With just a little over 3 months to go in the race for the White House, Obama and McCain are finally starting to get the claws out.

First up was McCain:

Here, we see that McCain has turned into a jealous 14 year old girl. While he could have just stuck to the issues, he plays the “he’s popular so that means that he must be like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, I’m not one of the popular girls so that means I’m more like you” card. Then, the energy prices are slipped in there. Granted, no one would hear that part as the Obama-haters are giving high fives, butt slaps (but not in a gay way) and chest bumps while guffawing at the slam and the Obama-lovers and, arguably, those on the fence are sitting there going “ummm…what the hell was that??” Based on what I’ve seen here, I’m pretty sure that the next ad will be “oh, and his name sounds like one of them thar ‘terrorists’ names. Oh, and his middle name is Hussein, so he totally loves Saddam!! Oh yeah, and I’ll lower gas prices.”

McCain should play up to the fact that he is, by and large, a raging moderate. Instead, he plays the “I’m old and unpopular” card. Very disappointing.

Obama responded with this ad:

Now you’re talkin!! He presents snippets from major publications to basically say that McCain is a dirty, rotten liar who just wants to make him look bad. Granted, the snippets could be taken ridiculously out of context, but who’s checking up on that? We’re Americans, we’re a lazy people. Everyone will just say “welp, USA today said baloney so…I’ll just take their word for it.” It may have said “Obama had a baloney sandwich for lunch today, oh and McCain’s ad is good” but most of the population wouldn’t think to check context. Obama found a way to appeal to moderates and the left in one fell swoop, though. He attacked the “mud-slinging” ways of McCain, something that many in the middle detest and brought up alternative fuels, which is something the left will love and cherish. The GOP is still so wrapped up with big oil that they aren’t thinking outside the box on the whole energy issue.

Obama also had this to say in Cedar Rapids yesterday:

In approximately 2 1/2 minutes, he brought up gas prices, the mortgage crisis and unemployment. That is a lot of punch in a short amount of time and it appeals to the big 3 issues of Americans. He attacked the “celebrity” ad, but didn’t dwell on it. Well played.

I will be interested in seeing McCain’s next response. This is going to be an extremely tight race and I have to think that those on the fence aren’t going to fall in love with the candidate that resorts to simple name calling and mud-slinging. McCain appears to be trying too hard to appeal to uber-conservatives and, quite frankly, that’s not the base that is going to be pro-McCain. In fact, we’ll likely see many cons voting 3rd party as they have made their dislike of McCain well-known. Obama, on the other hand, needs to unite the Dems. If he loses, it is because the Dems are fighting amongst themselves and not thinking of the big picture.

Regardless, it can’t get worse than what we have now no matter who wins. Can it?