McCain: The negativity is Obama's fault. He wouldn't give me town hall meetings.

McCain has had the gall to suggest that the negative tone of the election is all down to Barack Obama.

"I'm very sorry about it," McCain said in a Saturday interview at his Arlington headquarters. "I think we could have avoided at least some of this if we had agreed to do the town hall meetings" together, as he had suggested, during the summer months.

You're no doubt wondering how he makes that link between those two unrelated matters.

"When you have to stand on a stage with your opponent, as I've done in other campaigns, you obviously have a tendency to improve the relationship. . . . When you have to spend time with somebody, I think it changes the equation."

So, it's Obama's fault that McCain has employed Karl Rove surrogates and that the Republican party have started indulging in the Rovian tactics which has been their speciality since Nixon was against busing and segregation. It's Obama's fault that the Republicans are playing dog whistle politics that Southerners recognise as code that he is uppity and "should know his place."

Obama pointed out to the journalist who appeared to be accepting the thrust of McCain's bizarre defence:

"I think the notion that somehow as a consequence of not having joint appearances, Senator McCain felt obliged to suggest that I'd rather lose a war to win a campaign doesn't automatically follow. I think we each have control over ourselves and our campaigns, and we have to take responsibility for that."

And therein lies the rub. McCain has no-one to blame for the shocking low road his campaign has taken other than himself. It's HIS campaign. And the man who promised us a clean one about the issues has lied and distorted and played disgraceful dog whistle politics of the most disgusting kind.

The notion that he wouldn't have done so had Obama agreed to town hall meetings is simply ludicrous. There is one truism in elections, the guy demanding more debates is always the guy who's behind in the polls. We witnessed this with Hillary during the election for the Democratic presidential nominee. It's one of the ways they might reverse that trend, hoping that their opponent might trip.

So, the real reason McCain went negative is because it works and he was behind in the polls.

At that point he flip flopped yet again and decided, as all Republican candidates do, to say anything (true or false) and to avoid the issues as if they are kryptonite and attack the "character" of your opponent.

So now we hear that Obama's energy plan is to keep your tyres fully inflated and that he would "rather lose a war than lose a campaign", a comment which even Joe Klein thought was the worst he had ever heard major party candidate make.

McCain is in the gutter because he chooses to be.

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Tags: John McCain, Barack Obama, US election 2008