Observations on the state of the Presidential election

The absence of Bill Ayers last night

Steve Benen reports on the absence of attacks by McCain about Obama's "connection" to Bill Ayers. Apparently the entire shift to character attacks by the McCain camp is being scrapped because the economy is getting worse. Steve speculates that the efforts to use Ayers and Reverend Jeramiah Wright against Obama has polled extremely badly, particularly among independent voters.

How will conservative Republicans react to McCain's loss?

Related to the apparent abandonment of the Ayers/Wright/Resko attack strategy, Kevin Drum speculates on what the Republican reaction is going to be when McCain loses this Presidential election. Conservatives can be expected to blame McCain for losing because he is a RINO - not conservative enough to win. The next election they are going to be urged to "double down" and get really strident and nasty. That will, of course, drive voters away from the Republican Party. The question is how long the Republican Party will act so self-destructively. My bet is that they will look back at the myth of rebuilding conservatism after the Goldwater disaster and keep it going for at least a dozen years - two or perhaps three presidential elections.

How is that related to the McCain camp's apparent abandonment of the Ayers/Wright/Resko attack strategy? When conservatives lose an election they assume that they lost because they were not conservative enough. Being conservative is the same as being nasty enough. So the next time out they "double down" and get twice as nasty. "Tailgunner" Joe McCarthy's behavior was the result of such a redoubling of effort. He lied and destroyed lives, and conservatives applauded him so he did more of it.

Addendum 2:50 pm

Apparently the McCain camp is not abandoning the Ayers/Wright/Resko attack strategy. They are trying to appear to abandon it by the overt campaign, but are actually trying to shove it down into the below the radar attacks that the mainstream media doesn't report on. That way they can have it both ways.

In that under the radar campaign it will join the organized efforts by the McCain camp to encourage the conservative Fascists who respond to the use of Obama's full name ("Barack Hussein Obama") with cries from the audience (through prepared microphones) of "treason" and "terrorist" and the like.

McCain's proposed method of solving complex problems

Steve Benen also points to McCain's strange idea that if there is a problem then McCain will get the leaders of the various sides of the issue together in a room, force them to sit down, and tell them to "stop the bullshit." It's an intellectually lazy way to claim McCain can solve problems by force of will rather than by actually proposing real solutions. I've never seen it work unless the individual who called the meeting also had a set of proposals that would solve the problem and that were acceptable to all sides prepared in advance of the meeting. McCain has never shown any awareness that he could do anything except bluster.

Obama's history of learning

One thing I have noticed watching the Obama campaign over the last year or so is how he has been constantly learning and improving as he goes along. James Wimberly at the Reality-Based Community provides one small example. That suggests to me that with Obama we have someone who can face new situations and quickly learn and adapt to them. Since the current economic problems are frequently described as both unprecedented and getting worse, Obama's ability to learn on the fly seems likely to make him the right man for the job of President during the next four years.

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Addendum 2:38 pm

The three (irritating) McCainisms

One thing about last night's debate that really irritated me was McCain's repeated phrase My friends. Jerry Feldman counted. McCain said "My friends" 19 times. That's a neurotic tic - and did I mention that it irritated Hell out of me? The other two phrases McCain overused were "My Hero and I Know How To. "My friends" is a neurotic tic which makes McCain sound like an insincere phony. "My Hero" shows that he is a synchophant, and "I Know How to" do whatever it is is the kind of bragging that a kid who really doesn't know how to do whatever it is often resorts to when challenged.