This past Saturday, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean used the Democratic Radio Address to smear the good name of presumptive Republican Presidential nominee John McCain.  It was just the latest effort in the DNC’s desperate attempt to characterize a McCain Presidency as “Bush’s Third Term”.  And over the last month, they’ve been shameless.  They attacked Sen. McCain for his now infamous “100 years” comment, an attack that the nonpartisan factcheck.org called, “a rank falsehood”.  On Friday of last week, the DNC launched another whopper at McCain, claiming that the Arizonan had labelled the current economic situation as a “pyschological” problem - a wild distortion of McCain’s statement. 

Regular observation of this melodrama would lead one to correctly surmise that the folks at the Democratic National Committee are either exceedingly dumb or very desperate.  This sentiment was seemingly endorsed by none other than Senator Barack Obama today when Obama himself dispelled the “McCain = Bush’s Third Term” bleating.  In Pennsylvania, he was quoted as saying, “And all three of us would be better than George Bush.”

While a refreshing - if momentary - dismissal of Chairman Dean’s attacks, it seems the ‘out of context statements used as smears’ strategy is far from dead.  Using the Democratic National Committee standard, one could just as easily besmirch whatever is left of Chairman Dean’s integrity.  One could write in big, flashy type: Howard Dean Hates Christians, Saying: “… I think they are incredibly unfair, biased and hate mongering.”  Now, the quote itself is a Howard Dean quote from Mary Ann Akers ‘The Sleuth’ blog at the Washington Post, March 20, 2008.  To normal people, it matters that the sentence before it properly characterized the comment - referencing the fact that Dean generally doesn’t do interviews on “far right networks”.  But taking the thing out of context, it can take on whatever smear you want.  It is a patently ridiculous standard, and one that shames the Democratic Party every time they open their mouth.