Slash and burn -- the domestic terrorism of the McCain campaign

In what the Huffington Post is calling "the voguish idiot question du jour," the mega-money Republican media machine (aka Fox ["Faux"] News) has been operating full bore to try to sell the American public the idea that Barack Obama is a closet terrorist -- or at least a "fellow traveler."

It seems John McCain has nothing more substantial to offer the American people than conjuring up chimeras -- a Tom Riddle (aka Voldemort) kind of pastime.

It isn't really just the Faux News disinformation and propaganda machine taking this tack but the entire Republi-Cain political apparat. Sara Palin -- whose capacity for reasoning and judgment barely aspires to attain the lowest common denominator of the 300 million residents of the United States -- is the point person, but Republican and "conservative" shills and operatives are out in force.

It is more than a bit much, and Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs finally employed turnabout to reveal the result of applying to Fox meta-propagandist Sean Hannity the same standard and "logic" he had been deploying against Obama.

Look around, you'll see what I mean. There's a rich vein of character-revealing conduct out there -- a treasure trove of indirect truth just waiting to be mined . . . in the body language of politics . . . the flow of electronic media . . . and the dew drops on the worldwide web.

Watch this fight on The View.

On the topic of domestic terrorism, it occurs to me that Timothy McVeigh was a Palin-style Republican . . . and then there is that small matter of the Alaskan Independence Party of which Sara Palin and her husband Todd were members as recently as 1994: Alaska First -- Alaska Always . . . "the fires of Hell are glaciers compared to my hate for the American government" John Vogler, AIP founder.

And don't miss this review of McCainonomics and "the people behind the curtains."

On character, Jared Bernstein asks:

Why does McCain want to be president? Those who have followed him for years don't recognize his agenda, his tactics, his positions (e.g., the great populist regulator!). How could a man of seemingly deep conviction morph into this caricature? His campaign is empty, with no spiritual or intellectual core; its tactics have devolved into a series of crass surprises and Hail Mary passes.

and then concludes:

I get Obama in this regard. To get the country back on track, to reconnect middle-class living standards and growth, to rein in market fundamentalism, to rectify a series of unjust and even fatal policy choices, to restore America's standing in the world, he seeks to implement his change agenda.

But I don't get McCain. I hope the country doesn't get him either.