When Enough Really Is Enough

They're at it again. As they did in 2000 and 2004, the Republican presidential campaign operatives trained at the Knee of Rove are doing their level best to distract voters from the issues by throwing up a smoke-screen of personal attacks, manufactured controversies, and complete misrepresentations of fact. To use an old cliché (as if we haven't had our fill of those lately), "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me." What what would "fool me thrice" say about the American voter?

Honestly, this is so far beyond ridiculous it's sickening. McCain comes out and says the thing he likes least about campaigning is the negativity and personal attacks. Well look, if there's one person in this campaign who could STOP this nonsense in its tracks, it's John McCain. He knows better than this. He believes better than this. And yet he stands there and pretends to fuss about it while his Bush/Rove smear-expert staffers carry out this absolutely disgusting campaign of gutter-politics at its worst.

Obama's campaign is not entirely beyond reproach, of course. But comparing McCain's record to Bush's and calling Palin out for the complete falsehoods she's been whomping up out on the campaign trail aren't personal attacks, they're points of fact.

Here's Obama yesterday: "Enough. I don't care what they say about me. But I love this country too much to let them take over another election with lies and phony outrage and Swift Boat politics. Enough is enough. We've got an energy crisis. We have an education system that is not working for too many of our children and making us less competitive. We have an economy that is creating hardship for families all across America. We've got two wars going on, veterans coming home not being cared for -- and this is what they want to talk about. You know who ends up losing at the end of the day? It's not the Democratic candidate. It's not the Republican candidate. It's you, the American people. Because then we go another year, or another four years or another eight years without addressing the issues that matter to you."

He's right. Today he and McCain are supposed to meet at a 9/11 commemoration ceremony. Let's hope they come together and call a halt to these unhelpful, unhealthy and unnecessary negative ads and nasty attacks. It's well past time to muzzle the dogs of war and have a debate about the real issues. McCain and Obama both promised a campaign we can be proud of, but no decent person could possibly be proud of the turns this campaign has taken these last few days. It's shameful, and it must end. The American people deserve better.