Time to let the dogs out -- Woof, woof, woof, woof!

If the law supports you, argue the law. If the facts support you, argue the facts. If neither the law nor the facts support you, pound on the table.

So goes the humorous old recipe for winning at trial.

And for John McCain, in these last 30 days before the election, it's apparently fist-pounding time. The voters don't like his views on the issues. They don't respond to his personality (although they may be at least intrigued by that of his running mate). All that's left is the old razzle-dazzle, the misdirection play, the smoke and mirrors.

Time for the attack dogs!

Thus Sarah Palin's mock horror yesterday at Obama's "palling around with terrorists." Thus GOP analysts' suggestions that McCain must win by undercutting Obama's personality, making him appear "supremely unacceptable" in the eyes of the average voter (twelve percent of whom already believe him to be a Muslim). Thus the comment in this week's Economist that "If the election is fought about anything except culture, then the Republicans are on difficult ground."

So. Expect to suddenly hear more about abortion and gay marriage. Expect to hear more about elitest, wine-drinking, Harvard-attending arugula-eaters. Expect to hear more about wishy-washy liberal peaceniks.

More darkly, expect to hear from anonymous blogs -- although probably not from McCain himself, who will take the "high" ground -- incendiary talk about Obama's middle name, references to "towel heads," dismay directed at the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, curiosity about why a nice American colored boy would be sent to school with Muslims in Indonesia, references to "The Manchurian Candidate." Expect to hear the word "uppity."

"Who is this guy, anyway?" -- the question that the average Joe from Appalachia has been asking all along -- will be the McCain-Palin subtext from now until November. Watch for it playing on your local TV set.

The descent of American politics into pig-wrestling has dismayed America's best friends abroad.
--The Economist (10-4-08)

Let's face it. The low road, the path of cultural resentment -- perfected, as the Economist notes, by Richard Nixon in the late 1960's -- worked in spades for the Republicans in 2000 and 2004. Why mess with a proven ad campaign, especially when you know that the consumer doesn't like your product?