Slinging It

So much for "Straight Talk." So much for "Hope" and "Change." With election day less than a month away, we are apparently in for another three weeks of mudslinging and character assassination. "Who is the real Barack Obama?" McCain said to a cheering crowd in Albuquerque. "Ask such questions and all you get in response is another barrage of angry insults."
And who is the real John McCain? A thirteen-minute web video Obama's campaign released Monday revisits McCain's ties to Charles Keating, a former friend, campaign contributor and savings and loan owner who was convicted of securities fraud in 1991. This is the "new" Democratic Party. The one that won't get caught on a Swiftboat with Willie Horton. "We don't throw the first punch, but we'll throw the last," Obama said Monday on Tom Joyner's syndicated radio show.
Oh joy. And when the morning of November the fourth rolls around, who is going to be around to clean up the mess? One of these guys is headed back to the Senate, and the other will be leader of the free world. If any one of these claims were sufficient to keep them from holding higher office, wouldn't they have been kicked loose from public service long ago?
Which brings us to everyone's favorite Alaskan Lipstick Pitbull: Sarah "The Maverick" Palin says Barack Obama was "palling around with terrorists who would target their own country." She is referring to Obama's relationship with former 1960s radical Bill Ayers. Ayers helped found the violent Weather Underground group, whose members were blamed for several bombings when Obama was eight. Obama has denounced Ayers' radical views and activities. But the fact that the two men live near each other in Chicago, and once worked on the same charity board in addition to Ayers hosting a small, meet-the-candidate event for Obama in 1995, keeps Ms. Moosekiller on the attack.
And now I've gone and done it myself, haven't I? Maybe someday we'll all be sitting around watching our regularly scheduled NFL game and be greeted by the smiling faces of John McCain and Barack Obama, reminding us to give, in the spirit of former presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush's Katrina Fund. Maybe only then will we finally get the mud off the walls.