I know some people are sensitive and feel we should all play nice. McCain says he's going to run a civil campaign. Yet he goes to the Bushies for help. And do you think the 527's won't be backing him? The Club for Growth is VERY active as are the swiftboaters and that Stone guy down in Florida.

This campaign will see, depending on our nominee, the most vile racist and misogynistic spew you're probably incapable of imagining. All indicators favor a Democratic win in November. That fact will energize the hard core on the right, who will pull out all the stops. There is ***n*o*t*h*i*n*g*** too vile for them.

And sorry to say, 'vile' wins elections.

If you don't wanna get down in the mud, then you may wish to think about staying home and off teevee and off the internet until election day, when you should go cast your vote for the Democrat.

You may want to have a policy discussion. Don't even bother. Nobody except a (relatively very) few wonks gives a shit about policy specifics. Like the last few presidential elections, this one will turn on bullshit, lies, smear, innuendo, gut feelings, likability, dislikability, and all the other tangential, peripheral sorts of bullshit everybody loves to say they hate, but which almost all secretly enjoy.

And that will include photoshopped images to enhance or detract, it will include lies about paternity issues and sexual escapades, about hobnobbing with criminals and heads of hostile foreign states, simple racism and sexism, experience and lack thereof, rumor campaigns and lots of whispering, YouTube videos and viral hate mongering, white sheets over heads and people pointing at Vice Foster's grave.

If our side doesn't respond appropriately, we'll be sucking wind in November. Protoges of Atwater and Rove are everywhere. They're black hearted and without morals or scruples. They are worse than the Masters, even if perhaps not as skilled. And that lack of skill trades 'ugly' for 'finesse'.

So we can all keep cluck clucking when someone on our sides says something mean to poor John McCain.

Or we can be ready, willing and able to fight and fight to win.

This isn't for the faint of heart.

The Democrats had BETTER be up for this or we'll be wondering why we lost the last three in a row and are headed toward oblivion.