Yes, I suspect it's because people know to take anything that comes from the RNC with a boulder of salt. Except for those in Sarah Palin's "real America," people are suspicious of anything a Republican says. They simply don't have the credibility to launch attacks this year.

Atrios noted yesterday that sucessful Republican smear tactics involved latching on to a narrative such as Kerry the flip-flopper and repeating it ad nauseum until Chris Matthews believes it's common knowledge. Instead, McCain has run an "another day, another smear" campaign, and voters do appear fed up with their incessant crying of "wolf, muslim, Wright, Rezko, elitist, presumptuous, terrorist, celebrity, empty suit, un-American!" or whatever else they will cry out tomorrow. It's definitely gotten old.

Well, not to channel Jonze or anything, but perhaps these fliers aren't meant to change minds NOW, but are acting as a prime, should any sort of (God forbid) terrorist attack take place in the next two weeks.

Doubtless doesn't help their case that they're no longer in complete control of the media narrative. Every time Maverickthulhu goes on the air he gets quizzed about the spurious accusations he's made re: Ayers and has to re-assert "It's all true. But my campaign's about the economy!" Which, as responses go, is not only schizoid as hell but a neat narrative encapsulation of the massive FAIL that is the McCampaign.

BTW, McCain's "totally" proud of that terrorist mailer.

Oozing deeper and deeper into slime every day.

Either way, at this point, when McCain or the RNC links Obama to terrorists in one way or another it's just a dog bites man story.

A crazy old dog with rabies that barks too much, at that.
~

I just watched a video where Chuck Todd said the only state he is confident of for McCain is Ohio. Is Ohio a sure thing then for McCain? I know some of you are from there, your opinion?

Palin: Well, check this out, this woman is SO damn dumb. She screwed this up before and obviously she doesn't even understand her potential job. If you watch, rather than read it, the question is the last 38 seconds of the interview. OMG.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/10/21/palin-vp-senate/

Call it DSD syndrome -- Defining Slime Down.

Dysfunctional Sociopath Disease

I still say all the slime stems from a single source:

McCain's barely suppressed primal scream:

"I can't believe I'm losing to that uppity ni**er!"

The vicious, violent racism is entirely McCain's doing; it comes directly from his own id.

I think that's what people sense: the slime is not a campaign tactic; it's not the last gasp of Rove; it's the Real John McCain, exposed at last.

They could have stuck with the celebrity/inexperience narrative if McCain simply picked an experienced hand to be his VP. Instead it showed that McCain was jealous of the rallies and wanted his own big crowds and went for Palin.

Regarding Pennsylvania, I think the internals are showing a closer race, however I also think it's a lot to do with ego, and McCain wants to be seen as on the offensive. He wants to make Obama defend a State.

View it as a positive:

McCain is pulling pages from the same book that Hillary used during the primary. Obama was (apparently) very effective at neutralizing those attacks. We now get to see if he's even better the second time around. ;-)

The more the right tries to swerve right, and the more the left can peel off the more centrist voters, the quicker this wing fringe will actually look like the wing fringe it has always been. First isolate it, then starve it to death.