Sen. Obama shows "New Politics" of "Hope" and "Change" are substantially like "Old Politics" of subtle smears...

Sen. Obama decided yesterday to say "John McCain was 'losing his bearings' for repeatedly suggesting the Islamic terrorist group Hamas preferred Obama for president."

The Democrats -- including surrogates such as Howard Dean -- have already repeatedly raised Sen. McCain's age as a central issue in the general election. I would contend that this is on par with raising Sen. Obama's race. Age and race may be an issue to some people, but it is completely beneath a respectful campaign for official surrogates (and absolutely/completely below the candidate themselves) to raise this, subtly or directly.

I call on all Obama supporters and all Democrats to reject this sort of old school Chicago-style gutter politics. Sen. Obama should apologize today for this sort of rookie stunt... and he should do it in person.

This is the letter Mark Salter released in response. This kind of business (the issues of age and race) should be left to comedians and late night talk show hosts, and should not be the topic of conversation of national elected officials, the Chair of the DNC or Sen. Obama himself.

Shame on them...

Chris Wallace exposes Howard Dean on False DNC ads...

Factcheck.org finds the DNC claims "false"...

The "referees" at the Annenberg School find a string of distortions and falsehoods in the DNC's email claims and TV ads... This, in my opinion is the most ridiculous (emphasis is mine):

"Culture of Corruption"

Perhaps the most twisted claim the DNC makes about McCain is this:

DNC: [McCain] looked the other way as Jack Abramoff bought and paid for the Republican Party and the Culture of Corruption.

The truth is that McCain, as chairman of the Senate's Indian Affairs Committee, vigorously pursued an investigation into how tribes had been fleeced by the mostly Republican lobbyists they hired to back their casino ventures. Federal prosecutors later sent a number of players in the scandal to prison, including lobbyist Jack Abramoff and Republican Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio. The scandal also entangled and contributed to the downfall of ex-Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas, the former Republican majority leader, who once described Abramoff as "one of my closest and dearest friends." It also contributed to the defeats of Republican Sen. Conrad Burns of Montana and eight-term Republican Rep. Richard Pombo of California. Even McCain's critics admit he kept pressure on the Bush Justice Department while it investigated Abramoff. To say that he "looked the other way" is false.