Stepping back from my periodic hysteria over how the campaign's going, it's looking more and more to me like Obama is playing it like a master. Now, I know a lot of us are bemoaning that Obama hasn't been hitting McCain harder with negative ads. But look at it this way: last week the Obama campaign signalled to the 527s that they are welcome to open fire. Up until this point, thanks to Obama telling them to step off back in June, the liberal 527s have been quiet. This has had two effects: 1) because there hasn't been any activity from the liberal 527s, the conservative 527s have remained relatively quiet. 2) because the conservative 527s have remained relatively quiet, it has fallen on John McCain to sling the shit himself. Essentially, what this means is that McCain has been burning through his media budget destroying his own biggest positives - his alleged integrity and honor - with sleazy, dishonest attack ads. He's not put any time into defining what a president John McCain thinks is important, what he would actually do as president, etc etc. And it's too late for him to do it now - that ship sailed for good during the Republican convention, which was dedicated to more of the same. At the same time, McCain's transparent dishonesty is starting to turn his "base" - the media - against him. He's no longer the "straight talker" open to talking to the media - that got cut off a month ago, right about when he really started to wallow in the shit.

So here we are, 6 or 7 weeks out from the election, and it's too late for McCain to pivot back to the themes of "honor and integrity", because his base no longer has his back. He's stuck with having to play the game the way he's been playing it for the past several months. Except now, he'll be throwing his shit against the veritable shit tsunami that's about to crash all over him from the liberal 527s. It's not going to be pretty. But I fully expect to see it, because the lib 527s have been sitting on the sidelines and keeping their powder dry for the past 3 months, and during that time, McCain has been creating numerous points of attack. Last week was Obama's Mr. Burns moment, when he turned to the liberal 527s and said, "Smithers, release the hounds." And now, the ripping of flesh is about to commence.

I don't expect for the Obama campaign itself to run ads that are bitingly negative. Then again, they won't have to. The 527s will take care of that. Obama has managed to remain above the sleaze thus far; he's just stood back and watched as McCain shit down his own leg. Has it cost him a few points in the polls? Yes, but that's reversible with the 527s doing the pushback. By the time election day rolls around, we'll have two candidates who have been smeared, but only one of them who has shit all over his own hands, while the other one will be the only one of the two who has offered up any idea to voters about what he will actually do if elected.

Next week will tell all. Already we've seen a couple of hard-hitting 527 ads surface - one from Planned Parenthood and one from a wildlife gorup on aerial hunting of wolves. I expect that these are just the tip of a very large iceberg.

Fear not, children, this game is not played out yet.