Over the past three months, it’s been an interesting time just observing the labels Team McCain and his Netwits have tagged Barack Obama with. A partial list would include:

Dangerously naive.
Inexperienced.
Liberal.
Muslim.
Not born in the US.
Liar.
Celebrity.
Latte drinker.
Tax raiser.
Terrorist pal.
Community organizer.*
Elitist.
America hater.
Will surrender to terrorists.
Too popular among US allies in Europe.
Hates women.
Kills babies.
Anti-gun.
Only appeals to people who aren’t real Americans.
Destroyer of business.
Destroyer of incentive to make more money.

And this week:
Socialist. (A codeword for Communist).
Panderer to baseball fans.
Academic.
Pro-criminal.

The purpose, of course, is to convince voters that he’s not like them and is someone to fear.

Yet every time he McCain gets challenged about these things, his standard answer is:
I respect Senator Obama.
I just disagree with his policies.

But if, in fact, Obama was half the things Team McCain says he is, how could McCain respect him, unless he respects really weird and dangerous people?

Maybe he does. After all, he claims to like another socialist, who regularly breaks rules and laws, champions monetary losses, lies about their achievements, and wastes hundreds of thousands to look attractive like an elitist celebrity.

He now has twelve days left to try more of these labels, even though he’s only gotten one of them (*community organizer) right, so far.

Which leads me to two questions I’d ask EVERY voter to answer:

1) Name three things McCain plans to do to better our country, improve our lives and opportunities and keep us safe from our enemies. (Saying what he won’t do doesn’t count as a McCain proposal).

2) What three more labels will Team McCain tag Obama with in these final twelve days?

Here’s my answers:

1) I don’t remember what McCain plans to do if he’s elected. I only know that Obama will provide a tax break for 95% of Americans and increase the taxes of the other five percent to the level they paid during the prosperous 1990s, he’ll bring most US troops home from Iraq by the summer of 2010 which will save us over $100 billion per year, and he’ll create incentives for businesses to create jobs in this country while eliminating incentives to move more jobs to foreign countries.

2) The three labels I still expect Team McCain to throw at Obama: hater of white people, destroyer of retirement benefits, who plans to weaken our military to cause more terrorist attacks.

And most voters will hear Obama’s pragmatic response again: “Sticks and stones can break my bones but names will never hurt me.” And they’ll still have no clue what a President McCain would do except to not do anything Obama would do.

And by the way, feel sympathy for him for what he went through 35 years ago, which completely ignores what voters are experiencing today.

Which isn’t much of a vision for the country to aspire to.

And when the post-election analysts define the mistakes that McCain made, the most important one can be summed up as: he abandoned his own former base, the largest political entity in the country - independents - to pander exclusively to a demographic 60% smaller: anti-science supremacists proclaiming moral superiority over more than 85% of the country. Which means he’s such a maverick that he opposed his own special interest. The second major mistake: picking an inept team that introduced Attention Deficit Disorder bordering on schizophrenia to thr art of PR.

But he’d make a great Namecaller In Chief.

And by golly, he knows how to lead.