What Can We Expect From McCain Tonight?

McCain's younger brother Joe-- the one who was rallying KKK members in Virginia a week ago-- has e-mailed the Baltimore Sun blasting his brother's campaign for making ads that show McCain as a "crank and curmudgeon." He attacked the lobbyists who have ruined his brother's chances to win the presidency and who won't let anyone-- meaning himself-- speak to the press. So with McCain's poll numbers continuing to sink dramatically-- in great part because Americans are finally sick and tired of the Rovian attack ads and viciously negative smear tactics-- McCain needs to do something dramatic tonight to put the race back on a footing that won't seal his doom and devastate his entire party.

Conventional wisdom has him reaching out to the older white voters, the last group of dependable voters to have started to move towards Obama, in states like Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Florida... even Arkansas. Early voters are breaking so huge for Obama that Inside the Beltway prognosticators are in shock.



When I was growing up, West Virginia and Arkansas were dependable parts of the Democratic coalition. Both have turned increasingly red in recent years. This week an ARG poll shows Obama ahead by 8 points in West Virginia, his first lead of the campaign. And McCain is down in Arkansas and with just a single-digit lead in a state that was a Republican "given" for the entire campaign. Can McCain turn it around tonight? Unlikely-- but he has to try. He'll target the elderly and especially elderly voters who have sinking investments and promises the Palin crowd that he'll bring the smears and sewage right into America's living rooms tonight.

So it'll be crazed hysteria about Ayers and ugly racism thinly disguised as a Rev Wright discussion, mashed up with half-baked and erratic and desperate rantings about economic pie-in-the-sky. To counter the predictable lies about Obama's tax proposals, the campaign has come up with a widget that allows you to type in your income and see what the results are if Obama's tax plans go into effect while McCain spews out his clueless lies in what is looking more and more like his last stand, as the failing McCain campaign tries defending deeply red bastions like Indiana and shifts its focus full time into voter fraud and media interest shifts to the Senate and congressional races. I even heard some talking head on TV mention them today!

Last night Senator Russ Feingold explained in Eugene why it's so important to elect Jeff Merkley to replace Gordon Smith as the Oregon senator:



In fact, Bush is in Michigan today, not on behalf of McCain, who he's given up on (and who has given up on him), but to bolster the sagging fortunes of far right extremist Tim Walberg, who recent polls show is losing his re-election bid to progressive Democratic state Senator Mark Schauer. Bush is expected to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars at the home of the neo-fascist billionaire Dick DeVos, former head of Amway and a failed candidate for Governor. Cheapest tickets are $5,000 and the money will mostly be split between Walberg and the other endangered Michigan incumbent, Joe Knollenberg. Blue America is raising money for both the Democrats running against these two, Mark Schauer and Gary Peters. Even one dollar helps build war chests against Bush's attempts to leave behind a right-wing force in Congress.


UPDATE: TOO LATE?

My friend's aunt Martha is even older than McCain. She's 95. Today she's breaking out of the British retirement home in Sierra Madre and moving into her own apartment. She's had it with being treated like an invalid! She's also had it with the Republicans. Aunt Martha has voted for a Republican for president every single election. Do the math and think about that. She voted against FDR, voted for Dewey, Nixon (several times), Goldwater... Bush. Last week she pulled up Tim Dickinson's Rolling Stone story, , Make-Believe Maverick, on her computer and cast her absentee ballot for Barack Obama. Obama may be planning to make a play for elderly white folks tonight... but he's too late to reach Aunt Martha. Last night David Letterman the 20 top 10 ways McCain can turn it around:

10. Try the old "I'll vote for you if you vote for me" trick
9. Inspire America by jumping Straight Talk Express over Snake River Canyon
8. Change name to Jorack McBama
7. Start wearing a cape
6. Step one: send Bin Laden free tickets to Giants game. Step two: when he shows up in East Rutherford, New Jersey expecting to enjoy some big blue smashmouth football: gotcha sucka!
5. Sizzling tango with Cloris Leachman on "Dancing With The Stars"
4. Put more effort into budget plan, less effort into Facebook status updates
3. Point out his steady leadership got us through the Great Depression
2. Assure voters the only poll that matters is in his pants
1. Get Sarah Palin to illegally fire herself

Top Ten Extras

11. Uh, stop being old?
12. Start hangin' with one of them talking chihuahuas
13. Suspend campaign until the economy recovers in about 30 years
14. Maybe one of them fake tans?
15. Have Palin start doing impressions of Tina Fey
16. Release new line of trendy hearing aids
17. Instead of boring speeches, read from hilarious Late Show Fun Facts book. Available at fine stores everywhere.
18. New catch phrase: "Chillax, Broseph"
19. Wear tighter slacks
20. An appearance on Sabado Gigante couldn't hurt