McCain says he will not engage in negative campaigning.
Then he brings up Jeremiah Wright.
When reporters challenge him on why he did this when he said he wasn't going to go negative, he basically said Obama had given him permission to do so when Obama said on FOX News that he understood his relationship with his pastor was relevant.
Then McCain tells reporters that Hamas endorses Obama and that the endorsement is relevant.
Then Cindy McCain tells Ann Curry that her husband will not engage in negative campaigning.
Then McCain brings up Hamas again and Brian Williams asks Obama about it.
Obama, rightfully indignant that McCain would bring up this ridiculous assertion with its highly inflammatory innuendo, especially after insisting he will run a positive campaign, says perhaps McCain has "lost his bearings" in this race.
The McCain campaign sends out a letter of outrage, saying that Obama is playing the "age card."
I think I get it.
Cindy and John will continue to say they will not go negative, and then the McCain campaign will find some excuse for why they have to - Obama gave them permission, or he is using the age card and they simply have to defend themselves.
This will be a negative campaign all right, at least from the Republicans. They don't know how to win any other way and they know it. So there will be many letters like this one, jumping on innocent comments made by Obama, twisting them into something they are not so that McCain will be forgiven for flip-flopping on his promise, just as he has flip-flopped on taxes, on the "agents of intolerance" he now embraces, and on his feelings about George W. Bush.
And by the end of the campaign you can bet they will be playing the race card, especially if it is all they have left.
