The recent nonsense, Part I

First, a welcome back to the Chairman. His most recent post, per usual, exemplifies what this site is about.

Second, relating to the recent circus/firestorm surrounding Sarah Palin, and particularly, the unadvisable way that Sen. Obama has tried to take her out at the knees:

Let's make this abundantly clear: In a presidential election, the race will be replete with half-truths, accusations, innuendo, jabs, negative ads and surrogates expressing outrage (outrage, I say!) at the other candidate's actions and rhetoric. And this will be done by both sides. If you don't happen to subscribe to this theory, I have some swamp land I'd like to sell you.

It's no secret that I plan to vote for Sen. McCain in November, and am among his many admirers. That said, I'm able to acknowledge that his campaign -- and yes, even the Senior Senator himself -- have made some missteps and statements over the past few months that aren't 100% truthful. Team Maverick distorted FactCheck.org's assessment of the Obama campaign's rhetoric against Gov. Palin, and any of McCain's claims that Palin has opposed the Bridge to Nowhere from the beginning -- and any suggestion that she is and has always been a fervent anti-pork crusader -- are simply half-truths.

Additionally, the outrage at the media's treatment of Palin expressed by McCain's crew is admittedly at least partially manufactured. There's no doubt that if Obama had picked Sen. Clinton instead of Sen. Biden, and McCain had chosen Govs. Romney or Pawlenty instead of Palin, many of the attacks coming from the left would have come from McCain's team instead. McCain's team sees an opening with hockey/Wal-Mart moms and/or disaffected Hillary voters, and they're exploiting it.

Good for them.

I chalk most of the recent tit-for-tat up to the highly polarized political climate, and, at least partially, the say-one-thing-then-do-another nonsense that Team Hope has peddled ever since their candidate burst onto the national scene. One need simply read an account of the race for the presidency in 1800 between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson to realize that this is simply the nature of presidential politics, and it's nothing new. Compared to many past electoral cycles -- and even compared to McCain's brass-knuckles fight for the 2000 GOP nomination with then-Gov. Bush -- the current back-and-forth between the two campaigns is third-grade nonsense. Team Maverick -- led by Steve Schmidt -- is doing what it feels it needs to in order to win in the current political climate.

Now -- try getting any of the Changemaker's disciples to say any such thing.