Lead Shrinks As Attacks Grow

With the rhetoric and advertising on both sides growing increasingly more divisive and negative, a CBS poll conducted after the VP debate shows Obama's lead nationally at four points. Prior to the debate, Obama's lead was more than double that figure at a comfortable nine points.

The pit bull has been unleashed and at a number of campaign events and interviews this weekend, including one with The New York Times, Governor Palin took some serious shots at Obama. Not only did she invoke numerous references to his close relationship with the wrong Reverend Wright and radical terrorist Bill Ayers, but she also said of Obama: "This is a man who does not see America as you and I do...".

I understand the importance of bringing this issue to the forefront of the campaign. A person's friends and companions are extensions of themselves to a degree. I also wholeheartedly agree that Obama was unscathed by the revelations of who his close friends really are but this is a slippery slope for the GOP to go down. One slip up by Ms. Palin and the liberal media will accuse the party of race-baiting.

Obama's camp however has not been the clean, issues-based one he promised to the American people. Their campaign purchased two websites (keatingeconomics.com and johnmccainrecord.com) entirely devoted to the same old liberal smears we have seen for years.

They ignore factual evidence and on the Keating case conveniently leave out John McCain's exoneration. He was cleared of all charges but admitted personal failure. It was at that point in his life that he began his career as a reformer. We do not expect our leaders to be free of flaws, that is completely impractical. We do however judge them on how they handle the mistake;if they learn from it or continue down the same destructive path.

True character is doing the right thing when nobody is looking.

Nobody was looking at John McCain after his name was cleared following the Keating proceedings but he did the right thing. He learned and moved on with his career, remaining cognizant of his past mistake but vowing not to let it happen again. This is character.

Barack Obama has none. He is nothing more than a talking head for the Democrat establishment in this country. He will smear, lie, flip-flop, and attack at will to avoid any accountability for the plethora of skeletons in his closet.

This is the same old Chicago "politics as usual" but now on a national stage.