaska Pipe Slime

Not a pig, but she ruts in filth, all the same:

"We see America as the greatest force for good in this world," Palin said at a fund-raising event in Colorado, adding, "Our opponent though, is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country."

...Obama's Chicago, Illinois, home is in the same neighborhood as Bill Ayers, a founder of the radical Weather Underground, which was involved in several bombings in the early 1970s, including the Pentagon and the Capitol, and the two have met several times since Obama's 1995 campaign for a state Senate seat.

Well, that didn't take long, now did it? No sooner does the campaign announce that they're abandoning the issues to focus on factually-challenged personal attacks, then they trot out the cue card caribou queen to float smears that, par for her course, don't even jibe with the source she's been fed:

Palin cited an article in Saturday's New York Times about Obama's relationship with Ayers, now 63. But that article concluded that "the two men do not appear to have been close. Nor has Mr. Obama ever expressed sympathy for the radical views and actions of Mr. Ayers, whom he has called 'somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8.' "

Not only a liar, but a poor one, at that. That takes her from zero to Rove in five weeks. Nice job, "outsider."

McCain's sputtering campaign running on fumes venom

Shorter McCain: "Fuck this guy, he knows icky people."

With just a month to go until Election Day, McCain's team has decided that its emphasis on the senator's biography as a war hero, experienced lawmaker and straight-talking maverick is insufficient to close a growing gap with Obama. The Arizonan's campaign is also eager to move the conversation away from the economy, an issue that strongly favors Obama and has helped him to a lead in many recent polls.

"We're going to get a little tougher," a senior Republican operative said, indicating that a fresh batch of television ads is coming. "We've got to question this guy's associations. Very soon. There's no question that we have to change the subject here," said the operative, who was not authorized to discuss strategy and spoke on the condition of anonymity."

Even shorter McCain:

"We."

"Have."

"Nothing."

The deep-seated nastiness that pervades the ersatz maverick will be on full display for the next 30 days. Get ready for a month-long barrage of Rev. Wright, Bill Ayers, and anti-American slime. Bereft of ideas, losing on the issues, "fear and smear" is the only club left in Johnny Mac's bag.

McCain hinted Thursday that a change is imminent, perhaps as soon as next week's debate. Asked at a Colorado town hall, "When are you going to take the gloves off?" the candidate grinned and replied, "How about Tuesday night?"

The angry old man of the first debate was nothing but prelude. He's going to come, loaded for bear, with every bit of fact-free innuendo he can muster, so Obama better be ready.

And there's simply no excuse not to be.

McCain has essentially declared, days in advance, that he has no interest in legitimate debate, just character assassination. We've already seen what happens when you try to "high road" your way around gutter politics by refusing to engage them. You lose.

If there was any lesson from the 2004 ride on the executive merry-go-round, it's that this garbage is too dangerous to fret about "dignifying it with a response;" it must be destroyed with a response, and the dirt merchant peddling it decried for the legitimate issues he (or she) is ignoring.

Fingers crossed...

Monday McCaineurysm

McCaineurysm, n. - The feeling, often accompanied by stabbing pain behind one or both eyes, that one's head is about to explode after exposure to the words of John Sidney McCain or his campaign surrogates.

In case this isn't familiar, I've kindly supplied the following to test susceptibility to this affliction. From Fortune, via Mercury Rising:

What is the gravest threat to the U.S. economy?

Obama: If we don't get a handle on our energy policy, it is possible that the kinds of trends we've seen over the last year will just continue. Demand is clearly outstripping supply. It's not a problem we can drill our way out of. It can be a drag on our economy for a very long time unless we take steps to innovate and invest in alternative fuels. The market can accomplish a lot of that, but it's very important for the federal government to have a role.

McCain: The absolute gravest threat is the struggle that we're in against radical Islamic extremism which can affect - if they prevail - our very existence. Having said that, I would say that at this moment it's probably our dependence on foreign oil, affecting our climate and hurting fixed-income Americans the most.

Hurts, don't it?

Johnnie Mac has yet to meet an opportunity to play the "Muslims! Booga! Booga Booga!" card that he didn't like. At this point, it's not just the first club out of the bag, it's clearly the ONLY club in his bag.

I wonder, among those "fixed-income Americans," with whose well-being the benevolent St. McCain is so deeply, deeply concerned, how many would say that Islamic extremism is the economic worry that's keeping them up at night?

What is more likely to affect THEIR existence: Teh Terrorist, or gas that's $4+ per gallon?

Insurgents, or not being able to find a job?

"Islamofascism," or a house that's worth less than what you owe on it?

When it comes to "out of touch" with the American people, you don't get much more textbook of an example than this beer fortune-backed, beltway-beholden, ersatz "maverick."