Hypothetical: IF we really started pulling away from McCain/Palin... what would the Repigs do?

McCain and Palin's favor-ability numbers are nose diving, Obama is starting to catch up in some key states. I wouldn't put anything past the Rethugs, really. But what do you think would be their most likely course of action?

Would they just go with a simple smear ad blitz? Would they go so far (if they were desperate enough...) to pull either McCain or Palin off the ticket for some made up bullshit reason and swap them with someone else? What do you think?

You'll see ads featuring chorus lines of gay terrorist illegal immigrants using food stamps to pay for late term abortions while taking everyone's guns away.

State of emergency. Suspension of elections. President-for-Life Bush.

Okay, probably not. I dunno. Expect much flailing, crazy attacks and incoherent messages from McCain. Perhaps he'll call Obama a Communist who wants to take advantage of the crisis and permanently destroy our free market.

the counting of votes.

The answer is they'll use every nasty trick in the book to get close enough to steal it and they'll try to use voter suppression and electoral fraud to get them over the finish line.

That's why we have to win with a landslide, like in the mid-term elections: the deck is stacked against us. We have to make sure that it is not close enough to steal.

I think they may go full monty on the smears and lies. Despite running the most vile attack campaign in recent history, they'd really ratchet up the lies. Their attacks would end up being blatantly racist since that is the only card they have left to play.

The other scenario is that they roll over and play dead and focus on building for 2012. While the McSame campaign limps on, they could deny that McCain is a real Repub and withdraw their support. They would focus on holding on to Senate and House seats and let McCain sink. They would further distance themselves from their party until elected and then work as obstructionists. That way they could focus on 2012 by painting Obama as ineffective since they blocked all his major policy initiatives. They'd basically hope that the economic woes continue and they could claim presidency in 2012. They would run on a more traditional Repub platform in 2012 backing less internationalism and smaller government.

They could hang McCain out to dry by privately encouraging him to attack more then using that as a basis for publicly distancing themselves from him. That may be part of what we're seeing as more traditional conservatives are now coming out against McCain and/or supporting Obama. They're basing part of their opposition on McCain/Palin's lying. That way they get test messaging against Obama for 2012 and have Obama go into office with some negatives as some of the lies will unfortunately stick. We may have to consider this strategy and call it out so that the public is aware of it in 2010 and 2012 elections.

They (and by they I mean the driving force behind his campaign - right wing hate radio) continue to insist that the momentum is on their side, that Obama's campaign is imploding, and that we are the ones who are going to swap Biden for Senator Clinton in October. One of us is wrong and I think it's them. Polls show the momentum clearly on our side at this point in the campaign.

But to answer your hypothetical, I think they would just ramp up the associations attacks - Wright, Ayers, et al. I predict much yawning from the public because these things have already been explored in the primaries and if anyone cared Obama wouldn't be where he is today.

the lies. You would have a mistress story or 2 tossed around (e.g. John Kerry last time). You will see aggressive push polling, deceptive mailings, huge efforts to discourage urban and minority voters through threats and misinformation. Finally you will most definitely see the terror card played (i.e. "new, credible threats have emerged..."). They will state as fact that Al Qaeda wants to disrupt the election and that they fear McCain.

That's the billboard they have up in nearby Saint Cloud, Florida. It's done by a bad country musician plugging his right-wing song. You could call it one of those five-whatever groups, though. And I'm sure others will be putting it up across the country.



Probably coming as soon as he can, this scumbag will have that hideous cartoon off the "Obama Waffles" box and three foot tall letters saying "N****R!!! Don't Vote Democratic!"

Rush, Sean, and O'Reilly are awaiting their orders.