The mothership linked to <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/06/AR2008080602510.html">
David Broder's column</a> today on the recent negative tone of the presidential campaign.

Does Broder ask McCain if he regrets asserting that Obama would rather lose a war and win the election?  No.

Rather, he asks Obama if Obama regrets not having accepted McCain's proposal on summer town hall meetings. 

He leaves it to Obama to make the obvious point that responding to an opponent's turning down a specific offer on joint appearances with sleazy charges doesn't cut it. 

Instead of a "boys will be boys" double standard his words and actions enable a "Republicans will be Republicans" ethic that says when Republicans resort to sleaze, well, politics ain't beanbag after all. 

Beyond issuing a classic he said/she said pass on the negative tone issue, will Broder raise the pointed questions of whether McCain, through repeated flipflops on virtually all of the positions he had taken earlier which showed independence, has forfeited both his claim to being any sort of a "maverick" and turned himself into a world champion hypocrite when it comes to the "good character" he preaches to others? 

I mean, really, is that a controversial statement?  Or simply a wholly documentable statement of fact? 

With today's column, Broder shows contempt for the concept of personal responsibility on the part of presidential candidates for the tenor of their campaigns. 

Will McCain distance himself from and seek to stop the sleaziness of surrogates, his campaign, and himself (when he seeks to make himself the victim with a false charge that Obama accused him of, or implied an accusation of, racism, for example)? 

Why should he? 

When David Broder, the Dean himself, who seems to see a Paragon of Journalistic Ethics when he looks in the mirror every morning, doesn't call him on it, it's doubtful anyone else will, either. McCain gets to have it both ways: benefit from a sleazy campaign while getting a free pass from the in-the-tank media on his full flight from the maverick aspects of his prior record, and on the character issue.  (Presumptively superior CIC credentials is another such area.)