MORRIS

Posted at 8:32 A.M. ET

I don't always agree with Dick Morris, and his track record for predictions is no better or worse than that of many others.  However, at his best, he's a very astute observer of politics, and has a knack for making an argument as persuasive as possible.  Today he organizes the case against Obama in ways that the McCain campaign should follow.  He starts with the Obama/Ayers connection:

Barack Obama should have run screaming at the sight of William Ayers and his wife, Bernadette Dohrn. Ayers has admitted bombing the U.S. Capitol building and the Pentagon, and his wife was sent to prison for failing to cooperate in solving the robbery of a Brink’s armored car in which two police officers were killed. Far from remorse, Ayers told The New York Times in September 2001 that he “wished he could have done more.”

Ayers only avoided conviction when the evidence against him turned out to be contained in illegally obtained wiretaps by the FBI. He was, in fact, guilty as sin.

That Obama should ally himself with Ayers is almost beyond understanding. The former terrorist had not repented of his views and the education grants he got were expressly designed to further them.

The press, of course, is completely uninterested.  True "sophisticates" think the connection is just fine.

So let’s sum up Obama’s Chicago connections. His chief financial supporter was Tony Rezko, now on his way to federal prison. His spiritual adviser and mentor was the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, of “God damn America” fame. And the guy who got him his only administrative job and put him in charge of doling out $50 million is William Ayers, a terrorist who was a domestic Osama bin Laden in his youth.

Can't blame a guy for having friends, can you?  You never know, you might need someone to babysit the kids.

Now that Obama is comfortably ahead in the polls, attention will understandably shift to him. We will want to know what kind of president he would make. The fact that, within the past 10 years, he participated in a radical program of political education conceptualized by an admitted radical terrorist offers no reassurance.

That's the key that the McCain people must emphasize - the potential for real damage, the potential that these radical ideas will seep into the federal government.

Finally...

Why did Obama put up with Ayers? Because he got a big job and $50 million of patronage to distribute to his friends and supporters in Chicago. Why did he hang out with Jeremiah Wright? Because he was new in town, having grown up in Hawaii and Indonesia and having been educated at Columbia and Harvard, and needed all the local introductions he could get to jump-start his political career. Why was he so close to Rezko?

Because he funded Obama’s campaigns and helped him buy a house for $300,000 less than he otherwise would have had to pay.

Not a good recommendation for a president.

What Morris is creating is what Walter Lippmann called "the picture in our heads."  He's creating an image of an irresponsible, exploitive Obama, always advancing himself, no matter what it takes.  It's the image the McCain people must also create.

We saw last night that a dry debate on issues just doesn't do it for McCain.  He's an adequate, but less than inspiring performer.  He's got to create a message in the next month that sticks, that's vivid, and, yes, that's a little bit scary.

This is hardball stuff, and the future of the country is at stake.  This is no time for marshmallow politics or complex discussions of interest-rate theory.

October 8, 2008.