She Doth Protest Too Much

Well, apparently, it wasn't enough that John McCain's campaign has decided to run away from the issues and is attempting to run on character assassination and smears. It wasn't enough that his running mate, Sarah Palin, has gotten the crowds at her rallies so worked up with her accusations of Obama "palling around with terrorists" that a crowd member shouted out "kill him." (By the way, heckuva way to unite the country guys.) Nope. Apparently, when it comes to slinging the mud, in the McCain camp, it's a family affair. McCain's wife, the former Cindy Lou Hensley, has heard the impassioned call to arms and has stepped into the ring. On Tuesday, she said that Obama has "waged the dirtiest campaign in American history."

Really? No, seriously? Mrs. McCain, do you honestly believe the words coming out of your mouth or is your memory that short? Let's put aside the fact that your husband has called the other candidate "a liar." Let's forget that your husband's running mate, who happens to be married to a former member of the secessionist Alaskan Independence Party, is pretty much calling Obama a traitor. Let's forget that Karl Rove, for pete's sake, had said that your husband's campaign ads have gone too far. In fact, let's forget about the entire McCain/Obama campaign of 2008 and recall the last time your husband ran for president. Recall the eve of the South Carolina primary, which John McCain was favored to win - until the Bush campaign began spreading the rumor that Bridget, the McCain's adopted daughter from Bangladesh, was actually John McCain's black love child. Are you honestly trying to convince voters that Barack Obama, who has run a campaign on the issues, has run a campaign slimier than the Bush 2000 campaign?

It's hard to understand what the McCain campaign hopes to gain by putting Mrs. McCain in the position of slinging mud. Mrs. McCain is not the most sympathetic of individuals - I doubt that most people would relate to a multi-million dollar heiress who wears $300,000 ensembles and started dating her husband while he was still married to his disabled first wife. Often times, a campaign will use a surrogate to sling mud in an effort to avoid the candidate from doing so himself, in effect keeping some distance between the candidate and the ugliness. But that really doesn't work when the one slinging the mud happens to share the same bed as the candidate. Especially when one considers that back in May, Mrs. McCain stated that the McCain campaign would not engage in any sort of negative campaigning. Or maybe this is an attempt to pull Michelle Obama into the fray and then go after her, seeing as how the smears against Barack Obama just don't seem to be sticking, what with his poll numbers getting higher and higher. If so, it looks like the Obama camp isn't taking the bait - instead they're taking the high road.

And honestly, I think it's better for Cindy McCain that Michelle Obama has decided not get into a catfight with her.

Michelle Obama would knock her out.