In a strange frenzy of increasing desperation, the left has unsheathed two new attacks aimed at John McCain. The first suggests that McCain somehow evaded the “cone of silence” at the Saddleback debate and thus had an unfair advantage. After all, how could McCain have given a better answer to who will influence his administration than offering up his wife and his grandmother if he hadn’t had time to think about the question? The second attack inveighs that McCain stole the anecdote about the guard at the Hanoi Hilton who drew a cross in the dirt from Solzhenitsyn. This allegation is made of course without any evidence. It’s not like McCain’s fellow soldiers are saying the story is a fabrication. Indeed, near as I can tell, the bloggers most aggressively peddling the story like Andrew Sullivan and a bunch of Kos Kids haven’t done any actual reporting on the matter. They’re so off base, I bet Joe Klein will label their accusations scurrilous by sundown. These are both phenomenally obtuse attacks, and betray a sense of panic on the left. The first tacitly admits that Obama was badly outclassed at Saddleback. What’s more, it indulges the unappealing liberal penchant for whining every time things don’t break the left’s way. The second attack is even stupider. By all means, let’s focus more attention on McCain’s stint at the Hanoi Hilton. Maybe the Obama campaign will offer up as a counterpoint Obama’s supremely courageous opposition to the Iraq War while on the front lines of the Illinois state legislature. And by all means, let’s have the left continue its campaign to minimize McCain’s service in Vietnam. That should work wonders for Obama!
