What Can We Expect from "Son of Rove"?

All eyes are on -- or should be on -- Steve Schmidt, campaign manager for McCain 2008 , as we enter the final weeks of the campaign.  What can we expect?  The campaign has not exactly kept it a secret -- we can expect a dramatic shift in focus away from McCain's own credentials to an all-out attack on Obama's character.  But why the attention on Schmidt?  Well, it might just give voters some perspective on what they're about to see and hear in the coming weeks.  Schmidt is the protege of Karl Rove, perhaps the most accomplished Republican operative in recent generations and the guy who raised the art of fear and surprise to a new level of appreciation, on the left and on the right (almost everyone does it now).  And Rove's mentor was Lee Atwater who kinda started the whole thing (not really), doing for Reagan and Bush Sr. what Rove did for Bush Jr.   With Atwater-Rove-Schmidt, we've got a Republican dynasty of highly effective, character-attacking, negative campaigners, and no one should be surprised to see Obama get Swift-boated or Willie Hortoned in the last few weeks.   For Obama supporters, it would be irresponsible not to expect it and not to prepare for it.

But will it work this time?  To be truly effective, an attack on character needs to surprise the public.  I'm not just talking about the timing of the attack -- few should be surprised to see an attack in the final weeks.   I'm talking about the content of the attack.   Already we have heard that the McCain campaign plans on resurrecting the ghosts of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Rezko, and Ayers, all of whom played a significant part in Hillary Clinton's own negative campaign.   Hillary's campaign may have immunized Obama from these particular stories.   To succeed, "son of Rove" and co. may have to come up with something new.   Perhaps they already found it.   Perhaps they are still working at it.  One thing's for sure -- we should expect fear, but we should not be surprised by the surprise.   We are living in a post-Monty Python world.  Everyone should expect the "Spanish Inquisition."