Dickerson:

There was a time when John McCain would give it right back to the hecklers at a John McCain town-hall meeting. It was part of his charm: He would confront these hecklers and argue with them about his supposed Republican apostasies on judicial appointments or immigration.

As if you were ever going to vote for McCain. I don't think you are even saying that, are you? I think you are saying you like him better when you thought he was going to go down easy, be a gentlemanly loser. Yes, you wish.

No there was a time when John McCain was a maverick, in this campaign he's abandoned who he is and don't be surprised when he loses he'll admit to that

So you're going to vote for him twice or something, now he's given up on saving the farm for Becky Sue and is concentrating on saving the money of his pals in the remaining investment houses, while continuing to raise the REALLY IMPORTANT issue of Billy Ayers.

Problem is, that red meat is real tasty for you true believers, but the swing voters are wondering why they should vote FOR McCain and there isn't much there.

What you're after is, you want to stink the process up so much that moderates will just stay home. And meanwhile, coordinated attacks on new voter registrations in swing states are designed to knock a few thousands off the roles here and there, and this all smells just like Rove. It might work, too, if it were close, but it's not.

It's nice to see you go down dirty. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Yes, they are waiting for a savior like Obama to come along and rid us all of that nasty free enterpise thing. God knows there are plenty of community organizers out there who will handle my money much more prudently than I ever would.

Indeed both parties are corrupt as hell, but nothing I like more than the Republicans getting all in a huff about voter fraud, cause you know, that doesn't happen massively on both sides in every election...

my heart weeps for America. when a maverick becomes a mavewrack; when wrong becomes right; when ignorance teams up with arrogance, our world and our children's world is in trouble. America, America the Beautiful is becoming warped by the false prophet's of the McPalin gang. God Save us from them and God Bless America.

When "wrong becomes Wright?" you say? Why is it so easy to overlook mendacity in Obama? Why does he get a pass? At the same time the Left nurses this black hatred of Palin a hatred that is not a product of anything that she has done, but simply of who she is and what she represents. You have none of this animosity for a man who has blown up US government buildings and the house of a federal judge. Nor for a guy who say Goddamn America. Then you say "God Bless America". Its just bizarre.

The general suspicion of Palin began when she was nearly unknown (outside DC sleaze blogs like Wonkette) anywhere but AK and took off wehn one bizarre thing after another came out ABOUT HER. That's not about her preacher or about some guy in Wasilla she had a beer with once, but about her.

What I despise in Palin most of all, and despise in you as well, is this insane desire to win at any cost, so you'll crape up any bit of garbage you find in the street and eat it, just to get by. Did Billy Ayers do any of what you say? Can you prove it? Then why didn't he do jail time?

Obama met him when they were both doing unpaid public service work. You scumbags never specify that. He said once in an interview that he and his friends had failed, because they'd never done enough to stop the war in Vietnam. Your little pals pulled the words "never done enough" out of that sentence and have tried to make it your campaign slogan. You are dog shit. You are what you eat.

Charles Krauthammer wrote this yesterday in the Washington Post:

Convicted felon Tony Rezko. Unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers. And the race-baiting Rev. Jeremiah Wright. It is hard to think of any presidential candidate before Barack Obama sporting associations with three more execrable characters. Yet let the McCain campaign raise the issue, and the mainstream media begin fulminating about dirty campaigning tinged with racism and McCarthyite guilt by association.

I could care less what you think of me. Those who benefit from lies hate anyone who speaks the truth. I am sure that Palin has made a great number of enemies in her effort to clean up the political machine in Alaska. Obama, on the other hand, has never done a thing to anger the political machine in Chicago. He has actively benefited from the corruption there to advance his career. He has used highly placed but actively corrupt associations and he has led left wing extremist collegues to believe he shared their vision and derision towards the United States of America.

You're aware, aren't you, that Krauthammer, like most conservatives in teh press, is planning to vote for Obama?

The reason teh press gives McCain a hard time about his current attack campaign is, he PROMISED not to run this way. He complained loud and long about attack politics, back when Bush did it to him. You think there's something "sporting" ablut what you're doing, but that's bullshit. Jeremiah Wright has no connection with the Obama campaign. Yes, Tony Rezko was a crook. So was Charles Keating. In fact, Keating was a much bigger crook and McCain took quite a lot of money from him, plus nice trips in his airplane, vacations, and so on.

The McCarthyism is in ndveer uite SAYING what the supposed connection is between Obama and Ayers, but lots of hinty hinty and winky winky instead. "Sporting association with three more execrable characters...?" Weeeeeel, how about Keating, plus Reverend Hagee, mnd whom shall we throw in for number three? How about the 150 plus lobbyists that run his campaign for him? H9w about that big homo hypcrite Larry Craig? He's pretty execrable. Or "Duke" Cunningham? Or how about George W. Bush?

If we add up all the execrable associates of John McCain, yhour bullsihit looks worse and worse. The rest of your post is a pathetic string of lies. Palin hasn't attempted to clean up anything in Alaska. She's just as corrupt as all the others. The major difference is, they've already GOTTEN theirs and she's just starting out. You don't know a thing about Chicago, which, compared to teh politics of either Alaska or Arizona is clean as the wind-driven snow. And there were always poiticians in Chicago who were clean by any standard, like Abner Mikva, Toni Preckwinckel, Danny Davis, Helen Shiller -- and Barak Obama. So you can take your smelly inferences and vile slanders and shove them, you pathetic, losing troll.

If McCain did not bring this up he would be irresponsible. It is his duty to run a campaign that will expose every one of his opponent's "issues" so that the voter can make up their own mind. Krauthammer, as far as I can see, is not voting for Obama. That is very clear in his recent opinion pieces in the Washington Post. If Obama gets elected without a thorough explanation of these associations and his veiws on important topics, there will be a very big rude awakening for all the star-struck followers of this messiah.

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McCain is pulling back on his smear campaign because, as far as I can tell, of two reasons:

One, it isn't working. The final ten percent are making up their minds, and since Obama's at fifty percent NOW, an even split of the remainder favors him. So at this point, all McCakn has to comfor himself is a sort of mystical hope in the "Bradley effect," that won't bear out because the REASON Obama's beating him in the swing states is he's way, way better organized. That was the same secret voo doo force with which he beat HRC: a lot more volunteer labor, better organized and more motivated. McCain's campaign is run by lobbyists and Rove hacks, and Obama's campaign is run by people who have run campaigns before.

Two, when the associations of a political lifetime become "issues," this does not benefit a long-term pol like McCain, who has lots of those "issues," himself. Here's one you maybe haven't considered:

What, aside from Feingold's campaign reform effort and the Campaign Against Earmarks, is McCain known for? Indian Casino Gambling. And who were the primary cash cows Abramoff milked during his scandalous influence-peddling career? Indian casinos.

Washington's a small town. Somehow, nobody talks about McCain's contacts with Abramoff, for now. Do you want to bet that will last? Do you want the image of McCain whooping it up at the casino, playing with his free chips like they were real money, to be the last image people see before they vote?

So if you want to sit this hand out, I'll see you your burned-out sixties radical, and raise you one toxic jailed sleazebag and one massive gambling habit.