McCain Was Going to Pounce On Obama Either Way

It's common knowledge by now that a John McCain campaign ad took Barack Obama to task for not visiting wounded US troops in Germany. But David Kiley in BusinessWeek reports that the McCain camp had another ad ready, this one if Obama had visited the troops. It would have charged that Obama was using the soldiers as campaign props.

In the Carpetbagger Report, Steve Benen responds: “In other words, it didn’t matter which path Obama took—smear artists were prepared either way.” Indeed, that other attack probably would have resounded just like the one that did air: kicked around in the free-publicity media for days until someone debunked it. (More Barack Obama stories.)