Posted by Jed Lewison on Thu Jul 31, 2008 at 10:30 AM Pacific

From hero to zero in forty-eight hours

Now John McCain is now accusing Barack Obama of playing identity politics?

This coming just one day after McCain's campaign put out a memo calling Barack Obama a "worldwide" celebrity instead of an "American" celebrity?

This coming from a man who says that he alone in this campaign "puts country first"?

This coming just one day after McCain put out an advertisement flashing the words "is he ready to lead" superimposed on the first closeup shot of a person in the Berlin crowd, and that person just happened to be black?

This coming just one day after McCain put out an advertisement that flashed and spoke the word "foreign" aside Barack's visage?

This coming just one day after McCain put out an advertisement that raised the specter of the oldest attack out there about black men: that they will steal "your" white women?

This coming just one day after McCain put out his second advertisement in a week featuring a crowd chanting "Oh-ba-ma"?

This coming from a man who just yesterday -- as he was putting out his ridiculous new ad -- tried to focus attention on Barack Obama's race by saying: "I applaud his talent and his success. And Americans, all Americans, should be proud of his accomplishment."

::: :::

There's no doubt that John McCain is trying to turn Barack Obama's race and life story into a political liability.

That, we expected.

But for him to accuse Barack Obama of playing the race card "from the bottom of the deck?" Get real. That's just stupid.

John McCain is starting to sound like the Pat Buchanans of the world who say the real victims of racism in this country are white.

How pathetic and sad.

We're moving on from John McCain's tired old politics.

To paraphrase Andrew Sullivan, it's time to say goodbye to all that.