The Negative Campaign Goes Prime Time

There has been much discussion of the campaign turning negative this week. First, the McCain campaign releases it's Britney/Paris TV ad (good job lambasting one of your big campaign donor's daughters) and then the McCain camp plays the race card from the bottom of the deck by using the phrase "playing the race card from the bottom of the deck".

Let's be clear. My parents like to forward emails. Many of those emails come from staunch Republicans. The negative campaign started in 2004 after W. was elected to his second term and it has run continuously through present. Literally the day after the November election in 2004, I started getting negative email about Hillary Clinton. My inbox is consistently full of negative emails vindictive toward Democrats in general, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama specifically. Here's one from today:

So as I noted in an earlier blog, the McCain camp is having a hard time going toe-to-toe with Sen. Obama. They've got to do something to start landing punches. I'm sure they've been chomping at the bit to find some half-assed way to inject fear and negativity into the campaign. So it is ironic that Obama's comments of what the Republicans would do to discredit him becomes that launching off point for the Republicans.

From my standpoint, Obama is simply describing my email inbox for the past four years. It's truly a Casablanca moment where McCain's crew is shocked, shocked to find negative campaigning going on.