Via TPM, this is it. They’re gonna run on the fact that this is a dude you just don’t like. You may not know why you don’t like him, it may be because he’s a Muslim, or a Christian, or a black seperatist, or not “black enough,” or he’s friends with rappers, or he wants to fuck Scarlett Johanssen, or he’s too popular, or too many people hate him, or he’s really a robot operated from within by a tiny cat creature from the planet Zyrgon. Whatever, you don’t like him. That’s the essence of their campaign:
But with the weeklong string of attacks uncorked by the Arizona senator and his people during Obama’s trip abroad and in its aftermath—some brutal, some mocking, but all personal and focused on Obama’s character—we now have an inkling of just how deep in the mud McCain and his people are willing to wallow in order to win in November: right up to their Republican eyeballs.
It really is the apotheosis of the Republican electoral playbook. Hell, even four years ago, with the “Kerry looks French” crap, it wasn’t this bad. They did in fact make an argument (a bullshit one, but still) that was about what Kerry did or failed to do. You know things have gotten out of hand when20fucking04 looks like a triumph of issue-based campaigning, but if this keeps up (which it will, because they’re actually using the argument “Obama sucks because too many people like him,” see Scout’s vid post below) we will look upon the second Bush campaign as a triumph of integrity and issue-based politicking, and that quite honestly SCARES THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS OUT OF ME.
To remedy the “you make kitty scared” aspect of this post, here’s a happy Obama photo:
A.