Traditionally, candidates seem to have two ways to travel during an election: the high road and the low road.  Obviously this is oversimplified drivel but it is true that a candidate and his campaign team will choose the general direction of their strategy.  It is becoming very transparent that McCain has chosen neither but has opted for some subterranean, miasmic nether world where he can spew out his calumnies about Obama.

I have lived through Presidential elections since 1968, when I was 3. Each of the years a GOP liar would win, I could just feel it in my bones. The dem that year, whether it be McGovern, Dukakis, or Gore, just wasn't properly dealing with the constant barrage of GOP smears, lies and attacks.

I have this distant, but growing feeling of dread for Obama this year because I just feel the GOP is going to do a rush attack on him just like they did to the others who have simply never gone on the offensive and gone on to lose.

All they need to do is get within a few points, so their caging operations, voter suppression games, voter registration tricks, and trick machines can do their dirty work for a third time in a row.

We can't let it get that close!

So yesterday McCain spoke with disabled troops in Las Vegas, and as usual he spent most of his time attacking Obama. However, reading this article shows that people are sick of the baseless attacks already. Indeed, what struck me the most was this from the article:

Duke Hendershot, a double amputee retired Marine who served in Vietnam, supported McCain’s run for president in 2000 but is undecided this year.

"John just isn’t the same as he used to be. He’s not his own man," said Hendershot, who lives in San Antonio, Texas. "A lot of that has to do with how he’s wanted this job so bad for so long that he’s tied himself to President Bush."

He said McCain’s embrace of Bush, whom Hendershot called a "draft-dodging coward," is even more perplexing because of the rivalry between the two candidates during the 2000 campaign.

Hendershot also criticized McCain for taking swipes at Obama in his speech. "He should have been talking about veterans issues, not his opponent," he said.

Jump

I don't know who said it first, or best, but I know its true that if the public perceives there to be a problem, then there IS a problem.

I'd like to discuss the Obama Campaign's response to the recent blitzkrieg of immature, inflamatory and downright racist attacks that our candidate has been subjected to and the media coverage thereof.  I'd like to do this without the now predictable response from DKosers that basically amounts to, "Stop worrying, be quiet, give money and everything will be fine in the end."  I'll pre-empt that by saying that I am not hyperventilating, nor am I unaware of all the polls and how Obama is ahead by wide margins in most areas, nosing out McCain on most others, and that the national trend polls reporting a "tie" have been looking awfully suspicious lately.  

But it cannot be missed that the Obama camp does not have control of the national media narratives, in fact is doing piss-poor at getting his messages out.  

Call this a "generally frustrated" diary.

I don't get it. I just don't get it. Why am I not allowed to be excited about voting  for the candidate I'm voting for? Why is it wrong to enthusiastically support the candidate I'm supporting ? When I say , I love Barack Obama , I'm not talking about the sexual crap.

As a matter of fact, I am not even physically attracted to him even though I'm Black. I know it's shocking and weird and all , but over the years , I just seem to have developed a preference for Europeans with dark hair and Latinos . In any event , I just wanted to point out that when I say I love Barack Obama , I'm talking about a different kind of love.

I'm saying cause for the last 4 days, they have gone from an 8 point Obama lead to a 1 point lead, meaning that if the trend continues, McCain will actually lead tomorrows tracking poll, or Saturday's.  

My favorite moment in "It's A Wonderful Life" is when George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) tries to calm a run on his Building and Loan Association. The people in town are panicked, filled with fear that the sky is falling and they're going to lose their homes. A frustrated Bailey tells them, "Look, don't you get it? Potter's not selling, Pottter's BUYING!"

The point is that wealthy Mr. Potter is scaring them to death so he can pick their pockets in a wholly legal way, using their fear against them.

This perfectly captures this moment in the current presidential campaign, and reveals an attack point for Obama against McCain. How? Follow me....

So Obama has a wonderful trip overseas. He's been to Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait and Germany. I'm on the Obama campaign's email list. In the past week, I've received just one email from the campaign alerting me to volunteer opportunities in my state.

Over the last few days the McCain camp has started to get desperate with all the good news for Obama. So what does a campaign run by the architect of negative campaigning do?

Do some good 'ole negative campaigning of course. Here's a recap.

I'm not sure if this even rises to the level of a diary, but I've noticed something a little disturbing clicking around the Interwebs today. It seems that no matter where I go, be it here, or Openleft or FirstRead or the Times, The Page or even TPM, Obama is getting attacked. He's a flip-flopper and unprincipled on the left, while being raked as a tax-raising, abortion-loving, flip-flopper on the right. Turn on cable news and it's much of the same.

Feeding Enemies. Helping those who would pull you down. Acting tough but being seen as weak.

As clear from past headlines and editorials across the country, and even these bs comments from the Politico, supporting the current and past FISA Bills (not all that different really, and we all know this) hurts Democrats.

Fundamentally, any support of this bill is out of fear that Republican opponents will brand Democrats as soft on terror, and that the populace will agree.

It is certainly an understandable fear. Repubs WILL hit our candidates on this issue. But they will also still hit them on it anyway, and supporting this bill and its ilk opens up NEW lines of attack, weakening the Democrats even further more than going against it.

No one ever said that politics was a schoolyard game, but the recent political climate and partisan polarization has made the election cycle more brutal than a high school contest. Just ask Barack Obama about his experience of unfounded rumors and personal attacks brought upon him by his rivals on both sides of the political spectrum. The attacks became so bad that the Democratic Presidential Nominee had to establish a website to combat attacks against his religion, heritage, and even his wife. Anyone who thought the locker room rumors were vile enough never had a spin with national politics.....

Last night on Verdict with Dan Abrams it was revealed that John McCain has stated (repeatedly) that he didn't really love America until he was deprived of her company. While there isn't necessarily anything wrong with those statements (Abrams even says that they are eloquent) how are they really any different from Michelle Obama's comments that she was proud of her country for the first time in her adult life?

Michelle has tried to clarify her remarks by saying that she was referring to her pride in America's political process but to no avail. Will these recently uncovered comments by McCain blunt the "Proud" assault on the Obamas? Weigh in with your thoughts and opinions below:

On a day when Michelle Obama is stepping back into the spot-light, trying to undo all of the smears thrown at her, there is someone who won't have none of that.  There's someone who wants the conversation to be about sound bytes and not policy.  Sound byes and innuendo.  On an interview to air tomorrow on ABC's Good Morning America, Cindy McCain says as follows from the Political Radar;

"I don't know why she said what she said," Mrs. McCain explains in an interview with ABC News' Kate Snow airing on "Good Morning America" Thursday. "Everyone has their own experience. I don't know why she said what she said, all I know is that I have always been proud of my country."

Hat tip to Jack and Jill Politics:

The black women's blog, What About Our Daughters? is about to inaugurate
the Michelle Obama Watch page to both list and refute attacks and smears on the character and aims of Michelle Obama, who may indeed become the first African American First Lady in history.

Yeah, its her fault; she’s the one that dragged him to that church, she’s the one that makes the choices see...She’s radical and she’s imposed her radical views on Barack Obama.  See Obama’s not so bad, he’s not really radical, but Michelle...She’s radical, she kept him in that Church for 20 years, she’s the one that dragged him to that Church and kept him there. See that’s how it is see, wives, women, they’re the souls of most marriages and Michelle is the center of force in this marriage; she’s the one I’m scared of, and ALL Americans need to know this because, I mean she could become the next first lady see, it’s her fault.......

It's hard to know Hillary's heart: her public behavior defies logic and belies her principles in many touchstones in her career.

But for the worst face of this disastrous primary campaign—her vitriolic supporters who scream they'll vote for McCain over Flawed Black Man Obama—we can point to a familiar psychological cause: Clintonian Cognitive Dissonance. Those Hillary "supporters" have had their reasoning skills hijacked by manipulable human instincts.

Warning: boring psychological discussion and conjectures below the break

I loved the chart from Poblano at fivethirtyeight today. I didn't see it diaried. I'm sorry if I missed it.
He looked at the press releases from each of the campaigns, the RNC, and DNC since September.
He charted who sent the press release vs. who the release was attacking.

If the release from a campaign was about their own candidate, that wouldn't be included here.

Maybe Clinton can claim unfair media coverage (I don't buy it), but she definitely cannot claim that the other campaigns have been going after her!