Now that the primaries are finally over (deep breath and stiff drink time), we can focus on the true goal -- defeating John McCain and the Republicans in November, and electing Barack Obama as President and as many Senators and House members as humanly possible.
Barack Obama has taken the high road in his approach to McCain so far; he's praised him for his military service and referred to him as a hero. But we know full well that the Republicans won't play by the same Marquess of Queensberry rules. They're likely to pull out all the stops to spread FUD about our candidate (FUD=Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt; typical marketing practice in the technology and other fields).
So, how far should we go in not just responding, but fighting back?
A couple of diaries on today's Rec list raised this question amongst many people. The first, about a Daily Mail article revealing some details about McCain's divorce from his first wife, was criticized because, after all, people leave their spouses every day and we don't know the details of their relationship. The second, reporting that McCain was receiving disability income from the VA even while bringing in a 6 figure salary as a Senator (not to mentioned being married to a woman wealthy in her own right) had commenters wondering if taking this tack would appear to be too disrespectful to McCain and his service and come back and bite us on the ass.
On the one hand, I can see the point of those who would take the high road and focus on the issues. We've got enough to hang McCain on several times over if we play our cards right. Once people compare the two of them side by side, whether in a formal debate setting or in the "town halls" that the McCain campaign is proposing, when they see the problems McCain has without Joe Lieberman or another of his BFFs there to whisper the right answer into his ear, I would hope that the majority of American voters will realize that this is not the man they want having his finger on "the button".
On the other hand, we know the Republicans and we know their lack of morals. Obama talks about poverty...they're going to roll out the Wright tapes again. He mentions health care...here comes the Sudanese garb photos. And it's going to go on and on all the way to November -- if they can't dazzle the voters with brilliance (and with McCain as their candidate that's a given), they're going to baffle the voters with bullshit about Obama. Just look at 2004 -- they had no compunction about using the Swiftboat Veterans for "Truth" to go after John Kerry, and we can go even farther back to 2000 when push polls hinting that McCain had fathered an illegitimate bi-racial child were used against him by Karl Rove.
Perhaps the question is how we use the information -- when the Republicans talk about "family values" especially when it comes to banning same-sex marriage, remind people of how Republicans like McCain valued their own marriages. Or mention that McCain's getting a nice benefits package from the military while he's not supporting an increase in benefits for our troops -- oh, and that he was too chicken to come off the campaign trail and vote "No" for posterity, to boot. It's definitely a fine line that needs to be walked.
It's going to be a rough campaign...but as much as it may pain us to do so, we may have to do some things that we'll be sorry for later in order to achieve our goal. Feeling all moral and holy is not going to do us much good when we're watching the inauguration of President John McCain in January.