I can't help but believe that Obama has been waiting for this moment for a long, long time.  McCain has painted himself into a box where there is no good move.  My guess is that he is scared shitless about how this is going to play out.  He could very well end up looking like the fool of the century.

OT, I just saw this today courtesy of Oliver Willis.  I had no idea my Senator, Sherrod Brown, was such a comedian.

Ohio is a key swing state, and Brown told the crowd that if they voted and made sure their friends and neighbors did the same, they could go home after the polls close, "sit down in a big, comfortable chair - maybe you bought a big, wide, wide flat-screen TV so you can watch election returns and you can see, when you see these election returns on these wide screens, you can see people's sweat, you can see tears a little better, all that."

At about 11:30 pm, he told the crowd, they should switch over to Fox News, the network on which the right-leaning O'Reilly hosts a top-rated talk/news show.

A chorus of boos erupted from the crowd. Fox, of course, is vilified by many Democrats, who believe it favors Republicans. Obama himself has gone after the network at times.

"No, no, bear with me here," Brown shouted, as boos continued raining down. "No, no, you'll want to do this. You don't like Fox, but sometimes Fox has gotta do the right thing, so you're gonna watch Fox," he continued.

"About quarter till 12 on election night, it's gonna be Bill O'Reilly sitting there with Sean Hannity," he said, drawing another cascade of jeers from the crowd at the mention of another popular conservative Fox host.

"No, no wait a sec, this is gonna be too much fun. You're not gonna be booing `cause you know what's coming next. So Hannity - they're going through all these numbers and Barack's won California, New York and Illinois and Michigan and Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and all these others. And, you know McCain wins Utah or something," Brown said, drawing appreciative laughs and claps from the energized crowd.

"Then Hannity's sitting there next to O'Reilly, and they're looking at each other, and O'Reilly says, `You gonna do it?' And Hannity says, `No.' So O'Reilly - sweat's coming, tears are coming down his cheeks - you can see `em on your flat screen. And O'Reilly says, `Well, Ohio went for Barack Obama. He's gonna be president of the United States!"

The crowd went wild, and Brown ceded the stage to another introducer.

Hope to see you all there at a quarter before midnight on November 4.  It's channel 360 on my DirecTV. I'll bring the whiskey....the good stuff.

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity"

So what does Obama do?  Does he defend his "relationship" with Ayers - conservative founded board, anybody who wants to impact education must deal with Ayers, blah, blah, blah.  Or does he go on the offensive, mentioning the Keating scandal, G. Gordon Liddy, and the Alaska secessionist movement?

Or is there another tack, with Obama doing a combination of defend and turning the argument onto the economy?  If this is what Obama plans, it doesn't ring with the taunting.  

If I had to guess, I would say that Obama puts McCain on his heels with a full-bore offensive that is all-inclusive.

How do you read the tea leaves?

I agree about dodging any real explanation of Ayers because those attacking him do not really care anyway and neither do the American people so why bother? I think Barry O should roll with his perfected mocking style. Take McCain's line of low attack. "Do you want me to go there John because I can?" Finish it off with the American people want something different.

The public will eat it up.

Blue Tidal Wave

With luck, McCain will start to tic and spasm under the tension and mixture of drugs.  

Obama and the moderator can appear solicitous of the failing health and wits... showing them as concerned gentlemen.  McCain will just dissolve into nasty snarls the more they ask after his health.  Someone pursuing command can not show weakness and get respect.

Americans need to know that McCain can't survive a Presidency.  Palin the Ambitious will ensure that... if he even lives through the inauguration.

He is already wandering mentally.  If he is forced to sit next to a man he loathes, the pressure will build.  The better Obama does, the more pressure McCain will be under.

One thing I hope Schieffer does bring up is this matter of McCain's Presidential Transition Chief being a Saddam lobbyist and oil speculator.  45 million dollars for under the table deals will sting with people trying to make monthly bills.  Oil contracts will remind them of this bloody war for false pretences.  And Timmons is so much of a corrupt insider that it betrays the "maverick" meme.  How is this domestic?  Well, doesn't a transition chief supervise the vetting of staff for the government offices and agencies?  Who are his buddies?  More corrupt oil speculators and lobbyists and people who deal under the table with tyrants and enemies of the state!!!

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/102975/exposed:_mccain%27s_presidential_transition_chief_aided_sa ddam_hussein/

We can ask him directly about honor when he has surrounded himself with dishonorable men.