Turning Grapefruits Into Raisins

Why, oh why do pacifist libs ever talk like this?:

He warned that the general election campaign could get ugly. “They’re going to try to scare people. They’re going to try to say that ‘that Obama is a scary guy,’” he said. A donor yelled out a deep accented “Don’t give in!”

“I won’t but that sounded pretty scary. You’re a tough guy,” Obama said.

“If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,” Obama said. “Because from what I understand folks in Philly like a good brawl. I’ve seen Eagles fans.”

Um, isn't BO a more or less orthodox liberal gun-grabber?  But leaving aside that chunk of incoherence, isn't he attempting (and clangingly failing) to channel Sean Connery in The Untouchables?:

They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way!

Well, Barry O may have the corruption part of "the Chicago way" down pat, but he's not much for the brawling end.  A conclusion I can hardly help but draw from his ducking out of any further primary debates with Mrs. Clinton after she kicked his ass all over the stage in Philadelphia two months ago, and his less than testicular enthusiasm for tangling with the painfully comitous Darth Queeg:

Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain squabbled over a format for their first one-on-one debate in the U.S. presidential race, as both pushed their economic plans amid fresh reports of surging inflation and sagging wages.

Obama on Friday rejected McCain’s proposal for ten joint town-hall appearances, question-and-answer gatherings before small audiences that the Republican senator tends to favor. The Democrat has performed best at massive, emotional rallies drawing tens of thousands of people.

Obama has offered to meet McCain in five joint appearances between now and the November 4 election, but only one of those would be town hall-style and it would be on the July 4th Independence Day holiday, when few Americans would be watching. McCain called the offer “a very disappointing response.”

McCain had said the more intimate town-hall format would allow real interaction with voters and would be more revealing than formal televised debates. It also would give him free media attention alongside the better-funded Obama.

In short, McCain wants debates - not of the modern, televised, kinda-sorta moderated, sound-bite/talking point-regurgitating variety, but actual, honest-to-goodness, Lincoln-Douglass-style debates.  Obama wants crusades and tent revival meetings.

Pragmatically, it's understandable, at least to a point.  Obama is the front-runner; as his last tango with the Empress garishly exposed, he's an utter cypher, the emptiest of suits, when he has to speak extemporaneously.  Maverick isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, but it doesn't take a great deal of foresight to see him making mincemeat out of Lucifer if the latter is taken out of his carefully scripted, teleprompter-driven, aura-projecting stump act.  Team Hussein is candidly seeking to protect their guy and protect his lead.

But it's a calculated risk.  Maybe ducking debates with Sailor won't matter; maybe the Clintonoids reluctantly close ranks (something Obama can count on a lot more than McCain can from HIS base); and maybe BO loses less from the perception of cowardice than he potentially would from allowing his gaffe reservoir to build to maximally public critical mass at the worst possible time.  Or maybe the bloom is off his "messianic" rose, and a growing number of voters - indies and "Reaganocrats" in particular - start smelling more than just yellowbelliedness, but that he has a great deal of unpalatable liabilities to hide.  Ones with which political junkies like us are already acutely familiar.

It's not as if he's running away with the race at the moment - or even has the nomination clinched, either.  He can't afford to take either side of this question for granted.

If the Ebony JFK is going to hide from his geezer challenger, he'd be well advised to do so quietly.  Chest-thumping about his willingness to engage in an "ugly" campaign whose "ugliness" can and will only come from his own lines will make him look silly, chicken, and sneaky all at the same time.

Then again, maybe that's part of "the Chicago way," too.