I'm sure Obama is quaking in his boots already.

"Instead of talking about the real issues that concern the American people, Senator McCain is once again choosing to use the tactics of distraction to avoid facing up to the legacy he and his party have given the country over the past eight years."

Please, puh-leeze, John, bring up the whole Ayers smear in the debate. Please don't throw me in that briar patch! Considering how the past smears have hurt you in the polls, one more live TV episode of you hitting Obama with unfounded rumors and gossip while the economy burns and people lose their jobs will cost you any Hail Mary chance you had to win this thing.

Do us all a favor and commit publicly televised electoral suicide. Pretty please?

...but instead of answering that, I want to talk about a person who was on the same committee as Obama in the 90s. How come you didn't vet every single person on it before agreeing to help people?!?!"

It would be interesting to see Obama raise the issue first. That would take the bite out of McCain raising the issue and Obama would control that narrative.

"Bring It On!"

Let's see how this spurious, specious attempt at character assassination goes over with those who aren't on the right's fanatic fringe.

Obama wanted McCain to do just that. He has baited him into it. And I don't think Obama will merely denounce the strategy of denunciation. I think he will give his three sentence explanation, hitting such notes as Anneberg family, Republican founded committee etc. McCain will be giving Obama a chance to lay this one to rest in front of 70 million. If he doesn't have some as yet unearthed piece of incriminating info, he is making a mistake.

Which is, of course, what it is. There was no earthly reason for Obama to put such a statement out there - the Ayers campaign was having little to no impact on his popularity and may even have been helping him as voters grew more disgusted with the mudslinging coming from McCain's camp.

It's a brilliant move, and there is no way in hell the Obama campaign hasn't prepared a perfect statement for it. If he wasn't ready to answer that question, he wouldn't ask McCain to raise it.

Of course, now that he has asked McCain to raise it, McCain has no choice but take the bait or be dubbed a coward.

Smart chess being played here by the Obama camp. The McCain advisers would to well to take note.

If he does he'll be lambasted in the press for doing it only because he was goaded into it by his opponent. Plus he has to realize 2 things:

1. Obama will obviously be waiting for it and will be devastatingly prepared for it.

2. There is no way he'll be able to bring it up in a way that will meet the expectations of those that want him to bring it up. Unless McCain screams "TERRORIST TRAITOR!!!" and leaps over the podium to attack Obama, his base will be disappointed.

So there is really no benefit to McCain doing it, and in his interview he was already making excuses why he won't bring it up (its the moderator's fault).

McCain is suggesting he'll attack bring up the Obama-Ayers connection because he wants to drum up ratings for the final debate. McCain not only needs a commanding performance in the debate, he needs people to pay attention to a fourth debate as election fatigue is setting in. I think its a bad idea for McCain to traffic in baseless smears during nationally broadcast prime time television, but I admit that it might at least spice things up a bit. The debates have been getting tedious.

I was going to skip the third debate because I thought it would be a snoozefest like the others, but if McCain brings up Ayers, well, damn.

A package just arrived for the McCain debate prep team from "Acme Debate Prep"...can't wait to see McCain standing on stage holding a dud of a fuse looking burned and confused.

Counter with Sarah Palin! She makes Ayers, Osama and Hitler pale in comparison!

He could be subtle too. All he would have to do is give McCain a sidelong glance and say, "Bitch" and the whole country would get it and get a good laugh at the republithugs expense.

Of course, that could also refer to McCain's junkie wife.

Then Obama can bring up the AIP and Gordon Liddy; Palin's witch doctor, etc. Obama wouldn't bring this stuff up on his own -- but if McCain wants to go that route then Obama has free reign.

That's right, John, don't hedge! So Obama has "probably ensured" that you just might maybe be forced to bring up possibly the Ayers non-issue to his face...whoa, tell it like it is, brother! No idle threats, you betcha! You are an exemplar of straight talk and trash talk at the same time, also! Your semi-promise of the mere possibility of maybe sorta facing down dangerous-yet-respectable, possibly-Arab-but-good-family-man Obama has us all aquiver! Wednesday could not possibly maybe sorta come sooner!

This shows a fatal flaw in McCain's temperament which makes him a frightening choice for President. He feels insulted and is rising to the bait and being reactive. Not what I want when we're having differences with a foreign country with its own loose cannon of a leader. Obama has faced slur after slur and if he reacts publicly at all, it's with measured, rational, responses.

and just mention the name Charles Keating, a convicted felon whose fraudulent saving&loan bank dealing caused thousands of retirees to lose their life saving and with whom McCain stayed friends even after Keating's release from jail, accepting his political donations gladly. Obama wants McCain to mention Ayers so he can bring up Keating.

I think you can be fairly certain that Barack will not mention Palin's witch doctor, the AIP, her ethics report, appointing her cow loving friend, lack of quatifications, or whether the fact that she can see a tree from her porch makes her an arborist.

I also don't think that the McCain camp is stupid enough to simply repeat their stock lines on Ayers. Having said that, they do continue to amaze me with their blunders.

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