Article Re McCain's New/Old Approach - Attack Democrat's Character

[Median Democrat]

Here's an article regarding McCain shifting gears (again) and shifting the focus of his campaign on attacking Obama's character. This is an interesting shift in that the more John McCain acts like a typical Republican with the lies and smears, the harder it is for the MSM to maintain the maverick facade. I remember in the 2000 campaign when McCain famously declared that he would not take the low road to the highest office in reference to George Bush/Karl Rove's smears. Now, John McCain hired Karl Rove's protege a few weeks ago, and the result is a Rovian attack on Barack Obama's character coupled with an increase in anonymous e-mails filled with smears.

The question is whether the attacks on Obama will take hold before average Americans figure out that McCain really is just another GOP retread, repeating the standard GOP attacks on Democratic candidates. The MSM is doing its best to maintain the veneer of McCain the Maverick, but it gets harder when such cheerful pro-McCain newscasts are bracketed by McCain ads spewing negative filth.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/12092

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McCain supporters rejected the notion that this new line of attack is out of bounds.

"It's accurate, effective and timely," said Rick Wilson, a Republican consultant, of McCain's ad. "It seriously speaks to the calculated nature of the trip and Obama's own .”

Wilson said the questions about Obama's values and patriotism have particular potency because of his background, though he rejected the notion that race played a major role in it.

"Obama is always going to struggle with the cultural disconnect — he scans very much as liberal Ivy League elitist," he said. "People automatically put him in a box with people who are not like middle America's view of patriotism."

Jim Pinkerton, a contributor to Fox News who worked for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and for former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee in this year's GOP primary, isn’t convinced of the efficacy of this line of attack:

"First they goaded him into going to Iraq and that was pretty successful — for Obama. And now the McCain people are trying to goad him into spending more time with the troops and going to hospitals to visit wounded soldiers.

“They better be careful what they wish for, since Obama just might screw them up and do it.”

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