Why McCain is going so negative, so often

[EV_Ares]

It’s hard to imagine a more unlikely perch for John McCain to be shamed for his increasingly hard-edged and truth-stretching campaign than the middle seat on “The View.”

Yet on Friday morning, there sat the Republican nominee – a politician who has built an all but saintly reputation for “straight talk” over the years – caught in a vise between Joy Behar and Barbara Walters and getting a lecture from each on honesty.

“They’re lies,” Behar said of two recent lines of attack from the McCain campaign

“By the way, you yourself said the same thing about putting lipstick on a pig,” interjected Walters as a defensive McCain struggled to respond.

The two daytime talk show hosts are hardly alone.

McCain’s tactics are drawing the scorn of many in the media and organizations tasked with fact-checking the truthfulness of campaigns. In recent weeks, Team McCain has been described as dishonorable, disingenuous and downright cynical.

A series of ads – ranging from accusations that Barack Obama backed teaching sex education to Illinois kindergartners to charges that Obama called Sarah Palin a lipstick-wearing pig – have provoked a cascade of criticism of McCain’s tactics.

The furor presents a breathtaking contrast to McCain’s image as a kind of anti-politician who plays fair, disdains politics as usual and has never forgotten how his 2000 presidential campaign was incinerated by a series of loathsome dirty tricks in the South Carolina primary.

The defense from the candidate himself — heard only on “The View” because he hasn’t held a press conference in over a month — is to essentially claim he’s savaging Obama because the Illinois senator wouldn’t agree to the series of town hall meetings McCain proposed at the end of the Democratic primary season.

rest of the article @ link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20080913/pl_politico/13412;_ylt=AgNcfEFdsA5qyMN_FQYVlpZh24cA

[iceman66]

1. He doesn't have anything else.

It's not like he can run on his record.

Given the number and magnitude of his lies, there is an opening here for Obama to portray him as someone fundamentally untrustworthy and therefore unfit for the presidency.

[Democat]

2. Is it possible he has some stress related mental problems?

One of the interview videos on You Tube showed McCain as a man who looked a little confused and who answered questions with random phrases that had nothing to do with the actual questions.

McCain could be having some sort of a mental problem due to the stress of this campaign.

[yourout]

3. What choice did he have?

[DeeDeeNY]

4. McLame has said in the past that he had to go negative because Obama went negative first!

He implied that it was Obama's campaign that spread various gossip about Palin. And this is what is so frustrating about Obama's taking the high road -- he gets blamed for being negative anyway and doesn't get any of the benefits.

http://www.jedreport.com/2008/07/obamas-not-quit.html">Unfit for Office

[Honeycombe8]

5. He wants to win? We all knew this was coming. This is how they do it. nt

[President Decider]

6. dupe post

[President Decider]

7. The negativity and smear has been the blueprint for the GOP the last 2 elections ....

McCain's campaign people are all Bush people .... this is their playbook, this is what worked for them in the past.

It's quite obvious their strategy is, "dance with who brung ya" .... Basically, if it worked for them twice before .... why try anything different?

Too bad they don't understand that Americans are fed up with the partisen divide by design. What worked for them in the past is not working in a year where Americans are demanding change that takes us away from the politics of the past.