Bracing for Republican Stupidity

As McCain continues to trail behind Obama and Obama starting to surge even in places like Indiana and North Carolina (the latest poll shows a virtual tie in both states!), the McCidiot camp has announced an all-out frontal assault on Obama's character. In a shockingly blunt admission, one of Mcidiot's chief advisers said that they would "raise doubts" about Obama's honesty and integrity, and try to convince the American people that he would be a "risky" character.

I would be worried had the McCain people not proven to be so inept at hiding their real motives before. The whole obsession with Obama being risky cannot be divorced from their nervousness about his skin color. Every time they raise the issue of Obama's "riskiness" and try to paint him as "the Other" the left needs to call them out on it: you are racist, xenophobic, narrow-minded idiots who have nothing else to offer to the American people and instead have to appeal to the worst in America. Obama, on the other hand, with his message of hope, change, and substantive programs, appeals to the best. Every time, the Mcidiot camp raises any of the following issues--Reverend Wright, Ayers, Michelle's patriotism--the left has to step in and call them on it. Shout them down, and shame them into a corner. They should have no place in our public square, especially in times like these when the average American wonders if his/her money in the bank will be there tomorrow morning.

And how does McCidiot offer to calm our anxieties? By repeating the tired, and drained, attack that Obama had links with the "domestic terrorist" Ayers. The fact that this radical conducted his activities in the 60s when Obama was 8 years old and that they met while serving on the same board while a part of the same university, does not preclude them from claiming Obama's ties to Ayers' radical philosophy (despite the fact that Obama has repeatedly condemned his previous activities and even though Ayers is a respected member of the community in Chicago).

I would also be worried had this been 2004 and not 2008. The reason why these tactics worked against Kerry and will not against Obama are manifold, but it mainly has to do with a) timing and b) Obama's character. Obama showed his shrewd political skill by jumping into the race this election season: he gauged the thirst for change in America, something that Hillary miscalculated. His calm, deliberate, and genuinely nice character serve as a protective shield against idiotic attacks by people like Palin who open a bottle of champagne every time they manage to utter two consecutive coherent sentences without stumbling.

And the American people are tired. They want real solutions, at least attempts at solutions, and not these kinds of idiotic attacks. This is why I am convinced that this time, these attacks will not work. And the Obama camp has promised a pre-emptive strike on these attacks (please excuse the word choice here).