A Very Risky Strategy

Fasten your seat belts. If you thought this Republican campaign was hitting below the belt the last few months, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Forget “comprehensive sex education for kindergartners,” forget “raising taxes on families who make $42,000,” forget “voting against our troops.”

McCain is moving his campaign onto a level that will make Willy Horton and the Swift Boaters look like child’s play.

It is Fear and Smear time for McCain/Palin and the outside 527 groups who are locked and loaded. Forget the economy in meltdown, forget Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq, forget healthcare and education and energy. Forget the problems of the middle class and what voters really care about.

It is time to eviscerate Barack Obama, time to incorporate every scurrilous piece of garbage you can pull together, throw it against the wall and hope something sticks.

Sarah Palin was truly out of control yesterday — and my guess is that this is just the beginning. She described Sen. Obama as “someone who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists.” She holds that Obama “is not a man who sees America as you and I do, as the greatest force for good in the world.” Gosh darn it, Sarah, once again you haven’t got a clue what you are talking about.

The attack, of course, was about Bill Ayers, a ’60s radical from the Weather Underground who was part of a group that planned bombings, teaches at the University of Illinois in Chicago and is an acquaintance of Barack Obama.

McCain/Palin has decided that the only way they can possibly win is to make people believe that Barack Obama is someone whom he is not, to create a false impression of his background, character and beliefs, and to smear him beyond all recognition.

A cynical ploy, to be sure, that also assumes the American people are basically stupid, that they won’t look at the facts, that they won’t catch on, that they will fall for character assassination. And, of course, that their ends totally justify their means. Sad.

In fact, many Republicans are extremely concerned about this tactic. They have told me that they fear that McCain will be severely damaged, that the Republicans will lose more Senate seats and House seats if such a “slash and burn” campaign is unleashed over the next four weeks. They do not think it will work, they think all the links are flimsy and that Barack Obama will be able to turn it back on McCain, no longer the straight shooter, no longer an ethical fighter, no longer the maverick that he and his running mate have been pushing so hard.

Remember 1998? The Republicans got clobbered in the election because Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay went after Bill Clinton for Monica Lewinsky. The country had moved on and was concerned about problems, not Bill Clintons. Bye-bye, Newt.

The great fear that many Republicans have is that McCain is falling into the same trap and his brand will suffer, that he will lose by landslide proportions and drag the entire Republican Party down with him.

Should he choose this course of Smear and Fear — and unleash such a campaign — he very well may pay a very dear price, not only at the ballot box but in the history books. His reputation will, indeed, be mud if that is the way he runs his campaign.