Apparently He's Had Enough

Clearly, Barack Obama is frustrated, and legitimately so. His record and his words have been on the Republican chopping block for a while now and recently have turned into outright attacks which provide some "facts" worthy of skepticism. Now Obama is trying to really fight back. From CBS we find that his campaign has released a new television ad that quotes major news sources as having written about McCain's dishonest and less than honorable campaign tactics. It's even more interesting to note that in using these quotations, Obama never attacks or accuses McCain himself; he allows the media to do that for him. Furthermore, it seems like Obama may be altering his message in order to adapt to changes in the campaign that have frustrated his desire to use his message of hope and change. Politico reports that his slogan has recently been modified from "Change We Can Believe In" to "Change We Need". His speeches also have become less "inspiritional", favoring a more partisan, us v. them perspective than his audience has grown accustomed to.

Obama isn't the only one calling McCain out on his less then noble campaigning. FactCheck.org, a group dedicated to delivering the truth about misleading claims by both candidates in a non-partisan fashion, has also accused McCain of gross distortions. According to a recent posting on their website, the McCaim camp quoted a previous post in a television ad and skewed it to make it look as if Obama was saying false statements about Gov. Palin. According to FactCheck, the purpose of that previous post was to say the exact opposite. Yes, false statements were made but there is no reason to believe, no evidence to suggest that they came from Obama's campaign.

Now CNN reports that even the notorious former presidential adviser Karl Rove is saying that the McCain campaign has gone too far in some of its television ads. Let's be honest for a second. If one of the key architects of the Swift Boat smear campaign against John Kerry back in 2004 is telling you you've gone too far, clearly you really have crossed a line.

So, will pointing out these inconsistencies make a difference in the race for the White House? I think that these findings of impropriety could spell trouble for McCain if and only if people are actually paying attention to these findings and take the time to really think about what has been and will be said during this election cycle.