Spin Cycle

Sarah Palin's attacks this weekend on Obama's "American" bona fides because of his acquaintance with ex-sixties-radical William Ayers seems to have loosed thirty days of hell on the voting public.

Democrats say they will respond by attacking McCain's (and Palin's) associations. We've mentioned earlier today Todd Palin's membership in an anti-US Alaska secessionist party, and McCain's service on the board of the U.S. Council for World Freedom, a group with extremist ties.

Dems say that also likely to come up, via Marc Ambinder at the Atlantic, are Charles Keating, the S&L fraudster who McCain tried to help, as well as McCain's "long-time South Carolina consultant, Richard Quinn, a publisher of a Southern heritagte magazine, and John Hagee, a pastor whose endorsement McCain solicited and later rejected."

In response, the GOP has already mentioned Rezko. No Wright, so far, but they are planning to bring up "Columbia Prof. Rashid Khalidi, accused without real evidence of being a former PLO spokesperson and Ali Abunimah, a member of the Arab American Action Network who received a grant from the Woods Fund approved by Wm. Ayers, Obama and Khalidi. Khalidi and his wife held a fundraiser for Obama in 2000."

We'll see where it all goes. But let's put down a marker:

It started this weekend with Sarah Palin, who couldn't answer a question about the Supreme Court but shows some skill at trashing people.

It started after two weeks of decline in the polls, with McCain realizing he wasn't going to win this race on the issues.

McCain started it.

Is there anyone who disputes that???