Over at The Plank, Michelle Cottle reports that John McCain is establishing a "truth squad" specifically to counter negative attacks in South Carolina.
Can't say I blame him. Say what you will about McCain, but he was brutally smeared in South Carolina 2000, the worst being "Black baby" calls (McCain has an adopted child from Bangladesh, "unknown" operatives implied that McCain had fathered an illegitimate black child). I find it amusing that South Carolina has become nearly legendary for low, dirty, vicious campaign tactics that really should shock the conscience of any sane, moral human being. It's yet another reason why the region's flaunting of its moral superiority over the rest of us grates me (others on the list: its leadership in committing treason-in-defense-of-slavery, politically charged "irregularities" in the state Bar scoring). It's a culture that developed out of its Jim Crow days, and has not dissipated to this day.
I find the smear against McCain kind of amusing, considering that South Carolina reelected a man for half a century who really did have an illegitimate daughter by an African American woman (one with whom he fathered the child when the mother was 16 and he was 22). Apparently in South Carolina it's only bad to have an illegitimate half-black daughter if she's in your home, but totally OK if you don't meet her until she's 16 and have a relationship based on your sending her money to keep her quiet.
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