Six Degrees of Barack Obama

First Reverend Wright. Then Bill Ayers. Now another of Barack Obama's trivial acquaintances is serving as the conduit for the McCain camp's aspersions: Rashid Khalidi, a "radical" Columbia professor with reported ties to the PLO.

It speaks to the strength of Obama's candidacy that the dirtiest mud they can find to sling at him amounts to nothing more than six degrees of separation. The PLO has a tenuous link to a Columbia professor, who is a minor onetime associate of Barack Obama; therefore Obama is... an anti-Israeli terrorist sympathizer? These attacks don't sully Obama's name as much as they advertise the desperation of the McCain campaign.

Throughout their lives, politicians shake a lot of hands. Those hands belong to many people with different viewpoints, some of which are bound to be unconventional or objectionable.

A few years back, John McCain had glowing words for Jerry Falwell, an intolerant beast who blamed 9/11 on homosexuals and the pro-choice movement. Palin and her husband have a cozy relationship with an Alaskan secessionist movement. I'm sure if the Obama campaign wanted to, they could dredge the seafloor of McCain's long career and bring to light even more unsettling associations than these. But Obama and his campaign have demonstrated a cool, mature confidence that rises above that kind of dreck.

In the last debate, John McCain sternly reminded Obama, "I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago." McCain could use some similar advice himself. Senator McCain, Barack Obama is not everyone he has ever met. You can use the last few days of your campaign articulating your vision for America, or you can keep thumbing through Obama's Rolodex. Your call.