No Mas

So, a few of my liberal friends have taken to reminding me every time I point out something vaguely sketchy about the Obama campaign (the 1982 ad, I think, was tacky, for instance) that "at least Obama never implied McCain is a pedophile. Game over." I told this to some McCain people the other day, mainly to see the tiny fumes of smoke emerge from their ears.

But today they have something to legitimately be angry about. And, oh, they are. Jake Tapper -- who is doing fantastic work this cycle, go Jake! -- lays out the details here, but the basic structure is familiar: An ad attempts to tie McCain to some particularly unpleasant Republicanness [in this case, a closed borders approach to immigration], but it turns out McCain was not at all associated with that particular nastiness.

This is particularly distressing to the McCain camp because, as we all know, McCain very nearly lost the nomination over immigration, and managed to piss off nearly all of the party base, including Rush Limbaugh, with whom the Obama campaign ties to McCain in that ad.

I'm only confused because there are so many other unpopular Republican policies to legitimately associate with John McCain!