Regardless of whether candidate is game for a mudfight, the chum-slingers in print are all too pleased to amp up the character abuse, as two developments in the media surrounding the 2008 Election proved today.

Aimed at Obama are veteran operatives of the same outfit that took up the Swift Boat Vets’ cause in the interest of GOP political victory - conservative public relations firm Creative Response Concepts, the print arm Regnery Publishing, and right-wing operatives Jerome Corsi and David Freddoso.

Corsi and Freddoso are both releasing books in the interest of being “fair and balanced” - which is to say they intend to present every harmful rumor about Obama’s career in the most venomous and inflammatory way possible. The publisher in charge of Freddoso’s book as much as says so:

By highlighting negative aspects of Obama’s record and background, Ross says, Freddoso may compel others to offer more critical coverage of the Democratic nominee.

I’m sure this comes as a relief to the millions of Americans who, so sick of the brief glimpses at issue-based politics we’ve had so far, long for a return to the media’s obsession with matters like people’s pastors, beer preferences and bowling scores.

Corsi and Freddoso will surely provide plenty of fodder for the networks to ruminate over the pathetically irrelevant relationship of Obama to “radicals” and “radical agendas.” Their scurrilous tone will at the very least make the well of Obama’s proffered fresh approach to politics seem bitter. Expect periodic downpours of sneering insinuations about Obama and the Weathermen, and liberal - no pun intended - mention of the review of Obama’s voting record, a study courtesy of Freddoso’s own magazine, a periodical constitutionally devoted to destroying the reputation of political opponents.

But even John McCain is not immune to the media’s lust at echoing the voices from the fringe. Apparently some reporter at Fortune magazine led McCain’s chief adviser - the sociable, substantially soiled Mr. Charlie Black - into admitting that a terrorist attack would boost McCain’s chances.

It was hardly shark fishing on the Orca to get Black to take bait. The reporter got Black chatting about McCain’s surprise win in New Hampshire, in the same breath as talking about the Senator’s national security credentials:

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto in December was an “unfortunate event,” says Black. “But his knowledge and ability to talk about it reemphasized that this is the guy who’s ready to be Commander-in-Chief. And it helped us.”

What’s written out of the next part is glaring evident; the reporter following up - meaning, scenting blood in the water and going for the famously weak Black’s leaking mouth:

As would, Black concedes with startling candor after we raise the issue, another terrorist attack on U.S. soil. “Certainly it would be a big advantage to him,” says Black.

“Concedes” and “raise the issue” meaning put words in the fellow’s mouth, then pressuring him into admitting it. I don’t necessarily mind that kind of aggressive follow-up, but in this instance, it’s not follow-up, it’s a trick to get something provocative in print.

As venal and hollow as I find John McCain now, I strongly doubt the man wants another terrorist attack - Black, though he represented mass-murdering African dictators, either. Yet that’s precisely how things are being presented.

And this is my problem with both assaults on the candidates - not only are they provocative, they are also unfair and stupid in the extreme.

In the case of the CRC-promoted, Regnery-published, shill-written books on Obama, it is unfair because while all politicians must work with all manner of people - even some they disagree with; even the unsavory - not all politicians are inspiring. Obama is.

And while I think he has more integrity than the standard stock of politicians, I do not hold any illusions that he has had to cut deals, move money and make allies that would dismay many voters. Such is politics. Not everyone need be Hillary Clinton, but just about everyone has known a Tony Rezko or Bill Ayers.

That Corsi and Freddoso pass off their agenda of destroying a politician from a rival party as some kind of “need for perspective” is preposterous.

Similarly preposterous is the masquerade of shock by the media at Black’s comments. Unless that shock is, “I can’t believe he was so stupid as to walk right into that” - in which case, they haven’t been following Black or the McCain campaign very closely - then it’s the worst acting job this side of a sixth grade talent show.

Who doesn’t know that a terrorist attack would benefit the GOP in the polls? Everyone from TIME magazine to David Cross, HuffPost bloggers to the Pentagon has acknowledged that as soon as the bombs start going off, loads of Americans cozy up to the Republicans. There’ve been movies made about it, books written about it, endless hours of punditry yammering on it.

Is it news that Black leapt through the hoops of putting the obvious pieces together? That John McCain is a Republican, and terrorist attacks help Republicans in the polls, thus a terrorist attack would help McCain?

Under customary circumstances, these kinds of unfair distractions would be merely offensive. Given the world we live in, they’re travesties.

We require not only a President, but a political atmosphere, that has the focus and energy to combat crises as radical as any we’ve faced since World War II: Genocide in Darfur, ethnic cleansing in Palestine, nuclear brinksmanship in the Middle East, proliferation of uncontrolled nuclear, biological and chemical weapons from the former USSR, the rise of a belligerent Russia, the rise of China, the decline of the dollar, the pathetic dependence on oil, the agonies of human trafficking world wide, the dangerous senility of our public school systems, and on and on, from Pakistan’s tribal zones to the perils of a surge in American inner city gang violence.

Instead we get defamation and dumb-bell, melodramatic gotcha journalism.

It was said by Alexis de Tocqueville that, “In Democracy, people get the government they deserve.” Right now, we’re getting the government the sensation-drunk media allows us to have.

Let us hope that in November, the people realize they deserve better than that.