Then how come you haven't posted an equally scurrilous and misleading ad about McCain from Obama's campaign? Could it be because none exist?

C'mon -- I expect the false meme of "both campiagns are equally guilty" from the MSM. But the fact remains: the Repub side started the negative campiagning in this race, they've lied and misled with far greater frequency, and they've consistently shifted the dialogue from discussing the issues to personal attacks.

Compared to what MCain and his ilk have done, the Obama side is nearly without blemish....

I hope someone points out the weird hypocrisy of this line of attack.

McCain is basing his appeal on his supposed willingness and ability to work across party lines. How can he claim to be “bipartisan” on one hand, while taking a vicious swing at liberals with the other hand?

I'd like to think that John McCain once had some amount of self respect. It's gone now, of course, and I wonder if it actually bothers him. I don't think there any principled position he's expressed in the first 20 years of his public life that he hasn't gone back on in the last two. The once maverick has sold out for a pretty gold coin, and I hope someone asks him about his conscience when this is done and Obama has won.

Because you left it a little, er, incomplete in that there is NO example of an equally offensive Obama ad. And indeed I don't think you'll find one. If we wanted b.s. faux "balanced" coverage, we'd go elsewhere.

Salon should be better than this (and several of its writers are).

It's the rank smell of Repub flop sweat.

Oh yeah, and add me to the list going "Huh?" at the end Mr. Koppelman's first sentence. (1) There are no examples of Obama's part of the "race to the bottom". (2) If examples could be given, it seems like it'd be worth pointing out that there's an important distinction to be made between "negative" and "negative and dishonest".

At least, some people think that distinction is important.

Which is TRUE.

(although I think that is an ineffective line of attack)

Explain what you mean by "...the race to the bottom has begun in earnest, ON BOTH SIDES."

Now, if Obama started to hammer away at McCain's boozing, womanizing, his nepotism-filled career, and calling his wife a c*nt... THAT would be considered going negative.

But to infer that McCain's association with the Keating Five is evidence as ths "race to the bottom" is simply another case of the media reaching for balance.

I think what Koppelman was suggesting was the 'if you want to talk about Ayers, I'll talk about Keating' answer that Obama's campaign has been talking about. Regardless of which one is more legitimate, it is clearly the beginning of everybody going negative.

So far it seems that McCain's lame response to the Keating 5 charge is that three of the five are endorsing Obama. What's amazing here is that it's clear that the Obama campaign has had Keating in their back pockets for a long time (there's a 13 minute documentary coming out at noon today) and that McCain's campaign has not even thought of a halfway credible response to something they could have known would come up any day. There doesn't seem to be a bottom to McCain's incompetence.

Balance isn't saying both sides are guilty.

Balance is saying both sides are guilty when they actually are.

As for McCain, this is his last shot. Ignorant pissant George W. Bush tarnished him in 2000 and ruined his chance at the presidency then. Now he's 72 years old. McCain will pull out all the stops to beat Obama because it's his only chance to win. He's desperate. And apparently not very principled (this coming from someone who disagreed with McCain but still respected him eight years ago).

McCain will return to the Senate with President Obama as his Commander-in-Chief in 2009. His friends on the other side of the aisle will gaze upon him with shame and pity. He will have sold his soul to no avail.

The Obama campaign debuts a Keating Five minisite:

http://keatingeconomics.com/

The last array of film 'negative's' on this ad - the image that has 'Too risky for America' emblazoned on it, Obama is surrounded by Nancy Pelosi, Charles Rangel, and Barney Frank. Outside this circle are everyday Americana scenes of a small town church, a front porch stoop with a father and son on it, and a diner. Am i reading too much into this to say that this ad says it's too risky to give up our small town values by handing the country over to blacks, women, and gays?

The "race to the bottom" is over: McCain got there first long ago and has never risen above it.

Jesus, Alex - have you completely given up on trying to exhibit even a shred of competency? Go back to making your home videos.

Sec. Gate, himself, had to apologize 2 weeks ago for an air strike that killed 90 civilians. Do you think you might have pointed that out? Do you and Palin/McCain believe Sec. Gates is also dishonorable?

Do you think that you might have pointed out that even the commanding general in Afghanistan has said we don't have enough "boots on the ground" in that country and that willy-nilly air strikes are hurting us not helping us?

Are you related in some to Joan Walsh? It's the only reason I can think of that she keeps you on.

Most people don't give a damn about Ayers anything else except the stock market right now.

While our 401Ks tank, McCain looks like an old fool calling Obama names--talk about trying to use nuance!

The Keating thing is old, but relevant to today. I wish, however, the Obama campaign would go on attack about how the Republicans want to privatize everything. Social security, for example.

And let's talk about how the companies started going to 401ks instead of the old retirement system. These 401ks were fine as a supplement, but they soon became all anyone had. For all you Republicans who said 'let's put America for sale on the private market'--- Thanks for nothing.

I was concerned for awhile. Now I think it will be a Democratic landslide.