With one month to go until the November 4th election for presidency, the John McCain campaign will be sharpening their strategy to focus more on his Democratic rival's honesty, judgment and associations. This could prove to be a double edged sword.
November 4 2008, the day of the U.S. presidential election is exactly one month away and it is being reported by the
Washington Post, the McCain campaign will start bringing out the big guns or as Jake Tapper from ABC's
Political Punch phrases it, opening "up a can of whoop-ass on Obama,", pointing to Barack Obama's judgment with the use of his associations and ties with people like
Tony Rezko,
William Ayers,
Jeremiah Wright and the
latest headline news of a former Obama poker pal, Executive Larry Walsh from Will County , and questions leveled by a political opponent about Walsh's connections to a county contractor, which has resulted in questions by the FBI.
This line of attack by the McCain campaign is not without danger, because although many believe a person's associations, ties and business dealings shows quite a bit about a man's character and judgment, and some would say very important to determining whether or not to vote for a specific politician, on the other hand some consider asking such questions as "negative campaigning".
Tapper explains what this latest line of attack will mean:
Meaning you should expect to hear much more about these Obama associates -- some questions fair, others not; many associates legitimately slimy, others mere road kill on this political Autobahn -- in this last full month of the campaign.
Along with the ads which will question Obama's ties to what some call questionable people, such as Rezko, who has recently been convicted of attempted extortion, mail and wire fraud, and aiding and abetting bribery, the McCain campaign has also rolled out "positive" ads such as "
Week", and mixed ads combining positive with negative such as "
Rein," looking to combine the questions about Obama with ads highlighting McCain's ideas and reasons he believes he would make a better president.
Many predicted the McCain campaign was not hitting these specific issues in the previous months because they were saving it for the last month before the elections, to not allow it to be done and over and forgotten by the public by starting this line of attack too early in the campaign.
Others think the McCain campaign waited too long to start highlighting this type of information.
The Republican candidate himself gave indication of when this new line of attack will be unveiled when at a recent Colorado town hall a member of the audience asked John McCain
"When are you going to take the gloves off?" and McCain grinned and answered with
"How about Tuesday night?", the implication there, is McCain will start with the strategy at the town hall style presidential debate with Barack Obama on Tuesday, with the ads staring immediately after.
