SPARKS, Nev. — In recent days Senator John McCain has charged that Senator Barack Obama “would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign,” tarred him as “Dr. No” on energy policy and run advertisements calling him responsible for high gas prices.

The old happy warrior side of Mr. McCain has been eclipsed a bit lately by a much more aggressive, and more negative, Mr. McCain who hammers Mr. Obama repeatedly on policy differences, experience and trustworthiness.

By doing so, Mr. McCain is clearly trying to sow doubts about his younger opponent, and bring him down a peg or two. But some Republicans worry that by going negative so early, and initiating so many of the attacks himself rather than leaving them to others, Mr. McCain risks coming across as angry or partisan in a way that could turn off some independents who have been attracted by his calls for respectful campaigning.

The drumbeat of attacks could also undermine his argument that he will champion a new brand of politics.

“The McCain campaign, I think, is being pulled in two directions,” said Todd Harris, a Republican strategist who worked for Mr. McCain in 2000. “On the one hand, this race is largely a referendum on Obama, and whether or not he’s going to pass the leadership threshold in the eyes of voters. So being aggressive against Obama on questions of leadership and trust and risk are important, but at the same time I think they need to be very careful because McCain is not at his best when he is being overly partisan and negative.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/us...0A&oref=slogin

I found the bold-faced portion kind of telling...
It seems to be a new trend to allow "others" to do the character assassination, so you can distance yourself from under-handed tactics.
Let a "Swift Boat" group perform the attacks, so you can pretend that you have some "distance"...
Let the internet hammer at Obama calling him a racist or terrorist or muslim...
Let Fox News toss out the "baby mama" and "terrorist fist jab" comments...

Is he worrying the GOP because he's doing what the "rest" of the GOP is supposed to be doing, so he can keep his hands "clean"?

If you will lie about your opponent to win. When will you stop?

If you tell the ugly truth about your opponent, will you be villified for it???

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Our nation has not always lived up to its ideals, yet those ideals have never ceased to guide us. They expose our flaws, and lead us to mend them. We are the beneficiaries of the work of the generations before us and it is each generation's responsibility to continue that work. - Laura Bush

God is a conservative -

Ecclesiastes 10:2--"A wise man's heart inclines him to the right, but a fool's heart to the left."

It's a BS article...

I would guess a vast majority of GOPers said "Took you long enough!" when McCain finally started throwing chin music...

The NYTimes did something partisan hacks do so well...find an exception to the rule and create a firestorm...

Think they'd ever find a black guy voting for McCain and write and article with the headline "Obama Doesn't Have Full Support Among Blacks"?...

Of course not...wouldn't help the cause...

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"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

McCain just got done saying that Obama wouldn't visit with the troops because he couldn't bring camaras But he found time to go to the gym. Now that is a lie. Very simple. No spin. It was a lie. And it was a lie intended to use our service people as a commodity for McCain's attacks. It was and is a chicken shit lie. So now that I made that clear. Again, Is this the end of the lies or just the start with McCain.

It's only the beginning,only just the start,the 527's are heating up..

Man Mikeyy your putting down a politician, I am proud to know you! And so truthful about it. We got what 89 more days or around that before the crap settles.

Its not new but now it is in the fore front. But McCain will get his hands dirty before this is finished. 89 days of this B.S. I say filp a coin today and that is it. Done, over and we can then get back to the real (mostly bad) news

If you look at the facts they are true. If you try to associate the two then that is a stretch.

But the undeniable fact is that Obama COULD have visited the troops in the US hospital in Germany if he left behind his cameras and media and campaign people. He chose not to because he wanted the media to provide him images to use in his campaign.

Compare and contrast:

When John McCain was an injured and tortured POW in Hanoi he refused to take advantage of his familial prominence to go home and leave his fellow POW's behind.

When Barack Obama had a chance to lift the spirits of the wounded vets in a hospital he refused the offer because he couldn't get any media coverage.

Senator Obama is an egocentric, power hungry, Marxist ass.

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Every step taken toward the installment of Sharia law will be justifiable to the person who values appearance more than freedom and democracy.

When John McCain had chances to put real pressure on the administration early. The best he could muster was that he didn't have confidence in Rummy. Duh! When the Dems Made attempts to change what was going wrong McCain stood for party first. So how many died while McCain wouldn't go beyond his statement about Rummy. But he said that that is the choice of the POTUS. I think old John was supposed to be representing his state and its military. But he chose to support the Presidents bad choices.
And why keep repeating the story about Obama's trip that has already been shot down. And BTW McCain had planned to run an ad saying Obama was using the troops. What a snake this McCain is. He has no problem involving our troops in to his campaign. Evey cheap shot in the book. He is a real punk if you ask e. I have lost my respect for this phoney. He has been living off one military experience his whole life. But he has been in WAR shington a friggin long time for someone who says he doesn't like war shington. I tink he likes War shington an awful lot.