Patriotic Smearing

Good conservative that he is, Douthat plays the moral equivalency card... the problem with this is twofold: 1) While neither campaign is a paragon of purity, and Obama's ad tying McCain to Limbaugh is outrageously unfair, there is still both a qualitative and quantitative difference in campaign sleaze between the two campaigns; and 2) Psychologically, Obama justifies running negative ads to himself because he's a typical rather pol and wants to win; McCain actually seems to believe he is entitled to run sleazy ads because he is "the original maverick" (as I've said before, for McCain being a "maverick" is not a measure of behavior but an ontological status) and sliming Obama is his patriotic duty (putting country first) to save America from an Obama administration... not to mention that it's all Obama's fault because he didn't agree to town halls!

I would never dream of criticizing someone for running negative ads. They are effective! Enough said. But to say your opponent is responsible for the negative ads you are running against him? It's your patriotic duty to run negative ads? Let's get a grip.