McCain Keeps Pushing Ayers

I genuinely would love to write something that had absolutely nothing to do with William Ayers.

But, unfortunately, the McCain campaign still thinks Ayers is the single most important campaign issue — even though its own spokespeople agree the American people don’t care. This morning, it released a nearly two-minute video linking Sen. Barack Obama to the former Weatherman.

In his column today in The Washington Post, George Will lys bare the absurdity and desperation of Sen. John McCain’s cynical, last-ditch ploy:

Before Tuesday night’s uneventful event, gall was fueling what might be the McCain-Palin campaign’s closing argument. It is less that Obama has bad ideas than that Obama is a bad person.

This, McCain and his female Sancho Panza say, is demonstrated by bad associations Obama had in Chicago, such as with William Ayers, the unrepentant terrorist. But the McCain-Palin charges have come just as the Obama campaign is benefiting from a mass mailing it is not paying for. Many millions of American households are gingerly opening envelopes containing reports of the third-quarter losses in their 401(k) and other retirement accounts — telling each household its portion of the nearly $2 trillion that Americans’ accounts have recently shed. In this context, the McCain-Palin campaign’s attempt to get Americans to focus on Obama’s Chicago associations seems surreal — or, as a British politician once said about criticism he was receiving, “like being savaged by a dead sheep.”

Ouch.

If you need more evidence for the shambles in which the McCain campaign finds itself, during an appearance on “The Colbert Report” last night, former Republican congressman and current MSNBC host Joe Scarborough declared “it’s too late” for McCain.

And in his latest campaign scorecard, Time’s Mark Halperin writes that “without a major change in the race’s dynamics, McCain has no clear path” to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.

It’s telling that McCain and Obama have slated rallies early next week in the historically red state of Virginia, where Obama has opened up a sizeable lead in recent polls. Politico reports that both candidates have invited special guests.

Hank “Are you ready for some football?” Williams Jr., is scheduled to open a McCain-Palin rally in Virginia Beach Monday.

Obama is expected to bring out the big guns Sunday at rallies in Richmond and Roanoke, with appearances by former President Bill Clinton, who will presumably remind voters of a time when the budget yielded surpluses and the economy was not in turmoil.

The next day, the McCain campaign will likely still be talking about Ayers.