Frank Rich took the Republican candidates to task in the New York Times this weekend for stoking fear and hatred of Obama. It’s a complaint that has been made frequently over the past few days, though as ever, Rich puts it more eloquently and forcefully than most:

All’s fair in politics. John McCain and Sarah Palin have every right to bring up William Ayers, even if his connection to Obama is minor, even if Ayers’s Weather Underground history dates back to Obama’s childhood, even if establishment Republicans and Democrats alike have collaborated with the present-day Ayers in educational reform. But it’s not just the old Joe McCarthyesque guilt-by-association game, however spurious, that’s going on here. Don’t for an instant believe the many mindlessly “even-handed” journalists who keep saying that the McCain campaign’s use of Ayers is the moral or political equivalent of the Obama campaign’s hammering on Charles Keating.

What makes them different, and what has pumped up the Weimar-like rage at McCain-Palin rallies, is the violent escalation in rhetoric, especially (though not exclusively) by Palin. Obama “launched his political career in the living room of a domestic terrorist.” He is “palling around with terrorists” (note the plural noun). Obama is “not a man who sees America the way you and I see America.” Wielding a wildly out-of-context Obama quote, Palin slurs him as an enemy of American troops.

By the time McCain asks the crowd “Who is the real Barack Obama?” it’s no surprise that someone cries out “Terrorist!” The rhetorical conflation of Obama with terrorism is complete. It is stoked further by the repeated invocation of Obama’s middle name by surrogates introducing McCain and Palin at these rallies. This sleight of hand at once synchronizes with the poisonous Obama-is-a-Muslim e-mail blasts and shifts the brand of terrorism from Ayers’s Vietnam-era variety to the radical Islamic threats of today.

That’s a far cry from simply accusing Obama of being a guilty-by-association radical leftist. Obama is being branded as a potential killer and an accessory to past attempts at murder. “Barack Obama’s friend tried to kill my family” was how a McCain press release last week packaged the remembrance of a Weather Underground incident from 1970 — when Obama was 8.

It’s well worth reading in full.

The Terrorist Barack Hussein Obama

Poor old John McCain. Now he’s having to stick up for Obama.

(Via Alex Massie)

A small gaffe to be sure, but John McCain’s reference to his “fellow prisoners” today in Pennsylvania could not have helped counter the criticism that the Republican nominee looked his age in the face off with Obama last night. John Heileman believes that based on that performance, this race is almost over:

The moment the second presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama ended, I quickly tapped out e-mails to a half dozen name-brand Republican strategists not affiliated with the McCain campaign. The response was unanimous: Not a single one of these GOP heavies thought their party’s nominee had won. “Obama presidential … no narrative change,” was one of the replies. Another was, “We gained no ground … the generational contrast was stunning.” The rest were even more downcast. “McCain looked angry and anything but steady,” replied a Republican media maven who has been involved in more than one general-election contest. “Big win for Obama.”

I couldn’t agree more. McCain entered this debate facing a fierce headwind, slipping in both national and battleground state polls, laboring under the weight of a financial meltdown that is definitively not his friend. His central goal in the debate, therefore, was to alter the dynamic of the race in a dramatic way.

What was weird was that McCain not only failed to do so but that he barely seemed to try, contrary to expectations that he would go after Obama hammer and tongs. He seemed to me less irritable, less visibly ticked-off, than he did in the first debate. He expressed economic empathy more effectively, too. But he also came across as older, frailer, more rickety. The town-hall format was supposed to be his metier, but it worked to his disadvantage. He rattled around onstage looking slightly lost, making hokey jokes that fell flat in the hall, offering edgy barbs at Obama (and even Tom Brokaw!), and telling hoary stories that referenced Ronald Reagan, Teddy Roosevelt, Tip O’Neill, and Herbert Hoover — historically significant figures who reinforced the image of the Arizona senator as yesterday’s man. His much-noted reference to Obama as “that one” struck me less as disrespectful and more as grandfatherly (or even grandmotherly, the kind of epithet hurled at a misbehaving teenager by his dismayed nana).

Obama Closes the Deal in Second Debate

I missed the majority of tonight’s debate. Was there a winner?

First Sarah Silverman creates a funny video urging Jews to tell their grandparents to vote for Obama.

Now, Jackie Mason responds with an equally unfunny video urging people to vote for McCain. (Via Ben Smith)

Exhibit B: Condescending. Bumbling. Garbled. There were time last night when I was incredulous that Palin was even elected Governor. (Via Gawker.)

Ali asked for examples of Palin’s ineptitude last night. Here is exhibit A. Total nonsense.