Remember how, in Back To the Future, Marty McFly just couldn't let it go when someone called him chicken?  That never seemed to work out to well for ol' Marty.

"Don't tell your opponent how you're going to attack him before you do."

Curiously enough, a bit of advice McCain pointedly gave Obama in the last two debates.

And now, Obama can bring up how McCain's transition team head used to lobby for Saddam Hussein:

www.huffingtonpost.com/.../mccain-transition-chief-a_n_134595.html

Sounds like a winner to me.

Frankly to *admit* that you have been goaded into doing something takes a breathtaking level of stupidity; one is driven to utter, "inconceivable."

Right on, sdemuth.  McCain said he wouldn't "telegraph his punches."

OK, this first part is fine but make it short, sweet and direct.

"Obama will very reasonably respond that it's a distant association, that he was 8 years old when Ayers committed his crimes, that he deplores said crimes, etc., etc. Then he'll turn it around on McCain, pointing out that it is all very old news, and..."

[STOP]

Barack is telling the above to Bob and the camera...he then turns to McCain. "John, you know that's the whole story and so does everyone who has bothered to seek the truth."

(Pause) 3-2-1 "

"If you would have asked me the first time we met? We could have been done with it.  But voters tell me they prefer I spend the next three weeks addressing issues that impact *their* lives...John, Bill Ayers is only a subject you seem to care about and by no stretch is he part of America's future. But you and your campaign can continue to hammer me with these attacks...it' your dollar."

Well, there is also that minor "glass houses" business.  

Over at HuffPo: it would appear that the head of McCain's transition team worked, for five years, with two convicted felons who aided Saddam's rehabilitation efforts after 1991.  I don't know if all the facts reported are correct, but they appear to be from testimony given to prosecutors and investigators in the course of the trial of the two Iraq-related felons.

"William Timmons, the Washington lobbyist who John McCain has named to head his presidential transition team, aided an influence effort on behalf of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to ease international sanctions against his regime.

[...]

Vincent, an Iraqi-born American citizen with whom Timmons worked most closely, pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges in January 2005 that he had acted as an unregistered agent of Saddam Hussein's regime. Tongsun Park, the second lobbyist who Timmons worked closely with, was convicted by a federal jury in July 2006 on charges that he too violated the Foreign Agent Registration Act.

[...]

Timmons testified that he first introduced Vincent to Tongsun Park and encouraged him to hire Park to work on the deal.

[...]

Timmons also claimed that he was motivated to push forward with the lobbying campaign with Vincent and Park not only to assist Saddam's regime but also because he believed that his actions would serve U.S. interests, that they would help the people of Iraq obtain needed medicine and food being denied them by sanctions, and would serve to facilitate a rapprochement of relations between Hussein and the U.S. that would be beneficial to both countries.

[...]

According to Vincent's testimony, Timmons immediately opened doors for the Iraqi-American lobbyist. He talked to then-Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger on Vincent's behalf. He also contacted then-Sen. Bob Dole and John Bolton, then-undersecretary of state for international affairs, to discuss Vincent's plan.

In a meeting with U.N. officials, Vincent pressed his case armed with "talking points" that Timmons had written for him. Before using them, Vincent said that he first sent the talking points to Nizaar Hamdoon and Tariq Aziz, with Timmons' approval."

www.huffingtonpost.com/.../mccain-transition-chief-a_n_134595.html

Don't forget G. Gordon Liddy.

If this was a fight, the referee would stop it.

"It's not hard to envision how this may play out: McCain will raise Ayers in that awkward, semi-comic manner of his ..."

Um, no. If McCain goes there, he'll go there in a full-throated aggressive manner, and he'll keep repeating whatever distorted talking point he comes in with regardless of Obama's response. We've seen McCain go nuclear with a dishonest attack in a debate before, and this is what it looks like:

www.youtube.com/watch

God, I do not want to have to look at that shit-eating grin and the hyper-blinky eyes for the next four years.

Oh, and the to-your-face lying, too.

What an absolute moron. He's going to bring it up in a debate, no matter what the question is? Like Sarah Palin and her index cards of Things To Say When It's Your Turn?

And if he changes him mind he looks like a jackass, again.

Obama goading McWar into bringing up Ayers just remind me of the Disney character, Bro' Rabbit pleading with Bro' Fox & Bro' Bear, "please, oh puhleeeeze, DON'T throw me into the briar patch!"

The Ayers argument by McCain is a parlor trick, an illusion based on innuendo.  There's a difference between that and distorting something that McCain said to make a point, like staying in Iraq for 100 years.  Here is an example to explain.  In "Angler," the book about Cheney, there is an incident where Cheney has gone to the hospital for a heart attack after the voting has happened and before Bush can be appointed by five justices on the Supreme Court.  Such news could affect the outcome of the contest over who will become the next president, so Bush announces that Cheney has gone to the hospital only as a precautionary measure.  Sure, but precautionary to what?  The important information is covered up with an illusion to manipulate popular opinion.  That event explains the entire Bush presidency and the Ayers argument looks like the same Bush path that McCain would be willing to take.

Here's a way Obama can get extra mileage from the Ayers attack: "John, as I've said repeatedly, one of the hallmarks of my approach to governing is my belief that the most good comes about when we find common ground with those we work with. Of course I disagree with Bill Ayers on some fundamental matters, but I also disagree with you and most of the Republicans in Congress on some fundamental matters, and yet I hope to sit down at the table and work with you to find our common ground, the areas where we agree, because those are the areas where I know I will be able to lead our country most powerfully and positively. I don't believe in shunning a person simply because we have some areas of disagreemnt. I believe in finding the areas of agreement and shared purpose and building upon them. John, you and I share many of the same values -- love of country, desire to grow the economy, the importance of military strength. Foucsing on these areas of agreement, on our common ground, is what will move our nation forward."

Did Ayers support Bobby Rush when Obama ran against him? If Ayers did their connection would be even weaker.

McCain must create a game-changing moment without being negative; Obama just has to stand there. Who would you rather be?

Here's what I don't understand about McCain's (almost certainly spontaneous) announcement

...is never to telegraph your attack plans to your enemy...I'm sure O has 10 or 15 different rapier sharp replies ready for this attack, depending on which direction it's coming from.

McNasty has already lost tonight's debate...even before he enters it. No matter what he does, he loses. If he attacks, he get beaten back, if he doesn't, he looks like an erratic liar.

Loser McSnoozer! BBBBBBBBAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWW!!!!!

The "don't count McCain out" argument continues to feed anxiety about eleventh hour comebacks, but as I was watching Frontline on Obama and McCain last night, I realized McCain does not have a history of knockout blows.  I don't imagine he will have one tonight.  He won the New Hampshire primary in 2000 by grinding his way through VFW halls and building positive word-of-mouth support, much like Obama won Iowa.  There is no time left for that.  What we'll likely get tonight is some new version of "I know how to ______" mixed with some Ayers "zinger" that will fall flat.  What might work at the margins is stoking Reid/Pelosi/Obama coalition fears, but I imagine that is too much of an abstraction to deploy on October 15.