Hillary Clinton resisted smearing Barack Obama as unpatriotic, but John McCain is showing no such reluctance.
The latest person to unleash this underhanded tactic by Team McCain was none other than Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I., Conn.), the former vice-presidential nominee of the Democratic Party.
Introducing McCain at a campaign event in York, Pa., Lieberman said the presidential race was a choice "between one candidate, John McCain, who has always put the country first, worked across party lines to get things done, and one candidate who has not."
That makes Obama, by insinuation, someone who doesn't always put his country first. This dishonorable strategy is beneath a candidate who once had higher standards. It sounds more like a job for the old House Un-American Activities Committee, which was disbanded in 1975.
In recent weeks, McCain's campaign falsely claimed that Obama wouldn't visit wounded U.S. soldiers because there were no TV cameras. Then McCain said he was "proud" of a campaign ad comparing Obama to Britney Spears. Real honorable, John.
Now, a new book by the same author who did a hatchet job on John Kerry in 2004 further exploits the suspicion among some that Obama is less than a full U.S. citizen. At its worst, this view manifests itself among the willfully ignorant who believe Obama is a sleeper Muslim with a secret allegiance to Islam.
It's a tactic that Clinton's top adviser urged her to pursue in the Democratic primary. In March 2007, adviser Mark Penn wrote a memo detailing Obama's perceived weaknesses, according to a recent article in the Atlantic magazine.
"His roots to basic American values and culture are at best limited," Penn wrote. "I cannot image America electing a president during a time of war who is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and in his values."
Clinton, to her credit, didn't go there. But McCain and his surrogates are showing a willingness to do whatever it takes to get elected, adopting Penn's line.
The smear against Obama obviously has Democrats worried. The Pennsylvania AFL-CIO recently sent a glossy mailer to union households seeking to clarify rumors, lies and innuendo being spread mainly about Obama through the Internet. The bullet points include:
Does he wear a flag pin on his lapel? Yes, but not always. Sometimes he wears a Senate pin, or a breast-cancer awareness pin, or - gasp - no pin at all.
Is he a Christian? Yes, a "committed Christian."
Was he sworn in on the Bible? Yes, his personal family Bible (in fact, that's Vice President Cheney, a known Christian, standing with him in the photo)!
Was Obama born in America? Yes, in Honolulu, Hawaii, on Aug. 4, 1961.
Does he place his hand over his heart when he says the pledge? Yes.
This is Democrats talking to Democrats, in 2008. But the questions are reminiscent of the commie-hunting era of the 1950s.
Voters deserve a higher level of debate in the campaign. There are two wars to finish, a faltering economy, rising home foreclosures, soaring energy costs, and a retirement system headed toward insolvency, to name just a few of the challenges for the next president.
McCain should refocus his campaign on those issues, instead of raising false questions about patriotism and Paris Hilton.