Two can play at this game. As McCain fires up the guilt-by-association machine, I'd love a quote like this from Biden:
"You know, Barack could play this game too. John, you know I love him, but he's broken bread with some unsavory characters. He's been in Congress for a long time, met a lot of people, and that's just how it goes. But I don't think it casts his judgment in a negative light. It's John's actual judgment on the issues that casts his judgment in a negative light. And so Barack and I aren't going to play this old Washington game of guilt-by-association, we're not going to smear John the way his campaign is smearing Barack. We're going to focus on the issues that matter to everyday Americans, and not debate this sort of nonsense that Americans don't care about. Who Barack and John associated with has nothing to do with how we're going to fix the mortgage crisis, how we're going to fix health care in this country, how we're.... "
You get the picture. Let the speechwriters play with the language, but the key is to point out that McCain has his own closet full of sketchy people.
