Unfortunately, his campaign has been rather Rovian of late, extending to his attack on the choice of Joe Biden as Barack Obama’s running mate. Instead of taking one moment to welcome Biden to race and expressing hope that the campaign would be a spirited but fair one, McCain offered this:

"There has been no harsher critic of Barack Obama’s lack of experience than Joe Biden," McCain campaign spokesman Ben Porritt said in a statement.

"Biden has denounced Barack Obama’s poor foreign policy judgement and has strongly argued in his own words what Americans are quickly realising - that Barack Obama is not ready to be president."

Wouldn’t it be great if a Republican candidate for president could run on their own merits for once?

Personally, Biden wasn’t my first choice, but I think he is a good one. I look forward to him debating Mitt Romney or Joe Lieberman.

Even better if Senator McCain picks my first choice. It’d be the second greatest debate in VP history. No chance #1 can be topped, even if it included Gore, too.

The greatest debate ever?

The greatest debate ever

McCain

• I Would Like Him to Pick: Lieberman or Jindal
• I Think He Will Pick: Lieberman (I know, it’s crazy, but I think he’ll do it)

Obama

• I Would Like Him Not to Pick: Kerry, Kaine, Clinton, Hagel (this can’t be real, can it?)
• I Would Like Him to Pick: Wesley Clark
• I Think He Will Pick: Biden

I’m definitely interested to hear what other people think.

I totally get that people like Andy Hammond find this ad amusing. If Andy and his friends had whipped it up in Windows Movie Maker and passed it around on YouTube, they’d get some chuckles and enjoy it. But should a potential President of the United States approve an ad that is, in essence, a slightly more sophisticated version of the ad that an unpopular, socially awkward kid would make in 8th grade, bitter that people like his opponent more than they like him?

It makes me wonder what kind of foreign policy we could expect from McCain. Will he stay at home from G-8 summits, telling Karl Rove that “everyone likes Stephen Harper more than me”? Maybe he’ll fire up  the missiles just “to show them who is boss.”

These are difficult times. The next President is going to have a challenging job, dealing with the failures of the past eight years, both abroad and on the home front. We deserve a serious campaign, about the issues the nation faces, not the petty, juvenile absurdity the McCain has been throwing at us. If this is the way McCain leads a campaign, we certainly can’t afford to see the way he will run a nation.

Additional Thought: The first time I watched it, I was sure that it was a veiled reference to people who believe that Obama is the Muslim Anti-Christ. It seems like, but one would guess John already has those votes locked up.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state shows McCain attracting 45% of the vote in Montana while Obama earns 44%. When “leaners” are included, it’s all tied up at 47%.

A month ago, Obama had a five-point advantage in Montana. In April, the numbers were reversed and it was McCain by five.

McCain is viewed favorably by 59% of Montana voters, up a point over the past month. For Obama, 53% now have a favorable view, down four points.

Those figures include 26% with a Very Favorable opinion of McCain and 31% who think that highly of Obama. At the other end of the spectrum, just 16% have a Very Unfavorable opinion of McCain but 29% hold such a view of Obama.

…

Obama is preferred by 86% of Democrats and McCain by 80% of Republicans. The two men are essentially even among unaffiliated voters. One interesting note in the data is that five percent of Republicans say they’d prefer some other candidate while only one percent of Democrats feel that way. Among unaffiliated voters, five percent prefer a third option over either McCain or Obama.

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The end of McCain’s attack may focus on energy, but the essence of the ad is attacking Obama’s popularity. McCain’s rhetoric, as of late, reflects his ad. McCain isn’t really talking about himself anymore, the issues, or anything else that really matters. Essentially, his new campaign strategy is to whine.

It’s coming off as incredibly juvenile - he’s acting like a jealous middle schooler who just can’t stand the cool kid.

He’s hurting himself. Instead of being the “straight talk” guy, he’s now the envious candidate. Does that look good? I’d think not. While Obama sticks to important issues, McCain sits in the back of the class with a scowl on his face.

I wonder if he’d like some cheese with that whine.

UPDATE: Please watch and sign the petition asking McCain to disavow his attack ad.

UPDATE: If you thought McCain couldn’t top himself, you were very, very wrong:

How much more whining can we take?

Quote from Zogby:

When was the last time the nation was waiting on the Presidential outcome from Montana? It may this year.

McCain has had a rough week and a half. Oh, wait, he didn’t. He should have had a rough week and a half after joking about killing Iranian civilians with cigs, making a joke about a woman being viciously abused by a bea, changing his story about his time as a POW to fit the city he was in, having his campaign refer to Americans as “whiners,” the list goes on.

He should have had a bad week and a half, but he didn’t. The media was MIA.

Additionally, McCain lucked out with Obama’s image being placed as a “satire” on The New Yorker, which drew attention away from McCain’s horrible and insulting blunders.

So, what’s McCain up to now? Well he’s doing a great job solidifying his claim of superior foreign policy knowledge. Two days ago, McCain had this to say:

“I was concerned about a couple of steps that the Russian government took in the last several days. One was reducing the energy supplies to Czechoslovakia. Apparently that is in reaction to the Czech’s agreement with us concerning missile defense, and again some of the Russian now announcement they are now retargeting new targets, something they abandoned at the end of the Cold War, is also a concern.”

About three months ago, McCain told Don Imus he would “work closely with Czechoslovakia and Poland and other countries.”

Here’s the thing: Czechoslovakia isn’t a country. This guy is seriously running on his foreign policy credentials and it’s falling apart. Will anyone notice (apart from The Huffington Post, etc.)?