As poster John Steiner has already noted, John McCain's campaign has decided the only thing that will save its bacon now is what MSNBC calls a "fiercer strategy" -- in other words, more negative ads.

The question is how. The MSNBC article quotes an unnamed McCain campaign spokesperson as saying they would be "questioning (Obama's) associations," which undoubtedly refers to the times he crossed paths with  convict Antoin "Tony" Rezko and William Ayers.

Rezko was an Illinois political fixer who was convicted on fraud, attempted bribery and money laundering charges in June. His association with Obama was both remote and complex, but the most damning association was a fundraiser Rezko hosted for Obama's senatorial campaign in 2003. Ayers is an even hotter potato. A former 60s radical who later became a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, right-wingers love referring to him as a domestic terrorist. This New York Times article describes their assocation.

While these may not seem like very serious ties, readers shouldn't underestimate the appeal of paranoid views among right-wing voters. For the perpetually aggrieved right wing, the more obscure a connection, the more real it's likely to be. (A June 2006 article in Harper's by Kevin Baker provided an excellent contemporary update of this concept to present-day American politics.) So Obama's open defense of, and ultimate rejection of, his pastor Jeremiah Wright is of less use in appealling to these people than his obscure and tenuous connection with Ayers.

If you want a glance at how right-wing foamers view Obama, take a gander at this editorial from an obscure Pennsylvania paper featuring "Two Dozen Reasons to Vote Against Obama," including Obama's refusal to use the words "Islamofascist" and "victory" when speaking about Iraq, not to mention his supposed Muslim ties. Unless you open those multiply forwarded emails from your aging father-in-law, you might not realize how pervasive these views are. The negative ads we'll see on TV in the coming weeks are the nice version.