Just when you thought it couldn't get any more ridiculous.

Sarah Palin is accusing Barack Obama of 'palling around with terrorists' and seeing America 'a different way than you and I see it.'  John McCain calls Obama a 'liar' - when Obama is telling the truth.

Obama hits back with a 13 minute min-documentary on McCain's involvement in the S&L collapse in the 1980's.

The McCain-Palin and the conservative right accuse Obama of playing dirty pool.

Really, let's be serious here.  It's easy to say 'oh, they're both playing dirty,' but the fact is, only one side is really playing dirty - relying on false association, logical fallacy, and a very loose definition of the truth to try to create negative press.  Only one side is pushing divisiveness and dishonesty.

In stooping to these levels - in bringing up (again!) Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, and all of the other tenuous (at best) connections of Barack Obama to people and philosophies that are offensive or threatening to to Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Mainstream, the McCain campaign has made what I believe to be its final, fatal mistake:

It's given the Obama campaign permission to start digging in to the respective pasts of John McCain and Sarah Palin...and they are much more vulnerable in that area than Obama is.  Obama left a church where the pastor made objectionable, divisive remarks; Palin had the objecitonable pastor lay hands on her and pray the good Lord to pave her way to government and protect her from 'witchcraft.'  This same pastor once identified a woman in his native country of Kenya and attempted to force her out of town, giving her the choice of converting to his brand of 'christianity' or leaving, alleging that she was a 'witch.'  When she chose neither, this man of 'God' who laid hands in prayer on the woman who would be Vice President gathered a vigilante mob of about 200 souls together and drove the woman out of town.

I don't like to quote liberal pundits like Keith Olberman and Chris Matthews because even though I often agree with them I recognize that they are known partisans.  That said, I think Olberman hit the nail on the head when he pointed out that by definition, this man of 'God' who laid on hands and blessed Governor Palin, is in fact a domestic terrorist; someone who has threatened violence or bodily harm to fellow citizens of his own country for holding beliefs different from him.

The difference between Thomas Muthee and William Ayers?  Muthee's actions are still fodder for his self-advertisement.  He claims this as a spiritual success.  As recently as June 2008, Palin described Muthee's prayer, actions, and personality as 'bold' and 'very, very powerful.'

Of course, those of us who have actually been associated with Pentacostalism in our lives recognize the whole 'laying on of hands' and the 'receptive,' open-palmed stance of Palin as she received this blessing, but I choose not to dwell on this aspect.  While I recognize that there are people for whom this brand of Christianity is particularly odious and strange, I also recognize that Sarah Palin has the right to worship in any way she chooses.  I have friends who (hopefully!) are reading this blog that are members of various charismatic and Pentacostal churches.  My mom's family is largely Pentacostal, and I was an off-and-on member of several such churches throughout my childhood and eveninto my late teens; one of the most talented groups of musicians I ever played with was a Christian Rock outfit in the late 1980's, and we all attended the same sorts of churches as Sarah Palin.  In time, I came to reject that brand of religion, as I have rejected all brands of religion, but I don't fault Sarah Palin for her faith.

I do fault Sarah Palin for her hypocrisy.  Not only has she glorified a man who is, by any definition, a domestic terrorist (and there are suggestions that his denouncement of certain woman as 'witches' may be related to their willingness to file sexual battery - that is, rape - charges against him, but I haven't researched this aspect closely enough to vet it or discredit it), but she even delivered the opening address at the Alaska Independence Party's 2008 convention.  Now, regardless of what else the AIP may have to say, one thing is beyond question:  their goal, their ideal, is to break away from the US and create an independent nation of Alaska.  And Governor Palin, in her address, said without equivocation, "I share your ideals."

She shares...the ideals...of a group that wants to secede from the United States.  Regardless of WHAT you think of the idea, one can hardly consider this a particularly 'patriotic' notion.  Indeed, by definition it is treasonous.

And for Sarah Palin and those in her thrall, this constitutes putting 'country first?'

The point is, stooping to this kind of poo-flinging political silliness is not just beneath contempt and insulting to the intelligence of the American voter.  It's also blatantly hypocritical and exposes the McCain-Palin campaign to a great deal of far more intense and justifiable scrutiny. 

I really don't care if someone Obama has spent a couple of hours with over the last 15 years was once an anti-government radical.  I care very much that John McCain hasn't learned the lessons of the S&L crisis.  I care very much that Sarah Palin's judgment includes exalting an accused rapist, proven xenophobe, and domestic terrorist (don't be confused - 'domestic terrorism' is a terror attack in one's own country, which Muthee's persecution of various women certainly qualifies as). 

I care very much about what it says for John McCain's sense of honor and integrity that these issues have taken precedence in his campaign over the economy, the war in Iraq, our broken health care and education systems, rising inflation, increasing unemployment.

Because what it says to me is that Barack Obama is giving John McCain too much credit.  Obama has said (repeatedly, it's a line he recycles in his stump speeches) that he "doesn't believe that John McCain doesn't care." Unfortunately, John McCain and his campaign team, including Sarah Palin, have set about to prove Obama wrong - they don't care.  They don't care about struggling Americans in a broken economy.  They don't care about standing on principle when it comes to taxpayer-funded bailouts of mismanaged financial institutions.  They don't care about health care, education, or the war in Iraq.

What they care about is amassing power for the sake of power; they care about winning, because it will make them rich.  There is no grand vision here for America.  There is no 'change' in the McCain-Palin platform.  It is beyond execreble that John McCain would manage to make the tactics employed against him in the 2000 race by Bush's campaign team look nearly honorable in comparison to his own tactics in this election season.

McCain and Palin have taken the gloves off and come out swinging...and the only people getting black eyes from their haphazard, scattershot approach is themselves.