Bizarro Palin, robocall critic

By Michael J.W. Stickings

You know things are a bit wacky when it's Palin objecting to the McCain-Palin robocall efforts. (TNR's Jason Zengerle thinks she may be "posing for posterity.")

For his part, McCain, a Bush robocall target in 2000, has been defending them. But, then, the McCain campaign looks a lot like the Bush campaign of that year, at least in terms of slime.

For example, as ABC's Jake Tapper reported on Saturday, "Warren Tompkins, one of the strategists of then-Gov. George W. Bush's South Carolina campaign in 2000 -- which [McCain] blamed for his family being slimed," has been sent to "North Carolina to assess the state for the McCain-Palin campaign." Tompkins isn't with the campaign in any official capacity, but, well, he's with the campaign.

As for the robocalls themselves, they focus, as you might expect, on the (insignificant) Obama-Ayers association. During the debate last week, McCain claimed that he doesn't "care about an old washed-up terrorist" like Ayers, before stating that "we need to know the full extent of that relationship." Obviously, though, he does care, enough to make him, along with Joe the Unlicensed Right-Wing Plumber, one of the centerpieces of his campaign, that is, to allow for him to turn his campaign into an Obama-Ayers smearfest.

Palin can hardly object to McCain going negative, considering how negative she herself has been, including going after Obama on Ayers. Whatever her motives, though, she's right about robocalls.

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UPDATE: In comments, Mustang Bobby notes that Palin's opposition to robocalls isn't preventing her from making them. TPM's Greg Sargent has more here.