Obama v McCain: Is the Slime War Coming?

The election fight between John McCain and Barack Obama is getting hot and it looks like both candidates are preparing for a two-month "slime war" leading up the election.

Let the slime begin.

After Obama's poorly received showing at the Saddleback Forum, the Obama campaign decided to get tough and came out with ads portraying John McCain as an out of touch plutocrat who doesn't know how many houses he owns. The Obama campaign could mine McCain's wealth for these kinds of attack ads from here to November. It's bad enough that McCain married into Cindy McCain's family wealth rather than earning any of it himself. But McCain also dumped his injured and disfigured first wife to hook up with Cindy's money in the first place.

Talk about personal dishonor. All of this not only makes John McCain look not only like an out of touch plutocrat but a pampered sleazeball as well.

Now that McCain's running as the candidate of the Republican establishment, Obama could attack him more for his connections with Bush, Cheney, Rove, Charlie Black, Rush Limbaugh, and the rest of the incompetent warmongerers. Today, Obama had an ad out in the Atlanta market slamming McCain for his links to Jack Abramoff friend Ralph Reed. Obama's people could literally put out hundreds of ads on that score.

But the McCain people aren't going to be outdone on attack ads. When are the Republicans ever outdone on personal attacks?

The McCain campaign responded quickly with their own ads about Obama connections with 60's radical William Ayres and Chicago real estate scammer Tony Rezko. In fact, the McCain campaign seemed to be waiting for just this opportunity to "go nuclear" on Obama. With Obama now engaging in "personal attacks," the McCain people feel authorized to start hammering away on Jeremiah Wright, Ayres, Rezko, and any other shady connections they can dredge up.

It'll be interesting to see how the looming slime war plays out. My impression is that Obama has the advantage. If one adds up the personal liabilities, McCain liabilities far outweigh Obama's. Given that Cindy McCain is his wife and that John McCain has benefitted enormously from her wealth, the problems with McCain's status as a pampered sleazeball have more significance than Obama's problems with black nationalist minister Jeremiah Wright.

The same thing concerns McCain's connections with the Republican establishment vs Obama's connections with William Ayres and Tony Rezko. Abramoff, Reed, Black, Limbaugh, Rove, and the rest of the figures Obama could attack are all nationally-known figures who play or have played significant roles in Republican Party politics and John McCain's campaign. Because the same can't be said for Ayres and Rezko, it will be much easier for Obama to score points than McCain.

But is Obama going to sustain several rounds of attacks on McCain? The McCain people have already drawn the line in the sand. Given that Obama has attacked McCain, McCain is now going to go all out on attacking Obama and will be daring Obama to respond in kind.

That way McCain will be able to criticize Obama for being "weak" if he doesn't respond with more attacks on McCain and criticize Obama for giving up his "new politics" if he does respond.

In my opinion, Obama has to dive into "the slime war" and attack McCain with all the moderate, post-partisan gusto he can muster.

There's lots of testimony showing that voters don't like "negative campaigning" and "politics as usual." But voters are even suspicious of candidates they view as "weak" and Obama would be perceived as a weak politician if he decides to back down.

Given that such a widespread perception of weakness would kill his candidacy, Obama needs to ratchet up his attacks on McCain.

Once you start attacking, you can't stop.