Obama Racism/Muslim/Unpatriotic/Scary Black Dude Watch, #79

How low will McCain go? At least as low as to imply that Obama is a fucking wolf hunting down Sarah Palin, just because he's doing basic opposition research on her.

Voiceover: The attacks on Governor Palin have been called "completely false," "misleading," and they've just begun. The Journal reports Obama "air-dropped a mini-army of thirty lawyers, investigators and opposition researchers" into Alaska to dig dirt on Governor Palin. As Obama drops in the polls, he'll try to destroy her. Obama's politics of hope? Empty words.

McCain: I'm John McCain, and I approve this message.

The female voiceover is a nice touch. I love how the McCain campaign is simultaneously positioning itself as a great feminist champion, even as it casts its female veep candidate as a helpless damsel being stalked by wild animals and uses a woman to deliver that message.

(Meanwhile, I wonder why Palin just doesn't get in her airplane and shoot those big scary wolves.)

You know, it's not doing women any favors by pretending that being vetted by an opponent is akin to being stalked by a pack of wolves. That's what any candidate should expect, regardless of their sex—and asserting that a woman should be excepted from the typical campaign process is the real sexism here, not doing oppo research on her.

Of course, people who don't really pay attention to politics, who will think it's somehow unusual for a candidate to send a team of researchers to check out an opponent's background, who don't realize the GOP's been digging through Obama's history with a fine-toothed comb for nearly two years, will see this ad and shake their heads and tsk tsk at what a horrible person Obama is for mucking around in that poor woman's past.

And because a GOP advert just isn't complete with a Machiavellian appeal to the lizard brain, let's recall the infamous "Wolves" ad that was run by the Bush campaign in the closing weeks of the 2004 campaign, impugning Kerry's defense record, in which Islamic terrorists were conflated with wolves stalking America as their prey. This ad is a clear callback to that ad—terrorists are wolves; Obama is a wolf; Obama is a terrorist.

It's really quite breathtaking it its audacity.

[H/T to Shaker Rebecca, in comments. Obama Racism/Muslim/Unpatriotic/Scary Black Dude Watch: Parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty, Twenty-One, Twenty-Two, Twenty-Three, Twenty-Four, Twenty-Five, Twenty-Six, Twenty-Seven, Twenty-Eight, Twenty-Nine, Thirty, Thirty-One, Thirty-Two, Thirty-Three, Thirty-Four, Thirty-Five, Thirty-Six, Thirty-Seven, Thirty-Eight, Thirty-Nine, Forty, Forty-One, Forty-Two, Forty-Three, Forty-Four, Forty-Five, Forty-Six, Forty-Seven, Forty-Eight, Forty-Nine, Fifty, Fifty-One, Fifty-Two, Fifty-Three, Fifty-Four, Fifty-Five, Fifty-Six, Fifty-Seven, Fifty-Eight, Fifty-Nine, Sixty, Sixty-One, Sixty-Two, Sixty-Three, Sixty-Four, Sixty-Five, Sixty-Six, Sixty-Seven, Sixty-Eight, Sixty-Nine, Seventy, Seventy-One, Seventy-Two, Seventy-Three, Seventy-Four, Seventy-Five, Seventy-Six, Seventy-Seven, Seventy-Eight.]