October 9, 2008, 5:31 P.M.

Kevin,

McCain may hate Obama, but judging from an ad I saw this morning, he wants to be him.

It was the slightly less inflammatory part of the “Obama is an America-hating possible muslim” series titled, straightforwardly enough, “Dangerous.” After calling him “dishonorable,” “dangerous,” and “risky,” we’re treated to the tagline, “Change is Coming.” Couple that with McCain proposing a $300 billion mortgage bailout that that even the National Review can’t stomach, because it looks like something a democrat would embrace, and I think I’ve come up with what may be McCain’s next slogan:

McCain: If you like that stuff the other guy is promising, I’ll just do that. Plus, I’m white.

You and I both have backgrounds in the advertising game, but I don’t think it takes an expert to see that the only thing this particular McCain gambit is going to accomplish is to froth up the lunatic fringe while sinking any of the final floating bits of his reputation that he’d already torpoedoed over the last three weeks.

First, and most obviously, the ad doesn’t speak to any of the issues that persuadable voters might be concerned about. In 2000 some people were predicting Dow 36,000. Based on the last week, we have a better chance of hitting Dow Zero. My wife and I both have secure stable jobs, money saved, and no credit card debt and I’m about ready to start buying up all the gold bullion and canned goods I can find and head down to the bomb shelter. If McCain thinks that people are going to be frightened by a non-association with a 60’s radical, or the thought of Nancy Pelosi being able to pass legislation when we’re heading for a global recession, then we’ll be worse off than I can imagine if he does become president.

Second, because of the angry mob that McCain is now not only attracting, but actively stoking with his messages, the story isn’t about Obama’s association with Ayers, but McCain’s tactics and whether or not one of his supporters are truly nuts. The irony is that it makes McCain, not Obama look more radical. It also plays horribly with the most important of swing voters, middle class women who prefer that the candidates play nice.

Lastly, McCain’s unwillingness to deliver these attacks to Obama in person, or to stand up to the crazies at his rallies makes him look fundamentally weak. In fact, today, Obama all but called McCain a “pussy,” albeit in a very lightly teasing way that didn’t actually use the word, “pussy.” McCain seems to want to turn the election into a street fight, but he’s forgetting that even street fights have a certain ethos, part of which is if you’re going to talk shit, you do it to the guy’s face, rather than hiding behind your vice presidential running mate’s skirts.

To make matters worse for McCain, General David Patraeus also endorsed Obama’s view of the need to conduct diplomacy with our enemies.

The poor guy doesn’t have a friend left in the world, except for Sean Hannity.

What I’m wondering about is if these emotions that McCain and Palin are deliberately stoking is just revealing the harmless nutbags that we’ve always known existed, but weren’t necessarily exposed to until the advent of YouTube, or, if we’ve got something really dangerous on our hands.

Joe Klein is worried.

Are you?

—John

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