>SNIP

>>Mike, wake up. I'll explain to you what happened. Obama defended himself against "charges" that were never made. Who, in the political world, called him unpatriotic? As far as I can see, no one. So he set up a situation where people were led to believe that this had happened when, in fact, it hadn't. Meanwhile, Wesley Clark goes out and says something outrageous about McCain's military service to Bob Schieffer who - if you listen to the interview - is incredulous that Clark is so demeaning. Dude, again I say, "wake up"; Clark said what he said not because he believed it but because it gave an opening for Obama to criticize the comment and look like he was giving creds to a vet like McCain. It's so transparent and you'll see more of it - Democratic minions will badmouth McCain and Obama will badmouth the minion's comments. I mean, c'mon, are you that naive?
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>Could be. I think it's interesting that Clark was a Hillary supporter who only recently linked up with the Obama campaign. Which may be neither here nor there, I suppose. IAC, yes, I do know candidates sometimes attack their opponents through surrogates. I still think both Obama and McCain are running much cleaner campaigns than usual. I hope it lasts.
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>Are you kidding about Obama's patriotism not being questioned? It has been questioned repeatedly -- why doesn't he wear a flag pin, he doesn't look like he held his hand over his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance, do you know he's Muslim?, etc. The McCain campaign realizes they are fighting an uphill battle and the most effective thing they can do is probably sow doubt about Obama's fitness for the job. Strategically I can't fault that. It's probably their best bet.

As far as I can determine, none of this comes from the McCain camp. If a prominent GOP candidate, say Mitt Romney, said something about Obama on a level with what Clark said I would agree. But the McCain camp seems paralyzed when it comes to attacking Obama - maybe due to his race, what happened to Hillary, et al.