Apaprently the McCain camp is “conflicted.” They don’t know whether to engage Barack Obama fully or not. Perhaps the crowds are getting too hostile, maybe the media is too critical. Angst pervades.

Well, this sentiment is shared by a number of conservative observers:

 ”The economic times are the reason our numbers are down,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of Sen. McCain’s best friends. “I want John to have a positive approach to solving America’s problems, but John has to show that there’s nothing mainstream about Sen. Obama.”

And they have adopted a bizarre distinction between Bill Ayers and Reverend Wright. Even though Obama has been as dishonest about his knowledge of Wright’s agenda and philosophy ( it’s in his own book, for goodness’s sake) as he has been about Ayers’ past, the former is off bounds, even as a matter of questioning Obama’s credibility. Not everyone appreciates the difference:

Some longtime Republicans are befuddled by the decision not to go after Rev. Wright.”If you’re going to go down with Ayers, you might as well go with Wright too,” said Ed Rollins, a longtime Republican strategist and former Reagan White House aide who ran Mike Huckabee’s campaign during the primary. Mr. Rollins said that, although accusations of racism would undoubtedly arise, Sen. Obama’s longtime connection with Rev. Wright made the relationship fair game.

Perhaps this explains why McCain has not used the debates to his full advantage. If his campaign isn’t in agreement that means the candidate hasn’t decided on an unalloyed, clear line of attack. So we get a muddled mix — a stray attack line here, a missed rejoined there and an incomplete answer to the central question of the campaign (What’s so bad about Barack Obama?).

Maybe none of this matters and perhaps the economy simply swamps all considerations. There is good reason to think this is the case. And if so the maddeningly half-hearted attack on Obama won’t in the end be decisive. Still, we’ll never know. And that’s a legitimate gripe for a lot of conservatives and for a lot of down ticket Republicans who may get swamped in an election that could have been closer than it may turn out to be.

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 10th, 2008 at 8:18 AM and is filed under Contentions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.