it isn't working is probably why McCain is trying to dial it back.

The pit-bull with rabies probably won't change a thing though, which will be an odd contrast..

My guess is that McCain personally will go back and forth, while his campaign and his "pitbull with lipstick" will go full speed ahead on character assassination and even incitement to violence.

The problem is that if you're going to run a campaign like that--nasty and character-based--you have to commit to it fully from the beginning. McCain has tried to run four or five different types of campaigns throughout this election (the experienced statesman, the bedrock conservative, the reformer populist, the rabble-rousing attack dog, and maybe others). With each change of course, he undermines his own campaign themes, and he looks more and more like an opportunist. So I'm not surprised that he's still losing the middle, after suddenly embracing negative campaign tactics in the eleventh hour.

Well if mccain wants to get nasty, someone needs to ask him about the annenbergs. Leonore Annenberg is listed as a supporter of his.  Her deceased husband's foundation gave 50 million to fund the project that ayers was working on. Does that mean mccain is supported by a family who funded a domestic terrorist?  By rovian smear tactics, it probably does.

http://www.time-blog.com/swamp...

Apparently McCain is outraged that Representative John Lewis, a Civil Right icon, is speaking out against the crazy people at McCain's rallies.

Lewis said:
"What I am seeing reminds me too much of another destructive period in American history. Sen. McCain and Gov. [Sarah] Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse," Lewis said in a statement.

"George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama,"

Well, have you heard the crap people are saying at McCain's rallies???  These are some messed up viewpoints.  I know a lot of Republicans.  I am friends with Republicans.  I have never heard them speak like that about Obama or African-Americans.  That is because the people I know are educated.  They are concerned with social welfare issues and taxation and like McCain more than Obama.  Most of them still respect Obama, even if they won't vote for him.  Yet, the people at these rallies seem to think Obama's candidacy is a terrorist conspiracy.  If I were John Lewis, I'd be speaking up about it.  Nothing he said was shocking or deserves any repudiation.

Now, I must say that Bill Ayers, in my view, is quite dishonorable for a few reasons.  However, in Chicago, he is respected, and the fact Obama knew him really isn't relevant.  Jon Stewart showed a photo of Ayers standing on an American flag, and called him an "ass".  Ayers is an "ass".  I was required to read one of his books on education in college, and I was so appalled by it, I asked my professor why we were reading such an extreme viewpoint.  

Still, Ayers is simply an "ass".  Nothing more.  You know who scares me more.  Sarah Palin.  John McCain has been seen spending lots of time with her.  I hear rumors she is his running mate!  That is scarier than Bill Ayers.