So you heard that shit where Palin accuses Obama of “palling around with terrorists”, right?

Six weeks ago, I’d be nervous about that line of attack, especially coming directly from the McCain campaign. Six weeks ago, if you’d told me that the Republican vice-presidential nominee would hurl that sort of attack his way, I’d be worried. A month ago, when she was still riding high off the RNC, I’d have been seriously terrified.

Kos has been talking about the virtues of the campaign-within-a-campaign to discredit Palin, rather than try to ignore her in the hope that she’d go away. I think his stance has proven itself pretty sharp, all things considered, but with this attack from her now, I really understand it. A few weeks ago, it’d have been a potentially damaging charge. But now, after half the country finally agrees that she’s a weird, dishonest moron, the fact that this is coming from her instead of a 527 actually hurts the tactic. The very fact that this outlandish charge comes from someone people aren’t inclined to take at face value means that, when it’s repeated, it’s got Palin-stink on it.

Unless Palin finds some miracle-cure that’ll let her rehab her image among the people the McCain campaign needs most desperately to reach over the next month, all she can do is drag things down. Giving her the wackiest talking points they have just means that someone slightly more credible can’t use them. Which is great, really. I hope they keep doing it.

At this point, the base doesn’t need any more motivating. If she goes on television in red, white, and blue hot pants and personally serenades every desk-jockey at The National Review with a rendition of “Happy birthday, Mr. Editor” while firing a .380 at pictures of Barack Obama’s face superimposed over Osama bin-Laden’s body, she can’t get them any more riled or active. All she can do is creep out the normals, man, and that seems to be the McCain tactic right now.