A bit more on

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A bit more on the Obama-McCain back and forth. You have to dig into the actual correspondence between the two men to get a feel for how off the mark McCain is in his criticism of Obama (see links in today’s Daily Muck).

But the key here to note is what’s behind this dust-up. Obama is a rising star among the Democrats. Republicans want to lay a backstory for feature criticisms and character attacks against him. So, for instance, if Obama is the vice presidential candidate in 2008, they want to have a history of attacks on him banked, ones that allege he’s a liar, or too partisan, or untrustworthy, whatever. It doesn’t even really matter. What matters is that there already be an established history of them. Point being, that in early 2008, they want to be able to simply refer back to Obama’s ‘character issue’, the questions about his honesty, etc. rather than have to make the case on its merits.

That’s not surprising. One only needs to think back to the Gore story, etc.

What shouldn’t be missed here, though, is that Sen. McCain is quite consciously and deliberately making himself a part of this. Why? Simple. Because he needs to get right with the GOP establishment in DC. (Indeed, he probably also wants to be the future beneficiary of the sliming.) Being loved by moderates and progressives doesn’t cut it for getting the Republican presidential nomination in 2008.

Don’t miss why he’s doing this. It’s the roll-out of the slime Obama campaign. And he’s leading the charge.

We’ll learn a lot from how Obama responds.

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