The many attacks of the McCain campaign

"If you don't have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare voters." From Sen. Barack Obama's DNC speech.

McCain is the attack candidate. His whole message is based upon attacking his opponent, namely the fact he'll raise your taxes! (His plan may not be working so well, however. Republicans finally losing tax policy debate? Is the era of cut! cut! cut! finally over?)

According to the McCain campaign small towns = real America. Lately, Palin has dished out plenty of veiled insults on basically everyone in urban areas. Oddly enough, hmm, only about 15% of Americans live in these idyllic "small towns". We're going through another spell of questioning patriotism and how "American" one is (even as 9/11 and national security, as well as immigration, which also brought up the "American" question, are put on the back burner because of the financial crisis).

McCain's ads focus on Palin almost as much as the actual candidate for the presidency, and the GOP is giving her a prime spotlight. Meanwhile, Palin has even attacked Obama's volunteering work as a community organizer and such trivial things as his loose connection to a Palestinian scholar and a '60s extremist (Ayers). And what has she accomplished? Even the current mayor of Wasilla herself said the city provides essentially no resources for its residents (most things being taken care of by the state government).

Ironic that the Republican whose pockets are lined with money from the oil lobby accuses his opponent in an attack advertisement of not supporting alternative energy. Is McCain delusional enough to seriously think he's the green candidate?

Paul Krugman wrote an excellent op-ed piece on campaign dishonesty back in September.

McCain: For voters who think real change is just too darn risky!