The Politico has a quote from Indiana Republican Party chairman Murray Clark in an article about the increasingly jittery McCain campaign. As the economy is getting turbulent and people are coming to regard Obama as better able to grapple with the complexities, Murray Clark suggests not trying to convince folks that McCain is the better leader on issues pertaining to the economy — admittedly a tough sell — but rather to start playing Six Degrees of Barack Obama, a game we saw in the waning days of the Clinton primary campaign against Obama.
Murray Clark, the chairman of the Indiana Republican Party, said he is eager for Obama’s “troubling relationships†to be aired in his state. “I think those things will come up in Indiana again and they do have an impact on mainstream voters in Indiana. You call it going negative, [but] whoever … is in a position to point out these relationships, I think it’s helpful.â€
Presumably, like Clinton, the Republican Party is eyeballing the kitchen sink and wondering if it might be necessary to throw the thing in an effort to get the guy on their team elected. Trouble is, a) people are worried and seem to be taking this campaign more seriously and might not be easily distracted by sideshows; and b) McCain/Palin have close associations with troubling characters of their own. I’ll see your loose association with Rezko and raise you a closer association with Charles Keating, Jr. in a savings and loan scandal that looks disturbingly similar to the current economic turmoil. Jeremiah Wright? Again, I’ll see that and raise you Palin’s witch hunter pastor.
So, let’s just not go there. If McCain has better plans to get folks back to work at jobs with good wages and decent security; help them deal with increasingly out of reach health care costs; and otherwise set a playing field where those who work hard and play by the rules prosper in proportion to their skill and diligence; then lets hear them.
It sounds like Murray Clark wants to unleash Gary Welsh and his ilk. AdvanceIndiana has already declared Barack Obama to be a murdering homosexual druggie utterly-corrupt Muslim foreigner – but now they want to take the gloves off about the real Obama?
Psshaw!
The chattering class on the TV was talking about McCain’s people needing to go back to the Wright well. The problem is, that ammo’s pretty much been used up. The electorate was treated to an orgy of “all things Wright” for about a month this spring, and we’ve moved on to bigger and better things (Wallstreet and banking meltdown, Palin being a complete dumbass who knows less shit about this country NOW as a politician than I remember from my last history class 21 years ago).
They can try to get a shocked response out of the electorate again. But people are rarely as shocked on second exposure as they are the first time around.
More than likely, it would just confirm for the electorate how unhinged and desperate McCain is. They’ve already seen plenty of his antics lately, and haven’t at all liked what they’ve seen. Plus, just about every gambit they’ve tried in the last six weeks or so has been a miserable failure. They can try whatever they like at this point, and I’ll presume it will blow right back on them. Their campaign is cold, mottled, and starting to smell.
Seems like Mr. Clark would look at the H. Clinton primary-campaign and realize the Rezko/Scary Black Preacher thing didn’t work so well.
Then again, he doesn’t seem real bright.