John McCain is nearing the end of the Presidential Campaign, he’s behind in the polls, he’s made lackluster showings at the debates (not that his opponent has been all that glorious in them either), he’s coming from the party that in the eyes of the American people carries much of the blame for our current economic state (in truth it’s more complicated than blaming a single party) and the party that produced a quite unpopular current President who has come to be recognized as a face of failure and bad policy.

When the finish line can be seen, but so can the back of your opponent, what do you do?
Well, first you make grand gestures to rally the people behind you (“suspended” campaign to go “save” the bailout proceedings- they passed not on that take, but on the next one where there were less cowboy-ish gestures), then if that doesn’t work, you pull a Tanya Harding and hire someone to go after your opponent (yes Sarah Palin, make no mistake about it, you are simply a hired gun to do and say all the dirty little things that McCain won’t), but what if that assault attempt failed?  (and perhaps even hurt your cause due to overwhelming bad vibes of racism, mob mentality, and calls for death that go ignored or worse- seemingly endorced by your little “pitbull”)  Then what do you do?

Well, if you want something done right, you do it yourself.  McCain has pretty much jumped on the dare set out before him by the Dems to go ahead and bring up Ayers (if you haven’t been paying attention thus far, just google him, we’ll wait) and says he’ll bring up the (at one point in time) controversial figure from Obama’s past.  But there’s a danger here.  Obama is not the only one who has ever worked with the man in bipartisan public committees.  Many Republican’s have, and probably still do.  Not only that, if Obama’s smart, he’s got a list of them to throw right back in McCain’s face, daring him to go after his own party as well if he’ll be making allegations of terrorist plots.  On top of that, McCain has skeletons of his own.  What politician doesn’t?  A few of those brought up evens the playing field nicely…

But what if Obama doesn’t want the playing field to be even?  What if he wants to be above it?  If McCain comes across and ham-handed and fear-mongering as his Alaskan counterpart, he runs an amazing risk of alienating voters as he had long promised a campaign that would stay clear of mud slinging.  By inferring that Obama is un-American and a terrorist, McCain could look bigoted in the eyes of the viewing public.  Let’s be honest, the crowds that Palin has been playing to have been largely, well, shit… how do I say it without sounding “elitist”?  They’ve been misinformed, violent, bigoted, white trash.  Folks calling for death to the “A-rab” is hardly the kind of base you want to trust your campaign to.  All Obama would have to do is sit back and let McCain hang himself with his own rope.

So which McCain will be coming to the debate tomorrow?  Will it be the one who promised a civil issues based campaign, or will it be the one who’s campaign promotes intollerance in many forms?  If he’s smart, he’ll stick to the issues and let sleeping dogs lay.

Come join me as I LIVE BLOG the VP debate tonight here on Patriot Missive

There’s one small problem though; I’m in Tel Aviv, Israel right now. That means my time zone is 8 hours ahead of Chicago.

I’ve never been one to sleep in so I’ll be up (hopefully) at 4am Tel Aviv time to LIVE BLOG the VP debate. I’ll try to caffeinate the best I can but I make no promises to my mood. Fair warning that there may be more cursing than usual.

So load up Patriot Missive tonight at 8pm CST!  I’ll have the chat room open in case anyone cares to slap me awake.

You can watch the debate Live from Washington University in St. Louis on Thursday, October 2nd at 8pm CST.

UPDATE:

This just in from someecards.com:

After the essential non-event that was the first Presidential Debate last week, this week we have the potential Veeps taking the stage. Obama and McCain gave us little to go off of other than what we already knew about them and essentially left the stage in a draw, though as days have gone by and more scrutiny has been placed on the debate many would point to Obama as the winner, much of which could be due to McCain’s obvious disdain for his opponent. Though a continued smolder and tight grimace is arguably better than the explosion of temper that could’ve happened as McCain has displayed in his past. So the Reps have to be happy about that at least.

So now it’ll be Biden (who made an appearance after the debate to lend to the discussion) and Palin (who rarely makes any sort of an appearance except in restaurants where she can occationally be found to make statements that go in direct opposition to her running mate’s positions) taking to the podiums.

What kind’ve strategy (or would it be tactics?) do the Vice Presidential candidates need to employ to win this election? Well, Palin has a few things going for her- no one expects anything good from her, she’ll have a chance to do her “pitbull” attack directly in her opponent’s face which is exactly what her base desires of her, and should Biden go from defense to offense in return he’ll be seen as bullying (you can ask Hillary Clinton all about that… gee, seems sexism can run in favor of the very people who claim it from time to time, can’t it?). So basically Palin needs to keep her answers short and sweet, stick to what she knows, and do her best to be funny and biting with her criticisms. Biden won’t be able to do anything in response to the latter, and as for the answers to questions- she needs to stay away from riffing, because that tends to be when she proves just how little she actually knows (sounds a little like our current Prez doesn’t it?).

Biden on the other hand is not exempt from making verbal slips himself, and will need to do much the same in the short and sweet answer vein. If anything, Biden needs to keep from overexposing himself and overplaying his hand. When asked a question, show that he has a grasp of the topic, express the policy choices that he and Obama are making, and leave it at that. He also needs to keep from adressing Palin too much, especially in the way that McCain was addressing Obama. No comments of inexperience, no comments of being naive, and don’t go on the attack when she’s brutally wrong and floundering. The reporters and commentators and analysts will handle that more than enough when the debate is over. If Biden plays too heavy handed he could come across as a bully, and that’s the last thing the Dems need right now, because it would give Palin a free pass.

If anything Biden needs to attack the man who won’t be there, and that’s McCain. Obama was too reserved to score a KO punch on any of the opportunities he was given.

So what will be the result of this Debate? Well, if Biden comes out ahead, no one will be shocked or surprised, but it’s likely more of the undecided middle will lean towards Obama and Biden as McCain comes across as prickly and arrogant after his last appearance, and it’s likely that Palin’s (I’m sorry, I have no other word for it) cattiness and lack of understanding of questions or answers will prove too frightening a combination. If Palin somehow managed to recover amazingly from past media Q&A sessions and is suddenly eloquent and well informed on all things Executive Branch related it will be a major coup for the Reps and could calm the fears that even many in their own base have about Palin.

Part of me is almost hoping for a complete train wreck in this week’s Debate to prove just how much of a farce this whole thing has become, but at the same time, no one will really benefit from that. Rather, I hope everyone can get their shit together and we can get past the bluff and bluster and the American public can actually learn something about the people who could potentially be a last breath away from being the President themselves.

Watch the debate Live from Washington University in St. Louis on Thursday, October 2nd at 8pm CST.

In last night’s Ohio Democratic debate, Clinton puts one more spike into her campaign coffin with an attempt at rousing a chuckle from the crowd. The problem is that no one laughed.

It’s almost surreal watching her sink within the first moments of the debate. My mouth gaping at the obviousness of her misstep, Clinton needs to decide if she wants to be the victim, or the strong fighter. Trying to be both makes her sound bitchy, whiny, and petty.Until that happens, Obama doesn’t even have to try. And on the same token, neither does McCain.

Hat tip to Skitz.