Premature Swiftboating

Fox News had a story claiming that since Barack Obama went to school in Indonesia when he was 6, he is a Muslim. After all, his father was Muslim (actually he was non-practicing, but who maybe that was just a cover, right?. They then imply that he's a "mole" for muslim extremists who want to destroy America - an idea recently propagated on fringe right-wing websites. I am not making this up.

I've noticed that over the last few years smearing the other party's candidates is getting just as frontloaded as the primary process. Used to be Democratic candidates got attacked when they were the nominees. Then they started getting attacked when they were the frontrunner. Last cycle the Republicans attacked every major candidate in the primaries. Now they're going after people who haven't even officially announced yet.

I think what's really going on is that the Republicans are scared shitless. They're going to throw everything they can think of at every Democrat they can find and hope something sticks. I'll tell you what though. If we're still in Iraq in 2008, none of it will.