McCain camp to go negative

Because even after Sarah Palin managed to wink her way through a debate instead of collapsing in tears, the polls aren't going in McCain's direction. Of course, he doesn't have to go negative. But he will, and he will do it gladly, as we saw Palin on the stump referring to Obama as "palling around with terrorists." As many have noted, that seems purposefully vague to invoke modern terrorism, rather than one white guy from the time Obama was 8 who Obama has renounced for that behavior. Oh, and that white guy is now an Education professor.

The thing is, that this is one of those "glass house" kind of situation. McCain has plenty of associations in his past and present that are troubling. One, that I raised earlier this year (Ubub will back me up) is that while the right wants to tar and feather Obama for knowing William Ayers, no one mentions that a common stop for right wing politicians is G. Gordon Liddy. When I suggested that to Ubub and Anglican, I was speculating, but now we have some evidence that McCain has appeared with Liddy and even had a fundraiser at his home. On Liddy's radio show, just last November

Liddy greeted him as “an old friend,” and McCain sounded like one. “I’m proud of you, I’m proud of your family,” he gushed. “It’s always a pleasure for me to come on your program, Gordon, and congratulations on your continued success and adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great.”

Liddy, as far as I know, remains unrepentant for the laws he broke during Watergate, and admitted in one of his books that he had made plans to kill a journalist believing that was Nixon's wish. So, why is that not a problem for McCain? Perhaps it will be.

But even more troubling, I think, for McCain is his Keating connection, which Ben Smith points out is not "guilt by association," but rather "guilt by guilt." The issue isn't that McCain knew Keating, but that McCain assisted Keating in his wrong doing, and that McCain's current approach to economic regulation is shockingly similar to what he did back then.