With polls and the electoral map turning in favor of Barack Obama over the past couple of weeks, the McCain campaign is obviously desperate. This is not some tea-leaf reading by political pundits — you just need to read comments from McCain’s own campaign advisers. From the New York Daily News:

A top McCain adviser signaled last week that the campaign intends to “turn the page” from economic issues — which polls show have staked Obama to a significant lead — and ramp up attacks on Obama as an inexperienced ultraliberal…

“It’s a dangerous road, but we have no choice,” a top McCain strategist told the Daily News. “If we keep talking about the economic crisis, we’re going to lose.”

The first prong in the strategy of desperation is to use VP nominee Sarah Palin as the Swiftboat attacker, in her own hockey mom manner. Over the weekend she started raising the William Ayers issue in campaign stops:

“Well, I was reading my copy of today’s New York Times and I was really interested to read about Barack’s friends from Chicago,” Palin told the crowd. “Turns out, one of his earliest supporters is a man who, according to The New York Times was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, ‘launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol.’ These are the same guys who think patriotism is paying higher taxes. This is not a man who sees America as you and I do — as the greatest force for good in the world. This is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country.

If Palin had read the entire NYT article, which I suspect she hasn’t, she would have seen the conclusion of the investigative reporters:

Mr. Obama’s friends said that history was utterly irrelevant to judging the candidate, because Mr. Ayers was never a significant influence on him. Even some conservatives who know Mr. Obama said that if he was drawn to Ayers-style radicalism, he hid it well.

But  then again, accuracy isn’t what is truly important for Swiftboat Sarah. The critical element is to raise doubts about Obama’s patriotism and loyalty to America, as can be seen in her statement that Obama “is not a man who sees America the way you and I do.” It is the lowest kind of attack to be made in American politics, and it is slimy even when delivered in the “doggone, you betcha” manner of Palin.

But unlike John Kerry or Michale Dukakis, Barack Obama is not only hitting back, but it is clear that his team has been prepared. Once Palin went down the road of guilt by association, the Obama campaign started to raise the issue of the Keating Five scandal, and the role of John McCain of the disgraced Charles Keating. This issue has been ripe for the taking, but until Swiftboat Sarah attacked, the Obama campaign had held off, hoping that the campaign would be won or lost on issues. But the McCain team has admitted that if this campaign is about issues, they lose.

The Obama campaign has unveliled the “Keating Economics”website. The site includes an array of information and downloads, but also includes a 13 minutes documentary style video that explains the scandal and John McCain’s relationship with the disgraced Charles Keating. It also ties the Keating scandal to the current financial crisis by illustrating that the crux of the issue was deregulation.

The Keating scandal is eerily similar to today’s credit crisis, where a lack of regulation and cozy relationships between the financial industry and Congress has allowed banks to make risky loans and profit by bending the rules. And in both cases, John McCain’s judgment and values have placed him on the wrong side of history.

The message from the Obama campaign is that if the McCain team wants to play guilt by association, they are ready to compete on that field as well. Paul Begala gave that warning on Meet the Press on Sunday:

This guilt by association path is going to be trouble ultimately for the McCain campaign. You know, you can go back—I’ve written a book about McCain. I had a dozen researchers go through him. I didn’t even put this in the book. But John McCain sat on the board of a very right-wing organization. It was the U.S. Council for World Freedom. It was chaired by a guy named John Singlaub, who wound up involved in the Iran-Contra scandal. It was an ultraconservative right-wing group. The Anti-Defamation League, in 1981, when McCain was on the board, said this about this organization. It was affiliated with the World Anti-Communist League, the parent organization, which ADL said, “has increasingly become a gathering place, a forum, a point of contact for extremists, racists and Anti-Semites.” Now, that’s not John McCain. I don’t think he is that. But, but, you know, the problem is that a lot of people know John McCain’s record better than Governor Palin, and he does not want to play guilt by association or this thing could blow up in his face.

What is most impressive about the Obama campaign in this scuffle is that they were prepared. They had to have had this website in hand, and the documentary prepared, in case the McCain campaign decided to get into attacks on character and patriotism.  This is not your normal Democratic campaign as Obama knows how to play hardball. John McCain and Sarah Palin may not understand the dynamics what is going hit back.

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