We've four weeks plus a day until Election Day, and Obama has a sizeable lead in the polls. The Republican brand is in the toilet, and McCain/Palin are flinging poo like the chimpanzees they are.
This week, it's William Ayers, and a few (nonviolent) Palestinian intellectuals that are being used to smear Obama--never mind that Obama's ties to these folks are rather limited. In addition, the old "Obama's a tax-raising wussy liberal" standard is being played. mainly by Gov. Palin.
Hints are already being dropped that we'll see more of Reverend Wright--a dangerous maneuver by McCain/Palin, given that Sarah Palin's pastor is even nuttier than Rev. Wright.
But what's next?
We've four weeks plus a day until Election Day, and Obama has a sizeable lead in the polls. The Republican brand is in the toilet, and McCain/Palin are flinging poo like the chimpanzees they are.
This week, it's William Ayers, and a few (nonviolent) Palestinian intellectuals that are being used to smear Obama--never mind that Obama's ties to these folks are rather limited. In addition, the old "Obama's a tax-raising wussy liberal" standard is being played. mainly by Gov. Palin.
Hints are already being dropped that we'll see more of Reverend Wright--a dangerous maneuver by McCain/Palin, given that Sarah Palin's pastor is even nuttier than Rev. Wright.
But what's next? What if after this mud is slung, there is no change, especially in the swing states McCain needs? What if the voters shrug off all of this as old news (which it largely is), and continue to support Obama?
Will we see:
* The "muslim" smear go mainstream, perhaps with "witnesses"?
* More overtly racist anti-Obama ads; particularly from the national campaign? (We've been seeing this sort of stuff for a while from local campaign offices in places where this plays well)--stuff like "Obama wants reparations", or other fabrications of his positions? Or more explicit ties to link Obama to, for lack of a better term, "gangsta culture" and such?
* A resurrection of the "Obama dealin' dope" meme?
* Something worse?
So far, Obama has not been swiftboated. This is an important distinction to make: A simple rumor campaign that nobody official will touch, isn't yet a swiftboating. None of the points mentioned above haven't already been promulgated in anonymous emails, right wing talk radio, and other such scurrilous sources.
The swiftboating will occur if and when somebody--a witness, perhaps--comes forth to "testify" as to the veracity of one of the rumors. If and when this occurs, it legitimizes the discussion--makes it safe for the MSM to talk to it, making the issue a matter of public debate and import. Rumors of Kerry behaving dishonorably during Vietnam had circulated for a long time; but it wasn't until the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth came out and put faces to the charges that the MSM took it seriously, and the damage was done.
Of course, Kerry had made many enemies of his former comrades-in-arms by his anti-war positions after returning home from Vietnam--quite a few of whom were more than willing to publicly lie about his conduct in order to exact revenge for what they saw was an act of betrayal. Whether Obama has any such enemies who are in a position to bear false witness about events in his past, I do not know.
The good news, is the swiftboating of Kerry may make the voters immune to the next such attempt, especially if it comes on the eve of the election. Obama has done a good job so far in dealing with the rumors and smears he has been subject to.
But still--expect it to get nastier between now and Nov 1.