A Glimmer of Hope for the General Election

Calling John McCain a "maverick" for his latest move might seem a little overblown. But "decent"? Sounds right to me.

After the ugliness of the past day-and-a-half--Obama wears turban! Obama is Somali 'native'!--I was starting to worry that I'd be forced to opine on

As a presidential candidate, you don't always know in advance who's going to introduce you at a rally. Most of the time, the opening acts are innocuous; a Lindsey Graham here, a local alderman there. But recently, a few of these folks--like union president Thomas Buffenbarger, who prefaced Hillary Clinton's Feb. 19 remarks in Youngstown, Ohio by comparing Obama to “Janus, the two-faced Roman god of ancient times"--have been less than helpful. Enter Bill Cunningham. Tapped to introduce McCain at today's event, the local conservative radio host dedicated most of his allotted time to--you guessed it--slamming the senator from Illinois. "At some point in the near future the media... is going to peel the bark off Barack Hussein Obama," Cunningham said. "Maybe [they'll] start covering Barack Hussein Obama the same way they covered Bush." Later, he repeated Obama's middle name yet again. Because when it comes to linking your political rival to a bloodthirsty dictator--you don't hear a lot of "John Sidney McCain" on right-wing radio--nothing does the trick like mindless repetition.

before reporters could even ask about the provocative speaker, McCain addressed the issue, saying he repudiated the comments and has respect for his Democratic opponents." "I never met Mr. Cunningham," said McCain, "but I will make sure nothing like that ever happens again." He apologized three times in all.

So there you have it. McCain says that using "Hussein" as a political jab is out-of-bounds. Now if only Hussein-mongers Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and Bill Bennett would agree.

I'm not holding my breath.