Obama is a socialist … palling around with terrorists … unethical … who will raise taxes on the middle class.
If Sen. Obama responds directly to these accusations, I fully expect the McCain camp to break out in a chorus of I'm rubber, you're glue. Everything you say bounces off of me and sticks to you.
Update, a day late: I'm concerned that regressive Republican tactics might garner Sen. McCain some votes at the cost of widening the polarization of the citizenry. On Wednesday, Glenn Greenwald noted that recent attacks by right-wing politicians have fallen flat, leaving the perpetrators to backtrack or apologize “for insulting liberals or impugning their patriotism."
Greenwald closes on this hopeful note:
We're gradually seeing not only the demise of the right-wing faction that has dominated the Republican Party for decades, but also the death of their ugliest and most toxic tactics. When numerous right-wing figures crawl across one's television set desperately denying and abjectly apologizing for attacks on the patriotism of Democrats and liberals, that is potent evidence that, at least as a matter of political rhetoric, a genuine sea-change is taking place.
