Remember how many news cycles were devoted to the idea that Hillary and Bill Clinton were quietly and treachorously undermining Barack Obama so Hillary could run in 2012 without Obama in the White House? Well it looks like that shoe is on the Republican foot. Sarah Baxter of the Sunday Times of London writes,

With his electoral prospects fading by the day, Senator John McCain has fallen out with his vice-presidential running mate about the direction of his White House campaign. 

[snip]

Palin, 44, has led the character attacks on Obama in the belief that McCain may be throwing away the election and her chance of becoming vice-president. Her supporters think that if the Republican ticket loses on November 4, she should run for president in 2012.

By David Swanson

The McCain-Palin campaign is running an advertisement "accusing " Barack Obama of once training ACORN members in Chicago. Obama should be proud of that. I've done it myself and am proud of it. I trained Chicago ACORN members in how to talk to the media about the wonderful work they do.

What sort of work? Chicago ACORN has worked to improve local schools, reducing class sizes, providing teachers with mentors and assistants. Chicago ACORN has worked to prevent predatory lending and reform predatory lending corporations, the opposite of what ACORN is accused of in the right-wing myth that blames Wall Street's troubles on Wall Street's victims. Chicago ACORN and its partner, Service Employees International Union Local 880, have worked to raise wages and working conditions for everyone -- yes, including all immigrants; there's no other way to do it. And ACORN has done work we should all appreciate in registering citizens to vote.

On June 30, Barack Obama gave a famous speech that predicted McCain's vicious negative attack. At the time, Obama was attacked for playing the "race card." But now we're watching McCain and Palin unleash racist rage, and it's very scary given the long dark history of racist violence in America.

By David Swanson

While supporters of McCain and Palin generally appear to be a lily white mob of vicious imbeciles who shout things like Sit Down Boy! and Keep the White House white!, one black man, a radio host from Milwaukee whom I had never heard of before, James T. Harris, was given the microphone at a John McCain event and proceeded to lay the biggest wettest kiss possible on McCain's flabby white butt, after which McCain struggled to produce a coherent response.

Now that the McCain-Palin campaign is reduced to a two words - William Ayres - we might as well compare Obama's associations to McCain's. First off, the Washington Times (h/t ThinkProgress) reports that in 1986, John McCain wrote a note on House stationery to Charles Keating, who replied "You can call me anything, write anything or do anything. I'm yours till death do us part."

And that's just the tip of the iceberg, courtesy of Steve Benen:

bloggerinterrupted went to a Sarah Palin rally in Ohio and talked to McCain-Palin supporters afterwards. The interviews were scary - which is why McCain prevents reporters from talking to them.

Lots of McCain-Palin supporters firmly believe Obama is a terrorist. Why? Obviously there are no reasons.

By SPAMELA MESS, Antisocial Press

A U.S. military officer warned Pentagon officials that an American candidate for president was being driven nearly insane by months of punishing campaigning and deprivation of contact with non-supporters, according to documents obtained by The Antisocial Press.

While the treatment of candidates at duopolist facilities at General Electric studios and within the Public Broadcasting Corporation have long been the subject of human rights complaints and court scrutiny, the documents shed new light on how one American candidate has handled the stress of unrelenting dishonesty and the diversity of beliefs required when facing different audiences.

United States Senator John McCain, according to the documents obtained, has begun referring to Americans as "my fellow prisoners," and adopting the habit of denying prisoners names. McCain now refers to his opponent, Senator Barack Obama, as "that one."

Maybe Karl Rove was right in 2000 when he smeared McCain during the South Carolina primary, suggesting McCain lost a marble or two in the Hanoi Hilton...

McCain didn't stumble over words - "prisoner" was the exact word his subconscious wanted to use. Nor did McCain try to correct his mistake; he continued on to the end of the sentence and smiled, proud of the point he made.

Meanwhile the crowd suddenly grew silent, wondering if their hero had lost his mind...