Final Debate Tonight: 9 PM

This is the final showdown. I expect John McCain to trot out the Right wing smears tonight. I also expect Obama to brush them off like the misinformation that they are. Here are a few topics to look for.

William Ayres: Obama has worked with him a few times but so have Republicans! Look for Obama to bring up the fact that Ayres' educational programs have been funded by conservatives for years. In fact, they have had a much closer working relationship Ayres over the years than Obama does.

ACORN: This is the most recent smear being put out by the Hannity's, Limbaugh's and Palin's of the world. It is nonsense. They pay people to get people to register to vote. Some of them put in fake names. But they are quickly sorted out and of course, Mickey Mouse cannot vote. I am sure I will write about this ACORN smear more, but for now I will say that it symbolizes the re-booting of the Conservative movement. They are going back to the 1970's where conservatives started by "Blaming the Victim". Expect, for the remainder of this campaign and for years to come, to hear that all our problems are because of ... wait for it ... poor people. Yep, the economy would be fine now if it wasn't for them. This is what Reagan hitched his horse to to jump start this era of conservatism. Reagan expertly morphed blaming the poor into the fictionalized "Cadillac Queen"(read: poor black people) and began the tidal wave of vile political discourse we have seen for the past generation. ACORN is also a buzz word for "poor, black inner city people". By using this group, conservatives can hate blacks and be PC about it! Finally, a big reason the hate mongers are building up ACORN is because they want to de-legitimized a potential Obama victory. Barack could win by 500,000 votes and some on the right (Talk radio, FOX) will say the election was stolen by ACORN. Count on it! That's what they are setting up right now. Remember that the conservative movement is built on hatred and the denial of reality. It can only survive if they have someone or something to despise and if they repudiate facts as a liberal conspiracy against them. First, they targeted their hatred on the poor, then the communists, then the Clintons, then terrorists. It's come back full circle to the poor now. Because the number of people buying into the conservative doctrine is shrinking, they need to be even more hateful than ever. In order to do this they will have to deny that they lost the election and portray themselves as victims. ACORN seems to be the straw man of this era. (As a bonus, there is a video of John McCain praising ACORN at a rally a few years ago.)

John Lewis: This black congressman was part of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960's. He remembers how inflammatory words back then lead directly to violence. He recognized, like many of us have, the same type of language coming from Palin and her followers. He pointed it out. The right wing doesn't like that. Lewis compared the LANGUAGE of Palin and her mobs to that of George Wallace. It was an apt comparison. John McCain is trying to claim that he (McCain) was being directly compared to Wallace. He was not. But look for him to bring this up and complain that Obama has not repudiated the comments. The fact is, Obama did disagree with the comments almost as soon as they came out.