The Last Refuge

It was a less than great weekend for sports fans in Wisconsin. The Badgers and Packers both lost and the Brewers ended their season though not before winning a playoff game at home on Saturday.

So it’s time to return to more mundane topics like the economy and health care, national security and foreign relations. Yes, boys and girls, there still is an election a month away and the stakes couldn’t be higher.

The wind appears to be at the back of the Democrats but, like a well-conditioned athlete, Barack Obama is wisely not letting his guard down.

John McCain finds himself on the wrong side of the electorate on the war, has proven to be clueless on the economy and has, perhaps fatally, allied himself with the policies of an incredibly unpopular president.

McCain may still wish to carry the brand of a “Straight Talker” but his words and actions show him to be a typically calculating, if inept, politician. McCain was a supporter of President Bush until he wasn’t a supporter of President Bush and his response to the economic crisis changed from day to day, revealing a candidate who seemed to feel that voters would be comforted by a strategy of “winging it.”

So it comes to this. The McCain-Palin campaign has let it be known that “the gloves are off” which means that we can expect attacks on Obama’s vague and flimsy association with former Weatherman William Ayers.

The whole thing is ridiculous. Obama has soundly criticized Ayers revolutionary activities from the 60s and 70s (when Obama was in grade school) and only has a tangential relationship with the university professor who happens to be his neighbor.

McCain personally has taken pains to avoid this kind of guilt by association and we’re about to see why. It would have been nice if principle was involved but more likely it was because McCain is aware of the old axiom about people in glass houses.

Remember Charles Keating? If not chances are good you’ll be hearing all about him soon.

Keating was the Savings and Loan mogul who McCain went to bat for by improperly meeting with regulators to get them off his back in the ‘80s.

And this wasn’t simply a matter of helping a friend. McCain’s record of opposing regulations is diametrically opposed with the needs of the nation at this moment in time.

So go ahead Sen. McCain, bring on the smears. To paraphrase Samuel Johnson, these kind of attacks are the last refuge of a scoundrel.

Here in Wisconsin. we can vote early, beginning today. So go down to City Hall and take care of business. That way, you can avoid long lines and maybe even volunteer on election day.

It’s the right thing to do.