Palin’s been instructed to keep bringing up Obama’s ties to Bill Ayers, and the McCain campaign released a video on the web “exposing” them.

I think Obama put it well when Hillary tried to use it against him: “The notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values, doesn’t make much sense.” And yet that’s exactly what John McCain’s strategy is.

How do they know each other? They served on the board of a charity to help failing schools in Chicago. Ayers, a domestic terrorist forty years ago, turned himself in and has since been a strong advocate for education. The articles I’ve read suggest that even conservatives have given him accolades for his work. (And as for the articles that came out, quite ironically, on September 10 and 11, 2001 about Ayers not regretting what he did? Well, if you believe Ayers (who, after all, had just the interview: it’s not like he had much of a reason to lie the next day?), that’s actually not what he said: he meant that he regretted that the war wasn’t stopped, not that he didn’t regret the violence.)

I can’t help but view these as desperate actions. McCain is trailing in the polls, probably because of a surge of interest in the economy, something McCain has admitted is a weak area of his. Ironically, in 1989, McCain would come under fire for “improperly intervening” in a bank collapse, ultimately costing the government $2 billion. Of course, that was almost 20 years ago, and no one’s really been bringing it up because, well, there’s much more important stuff to talk about.

Again, it’s no great secret that I’m pretty biased against McCain. But I can’t help but think that what he’s been doing lately drives home exactly why he shouldn’t be President: he’s corrupting the truth and attacking others to distract us from the issues that really matter to us. And after the past eight years, I think we’ve had enough of that.